Bolivia - Fresh upsurge of violence against journalists during autonomy referendum

[Judi Lynn]

Source: REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Bolivia - Fresh upsurge of violence against journalists during autonomy referendum

MONTREAL, June 2 /CNW Telbec/ - Reporters Without Borders today condemned
attacks on journalists during a referendum on autonomy in the northern
department of Beni yesterday.

At least two media were targeted for threats and harassment by groups
linked to the opposition to the government in La Paz, including the Juvenil
Crucenista Union (UJC), a radical militia that stemmed from the independence
movement in Santa Cruz department.

"Armed groups hostile to the government in La Paz are increasingly acting
like predators on freedom of information," the worldwide press freedom
organisation said. "The recent autonomy referendums - in Santa Cruz on 4 May
and yesterday in the departments of Pando and Beni - are adding to a climate
of political tension in which the press is one of the first to be targeted".
(snip)

Community, indigenous and peasant media, regularly targeted for racist
violence by militia hostile to President Evo Morales, were not spared during
the referendum violence in Beni. Gumersindo Yumani, of Coordinadora
Audiovisual Indigena television was threatened in Nuevos Horizontes by
militants of the Juvenil Riberaltena Union, a similar organisation to the UJC,
who snatched his camera and handed it back with images deleted.



Read more: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2008/02/c7209.html

[jaksavage]

1. Trying to subdue democracy

I would wager those young militants are getting weapons from...US!

Viva Morales Viva Chavez

[ann_american2004]

2. democracy my ass

Evo is a communist

[damntexdem]

3. Viva Morales! Viva Chavez!

And down with those who try to smash freedom of the press, along with other freedoms.

[ann_american2004]

4. Do you KNOW Bolivian politics?

urm...dont think so

[Judi Lynn]

6. Hi, damnraddem! It's going to take a while remembering your new name.

You've made it as easy as possible.

You bet down with these fascist monsters.

Allow me to reiterate how they came to be concentrated in the same area:

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia

In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

The world of decent people will be waiting until the day these thieves and murderers go down in flames.

[ann_american2004]

8. Banzer was no hero to the middle class

He was a dictator and there is graffiti all over La Paz to remember his terrible deeds. Many of those "White' middle/lower-upperclass Bolivians mentioned, many of them and their children ended up in prison or shot on the spot for protesting his dictatorship. It was the students mostly that protested against him. From all walks of life. People I know recall the curfews and running home before the tanks rolled in. Hundreds of students and human rights activists died protesting, people from both the private schools and UMSA the Mayor de San Andres de La Paz University. This is NOT the same fight.

edit: on further review of that article you blurbed, I'd wonder where those South African ever ended up. We didn't see them. Actually, many people from South America ended up doing the reverse - immigrating to South Africa, for example miners from Bolivia and Chile, for work...

ps. third world traveler should really cite his/her sources. ie. wiki. nearly verbatim which actually sources Prado Salmon "Poder y Fuerza Armadas" except for that South African part of which I am a skeptic. If anything that jerk Banzer (may he rest in hell) was trying to get land for his friends in Santa Cruz, where he was from. He was NOT a Paceno.

[Judi Lynn]

11. We've not heard there is much of a middle class in Bolivia.

As far as Banzer goes, he was very popular with Richard Nixon and other right-wing pieces of filth in the United States who supported him to the hilt.

On edit, are you not aware of the movement in South America toward regional independence, AWAY from U.S. military and corporate meddling, interference and corruption with South American fascists?

Have you been sleeping?

The day for which you yearn is well in the past. It won't be back. Butting into other countries, and controlling them by making filthy deals with their dirty oligarchs is being phased out, by request from the victims.

[ann_american2004]

13. Like it or not

there IS a middle class in Bolivia and it is dwindling fast. they are leaving. Mark my words. In ten years we will be sending aid to that country. You think Evo is beyond genocide? You think he wont kill those who disagree with him? Get a clue. Fascist my ass. Dont put words in my mouth just to force your points. I hated Banzar. I am aware of the movements in SA, I lived in SA and apologized daily to people about what the US sometimes. I LIVED That. Daily. So dont call me a constituent of something you dont know shiat about. And sorry to burst your little 'I hate my country' bubble but I'm telling you it is not all us. Do you know how many embassies there are in Bolivia? Even your beloved Germans. When the shiat hits the fan - it will have nothing to do with us, but then who will be begging for our help? Then it will be us who 'didnt help when we should have' Please. enough with it. This is a bed Evo and his cronies will be making. He will be a dictator and he will go down the path that all the Bolivian dictators before him did, including Banzar. As I said, same crap different smell. I dont have to say anymore. Time will prove it.

edit: clarify we already sent USAid to that country, what i mean is we will be send emergency aid to fight serious starvation.

[Peace Patriot]

19. Ah! ANOTHER democratically elected leftist in S/A who "will be a dictator."

No evidence for it yet. Zilch. And the opposite is true--the leftist leaders are SCRUPULOUSLY lawful, and ENHANCE citizen participation, and avidly PROTECT civil and human rights. But just wait! They will become "dictators."

:rofl:

-----

"He will be a dictator and he will go down the path that all the Bolivian dictators before him did, including Banzar....I dont have to say anymore. Time will prove it. --ann_american2004

[ann_american2004]

22. and you will eat crow.

I am glad you are using my words as a signature but please include the 'same crap different smell' that is the best part of the whole quote. So anyway, You will eat crow. And I will laugh at your ass. And cry for my family's beloved country.

[Andrushka]

53. "You think Evo is beyond genocide? "

:spray: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :crazy:

[Judi Lynn]

5. He's the democratically elected President of Bolivia.

Why don't you post a link to your information on Evo Morales as a communist?

You'd be doing DU'ers a real favor.

Democracy: a. government by the people; especially : rule of the majority

Bolivia has been ruled by a tiny elite group, until Evo Morales was elected, and it's still dominated by the oligarchy, even now. The majority of Bolivians could neither vote, nor even walk on the sidewalk until 1952.

That's NOT a majority government, is it?

[ann_american2004]

7. Call me in ten years

When Evo and his cronies are still in power and he has taken everyone's hard earned money, retirement, and all their houses and land. let's chat.

'Democracies' like Evo's never stay democracies for long. Never were meant to. They fall into communist dictatorships or there is a military establishment put in place. I'm sure your heart is in the right place but sadly, I know many people who have fled from that country - ask them how they love Evo, how much of a hero he is. Hardworking people who never took advantage of anyone, hardworking barely there, dwindling middle class people who are losing everything because of him while their factories are destroyed and rioters are killing them and their livestock. It's very sad. Ten years from now that whole country will be starving and we will be helping them with aid, when they could have been strong. There were things that were done poorly in the past. Goni who was a light of hope many years ago, did a grave error which set a semicivil war action over the course of a few days but divided the country. The military and the police were fighting and killing each other because Goni made a mistake of trying to tax the poorest of the poor. Yes this was wrong. Goni, educated in America, who wished to give everyone social security, to implement plans to help those with little, to bring in the poor into the city for jobs. He made a VERY big mistake and the reaction was so strong he resigned and the government never balanced itself. That became the opportunity for Evo to waltz in and do his damage. That is the saddest part of it all. There was progress. Now there is crime and more poverty.

Ask people who fled from Venezuela the same thing. It's not all black and white. Sometime people use the best intentions and hope of others to exact the most devious deeds.

edit: and another thing - that is QUITE a jump from 1950's to Evo. That is a HOOT! Actually it's been a longstanding law you MUST vote in Bolivia. Everything closes for the day and you have to vote. Quite amazing. I've watched it myself and everyone from every walk of life did indeed vote, so what you are saying is outdated hogwash.

[Judi Lynn]

9. I read earlier today there were MORE ABSTENTIONS in voting Sunday than is normal nationally.

That's NOT forced voting.

Why don't you provide a link to your information Bolivia forces citizens to vote? You would be doing D.U.'ers a favor by showing us the truth about your country.

Be my guest. Please.

[ann_american2004]

12. Have you lived there?

I have. 'nuff said. They aren't forced to vote. They do it willingly. And they hate when dictators come in and take it away from them. And it IS the law. If that's changed, then it's changed under Evo. Mark my words. Evo will be a dictator and it will be the same garbage all over again. Same crap, different smell.
So go on with your anti-American agenda. Not everything is our fault. Move along move along.

[Bacchus39]

15. Brazil has the same requirement to vote

I think if people don't vote they can be punished by things like not being able to get a student loan.

[fascisthunter]

21. Yeah... We'll Hold you to Your Crystal Ball Predictions

in the mean time, I'd say it was more neo-nut BS. Your "communist" accusation gave you away.

Also: neo-cons and detractors of South American democracy have been wrong about everything else they predicted..... geeee, I wonder why. They weren't very good with the Middle East either.

[ann_american2004]

23. I'm a democrat

I have even voted absentee ballot Democrat when I lived there. You ever made an effort like that? Lemme guess when you were in the Peace Corps, right? When you rolled up your sleeves and helped the masses of unfortunates, right? When you were maybe working for Unicef or Care or World Vision, right? I mean you have done such things for the betterment of humanity, haven't you? Or maybe you have family in Bolivia or Venezuela and practiced what you preached, right?

[Judi Lynn]

27. A born Democrat. Remarkable.

Bolivia: Political Racism in Question
by Idón Moisés Chivi Vargas
28 August 2007

Bolivia is living through a time of political transition where the verbal masks used prolifically by the television, radio, and press to cover up reality and, as Galeano would say, lie in what they say and lie even more in what they don't say.

We live in a country where reality is one thing and what the media says is another, the media racism is a close relative of political racism, and it constructs a country where paradoxes have the perversity of showing us the world upside down.

In this context, born democrats are those with white skin; born dictators are the ones that have dark skin and that's why:

Democracy is when the political minority govern; dictatorship is how the social majority govern.

Democracy is the savage market where the only ones that are saved are those than can and those that have the ability to; dictatorship is the search of a society of equals.

Democracy is beating Indians, mestizos, or progressive intellectuals with impunity; dictatorship is when the Indian, or the mestizo, or the progressive intellectual does not allow this to happen.

Democracy is the failure of deliberative mechanisms to find the solution to a historic crisis; dictatorship is the success of these mechanisms.

Democracy is the infamous sellout of the nation to transnationals; dictatorship is the recuperation of those resources for the nation.

Democracy is being an accomplice to transnationals; dictatorship is to not be one.

Democracy is being an accomplice to corrupt judges; dictatorship is justice for all.

Democracy is protecting the privileges of the powerful; dictatorship is not doing this.

Democracy is being the privileged owner of the state; dictatorship is when the state belongs to the entire nation

Democracy is telling lies; dictatorship is telling the truth

Democracy is the exacerbated racism of the white; dictatorship is the diversity of colors.

Democracy is the media justification of racial violence; dictatorship is preserving social peace.

This is because majestic democracy sustains itself on skin color, on the most simple, and at the same time most grotesque and perverse, racism.

This string of political facts is not fiction, rather the reality of a country that has decided to decolonize itself and put things in their rightful place. They are the reverse of what is occurring today.

Bolivia is facing the task of saving the Constituent Assembly, of saving democracy, the state of law, and the plurinational republic.

The oligarchic minorities persist in the protection of old privileges, of old forms of impunity and infamous domination.

More:
http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/vargas040907.html

[Judi Lynn]

35. The first video at this link says the abstentions to the autonomy vote are estimated at 45%.

http://www.jwharrison.com/blog/category/racism/

As far as I can determine, that doesn't mean you have to vote, as you said.

I'm not reconciling the difference between published "fact" and what you claim to be a fact. I tend to believe there were abstentions as I've read and heard in other places.

[Solon]

17. Anyone who calls Evo a Communist really has no fucking clue what communism is...

apparently anyone to the left of a right wing Libertarian is a communist to some people. :eyes:

[ann_american2004]

20. Well first let's get to the specifics

A question--are you a land owner, a renter, or government subsidized dweller? If you are a land owner, please continue to read. How would you feel about a so called "president' that is going to take away your land, land and houses that you built with your hard earned money, land and homes that you planned to use for your retirement since social security did not work out as had been hoped? How would you truly feel if you invested all your hard earned small middle class income in those house and someone comes along and says you dont need it and takes it away? How would you feel? What would you call that? Democracy? Hah! What a joke.

Now if you are a person who thinks that's just swell and somehow 'some people' deserve it, then you are not for democracy and freedom. You are a communist. Period.
Oh, an clueless, too. Please live in that country and tell me all about it.

Time will show and you will be eating crow.

For those who really want to know what is really going on? Here:
http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2007/2007-11-25/index.php
Top three stories are categorized under 'Crisis'. (Wow. Real paradise.)

Sometimes La Razon and El Diario carry the news but most are afraid because of retaliation.
http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20080603_006292/
http://www.eldiario.net/

And Bolivians have often orchestrated their right to protest. There were marches every week on Avenida Arce and Venti de octubre. The newspapers were filled with opinions. From all people. Now people are scared. The La Paz newspapers do not carry so many opinions as before. Protestors block roads for days. And the protests have become violent. This was not seen since the days of Banzar's dictatorship and then for one day in Goni's presidency which cost him his presidency. But now it happens ALL THE TIME. It is not safe to walk the streets anymore at night, like we used to. EVERYONE USED TO of ALL RACES and backgrounds. That was peace in between dictators. Like I said. If you havent lived there then YOU have no fucking clue and you will be eating crow.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Your claims the privately owned media are "afraid" is comical.

They are "viciously" anti-Morales, and accounts of their fiendish 24/7 hate campaign against him are in evidence everywhere.

No one is confused about the racism and filthy, murderous, always violent hatred from the European-descended scum who seized control of these peoples' country. No one.

[Judi Lynn]

26. El Deber, so terrified of the indigenous citizens it prints filth like this:

The day I arrived, I bought a copy of El Deber, the local newspaper, in which one man was quoted as saying ” Cruceños need to stop being such fags and go out and confront these Indian niggers."

http://upsidedownworld.org/april/?p=11

[ann_american2004]

28. Hah!

That made me laugh. Now I really know you are clueless. You think all these papers are run by European-descendants? Tell me you think the largest University is too? Lol, hahahahaa. I think I peed myself. Okay now I know you deserve 'ignore'. I'm done here. European descendants? My ass! hahahaha. My family is descendants of Aymaran and Inca. Or maybe they are too arrogant, too? Maybe too ancient. Scummy. Hahahahaha! Too funny.

ps. I doubt you can even read those papers you critize. A regular Jua jua. In all my time there those papers were the most socialist! The MOST Anti-American interference. The only pro American paper was in English and published by a Brit. LOL!

I'm done here. This is worthless. You have your beliefs, I have mine. And then there are those beliefs that you are trying to paint me into which I do not stand for at all. Paint away, silly girl. Whatever makes you happy. This is a waste of time.

[Judi Lynn]

29. It can't be all that easy writing as if you're from another country. Writing with an accent.

Your sentiments sound so, well, LOCAL, so, how you say, RIGHT-WING.

On edit:

We've had exactly TWO posters claiming to be from Bolivia, and both within months of each other, during the accelerating violence against Morales, and BOTH claiming to despise Evo Morales and the rights of the indigenous population.

What ARE the chances that would happen ordinarily?

[ann_american2004]

36. Hmmm, I thought so, Judi Lynn...

You probably cant read Spanish. Good try with the diversion.

Look. Over half my family is from Bolivia. Our friends and family range from low income to middle and they all say the same thing. Evo is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Bolivia has had for many years a vibrant thriving democracy with equal representation, believe it or not. Everyone had a say. There werent just 2 parties, there were USTB (Workers Social Union), UCS (Civil Solidarity Union), MAS (Movement toward socialism -Evo's party) MNR, MIR, NFR, ADN, MBL, MSM, PDC, PDS, etc. Many indigenous people held seats. Can you understand that? And it was this same democracy - that allowed the organizing and peaceful protests of the taxi and truffe unions, the mining unions, among others. They protested often, healthily. Changes were made. That was democracy. Some people think that Bolivia never had that. Go figure. The lower income workers protested and when they did not feel they were being understood well enough they rallied on the street, at Plaze de San Fransisco, and around people like 'the godfather', Carlos Palenque, of Red Chanel who used to air their grievances publicly on his tv station. Public nationally broadcasted protests. Without retaliation. Later Palenque's wife went into government.

It is only within the last decade that the protests have turned violent, sparked by the MNR's blunders and then spurred on by MAS's movement. Evo was elected by a democracy that had actually worked for a long time. But many in that country are seeing that beloved democracy being changed into something that is no longer a democracy. He is already pushing plans of land redistribution, among others things. People defend, saying he is a democratic socialist. We shall see. It's not looking that way to those living there, not when people are losing their possessions and even shot marching FOR privatization. It doesn't matter whether you agree with them or not. If it is a free society, a democracy, they should be able to march in peace like before. That is a fact. They cannot be dismissed. See you do not know me, you do not know what I am for. You want to paint me into something, someone you can attack. I actually think some things should be nationalized. I agree with less interference, even less aid in some cases. Like Evo, I agree even that coca eradication is ridiculous and that the coca leaf is one of the best medicinal plants in the world. But if I was FOR eradication I also should be able to march without getting shot at.

If anything, Judi, REALLY HEAR this. LISTEN to what I am saying. You are talking about people I love who could die because of this conflict, not just the crime and violent protests that werent known when I lived there, but from the actual government. People who work hard everyday, grandparents who have risen up from a poor orphaned background, surviving several dictators and witnessing the birth of Bolivian democracy, now live in fear AGAIN. My parents who had nothing and worked to raise up to the small middle class of Bolivia, are facing the possibility their possessions will be 'redistributed'. My family has democratic HEROES. My husband, as a youth, was in the crowds throwing rocks at Banzar. My grandfather fought against the dictators, he saw friends killed, he fought and then worked to establish democracy and when offered a chance to reap rewards he stood back and said no, saying that helping to make Bolivia free was all he needed. My parents stay in their country because 'come what may' they love Bolivia, even though we beg them to leave before it is too late. All their friends are gone while the city breaks down. But they remain. You talk like you know, Judi, when you dont. You just can quote your clippings and link to your biased blogs. So, with good reason, Judi, you make me sick.

Now if you cannot even read the newspapers unless translated by a third biased party I dont know why you even feel you can discuss this with absolute authority. Because that's my guess. Right? Never been to Bolivia, right? If you claim to care so much about SA why not have the decency to at least learn the languages? Read what it says for yourself.

This is the first thread I've ever responded to about Bolivia and the last. To accuse me of anything else is an outrage. You are officially on ignore because you are hopeless because of your ignorance. I understand you think you are knowledgeable with probably your blogs and your classes, but if you haven't lived there you do not know. You are talking about my parent's lives. And I can't talk to someone like you anymore. Because people like you dont listen to what is being said. You will take a small portion, an inconsequential, of what I am saying and use that as your subject matter instead of really listening to what someone who is experiencing it is really saying. Like saying that I am pretending to 'have an accent'. That is really beyond pathetic. And this really shows that you aren't listening at all nor do you want to. half my family is from Bolivia. I have lived there, with them, for many years. But then your aggrandizing is so much more important than their lives, to you.

But peace to all out there who truly care about other human beings caught in the middle of extremes. If you want to talk about these issues, PM me. But wait awhile as this has upset me much.

[Judi Lynn]

39. How do you explain the videos taken of the scum beating the indigenous in the public square in Sucre

There aren't too many ways you can spin that. Were they celebrating their fascist form of democracy voting on the "referendum which had been declared illegal and unconstitutional by Bolivia’s National Electoral Court?" Why did they beat and kick the native Bolivians so wildly? Why were these people savagely harmed? What a bunch of magnificent, noble specimens these racists are.

http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=iDNRhLKQyzk

There are other clips, as well, all showing the same behavior.

How do you explain the racist scum's drenching a female journalist with alcohol and threatening to set her on fire if she didn't leave that day? Do you imagine that's a product of some blogger's imagination, when she, herself, has testified to this?

Here's another article:

BOLIVIA: Local Indigenous Leaders Beaten and Publicly Humiliated

LA PAZ -- Bolivia may have its first-ever indigenous president, but racism is alive and well in this country, as demonstrated by the public humiliation of a group of around 50 indigenous mayors, town councillors and community leaders in the south-central city of Sucre.

By Franz Chávez, IPS

The incident, which shook the country but received little attention from the international press, occurred on Saturday, when President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was to appear in a public ceremony in Sucre to deliver 50 ambulances for rural communities and announce funding for municipal projects.

But in the early hours of Saturday morning, organised groups opposed to Morales began to surround the stadium where he was to appear a few hours later. Confronting the police and soldiers with sticks, stones and dynamite, they managed to occupy the stadium.

The president cancelled his visit, and the security forces were withdrawn, to avoid violent clashes and bloodshed.

But violent elements of the Interinstitutional Committee, a conservative pro-autonomy, anti-Morales civic group that is backed by the local university and other bodies, continued to harass and beat supporters of the governing Movement to Socialism (MAS) and anyone who appeared to belong to one of the country’s indigenous communities.

A mob of armed civilians from Sucre, partially made up of university students, then surrounded several dozen indigenous Morales supporters, including local authorities who had come from other regions to attend the ceremony and were unable to leave the city after the event was called off.

The terrified indigenous people, who had sought refuge in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Sucre, were stripped of their few belongings, including money, identity documents and watches, and forced to walk seven kilometres to the House of Liberty, a symbol of the end of colonial rule in Bolivia, which was declared there on Aug. 6, 1825.

In the city’s main square in front of the building, they were forced to kneel, shirtless, and apologise for coming to Sucre. They were also made to chant insults to Morales like "Die Evo!"

They were surrounded by activists from the conservative pro-autonomy movement, who set fire to the blue, black and white MAS party flag, the multicolour flag of the Aymara people, and colourful hand-woven indigenous ponchos seized from the visiting Morales supporters, as a signal of their "victory" over the president’s grassroots support bases.

http://www.galdu.org/web/index.php?&odas=2832&giella1=eng

[ann_american2004]

41. Of course they are scum for beating that man

THAT is without question. Anyone who'd think they werent would be equally a monster. Such violence is unacceptable. I cannot even stomach the holiday fist fighting that is a tradition. That was not my argument. My argument was/is with Evo. My first reply to this thread was to say Evo is a communist, which I believe he will prove to be. He uses this division for his benefit. He is a wolf in sheep's clothing. he did not need to place these people in harm's way. I find him equally responsible as the scum bags doing the kicking, for his divisive nature. He even sets the poorest of the poor against each other. If you do not believe me then look at the vid again. Look at their clothes. Do you really think that the 'detestable European sect and supposed south africans (lol, too funny)' you spoke about on this thread are even represented there in that video? Really? Well then, where are they? Please point them out! These are the poorest, 'the have hardly anything' to 'have nothing's beating each other. The whole country is divided. It is heartbearking.

And a large portion of my family has lived that experience of suffering for their beliefs in the past. And a large portion of my family looks like that person being beaten. The same skin, the same hair, the same face. But they suffered FOR democracy against dictators. Again my beef is with Evo.

And yet again you are trying to portray me as someone I am not. I have told you my family comes from Inca roots, Aymaran background. And again you try to twist what I am saying. instead of listening to what I am saying. My family's country is falling apart and he has a large share of the blame. And I strongly believe he will not allow Bolivia to remain a democracy for much longer. He will have to 'save' them from the violence by taking complete control of everything. It will be that much easier to steal the factories and land and other wealth and ration them out. THAT is communism, no matter how you package it. Period. Much of it has already been abandoned anyway by fleeing nationals. It is very sad.

But I am probably shouting at a wall at this point. Until you can actually read what I'm writing without twisting it, we really have nothing to gain by this at all. I have given enough opportunities.
'Nuff said.

[Judi Lynn]

42. Nope. I'm not buying the idea people who were not allowed to walk on sidewalks until 1952, or vote,

actually side with their oppressors, the very people who conquered their people, stole their land, and dispise them, mock them, and shun them.

Nothing you can say will cause someone to believe that would happen.

[ann_american2004]

44. again you are not reading what I'm writing

I think we are having two different discussions. Too funny, actually.
That video doesn't quite fit right in your mind anymore, does it?

But it is understandable since you do not know my family's country.

[Judi Lynn]

43. I forgot to add an important image:

[ann_american2004]

45. LOL - clueless

you spun yourself like a squirrel

[Judi Lynn]

46. Looked in google for holiday fist fighting. Saw a clip from Peru.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ac6_1198825123

Somehow, it would seem someone you have agreed to fight to wipe the slate clean is different from being beaten down and humiliated by some one who dispises you because he hates your race or politics. Being called filthy names, and mocked also would be hard to take.

If I had ancestors who admired and copied the very people who enslaved them, and ridiculed, and hated them, I wouldn't admit it.

[ann_american2004]

47. Again -clueless. give it up.

Hahaha you had to 'look it up'? hahahaha even tourist know about those fist-fights.
And in case you, all-knowing--did not know Peru and Bolivia have the same traditions for the most part.
We also bury dogs under our houses to the pachamama, for tradition.
cccclue---less.

lemme guess - you're going to spin that some new way too? *snort*
Too funny

I really know you are trying to be sincere with at least half of your posts, aside from trying to spin my words all the time, but honestly. Read up about things before shooting your mouth. LOL.

Judi:"If I had ancestors who admired and copied the very people who enslaved them, and ridiculed, and hated them, I wouldn't admit it."
Oh well, no Roman numerals for you then. LOL!!!!!!

edit:typos

[Rage for Order]

48. She'll never give you an answer

All that poster can do is post semi-veiled accusations that, unless you agree with Chavez or Morales, you must be a right-wing fascist. Then she'll post a link to an article that has nothing to do with the subject at hand...well, multiple articles. But none of them will pertain to the discussion. Then she'll try to claim that she knows more than you could possibly ever hope to learn on all things South & Central American. Finally, when that tactic fails, she just stops responding. Her theories of redistribution of wealth at the point of a gun are indefensible, so she doesn't even try.

[Judi Lynn]

50. I just stopped responding? Really? Have you checked your watch?

Some of us do have lives. I ALWAYS away from D.U. in the evenings, and only step in to check periodically. Some of us have families, loved ones to live with.

Take a moment to reflect. This might just be a pattern with a lot of DU'ers, too.

[ann_american2004]

51. I get what you are saying, Rage

Thanks for the warning. =)

[Judi Lynn]

49. The fascists STILL are enslaving, ridiculing,hating,and mocking them now.

They did it when they beat up those indigenous people in the town square.

If I had people who embraced and condoned that behavior, I'd never see them again.

Do you think that brutal, vicious, sadism is acceptable to human beings? Maybe in your group, but that's not really normal, nor decent, nor moral.

Why did they get that sadistic? Was it because they are righteous people, doing what's right in Bolivia? They are doing what's RIGHT-WING.

I thought you were so overwhelmed with grief, dispair you simply couldn't go on, and had to check out of the thread, didn't feel you could lower yourself to continue.

Glad to see you've recovered.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Dirty deeds in Bolivia

Dirty deeds in Bolivia
Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Published 02 June 2008

3 comments Print version Listen RSS Agitation, violence and illegal ballots on autonomy. Hugh O'Shaughnessy on disgraceful tactics aimed at intimidating and undermining a democratically elected president

Bolivia’s right-wing extremists who have been doing their best to rip their own country apart for the past two years rather than accept the rule of their constitutionally elected President Evo Morales finally have showed themselves in their true colours.

These are various violent shades of an apartheid green mixed with several unappealing tones of Ku Klux Klan off-white. For the extremists, the democratically chosen Morales labours under the crushing disadvantage of being a member of the indigenous majority. To have a head of state like that who seeks greater fairness for the indigenes, they say, will never do.

On 24 May in the run-up to this Sunday’s unofficial vote on “autonomy” rigged up by the Bolivian Klansmen in the departments of Beni and Pando they went into action in the city of Sucre. There an aggressive horde of university students and unelected conservative city notables came together to prevent their president visiting the city. He was to come to inaugurate a new step forward in the agrarian reform programme which most voters in this agriculturally stunted country want.

In their unelected grandeur, financed by the ample royalties that the government of the department of Santa Cruz gets for its oil and natural gas and spreads round its political satellites, they stationed thugs in the stadium where President Morales was to speak and aborted his visit. Then they turned their attention on the government supporters who were awaiting him.

Mainly poor peasants, they had gathered to welcome the president and greet his moves towards agrarian reform in a country where there is land for all but where much of it is concentrated in the hands of the few. A number of indigenous people who were to have received the President were seized by the mob, forcibly undressed, marched to the central plaza and made to kneel and shout anti-government slogans and to burn their ponchos, the flag of the MAS party and the wiphala, the flag favoured by indigenous peoples up and down the Andes. They were kicked, hit and racially abused.

More:
http://www.newstatesman.com/south-america/2008/06/government-president-bolivia

[ann_american2004]

14. yes please do read this article

and the replies below it which explain how this 'journalist' doesnt know what he is talking about.

First of all this was backed by Santa Cruz, people who are not Paceno/Pacenas. La Paz is where the seat of government is, though it used to be in Sucre.

Second. Santa Cruz is where all the coca irradication goes on, you think they like Americans? Pah-lease. Too funny. Again this has nothing to do with the US, the so called 'journalist' even avoided drawing such a conclusion. What happened to those people was horrible but it is ridiculous to say the US had anything to do with it. Santa Cruz bore Banzar, they have always been arrogant. On their own.

Let me give you a little lesson. In La Paz, under the government Bolivia has had indigenous politicians. Did you know that? Many. And a woman president. They have had Aymaran mayors and vice-presidents. I - yes I- even had the honor of shaking Vice President Victor Hugo's hand and told his wife- who wore the traditional dress of the Aymaran proudly- what an honor it was to meet her and how she did so much for the advancement of her people and women. Bolivian government had representatives of every party from every background; and the election is not just for the president and vice president but for those seats. It is not a two party race, they have several parties and if they each get enough votes they ARE REPRESENTED. It was more a democracy than here. The mistake of the wealthy was not to spread out the fruits of labor. That was a BIG mistake and finally it was represented in the election. Yes, a real election. But do NOT MAKE the mistake to think that Evo is perpetuating any kind of democracy. He will be a dictator. He was elected but he will not allow another to warm that seat for quite some time. But then maybe you like dictators. Time will tell.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Maybe the FASCIST element in Bolivia has grown far too loud for common sense.

From Wikipedia:

The Bolivian Socialist Falange party founded in 1937 played a crucial role in mid-century Bolivian politics. Luis García Meza Tejada's regime took power during the 1980 Cocaine Coup in Bolivia with the help of Italian neo-fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and the Buenos Aires junta. That regime has been accused of neo-fascist tendencies and of admiration for Nazi paraphernalia and rituals. Hugo Banzer Suárez, who preceded Tejada, also displayed admiration towards Nazism and fascism. Since the popular election of Evo Morales, Bolivia has seen a resurgence of far right politics in opposition to his Movement Towards Socialism government, policies, and reforms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-fascism

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

YouTube: The rise of neo-fascism in Bolivia 3 minutes 40 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyxM0O8qImg

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bolivia: Fraud, violence and mass resistance marks right-wing push
GLW
May 12, 2008 By Federico Fuentes
Source: http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/750/38761

A day of violence, fraud and a "grand rebellion" against the Santa Cruz oligarchy.
This is how Bolivian president, Evo Morales Ayma, described the result of the unconstitutional May 4 "autonomy" referendum organised by the authorities in Santa Cruz — which many feared was aimed at dividing Bolivia.

The referendum was the first in a series of proposed referendums to be held in the departments of the so-called Half Moon — Santa Cruz plus Pando, Beni and Tarija, resource-rich departments in Bolivia's east. The Half Moon remains dominated by the white oligarchy despite the coming to power nationally of Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, on the back of a mass movement against neoliberalism led by the indigenous majority.

Illegal vote

While the National Electoral Court had ruled that the autonomy referendum — which the government had proposed be held simultaneously with a referendum to approve the new constitution — could not go ahead on May 4 due to lack of time and suitable political conditions, the prefecture and civic committee of Santa Cruz, backed by the Santa Cruz Electoral Court, decided to go ahead with what was an illegal referendum.

The referendum revolved around proposed autonomy statutes, drafted by the oligarchy without any discussion, and which less than 15% of crucenos (Santa Cruz residents) had read before May 4. The statutes hand enormous power over to the opposition-controlled prefectures, including control over natural resources, distribution of land titles, the right to sign international treaties and its own police force and judicial system.

On the day, the Yes vote received 483,925 votes, representing around 85% of the votes cast, against 85,399 No votes. However, calls by the social movements and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS — Morales's party) national government to abstain led non-participation to rise to 39%, or 366,839 registered voters — more than double the usual abstention rate.

This result was obtained in the face of threats and intimidation by bosses who told workers they would loss their jobs if they did not vote and the menacing patrols of the fascist Union Juvenil Crucenista (UJC) — renowned for carrying out violent, racist attacks on indigenous people.

More:
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17609

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No one is foolish enough to imagine that the fascist elements in the United States come close to representing the American public. The fact that they have wormed their way into power from time to time, and wrought havoc at home and abroad has been mourned as it was happening, and dispised among decent citizens here and everywhere else.

Richard Nixon committed some fiendish crimes during his Presidency. His Secretary of State is almost universally loathed, except by the fascist element here and within a few right-wing enclaves elsewhere. Reagan, _Bush and _Bush have contributed to the nightmarish view of the country people lament here and and resent and dispise elsewhere.

Fascism is taking a long time to die out, but it's going to go.

[tom_paine]

18. Bushies LOVE their Right-Wing Death Squads. All over S. America

wherever Right-Wing (Militias) Death-Squads murder innocents by the hundreds, you can bet that the Bushies have been there or are there, behindthe scenese, training and arming these murderers.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Another reference to how Bolivian dictators stole land from indigenous citizens and GAVE IT AWAY to

white South Africans in the attempt to create a "White Bolvia:"

~snip~
Some of the worst abuses of the land reform system came during the dictatorships of the 1970’s, especially that of Hugo Banzer. Banzer and other military leaders exploited the Council to “re-distribute” enormous tracts of land for free or at rock-bottom prices to friends and cronies, in effect re-creating an array of new latifundios. These years signified a definitive step-back in efforts to benefit the nation’s – the spirit of the times is captured in the words of Dr. Guido Strauss, Banzer’s Undersecretary of Immigration, in 1977. In this year Banzer was trying to attract wealthy white immigrants from South Africa and Rhodesia to settle and create new latifundios in eastern Bolivia. The government offered 800,000 hectares of land free of charge, as well as $150 million (US) in funds, part of which would be available for repressing the 120,000 indigenous peasants who already lived on the designated lands. Strauss, trying to entice the white Africans, assured them of favorable conditions: you “will certainly find our Indians no more stupid or lazy than own blacks,” he wrote, as recorded in June Nash’s We Eat the Mines and the Mines Eat Us (Columbia University Press, 1979).

The result of this era was that, except for some areas in Bolivia’s western altiplano, land was never truly re-distributed. Problems were especially pronounced in the eastern and most fertile part of the country, specifically in the departments of Santa Cruz, Pando, the Chaco, Tarija, and Beni.
(snip)

Yet, the reality of INRA was disappointing. Manual Morales Davila, in his popular analysis of the law, characterizes INRA as a “complete sham.” Specifically, what many found objectionable was that the new reform made an exception to the 1953 maxim, “the land belongs to those who work it.” It now stated, the land also belongs to those who pay taxes – pitifully low taxes – on it. Many, like Morales Davila, considered this antithetical to the spirit of ‘53, in that it legalized absentee ownership, speculation, and enormous holdings, characteristics favored by wealthy landholders, not the peasants INRA claimed to benefit.

More:
http://www.narconews.com/Issue42/article1997.html

[Judi Lynn]

30. Bolivia: CAFOD partner injured in racist attack

QUITO - 3 June 2008

Bolivia: CAFOD partner injured in racist attack

More than 50 people have been injured in racist attacks in the south of Bolivia, including one of aid agency CAFOD's partners.

Indigenous community leaders who travelled to the city of Sucre to celebrate the arrival of new government funds for poor, rural communities last week were taken hostage by a group of masked men.

They were forced to strip, parade around the central square, kiss the ground and watch their traditional clothing being burned. More than 50 people were injured and many more were harassed.

A female reporter for Radio ACLO (Acción Cultural Loyola) ­ which works in partnership with CAFOD to give indigenous people a voice ­ was beaten and drenched in alcohol during another attack in the city at the same time, which left her fearing for her life.

Last year Radio ACLO received threats after it attempted to present all sides of a controversial debate around a proposed new constitution. The constitution's aim was to underpin the economic and social changes needed to make Bolivia a just and prosperous country where everyone ­ including indigenous communities, which make up the majority of the population ­ benefits from its wealth.

Many attacks have been carried out against Bolivia's indigenous communities in the last few years as they press for economic and social change in a country where they have suffered poverty and exclusion ­ including exclusion from the media ­ for more than 500 years.

More:
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/racis324.html

[Judi Lynn]

31. Bolivia: Indigenous leaders beaten and publicly humiliated

Bolivia: Indigenous leaders beaten and publicly humiliated

Franz Chavez
31 May 2008

Bolivia may have its first-ever indigenous president, but racism is alive and well in this country, as demonstrated by the public humiliation of a group of around 50 indigenous mayors, town councillors and community leaders in the south-central city of Sucre.

The incident, which shook the country but received little attention from the international press, occurred on May 25, when President Evo Morales, an Aymara Indian, was to appear in a public ceremony in Sucre to deliver 50 ambulances for rural communities and announce funding for municipal projects.

But in the early hours of May 25, organised groups opposed to Morales began to surround the stadium where he was to appear. Confronting the police and soldiers with sticks, stones and dynamite, they managed to occupy the stadium.

The president cancelled his visit, and the security forces were withdrawn to avoid bloodshed.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/753/38930

[pork medley]

32. Bolivia: the Crime of Indigenous Insubordination

It happened on the 24th of May, in Sucre, the capital of Bolivia and crucible of the failed attempt at Bolivian mestizaje.

Those who believed that ignorant racism was a bitter memory in Bolivia were wrong. White Bolivia, created and ruled by masters, was and is essentially anti-Indian. In 1825, the masters founded the Republic of Bolivia in the House of Liberty in the city of Sucre, excluding and subordinating indigenous peoples. Almost two centuries later, last week in front of the same mythical House, before TV cameras, they flogged insubordinate indigenous brothers. It was a macabre act that symbolizes the ethnophagic essence of official white Bolivia.

Given this situation, several questions arise. Where is the state, the monopoly of legitimate force? Will it be completely weakened in Bolivia? And if that's the case, what is the government of Compañero Evo Morales to do if there is no longer a state to manage? Or could it be that xenophobic violence of masters today is tolerated by the state so that its opponents would defeat themselves? These are questions that the government must answer. But the urgent question is: Why does white Bolivia hate Indians so much? There are many answers to this question.

They hate us because we are the mirror that reflects their failure and their historic defeat. They had nearly two centuries since the founding of Bolivia to build a "modern" and mestizo Bolivian nation, according to their interests and aspirations, but they failed morally and intellectually. Today, Bolivia is not "modern," nor is it mestizo. In two centuries of governing, they created only a kleptomaniac bureaucracy that squandered the country.

They copied educational reforms and compulsory military services and used the state to promote public policy to destroy our cultures, but they failed even in this. Now, as never before, Bolivian diversity bewilders them even in their bedrooms. Our presence pains them for it reminds them of their almost innate sterility, their impotence to achieve their aspirations.

They suffer from chronic anomie (lack of identity) in the face of multiple and dynamic indigenous identities that are affirming themselves everywhere. They suffer from profound existential insecurity because they can no longer affirm themselves by negating and annihilating the different, the Other. This pathological insecurity unleashes xenophobic behaviors in them. But with these attitudes the only thing they gain is national and international repudiation. Thus they are caught in the maelstrom of solitude.

They flog our brothers in public squares, as they flogged our fathers and grandfathers to death, because our presence reminds them of their schizophrenic reality. They dream of being Western, but indigenous genes run in their blood. They long to practice liberal morality, but their weak will pushes them to the vices of Indians whom they hate so much. They suffer from profound cultural schizophrenia: always hating what they are and dreaming about what they are not. They are unhappy wretches who don't even know who they are, much less have a clear vision of Bolivia as a country, nor have they ever had one. It pains them to go down in the history of Bolivia as vile moral and intellectual failures. It pains them that from now on criminals will no longer pass for national heroes in history.

It is demonstrated that the indigenous people are what they could not be: the bastion of the Bolivian identity in the making. We have defended and recovered the natural resources and dignity of the people against multinational corporations, monsters to whom the masters of white Bolivia prostituted themselves. Our achievements for Bolivia pain them because they demonstrate their fateful failure. So they humiliated our brothers in front of their House of Liberty.

The flogging that our fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters endure pains our soul, but it's a productive pain because it keeps and will keep alive our fruitful and subversive historical memory. Together with our unburied dead who roam the fertile Bolivian lands demanding justice, we will fight till we restore dignity to the life without dignity to which they condemned us. We were not born only to die trying, nor have we risen only to surrender at dawn.

http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/quispe310508.html

[Judi Lynn]

33. Exceptional article. Very glad to have read this.

I'm keeping the link you posted for future use.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to D.U., batwing. :hi:

[Judi Lynn]

34. Bolivia: Recall referendums open new struggle

Bolivia: Recall referendums open new struggle
Written by Bolivia Rising
Tuesday, 03 June 2008
by Bolivia Rising (Fred Fuentes)

A new period of uncertainty has opened in Bolivia with the initiation of recall referendums for the president and prefects of Bolivia's nine departments by the opposition-controlled Senate.

The law, first introduced into the House of Deputies by the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) government in December, had been gathering dust due to the refusal of the right-wing opposition to approve it in the Senate. The sudden move this month to pass the law has left many wondering why the opposition would take a decision that will have Bolivia go to the polls on August 10.

The idea behind the law is to let the people resolve through the ballot box the "catastrophic deadlock" between the government of President Evo Morales, backed by the social movements, and the opposition, spearhead by the elites from the eastern region who are tied to gas multinationals and agribusiness interests.

Elite manoeuvres

MAS and the social movements have been campaigning to approve the new constitution, finally handed down by the elected constituent assembly in December, that needs to be ratified by a national referendum. The new constitution would dramatically broaden recognition of indigenous rights within a new "plurinational" state, as well as increase state control over natural resources.

More:
http://atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/3984/32/

See note at the end of the article by John Rice.

[Judi Lynn]

37. One Bolivia, white and wealthy

One Bolivia, white and wealthy
By Jorge Majfud, Ph.D.
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Translated by Bruce Campbell


May 9, 2008, 00:14

~snip~
In Bolivia the indigenous people were always a minority. Minority in the daily newspapers, in the universities, in the majority of Catholic schools, in the public image, in politics, in television. The problem stemmed from the fact that that minority was easily more than half of the invisible population. Somewhat like how today black men and women are called a minority in the southern United States, where they total more than 50 percent.

To disguise that the fact that the Bolivian ruling class was the ethnic minority of a democratic population, one pretended that an indigenous person, in order to be one, had to wear feathers on his head and speak the Aymara of the 16th century, before the contamination of the colonial period. Since this phenomenon is impossible in any nation and in any moment of history, they were then denied Amerindian citizenship for the sin of impurity. For that, the best resource now consists of systematic mockery in well-publicized books: they mock those who would claim their Amerindian lineage for speaking Spanish and for doing so over the Internet or on a cellular telephone. By contrast, it is never demanded of a good Frenchman or of a traditional Japanese that they urinate behind an orange tree, like in Versailles, or that their woman walk behind them with her head lowered. Which is to say, the Amerindian peoples are out of place except in the museum and in dances for tourists. They have no right to progress, that thing which is not an invention of any developed nation but of Humanity throughout its history.

Bolivia's recent separatist referenda -- let's dispense with the euphemism -- are part of a long tradition, which demonstrates that the ability to retain the past is not the exclusive property of those who refuse to progress but those who consider themselves the vanguard of civilizing progress.

If medieval (which is to say, pre-humanist) cultures and ideologies defended until recently with blood in the eyes and in their political and religious sermons about differences of class, of race, and of gender as part of nature or of divine right and now they have changed their discourse, it is not because they have progressed, thanks to their own tradition, but despite that tradition. They have had no other recourse than to recognize and even try to appropriate ideolexicons like "freedom," "equality," "diversity," "minority rights," etc., in order to legitimate and extend a contrary practice. If democracy was an "invention of the devil" until the mid-20th century, according to this feudal mentality, today not even the most fascist would be capable of declaring it in a public square. On the contrary, their method consists of repeating this word in association with contrary muscular practices until it is emptied of meaning.

More:
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3270.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

38. Blatant, violent racism in Bolivia

Blatant, violent racism in Bolivia

Monday, May 26, 2008
blatant, violent racism in bolivia

This weekend, as the city of Sucre approached the 199th anniversary of its decisive role in Bolivian independence from Spain, President Evo Morales was scheduled to arrive for an event. Many of his supporters from the campo (countryside) came to the city to receive him. They were met with some of the most blatant and obscene acts of racism Bolivia has seen in modern times.

The Inter-institutional Committee - a self-appointed group of opposition leaders in Sucre who were instrumental in orchestrating the violence there around the constitutional assembly in December - led protests against Evo coming. The rector of the public university there is the leader of this group.

It is also worth noting that Cochabamba Prefect (governor) Manfred Reyes Villa made a point of being there, marching alongside Inter-Institutional Committee leaders.

University students and other protesters attacked campesinos, and beat them, and took a group of them and made them march several kilometers to the town center, stripped off their shirts, and made them kneel in the main plaza and sing pro-Sucre slogans and ask forgiveness for coming to see President Morales.

More:
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x361937

[Judi Lynn]

40. Beautiful BoRev commentary posted by magbana:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=405x4906

[Judi Lynn]

52. Mayor of Cochabamba, who figured in the water privatization, is also a S.O.A. grad. What a shock.

You also will recall that the company which eventually attempted to charge poor Bolivians for the rainwater they tried to collect was also Bechtel, connected to George H. W. Bush. Small world, isn't it? Even though they brought out snipers to nail the protestors of the water privatization, and killed one of them, the people won that round, fortunately.

02, 2007
Deadly politics of division

For an outsider, Bolivia’s politics can be confusing, and at first sight easily misleading. The tragic happenings of Sucre where three people died in protests is a point in case. Here was a popular demonstration fighting to stop a Constitutional Assembly, an initiative fought for by many Bolivians as the way to refound the State based on inclusion, plurality and social justice. Some people with indigenous roots involved in insulting not elites, but other indigenous groups as “kollas de mierda” (Indian shits). Supposedly right-wing groups dedicated to the preservation of order spent a day attacking and burning down police stations and effectively releasing thousands of prisoners from a Sucre jail. A former vice-president to a Dictator was darkly warning of “democracy on the abyss” and blaming it all not on the protestors but the Government.

Against this morass of apparent contradictions, I have always used two tools to personally understand what is happening. The first is looking at who are the real players behind the scenes, what are their motivations, what do they have to win and lose from a given situation. In other words, follow the dynamics of power, in particular economic power. Secondly I look into the historical situation and roots of the crisis, and not just the official history written by elites but the popular history of resistance of those excluded from power. In other words unravelling dynamics of power over time and talking to those whose views are never heard in the media.
(snip)

And who were the actors behind the scenes? In Sucre, it was the key leaders of the Inter-Institutional Committee including the Rector Jaime Barron of the University, one of the key loci of power in the colonial university town, Fidel Herrera from the municipality and close ally of the leading right-wing national leader Jorge "Tuto" Quiroga, and Jhon Cava, former militant for dictator Banzer’s party. The latter two are both known to have close links with the Right in the east of the country and they were instrumental in stopping acceptance of government compromise offers. The Committee managed to broaden support to some social movements too, but the power was clearly in the hands of the leading elites in Sucre known as the “Rosca.”

The key figure in Santa Cruz supporting the committee in Sucre was Branko Marinkovich of Croat descent, head of the civic committee, a millionaire and a major landowner who is facing legal actions for illegal expropriation of land. He was an obvious figurehead for a Santa Cruz elite who felt threatened by a Constituent Assembly that could entrench land redistribution and weaken departmental autonomy with indigenous autonomy.

Since Evo’s election, the Santa Cruz Civic Committee has led resistance to the MAS government with support from the other regions in the East where the Right won elections and where elites still dominated power: Beni, Pando, Tarija. Soon they also won over Manfred Reyes, Prefect of Cochabamba, an ex-graduate of the infamous US School of Americas renowned for training soldiers in torture and destabilisation. Reyes Villa was responsible for the unpopular water privatisation in Cochabamba and showed his true colours when he gave strong support to former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada at the time of the government-led massacres in El Alto in October 2003.

More:
http://www.nickbuxton.info/bolivia/2007/12/deadly-politics.html

[Judi Lynn]

54. More information on the 'autonomy' referendums--Bolivia

More information on the 'autonomy' referendums--Bolivia
By Paul Kellogg, PolEconAnalysis
Jun 8, 2008, 12:07

To understand the recent “autonomy” referendums in Bolivia, don’t count the ballots – travel to the south-central city of Sucre. On May 24 a horrific scene of racism and violence played out that exposed the reactionary nature of the forces fighting for “autonomy.”

~snip~
Central to that redistribution is a new constitution that will allow greater access to the land for the indigenous majority. This majority has been fighting for equality for centuries. It took a revolution in 1952 to abolish a system called “pongaje” that was a kind of feudalism, in which the indigenous people had few rights, and were virtually slaves to European landowners.

This is the necessary background to the “autonomy” referendums taking place in Bolivia. May 4, the voters in Santa Cruz were said to have voted “with a majority of no less than 85 per cent” to have greater autonomy. June 1, the departments of Beni and Pando also voted for autonomy, “with a majority of nearly half a million.”<3>

But these claims are quite dubious. First, these referendums do not have legal status, and Morales’ instructions to his supporters were to refuse to participate. The “high rate of abstention in various provinces in Santa Cruz such as Camiri (42%), Puerto Suárez (31%), Montero (62%), Portachuelo (19%), San Ignacio de Velasco (17.8%), Charagua (40%) and Saipina (60%), indicate an overall abstention rate of between 40-45%, according to the Bolivian Information Agency.”<4> And as British-based Latin American expert Mike Gonzalez has pointed out, those who did vote, often did so out of fear, voting “under the watchful eye of the thugs of the UJC – the neo-fascist youth organization of Santa Cruz.”<5>

~snip~
Respected analyst Eva Golinger has convincingly documented that two agencies notorious for undermining popular movements in Latin America – USAID and the so-called “National Endowment for Democracy” – are deeply involved in supporting the “autonomy” movement.

“In Bolivia,” she wrote last year, USAID “is openly supporting the autonomy of certain regions, such as Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, and therefore promoting separatism and the destabilization of the country and the government of Evo Morales. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), another one of Washington’s financial organs, which promotes subversion and intervention in more than 70 countries across the world, including Venezuela, is also funding groups in regions such as Santa Cruz, which fight for separatism.”<8>

We all have a stake in the desperate struggle underway in this, the poorest country in South America. It was in Bolivia in 1999, that the poor rose up and delivered a central blow against neoliberalism, when a mass movement in Cochabamba stopped the privatization of water. If the forces of neoliberalism and imperialism succeed in reversing this movement, all the people of the Americas will suffer, not just the poor and the oppressed in Bolivia.

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_26985.shtml