Bolivian President Evo Morales visits quake-ravaged Peru, brings aid

[Judi Lynn]

Source: International Herald Tribune/Associated Press

Bolivian President Evo Morales visits quake-ravaged Peru, brings aid
The Associated Press
Published: August 25, 2007

PISCO, Peru: Bolivian President Evo Morales toured Peru's quake-ravaged port of Pisco, meeting with Peru's leader and delivering 59 metric tons (65 tons) of water and medicine to victims.

"The nations of Peru and Bolivia have always lived in solidarity," Morales said Saturday, adding Peru also helped Bolivia during the deadly floods that swept its landlocked neighbor this year. "This brotherhood of our peoples, we will never forget."

Peruvian President Alan Garcia thanked Morales for his "Latin American and fraternal gesture."

Morales has also said he would donate half his monthly salary, about US$950 (€700), to help the victims. His government has also sent a planeload of supplies and volunteers to Peru, where a magnitude-8 earthquake struck off the central coast on Aug. 15, killing more than 500 people and destroying 40,000 homes.



Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/26/america/LA-GEN-Peru-Quake-Bolivia.php

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What are the chances the man in the White House would donate one half of his monthly salary to help a country in need?

(You may remember Evo Morales requested that his salary be lowered significantly immediately when he took office, and suggested that the legislators and other high ranking officials consider doing the same, reminding them they should remember Bolivia is actually a very POOR country.)



Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, Alan Garcia

[Judi Lynn]

1. Peru Quake Victims Battle Hunger, Cold

Peru Quake Victims Battle Hunger, Cold

Saturday August 25, 2007 11:46 PM
By EDISON LOPEZ
Associated Press Writer

PISCO, Peru (AP) - An unforgiving wind lashes Juan Escate as he huddles around a bonfire with his three children, chilling him as he ponders how to fulfill his wife's dying plea.

Last week's magnitude-8 earthquake sent Escate's home on the outskirts of Pisco tumbling down, burying his wife Doris in rubble as she rushed their 16-year-old daughter to safety.

``Promise me you'll take care of my children,'' he says were his wife's last words.

The quake forced Escate and thousands of others in this impoverished port city on Peru's central coast into crudely constructed shelters. Icy ocean winds carry sand from the beaches and people keep watch all night against thieves.

Adults say they are given a handful of rice with some potatoes at midday. Children receive hot oatmeal for breakfast. Civil Defense has distributed tents to some survivors, but most are still in flimsy makeshift shelters near their homes made from pieces of wood and plastic sheets.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6876042,00.html

[BlueCollar]

2. Garcia doesn't deserve to be in that picture...eom

[dipsydoodle]

3. All the WH would do

is give them a subsidised Bechtel contract intended to rob them blind at a future date.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Absolutely! That is the pattern, isn't it? Kick them while they're down.

They end up owing everything to the World Bank, IMF, etc., and badda bing, suddenly all their stuff is privatized!

[BlueCollar]

5. It already is in Peru

Garcia raped the Peruvians the last time he was President...Fujimori batted clean-up...

[Judi Lynn]

6. More needs to come out about that! What a collossal shame he's been re-elected.

He was most surely _{George W. Bush's} choice in the 2006 election. In fact, you could see his popularity was shot to hell, until he started mud-slinging like a man possessed against his wildly popular opponent, leftist Ollanta Humala.



Ollanta Humala.

What a damned shame. Garcia has an atrocious human rights record. Goddawful. People really need to know about his record, economically, and socially, during his first seige of Peru's government. He was given total support by the man who stole the U.S. Presidency.

[BlueCollar]

8. I agree but who will tell the story?

With so much corruption and despair in the world today?

Peru, Guatemala, Sudan, Burma (Myanmar) offer no threat to corporate America ergo they offer no threat to the US "National Interest"...

I guess it's up to us...

The informed members of the DU...

[Judi Lynn]

9. People are going to have to start researching for themselves. You're right,

it doesn't get handed to them, like the latest news no one can stand about what American low-talent, big needs entertainment figures are doing.

There's almost a complete news blackout on the things that really matter. What a damned shame.

Once you start reading in Latin American history, your efforts will pick up steam. You start getting angry that so much has happened which has been swept under the carpet and outright denied until the records finally come out decades later!

I hope the end is near of American exploiters seeing all of Latin America as their own pantry, piggy bank, and stop using the people for shockingly low cost labor, stop raping their resources, and bribing their public officials to fix everything to their benefit, and to the detriment of their own citizens, and to stop controlling their governments so that they serve only fatcat U.S. corporations while the people suffer.

[BlueCollar]

10. We've done well so far

If it hadn't been for activists communicating on the net...Iraq would just be some foreign war...

but, there's a move afoot to tinker with the net and stifle access to free speech by the telecom interests...

we've a long way to go and we need a strong populist leadership that appeals world wide to get us through this...This upcoming election is about much more than the US population's desires...

[bemildred]

7. $950 a month to be President of Bolivia. nt

[Solon]

11. If I remember right, when he was elected President, he promised to cut his own salary...

Interesting that there is actually a President out there who keeps his promises.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Good memory! He surely did. Here's a BBC article to refresh peoples' memoriess:

Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 December 2005, 03:56 GMT

Bolivian leader to cut own salary
By Simon Watts
BBC News

The socialist president-elect of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has said he will cut his salary by half when he takes office next month.
Mr Morales said his cabinet would follow suit and that members of Bolivia's parliament would be expected to cut their allowances.

He also reaffirmed his commitment to change Bolivia's economic system.

At the moment, Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian born into poverty, rents a single room in a shared house.

When he moves into the presidential palace next month, Mr Morales is not planning to switch to a jet-set lifestyle.

Wealth tax

Announcing the salary cut, he said that in a country as poor as Bolivia, the president and his cabinet should share the burden.

The money saved will go on social programmes, particularly in the field of education.

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4563356.stm



Bestowing upon Condoleeza Rice a charango adorned with coca leaves.

[Vidar]

13. Pretty good example of how a real president behaves. Viva Morales!