Bolivia enacts anti-racism bill opposed by press

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia enacts anti-racism bill opposed by press
LA PAZ, Bolivia

Bolivian President Evo Morales has enacted an anti-racism bill opposed by most of the nation's major newspapers.

The law sets penalties for disseminating content deemed racist or discriminatory, up to and including suspending media licenses.

Newspapers say it limits freedom of expression. Opposition leaders fear officials will misuse the law to quiet dissenting voices.

Several papers ran editions Thursday with blank front pages except for the words: "There is no democracy without freedom of expression."

More:
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9INKV9G0.htm

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bolivian newspapers protest against planned racism law

7 October 2010 Last updated at 15:45 ET
Bolivian newspapers protest against planned racism law

Several major newspapers in Bolivia have made a joint protest against a proposed anti-racism law which they say threatens press freedom.

Their front pages were blank but for the slogan: "There is no democracy without freedom of expression."

~snip~
Mr Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has rejected the concerns, saying he is determined to approve the law without modifications.

He said freedom of expression was protected, but could be used as a pretext for racism.

"The time has come to eliminate the practice of racism in Bolivia because it is the most undemocratic practice in the world as it does not respect equality between citizens," he said.

The anti-racism law is supported by organizations representing Bolivia's indigenous communities, which have suffered severe discrimination dating back to the Spanish colonial era.

The legislation is being considered by Bolivia's senate, where Mr Morales's supporters have a majority.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11497489

[Judi Lynn]

2. Short look at typical Bolivian president in recent Bolivian history,

and I should add that since this tiny portrait of Bolivian President Hugo Banzer was published in 1995, Hugo Banzer was elected for the first time and served part of another term before withdrawing due to his terminal cancer. During that time he still managed to privatize Bolivia's water supply, and hand it over to a subsidiary of US-based Bechtel, which raised the cost of water so high poor Bolivians couldn't afford to use water, and when they started trying to collect rain water in cisterns, barrels, etc., the company attempted to get the right to charge them for COLLECTED RAINWATER. When they protested, ran into the streets to protest this unbearable action against them, the government brought out snipers and shot into crowds of Bolivians, murdering one young man, blinding someone, injuring many, then proceeded to chase people into their homes, beat them, arrest some, and torture anyone they could haul into their jails.

The people won the Cochabamba water war.

Here's a look at the early portion of the career of President Hugo Banzer:

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

It would be truly important to start looking into the astonishing history of human degradation, humiliation, vast, wide-scale brutality, massacres, torture, standard hatred, slavery, social ostracism, mockery which has been inflicted upon the indigenous people of Bolivia by the Caucasian invaders for hundreds of years by first the Spanish, then by waves of other European people, including Nazis fleeing Europe after the 2nd World War, and Nazi collaborators from Croatia, etc., as well.

Take time to find out about what's beyond the thin, misleading surface of articles about Latin America.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Bolivian newspapers protest against planned racism law

7 October 2010 Last updated at 15:45 ET
Bolivian newspapers protest against planned racism law

Several major newspapers in Bolivia have made a joint protest against a proposed anti-racism law which they say threatens press freedom.

Their front pages were blank but for the slogan: "There is no democracy without freedom of expression."

~snip~
Mr Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, has rejected the concerns, saying he is determined to approve the law without modifications.

He said freedom of expression was protected, but could be used as a pretext for racism.

"The time has come to eliminate the practice of racism in Bolivia because it is the most undemocratic practice in the world as it does not respect equality between citizens," he said.

The anti-racism law is supported by organizations representing Bolivia's indigenous communities, which have suffered severe discrimination dating back to the Spanish colonial era.

The legislation is being considered by Bolivia's senate, where Mr Morales's supporters have a majority.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11497489

(my emphasis)

[Judi Lynn]

4. Event some DU'ers discussed only 2 years ago:

BOLIVIA: Local Indigenous Leaders Beaten and Publicly Humiliated
Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, May 27 (IPS) - 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 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.

More:
http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2008/05/bolivia-local-indigenous-leaders-beaten.html

http://www.democracyctr.org.nyud.net:8090/blog/uploaded_images/sucre-794790.jpg
Racism Run Amok

On Saturday May 24th President Evo Morales was scheduled to visit the city of Sucre on the commemoration of the 199th anniversary of Latin America’s first steps of independence from Spain, General Sucre's "first shout of liberty (May 25, 1809)." The President planned on delivering ambulances for Chuquisaca’s rural communities and to announce development projects for the region, all actions typical of what Presidents do here on such dates. The events were to take place in the “Patriotic” Stadium, surrounded by and under the protection of indigenous people from different parts of the province.

However, the night before the event, organized groups antagonistic to Morales began to provoke disturbances around the stadium and stoned a house where a fundraising dinner was taking place for a MAS candidate for Governor, Walter Valda.

Then on Saturday, the day of the anniversary, the anti-Morales violence went into racist overdrive. Mobs armed with sticks and dynamites confronted the police and military. The government retreated the public's armed forces, cancelled all scheduled parades (of the military and police), and President Morales’ visit.

With the police and military presence gone, the indigenous peasants who had come to see the President were left face-to-face with armed civilians from urban Sucre, among them university students of the public University of San Francisco Xavier. More than two dozen indigenous peasants were beaten and captured, their few possessions were taken away and they were forced to walk for three miles and then kneel shirtless in front of Sucre’s House of Liberty. Sucre mobs humiliated their indigenous captives in a repeat of a ritual from the most brutal pages of colonialism. Under threat of violence, and half naked in a public square the captives were forced to apologize for the offense of coming to the city to receive President Morales. "Llamas, ask forgiveness," the mob ordered. Among the captives was the mayor of the rural town of Mojocoya.

Video footage of the abuse can be seen here. (see at link)

More:
http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/archives/2008_05_01_democracyctr_archive.html

http://www.bolivia.com.nyud.net:8090/noticias/autonoticias/ImagenNoticia84446.jpg http://files.splinder.com.nyud.net:8090/855924071c3dc978f59313f7dd7d399d.jpeg http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_LvP4mWx84Tk/SGOl5I2wEEI/AAAAAAAAH9M/p2pyTbbj2Gs/s400/1209928083395bolivia%25202dn.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_LvP4mWx84Tk/SGOhrpDO_zI/AAAAAAAAH70/th6x5otrnAE/s400/0094191B.jpg http://farm3.static.flickr.com.nyud.net:8090/2132/2071347727_b75d0ec6b4_o.jpg http://www.pueblos-originarios.com.ar.nyud.net:8090/img/foto_principal_articulo_nota5.jpg
In educated Sucre: “On your knees, shitty Indians”
Racist Fascism
Alex Contreras Baspineiro

"On your knees, shitty Indians, yell long live the capital," "Respect Sucre, goddamit," "Llamas, ask for forgiveness," were the orders imposed by a group of young people from the Bolivian department (province) of Chuquisaca by means of kicks and punches, forcing around 50 Quechua campesinos to take off their shirts, get on their knees, and burn the MAS flag and the Wiphala flag (symbol of indigenous nations) in front of the Casa de la Libertad, located in the main plaza of Sucre.

It was on May 25th, 199 years ago, that the continent's first cry for liberty was sounded in this same place. 2008, paradoxically, heard cries full of racism, hate and discrimination against representatives of the national majorities, exactly those who liberated this country from the Spanish yoke.

"Kill the Indian, they said, and all of this occurred in the presence of the President of the Municipal Council of Sucre, Fidel Herrera, and the Mayor Aidée Nava; they applauded everything these violent groups did," reported the Mayor of Mojocoya, Ángel Vallejos, who also was brutally punched and forced to walk on his knees.

On May 24th, the President of the Republic, Evo Morales Ayma, was supposed to arrive in Sucre to present a series of projects and two ambulances at each of the municipalities of the department of Chuquisaca. However, violent conflicts halted these activities.

In spite of police and military intervention, forces whose membership is composed of an indigenous majority, the force and organization of the youth groups-armed not only with sticks and stones but also tear gas and dynamite-resulted in many human rights abuses.

The images of violence captured in different neighborhoods of Sucre were simply bloodcurdling: the youth, many of whom were inebriated, used sticks and stones to attack the campesinos, who fell to the ground. Neither women nor children were spared.

Medical reports show that 35 people were wounded, and in addition the campesinos suffered the theft of their documents, watches and the little money they had.

More:
http://alainet.org/active/24535&lang=en

http://www.radiomundial.com.ve.nyud.net:8090/yvke/files/img_noticia/t_amalia_dimitri_191.jpg

http://www.indymedia.ie.nyud.net:8090/cache/imagecache/local/attachments/may2010/460_0___30_0_0_0_0_0_unionjuvenilcrucenista.jpg http://3.bp.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090/_LvP4mWx84Tk/SGOlTDNVCxI/AAAAAAAAH88/Z9Pm0OPjtrU/s320/t_80985182_381.jpg http://www.radiomundial.com.ve.nyud.net:8090/yvke/richedit/upload/2k7eba163104.jpg