RSSUnderstanding recent events is very difficult due to a tangle of disputes and long histories that come together in previously unheard-of ways. This essay seeks to schematically display the events that culminated in the massacre of El Porvenir in Pando and identify the actors in the conflict.
Without a doubt, the indigenous struggle of the people in Bolivia is powerful, but at the same time we have a government that has again ceded to a right-wing that has been defeated morally, politically, and ideologically.
While I walked along avenues blocked by stones and tree trunks, the look of El Alto residents was confident, sure of itself, it might even be said that it was an intimidating look.
We are not liars, we are not savages, we are not irrational. The government says we are being manipulated by “dark forces,” that FARC has infiltrated our organization and movement. We state through our actions that we are not terrorists, that we are not with the insurgency, that our struggle is legitimate, it is autonomous. Stop shooting, stop robbing, stop burning and lying. Stop using your public power to exercise terror against the people. You’re wrong. Respect and listen. It is the only way.
“They are intimidating our people. Yesterday an event occurred – they shot the driver of Mayor Edwin Cuellar of the municipality of Santos Mercado, and he is wounded. A girl was raped by these same groups. These are only the cases that we know about; but surely there are many which we haven’t heard about yet.”
When, upon my arrest, I was told that I was being charged with “Violence and Resisting Authority,” I thought it had something to do with the incident during which I was not present. I was wrong, the judge graciously clarified.
This morning, in the Poroy comissary, Hugo Blanco was detained for failing to appear in Paruro court after having been subpoenaed and was taken to Cuzco’s Palace of Justice holding facility.
What is happening is something much deeper and that goes much further than the elites, politics, and the economy. This is a questioning of the means of the historical domination by those elites, old and new. It comes from very far below, it is moved by an ancient fury, and it will not be stopped by the massacres at the hands of fascist groups nor by the fragile government agreements with the prefects of the Media Luna.
After learning publicly of the call for dialogue with the prefects of the media luna [opposition] with the objective of resolving the political crisis of the country, we would like to express to you that we do not accept any alteration of the constitutional text approved in Oruro, especially in relation to the Chapter on Autonomies, much less making it compatible with the Autonomy Statutes of the Departments of the media luna, whose leaders are the murderers of our fallen brothers.
The following was reported in the Bolivian press on September 23 as the most recent advances of the dialogue between the Morales government and the opposition.
The government of Bolivia expelled the US ambassador on September 10, claiming that he was abetting an anti-government uprising in its energy-rich eastern provinces. There is evidence that this might be so. If the US wants to promote democracy in Latin America and reverse the gradual deterioration of its relations with an increasing number of Latin American countries, it has to stay out of Bolivia’s internal conflict.
We are writing out of deep concern over recent events in Bolivia that have left dozens dead and cost millions of dollars in lost revenue to the Bolivian government and the Bolivian people. We are especially concerned that the United States government, by its own admission, is supporting opposition groups and individuals in Bolivia that have been involved in the recent whole-scale destruction, violence, and killings, above all in the departments of Santa Cruz, Pando, and Chuquisaca.
This power-point presentation offers a comprehensive chronology of the events that transpired in El Porvenir, Pando on Thursday September 11.
On September 15, social movement leaders and NGO representatives in the town of Riberalta in the department of Beni were told by the local Civic Committee that should they not leave the city within 24 hours or “we will not take responsibility for what could happen to you.”
The opposition has lifted their blockades and will return occupied state offices. But Leopoldo Fernandez and others arrested in charges related to the Pando Massacre will not be released. Read the agreed-upon conditions for the dialogue.
Download the proposed constitution that will be put to a vote on January 25, 2009. (Spanish language only)
Barack Obama’s approach to Latin America will be a defining measure of his administration’s foreign policy agenda. As opportunities for dialogue and reconciliation emerge, Dan Restrepo, one of Mr Obama’s main advisers on Latin America, may play a defining role in setting the course. Real News Network Senior Editor Paul Jay talks with Forrest Hylton about the choices facing the Obama administration in its policy toward Latin America.
In recent years, a part of the world’s progressive community has begun to equate humanitarian interventions with the internationalist solidarity that has traditionally characterised the Left. “Humanitarian Imperialism” (Monthly Review Press, U.S. 2007) by Belgian author Jean Bricmont aims to dismantle this thinking, and does so with stunning lucidity.
Some may see Bolivia’s decision last weekend to opt out of Washington’s war on drugs as the inevitable consequence of electing a president who was not only a leftist opponent of U.S. influence in the region, but also a coca farmer himself. But President Evo Morales, elected in 2005, cast his decision on Saturday to suspend the activities of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency in his country as a matter of national security.
Some of Nigeria’s poorest communities are clustered around the platforms, pipelines, and refineries that dot the mangrove forests and rich estuaries throughout the Niger Delta and other oil producing communities. Local villagers were bequeathed a toxic environment and a legacy of violence and human rights abuses. On Monday, a handful of these villagers will finally get their day in court, when the case of Bowoto v. Chevron goes to trial.
The fight is not over by any means but Bolivia has entered a new phase. See the full Real News video interview here.
In the final Presidentia debate, Barak Obama and John McCain exchanged views on South America, specifically Free Trade agreements with Colombia. But neither candidate is really aware of crucial political, economic and social processes developing in South America for a few years now.
Venezuelan military commander General Jesus Gonzalez announced his country’s plans to purchase Russian battle tanks and armed reconnaisance vehicles amidst increasing relations between Russia and Venezuela. The announcement comes as three Russian warships and support vessels are on their way to take part in joint naval exercises with Venezuela.
Six days into the Indigenous and Popular Mobilizations in Cauca (and the rest of Colombia), and it is fair to say that the propaganda war is well underway. And so far, it looks like the government of Alvaro Uribe is winning.
Urgent action is needed to pressure the Colombian military to stop the repression against indigenous activists. Organizations in Colombia are asking for support and solidarity from your organizations at this critical moment. Our statements are extremely valuable at this time. Your organization can help by signing on to these letters to the Colombian government and the U.S. State Department.
As I write this, over 12,000 indigenous activists and representatives of other popular and social sectors of southern Colombia are urgently congregating in the “Territory of Peace and Coexistence” in La Maria Piendamó, in Cauca, confronting a massive presence of state security forces who have been ordered to dislodge them.
Frontline World video interview and segment on the current political situation in Bolivia.
“For the unity of Bolivia” read the banner at a road block in the opposition stronghold of Santa Cruz, but deeper division was hard to imagine. Stranded trucks lined the roadside as our team drove across tropical plains to check reports an army battalion was advancing on Santa Cruz’s provincial capital about 30 miles away. Peasant women selling mandarins eyed us suspiciously.
Forrest Hylton discusses the strengthening relations between Russia and Latin American countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, and the US’ waning influence in the region
First-hand English language information from Colombia on current struggles, specifically recent public statements from the Association of Indigenous Councils of Cauca, ACIN.
In spite of the ethnocide, carried out as State policy since the times of the
conquistadors, the indigenous peoples never gave in or betrayed their roots. They
always died fighting, heroically resisting their oppression, and they confronted
governments using ethno-cultural methods that allowed them to defend their
territories and their historical heritage. Their community-centred way of life, ethnic loyalties, use of their mother tongue, hierarchical system of responsibilities based on community service, education in community values, ritual practices, and oral culture are all internal resources that campesinos have used to resist domination, integration into the dominant system, and giving in to foreign interests. Download the Centers XII Report here.
I wrote The Shock Doctrine in the hopes that it would make us all better prepared for the next big shock. Well, that shock has certainly arrived, along with gloves-off attempts to use it to push through radical pro-corporate policies (which of course will further enrich the very players who created the market crisis in the first place…).
Hans Ertl had been in a hotel room in 1939 preparing to leave for a film-shoot in Chile when the Nazis came for him. But the accomplished 30-year-old German photographer wasn’t being arrested; he was being conscripted into the military. For the next six years, he served the Third Reich as “war correspondent” assigned to the Wehrmacht’s legendary desert warrior, Field Marshal Edwin Rommel, who led Germany’s North Africa campaign.
When both Evo Morales and his adversaries cried victory in the “recall referendum” on August 10, 2008, it was widely predicted that an already critical situation in Bolivia would get worse. Two months later, with the eastern half of the country in chaos and dozens dead, there is real fear in South American capitals that Bolivia could be on the verge of territorial disintegration and civil war. Read the full article published in The Santiago Times
“Bolivia on the Brink,” is a phrase too often uttered by passing journalists unaccustomed to the country’s regular politics of the streets. But events of the last two weeks cannot be passed off as the ordinary business of protest.