Bolivian opposition organizing "civil coup": president

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

Bolivian opposition organizing "civil coup": president
12 hours ago

LA PAZ (AFP) — Rebel governors in the east of Bolivia are mounting a "civil coup" against the government, President Evo Morales has charged, as a political crisis gripping the country edged closer to confrontation.

Two weeks of road blocks and other anti-government protests in the relatively prosperous states of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija have started to stall the local economies there, national and regional media reported Friday.

Diesel deliveries from neighboring Argentina used by industry were being stopped by demonstrators, as was liquid petroleum gas, needed in household kitchens.

Morales late Thursday accused the governors of those and two other states of launching a "civil coup against democracy." He has sent troops to guard gas facilities in their territories.

But militant rightwing civil groups in one of the other states, Beni, have threatened to take over military posts and expel the regional army chief if he does not agree to come under the command of the governor.


Read more: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gA3ynFlKZqoe_3rEzOtwZS6US2MQ

[Judi Lynn]

1. US: We must interfere in Bolivian affairs

US: We must interfere in Bolivian affairs
Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:42:41 GMT

US envoy in Bolivia, Phillip Goldberg
The US ambassador in Bolivia meets the rebel governor of Chuquisaca saying Washington should interfere in the country's internal affairs.

Throwing his weight behind the rebel governor of Chuquisaca state Sabina Cuellar on Friday, Phillip Goldberg called on the Bolivian government of President Evo Morales to pay attention to the demands of the opposition.

Goldberg claimed that since Bolivia is presently in a state of political instability, the US institutions should interfere in Bolivia's internal affairs.

This is not the first time that the US officials are evidently interfering in the internal affairs of other countries.

Nonetheless, Morales denounced Goldberg's support of the right-wing “autonomy” movement that is promoting the secession of five Bolivian provinces.

More:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=68619§ionid=351020706

[Peace Patriot]

7. This needs to be a headline in GP-Politics: Bush junta openly backs white separatists in Bolivia!

These are fracking WHITE RACISTS! This is so upside down, so backwards, so WRONG! McCain should be nailed with it! What the hell are his Bushite cohorts DOING in Bolivia?

I frankly think that the South Americans will solve this situation themselves. Brazil and Argentina, for instance--both with leftist governments, allied with Morales--who are the chief gas customers that create the wealth that the white separatists want all to themselves--will not permit it to go on. And, if necessary, Morales will evict the U.S.-Bush ambassador, and all of South America (except the Bush fascists running Colombia, and the corrupt 'free tradists' in Peru) will back him up. He will have Central American support as well--Nicaragua, and possibly also Guatemala and Honduras--and maybe even some rightwing support (for instance, Calderon in Mexico, who publicly criticized Bush, to his face, in 2006, on the SOVEREIGNTY of Latin American countries, using Venezuela as an example!)

OPEN U.S.-Bush interference will mobilize most of Latin America to Morales' side. We need to find out what Goldberg actually said. This article doesn't put it in quotes. But if he said this publicly, then the Bushites may have put the final nail in their utterly failed policy in South America, and it may be the turning point toward permanent alienation of the northern and southern halves of our hemisphere. It is a DISASTROUS policy--like everything else the Bushites have done.

What is McCain's position on the Bush junta openly supporting white racists and civil chaos in Bolivia?

[Judi Lynn]

9. I'll be looking around for more on this. Looks like it's headed for a blowout, doesn't it?

We've been reading for ages that Bolivians are keenly aware that the governors and their cronies huddle with this mutant _Bushpuppet Goldberg, and also make secretive trips to Washington, D.C.

I have to wait until I get breaks to go hunting for these things, but this will be something to pursue more vigorously. I'll be keeping my eyes open on Bolivia always until this ugliness has been resolved. The good should triumph this time, for a change, just as it is prophesied in "The Good Book."

It's worth waiting a lifetime to see the monsters finally bound, unable to harm people again. I hope South America is right on course to make it happen.

Phillip Goldberg, as you remember, has an embassy which has been telling Peace Corps workers to spy on any Cubans or Venezuelans in the area, and report back to them, as witnessed by the Fulbright Scholar recently.

Gotta run, will pick this back up late tonight.

[Judi Lynn]

10. United States Maneuvers to Carve Up Bolivia with Autonomy Vote

United States Maneuvers to Carve Up Bolivia with Autonomy Vote
By Roger Burbach

~snip~
The Podemos (We Are Able) Party, which is strongest in Santa Cruz, first tried to use its control of just over one third of the votes in the constituent assembly to block its actions by insisting that a majority vote was not sufficient to approve statutes to the new constitution. When that failed, it resorted to helping stir up violence against assembly members, targeting its indigenous members and its woman president, Silvia Lazarte Flores. At the turn of the year, Evo Morales, backed by popular mobilizations in the streets of La Paz, compelled the existent Congress to approve the call for a national referendum to vote on the new constitution. It was then that the Santa Cruz elite launched its referendum for autonomy, which the country’s National Electoral Court has declared unconstitutional. The referendum voted for on Sunday grants the provincial government the power to tax and collect revenues, to set up its own police force and to block any efforts by the national government to carry out agrarian reform.

The US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, who was appointed by the Bush administration in September 2006, has maneuvered behind the scenes to support the political forces opposed to Morales and his governing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). It is notable that Goldberg came to Bolivia from Pristina, Kosovo, where as the US Chief of Mission, he played a central role in orchestrating Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, which it had been a province of for centuries.

Last year Goldberg was photographed in Santa Cruz with a leading right-wing business magnate and a well-known Colombian narco-trafficker who had been detained by the local police. Then in late January of this year, the Embassy was caught giving aid to a special intelligence unit of the Bolivian police force. The embassy rationalized its aid by saying “the US government has a long history of helping the National Police of Bolivia in diverse programs.” US-Bolivian relations were next roiled in February when it was revealed that Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar had been pressured by an Embassy official to keep tabs on “Venezuelans and Cubans” in the country. Since Morales took office over two years ago, more than $4 million has been provided by the US Agency for International Development to the political opposition.

Bolivia’s neighbors are strongly opposed to the separatist movement and its destabilizing impact on the region. Brazil and Argentina are both dependent on natural gas from Bolivia and fear that an internal conflict would interrupt their supplies. Argentinean David Caputo came to Bolivia as head of a mission of the Organization of American States to try set up a dialogue between the government and the opposition. He found the government willing to engage in discussions, but the opposition vehemently opposed. The United States has provided no support to these regional diplomatic efforts to avoid civil strife in Bolivia.

http://globalalternatives.org/node/86

[Judi Lynn]

11. Ambassador Goldberg "frequently" meets with racist oligarchs:

August 2008
Oligarchy stokes Bolivian political crisis
By Gonzalo Villanueva
La Paz, Bolivia

~snip~
The anti-Morales opposition enjoys political hegemony in the cities of the half-moon. Utilising the corporate media to evoke uncertainty and fear, the oligarchy-run opposition parties have promoted the idea that the “Indianisation” of the Bolivian state will mean that the urban middle classes will be racially discriminated against or their interests ignored — an argument that does not necessarily win them to support the opposition, but does distance them from the government.

Racism
The Spanish “discovery” of the “new world” led to the dispossession and enslavement of the Native American peoples. When Spanish colonial rule ended in Bolivia, the rich descendants of white Spanish-speaking colonial-settlers, criollos, took over. At the end of the 19th century, Emilio Barbier reflected on the state of the indigenous peoples, writing: “More fortunate are the mules, horses, and llamas: these at least are taken care of for the capital that they represent”. The indigenous Bolivians face a double oppression: for being indigenous and for being poor.

Racism today provides a brutal ideological weapon for the anti-Morales opposition. A disturbing example of this occurred on May 25. Morales was scheduled to present ambulances and funds to the city of Sucre. However, the socio-political tensions exploded into a violent racist action against the indigenous campesinos (peasants) who came to support Morales. The attackers were led by the Civic Committee of Sucre, UJC militants who travelled especially for the event, the mayor and university students. Ironically, this was a mestizo (mixed race) mob, which had abandoned any identity with its indigenous origins, brutally beating and humiliating the campesinos.

US imperialism
The Morales government’s nationalisation of key industries — such as hydrocarbons and the telecommunications network, Entel — and its collaboration with Venezuelan socialist President Hugo Chavez’s working people’s government and socialist Cuba, are causing concern to the US imperialist rulers. Although preoccupied with their faltered attempt to conquer oil-rich Iraq, the US rulers continue an interventionist policy in South America to protect their economic domination of the continent — for example, the April 2002 failed CIA-sponsored military coup in Venezuela.

In an article published on the Venezuelanalysis website last September 12, Venezuelan-American writer Eva Golinger observed that “in Bolivia, USAID-OTI has focused its efforts on combating and influencing the Constituent Assembly and the separatism of the regions rich in natural resources, such as Santa Cruz and Cochabamba. The majority of the $13.3 million has been given to organizations and programs working towards ‘reinforcing regional governments’, with the intention of weakening the national government of Evo Morales.” The cocaleros confederation of Cochabamba, however, recently expelled USAID from the Chapare region, an action praised by Morales. However, USAID continues its work in other regions.

Philip Goldberg, the US ambassador in Bolivia, frequently meets with the prefects of the half-moon departments and leaders of the opposition parties. Goldberg was recently recalled to Washington by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss a June 9 confrontation at the US embassy, where a crowd protested outside and threatened to burn the building down.

More:
http://www.directaction.org.au/issue3/oligarchy_stokes_bolivian_political_crisis

[Judi Lynn]

12. Diplomatic efforts seek to mend damaged US-Bolivia relationship

Diplomatic efforts seek to mend damaged US-Bolivia relationship
Posted: August 01, 2008
by: Rick Kearns / Indian Country Today

Espionage charges remain against US Embassy official

~snip~
Evidence of the U.S. funding of opposition groups, the attempted recruitment of spies and the U.S. Embassy's role in some of these activities have been presented by both Bolivian and U.S. sources including ABC News and the ''Democracy Now!'' radio/TV news program.

According to official and press sources in 2002, the USAID began funding a ''political party reform project'' that would ''serve as a counterweight to the radical MAS {Morales' party} or its successors.'' One year after Morales won the presidential election, in 2006, the USAID gave approximately $4.5 million to departmental governments to help them move towards autonomy and away from the centralized government of Morales and the MAS Party. The recipients of much of the funding since then, according to a variety of sources, are the states of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija - the half-moon region.

For the last two years, the Morales administration has also been commenting on the presence of what they considered to be spies in all of those regions, but the most compelling evidence of espionage involved testimony by U.S. Peace Corps volunteers and a Fulbright scholar, who is also a U.S. citizen.

John Alexander van Schaick arrived in Bolivia in October 2007 with the intention of using his Fulbright grant to study land issues involving mostly indigenous farmers in the eastern section of the country. Not long after he started his project, van Schaick was asked to meet with a U.S. Embassy official named Vincent Cooper.

In a series of interviews in February 2008, he said that the beginning of his meeting with Cooper involved standard advice, such as what not to do and how to live in the country. The briefing then took an unexpected turn.

''He {Cooper} told me, 'If you should encounter any Venezuelans or Cubans in the field - doctors, field workers, etc. - the embassy would like you to report their names and something like where they're located to the embassy,''' van Schaick said about his interview with Cooper. ''And then he said, 'We know they're out there, we just want to keep tabs on them.''' (As of late 2007, there were about 2,000 Cuban doctors and some Venezuelan pilots and technicians in Bolivia.)

Van Schaick informed the Bolivian authorities of the incident and then spoke to media from the U.S. and around the world. U.S. authorities then sent Cooper back to Washington, where he was supposedly reprimanded; but as the world would soon learn, Cooper had tried in July 2007 - four months prior to his meeting with van Schaick - to recruit Peace Corps volunteers in Bolivia to do the same thing.

Doreen Salazar, deputy director of the Peace Corps in Bolivia, recounted what had happened in press statements this year.

''Yeah, you know, this embassy official came to see us, and during his security talk he said ... we should report information on our interactions with Cubans, their names, where they lived.

''We were so appalled by it that we not only instructed our volunteers not to follow the embassy instructions, but we complained to the embassy and the State Department and we said, this is not OK.''

More:
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417850

[Judi Lynn]

13. Translation from Bolivian source: Goldberg met with prefect of Chuquisaca despite ban

(Translation taken from google online translation tool. It's awkward, but still allows some grasp of the subject.)

Goldberg met with prefect of Chuquisaca despite ban

The Paz/ANF.- The U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg arrived this Thursday at the city of Sucre and despite the express prohibition of government, used the occasion to hold meetings with the prefect of Chuquisaca, Savina Cuellar, a member of Conalde ; Leadership of the Inter-Agency Committee and other authorities in the region.

The chancellor David Choquehuanca, convened last week to American diplomat and banned him hold meetings with departmental authorities opposing the president Evo Morales "sensitive moments". The Government was upset when Goldberg held a meeting with the prefect Cruceños Ruben Costas.

After meeting with the prefect Cuellar, Goldberg denied that his Government was involved in political problems in Bolivia and said his government hoped that Bolivians to resolve their political problems peacefully, with dialogue, with efforts of the Organization of American States (OAS) The Church and friendly countries in a national dialogue.

"I think the situation in Bolivia is concerned about everybody, because they believe that Bolivians can solve these problems, but in the United States takes another job with Bolivia, which is support for country's development process," said diplomat.

For Choquehuanca attitudes Goldberg are part of a strategy that promotes the U.S. government against the process of change that drives the head of state, Evo Morales, who complained repeatedly that the representative of the United States is conspiring against his presidential alongside the opposition policy and the departments of the so-called crescent.

Original source:
http://www.opinion.com.bo/Portal.html?CodNot=38667&CodSec=8

[Judi Lynn]

14. Sounds as if Golberg is spending most of his time with the opposition.

Another translation:

ABI D9391 23:17:29 04-09-2008



1-J ABI: GOLDBERG - Sucre



Goldberg meets with Savina and it will also run with the Inter-Agency Committee


Sucre, Sept. 04 (ABI) .- The U.S. ambassador in Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, met on Thursday with the prefect of Chuquisaca, Savina Cuellar, part of the so-called National Democratic Council (Conalde), and with leaders of IACSD this Friday.

After the meeting, held in facilities in the prefecture of Chuquisaca, Ambassador Goldberg gave a press conference where he spoke briefly to the meeting he had with Cuellar, stressing that his diplomatic mission is focused on cooperation to Bolivia.

"The U.S. have another job here (that) is to assist the development process," said the diplomat.

In turn, the prefect of Chuquisaca indicated that the U.S. representative "was discussed only" assistance carried out by the International Cooperation Agency of the United States (USA, for its acronym in English) in this department.

The meeting Goldberg - Cuellar was after that last August 25 Chancellor David Choquehuanca call the American diplomat to explain on a meeting held on Monday, August 24 with the prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas opponent.

That call was justified taking into account the attitude of disregard for democratic institutions in the country since the inauguration of President assume Costas.

At that time, Chancellor Goldberg urged the ambassador to "taking more care" to hold meetings with opposition politicians, because they could lead to misinterpretation, because at the time of tension facing the country.

Goldberg also encounter - Cuellar comes one day after the most radical opposition, civic and prefects of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni, Chuquisaca and Tarija, agglutinated in the so-called National Democratic Council (Conalde), determined masificar blocking roads in the five departments of eastern and southern parts of the country.

This is to pressure the government to restore them 30 percent of direct taxes to Hydrocarbons (HDI) which finances income Dignity for the elderly aged 60.

He also threatened to cut off the supply of the sale of natural gas to markets in Brazil and Argentina, in an attitude harshly questioned by the government of President Evo Morales and caused concern within the Brazilian government.

Similarly, the opposition rejected the referendum on the new Constitution and warned not to "allow" the realization of that public consultation on "our departments", either by decree or a law. "

This Friday, Ambassador Goldberg will meet with members of the Interagency Committee Sucre, affiliated with the same Conalde.
Jcch / Dgav ABI

http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20080904231729&k=

[Judi Lynn]

2. More violence in Bolivia after referendum

More violence in Bolivia after referendum
Posted: September 05, 2008
by: Rick Kearns / Indian Country Today


LA PAZ, Bolivia - In the three weeks after the contentious national referendum vote, anti-government forces from Bolivia's half-moon region staged a series of protest actions including: attacks against Cuban doctors treating poor communities; strikes; and massive road blockades.

Pro-government forces also clashed with the opposition groups in Santa Cruz and one contingent closed roads surrounding Sucre, the capital city of Chuquisaca.

~snip~
The post-referendum turbulence transpired after efforts at dialogue failed, despite international support for the talks. In various press statements, The Organization for American States (OAS), the United Nations, and several diplomatic delegations from various countries urged settlement to no avail. On the day of the referendum vote however, violent actions already started to flare in the opposition city of San Ignacio in the Santa Cruz region.

According to human rights observers from Santa Cruz, on Aug. 10 members of the San Ignacio Civic Committee and the Santa Cruz Youth Union broke into the residence of a group of Cuban doctors who were in the area providing free medical care to low-income patients. The doctors were met at their residence by the two committees, beaten, forced onto a truck, driven approx 10 km from San Ignacio, and then left there after the committee members threatened to kill the doctors if they didn't leave the area.

Afterwards, doctors were relocated to an undisclosed location for their safety. The Santa Cruz Human Rights Coordinator (SCHRC) has petitioned the region's district attorney to investigate the charges. (As of press time, no charges have been filed.) SCHRC also claimed that the Santa Cruz Youth Union, armed with clubs, baseball bats and other weapons, were patrolling the streets of the city in the days that followed, supposedly looking for pro-MAS citizens and indigenous people in general.

More:
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096418166

[Judi Lynn]

3. Official: Bolivia gas won't be blocked

Official: Bolivia gas won't be blocked

The Associated Press
Friday, September 5, 2008
BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazil's foreign minister says he doubts that Bolivia's opposition will block natural gas exports, on which Brazil heavily relies.

The opposition in Bolivia's energy-rich provinces is demanding that President Evo Morales return state shares of oil and natural gas income he diverted to fund a pension for the elderly. The opposition has held strikes that have shut down banks, offices and public transportation.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said Friday he doesn't think Bolivia's opposition provinces will block gas exports to Brazil as part of the protest because it would be "shooting themselves in the foot."

Brazil is the biggest market for Bolivian natural gas, buying an average 30 million cubic meters a day.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/05/business/LA-Brazil-Bolivia-Gas.php

[Judi Lynn]

4. Bolivia's modern slaves

Bolivia's modern slaves
Friday 05 September 2008

For centuries, the Guarani people have lived in the sub-tropical forests of South America. Five hundred years ago European colonisation decimated them. Those who did not die entered a cycle of slavery that lasts to this day.

Like her parents before her, Ines, 72, has spent her life in servitude, toiling for long hours on a privately-owned ranch for no pay. "It was still dark when we started work in the mornings. We worked until 8, 10 o'clock at night, weaving, doing housework, cooking, spinning wool, everything", she says. She remembers being beaten by her boss as a child.

All her life, Ines has worked without being paid. "I don't know how much I should have been paid. They gave me old clothes - that was how they paid me", she says.

Today, in this remote corner of southern Bolivia, an estimated 2,000 families continue to live in semi-feudal servitude and debt bondage. Year after year, many workers find themselves trapped into paying back debts to their employers, which cancel out any meagre wages they earn. The calculations of their wages remain a mystery to many Guarani since, like Ines, they are often illiterate.

"The boss isn't bad, he doesn't hit me!"

Miriam Campos, a lawyer with the Bolivian Ministry of Justice and an advocate of Guarani rights to a decent wage and living conditions, pays regular visits to the Guaranis. "When we make these visits, we tell them they have the right to ask for their salaries - they work 10-12 hours a day. And they say to me, it doesn't matter. 'The boss isn't bad, he doesn't hit me!'"

More:
http://www.france24.com/en/20080905-caring-guarani-bolivia-indigenous-slavery-indians-south-america-servitude

On edit:

Please take a few minutes to view the clip added to the page, above the article. It really helps flesh out the story.

[judasdisney]

5. When Obama attacks Morales like he attacked Chavez,

then any progressives who truly believe in democracy will have no choice but to flee the U.S. and its lies.

[Peace Patriot]

6. You should real Al Giordano's analysis of Obama on Latin American policy...

Obama and the US-Latin America Time Bomb
Defusing US Policy Toward Latin America Requires Cutting the Wires in Proper Order

By Al Giordano
Special to The Narco News Bulletin

May 26, 2008

(snip)

What was new and different in Obama’s speech on Friday was not of his own invention, but, rather, a consequence of the changes that have already occurred from the bottom up in Latin America and his luck or wisdom to be young enough to have noticed while his elder political rivals have remained deaf and blind to them. At this point, it would be mere cliché to say that Obama shouldn’t be underestimated. He’s just defeated the Clinton political machine, the single most powerful force in the US Democratic Party for sixteen long years.

The first part of the US-Latin America bomb that we who have been long in the opposition to US policy have the power to cut is our own hardwiring. Your writer invites those on the Left that cling – just like those on the Right – to their litmus paper presumption that policy is a set of position papers and questionnaire responses to pull out your political science lab kits right now. We’ll go through the Obama doctrine on Latin America, as presented by the text of his US-Latin America policy speech, and vet it, first, by the old rules. And then your writer will volunteer what he really thinks has happened.

(MORE - much more)

http://narconews.com/Issue53/article3110.html

------------------------

Giordano is an utterly fantastic, fearless, persistent, brilliant investigative reporter on Latin American issues, especially U.S./Latin American relations and the "war on drugs." I think there is probably no one else on earth who could have convinced me about the positive side of Obama's speech in Miami. I was in despair about that speech, and he turned me around. In short, I trust him. And the number of political writers whom I trust is down to, oh, one or two (him and BoRev.net).

He also got me to thinking how bad our situation is here in the U.S., and how extremely dangerous both the Bush junta and the anti-Castro Miamians are. Obama was walking into a viper's nest in Miami--a poisonous and very powerful cabal of assassins and fascists. And he did NOT issue the usual pandering cant. His cant was more nuanced. (For instance, on one his worst statements, he did not describe Hugo Chavez as a "dictator" but rather as "authoritarian" and a "demagogue." Although this, too, is completely false, it backs away from the absolutely absurd, nutso equation of Chavez with, say, Saddam Hussein--"dictator," "tyrant." It leaves room for diplomacy.) And on the core issue for the Miami vipers--Cuba--he said the unsayable, that he would negotiate with Cuba.

Anyway, Giordano sees "glass half full" in Obama--which I interpret this way: He thinks that Obama brings a new, more peaceful outlook to what has been an utterly TERRIBLE U.S. foreign policy for a hundred years--and never worse than in the last several decades--in the midst of a massive, peaceful, successful, democratic revolution that has swept South America and is fast making inroads in Central America. My summation of Giordano would be that he thinks Obama is a REALIST. Obama has to, a) avoid getting whacked himself, and b) face the reality that the Bushites have "lost" South America, and that the old methods (throwing leftists out of airplanes, etc.) will not work any more, because the South Americans are in total rebellion against them, and have done their homework (created democratic and economic institutions with which to fight back).

Giordano caused me to re-think the situation, and stop whining about the Obama cup being "half empty." I also think this: How can we expect a political leader like Obama to step forward with blazing guns and take care of the bad guys, when WE have not done our homework on our own democratic institutions?

In the U.S. today, there is not one elected official who can prove that he or she was actually elected (with the exception of New York, which initially fought e-voting, but that situation is deteriorating rapidly as well.) Rightwing Bushite corporations now 'count' all our votes with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls. Until we change that, and restore transparent vote counting--vote counting that is conducted in the PUBLIC venue--how can we expect any political leader to fight the Corporate Rulers head on?

If we want a democracy--and fair and just foreign policy--WE have to create it, from the bottom up. And that is the irony of Bushwhack demonization of Chavez and other leftist leaders in South America. These leaders are the products of a peoples' revolution. It is the PEOPLE who are being demonized--the people who ELECTED these leaders, in TRANSPARENT elections. It is democracy itself that the Bushites and collusive Democrats hate. Chavez has no more power--and, from what I can see, wants no more power--than this: to be chosen by the people to lead this revolution to reform their society and establish their sovereignty. And if we want to have leaders who will fight Exxon Mobil, and Halliburton, and Dyncorp, and Blackwater, and the other dark powers, on our behalf, WE have to put them in office, by our hard work on our democratic system.

We are faced with a choice of "cup half full" or cup full of poison. If we want a cup full of sweetness and light, WE have to pour it.

Running away to another country is an individual decision that I can't speak to. But I do know this: Recovering our democracy is not going to be easy and it is not going to be quick. It's a long hard road. The South Americans are showing that it can be done. And, if they can do it--after all they've suffered--so can we.

[Peace Patriot]

8. I meant READ Al Giordano--not "real" him. Typo. nt