Solidarity with Bolivia

by pat c Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:50

Hugo Chavez comments on the situation in Bolivia and criticises the inaction of General Trigo. Full text at link.

On Sunday, the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela,Hugo Chávez, denounced the inaction of the Commander in Chief of theBolivian Armed Forces, General Luis Trigo, in retaking the Department (Province) of Pando, whose state of siege was declared last Friday,after a massacre took place on Thursday in which until now, some 30dead and 106 missing have been reported.

Chávez supported Morales's decision to declare a state of siege. "There are foreign paramilitaries there killing peasants, burning houses and public buildings, attacking barracks, and so on. What more was there to do? (Declare) a state of siege!"

But he denounced Trigo for not rising to the call: "Last nightGeneral Trigo went to Pando (…) but instead of responding to thepresidential decree for a State of Siege, last night I was directlyinformed by sources very close to the situation, that he (Trigo) arrived and ordered the troops to their barracks, abandoning the airport and citizens' protection. A strange thing, General Trigo."

by pat c Wed Sep 17, 2008 17:12

More on the situation in Bolivia. Full text at link.

Preparing for US invasion
By Charley Allan - Morning Star

As George Bush's presidency draws to a close, progressive governments in Latin America are facing ever-greater danger, writes Charley Allan (Morning Star, Wednesday September 17 2008).

EXACTLY 35 years after a CIA-orchestrated coup brought down Salvador Allende's socialist government in Chile, the political climate in Latin America is boiling over and now threatens to explode.

On last Thursday's anniversary of Allende's murder, between 30 and 70 peasants in the Bolivian jungle province of Pando were machine-gunned to death on their way to a protest against regional governor Leopoldo Fernandez, a fierce critic of President Evo Morales.

Right-wing rioters have burned down countless government and media buildings across the country, temporarily taken over an airport, blockaded highways and sabotaged gas pipelines, just weeks after Morales won a recall referendum on his presidency with over two-thirds of the vote. It seems that the so-called "democratic opposition" isn't taking no for an answer.

by pat c Sun Sep 21, 2008 17:32

Here is a report from Sarah Hynes who has just returned to the US from Bolivia. Full text at link.

Sarah Hines, recently returned from Bolivia, looks at the deadly campaign to undermine the country's left-wing government.

September 19, 2008

THE MASSACRE of at least 30 Bolivian peasants at Porvenir in the department of Pando on September 11 was the latest in a series of efforts by the right-wing opposition to destabilize the leftist government of Evo Morales, a former coca growers' union leader and the country's first indigenous president.

The violent confrontation represents a major escalation of the right's provocations, which have led to the worst political crisis for Bolivia since Morales took office in January 2006. The massacre in Pando was the bloodiest episode Bolivia has experienced since October 2003, when police sent by then-president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada attacked left-wing protesters, leaving 80 people dead.

As evidenced by the results of a recall referendum in August and the events of the last several weeks, Bolivia is polarized between two centers of power--the national government of Morales, whose support is concentrated in the western highlands and rural areas of the country's valleys and eastern provinces, and the right-wing governors of the eastern "media luna" (half moon) departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, along with the department of Chuquisaca.

In the days following the Pando massacre, there was reason to fear that the right might be preparing to step up its efforts to destabilize the country further. Fortunately, the violence has abated in the week since the Porvenir massacre, and an uneasy truce appears to be in place.

Yet the underlying tensions that led to this crisis have not been resolved, and the stalemate is unlikely to last.

by pat c Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:52

Bush & his Cabal have stepped up the coup campaign in Bolivia. Full story at link.

The Bush administration has imposed fresh sanctions on Bolivia in retaliation for the decision of the country's president Evo Morales to expel the US ambasssador and close down US programs in the country.

Morales's actions came in response to thinly veiled US backing for what was described as a "civic coup" carried out by the ruling elites in the country's eastern "Half Moon" region, where the wealthy landowning elite has pushed for autonomy in order to gain control over the considerable energy resources that are concentrated in the area.