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Letter to Condoleeza Rice regarding Bolivia |
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Latin American Experts Call on US to Disclose Funding To Dr. Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State
C c : Phillip Goldberg, U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia
Henrietta Fore, Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development
Representative Eliot Engel, Chair, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Committee of Foreign Affairs
Senator John McCain
Senator Barack Obama
Dear Dr. Rice,
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.
Since the United States government refuses to disclose many of the recipients of its funding and support, there is currently no way to determine the degree to which this support is helping people involved in violence, sabotage, and other extra-legal means to destabilize the government of Bolivia. |
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Picket in front of USA embassy in London 17/09/08 |
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Paul Haste and Charley Allan witness London’s Latin American community and British trade unionists and MPs come together in solidarity
 Bolivian activist talking about the latests events in Bolivia
SCORES of solidarity campaigners picketed the US embassy in London on Wednesday night before a huge rally at the National Union of Journalists to demand an end to US interference in Latin America.
Responding to ongoing coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said that it was ironic that he was protesting outside the US embassy when its government had nationalised more of its economy in the last few days than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had in the last decade.
“The US is standing up for privilege, for the interest of the few against the interest of the many and will go to any length to achieve it,” he stormed.
“It will go to the lengths that it did in Chile and will drown the revolution in blood if it gets the opportunity,” referring to the CIA-orchestrated coup against Salvadore Allende 35 years ago.
“But there is one big difference — we are prepared, we have learned the lessons and we are already organised.”
 Compañeros Latinoamericanos mostrando solidaridad con Bolivia y Venezuela
The crowd chanted “No More Coups” while waving colourful solidarity banners as embassy workers left for the day.
Dozens of people spoke at the open mic in English and Spanish, with some making the point that, in the dying days of US President Bush’s regime, many people thought that he would attack Iran — yet it was clear that Latin America was the real target.
 Bolivian and Venezuela banners
Loud cheers went up whenever speakers brought up the expulsion the US ambassador in Bolivia because of his links to coup-plotters and Venezuela doing the same in solidarity, with cries of “Yankee go home” filling Grosvenor Square.
At the NUJ headquarters, Bolivian ambassador Maria Beatriz Souviron explained how the traditional political system in Bolivia had been swept away with the election of Evo Morales.
“He has given people hope for the first time. There has not just been a change in who controls the state, but also a change in culture in a country that has been racist for so long.”
Bolivia Solidarity Campaign organiser Amancay Colque, who helped organise the actions with Hands Off Venezuela, brought harrowing news from the northern state of Pando, where the far-right governor threatened to split from Bolivia and had paid mercenaries to machine-gun rural workers loyal to Morales.
She explained how the elite was fuelling racism to try to divide Bolivians and that, in the right’s eastern stronghold of Santa Cruz, it was now impossible for an Aymara or Quechua indigenous Bolivian to even walk down the street without being attacked.
John McDonnell MP pointed out that “what is happening is not a personal attack on Morales or Chavez but an attack on the seeds of socialism that they are spreading.
 The Rally after the picket in the National Union of Journalists
“What the US is terrified of is the prospect that socialism will catch light all across the Americas, so of course it has to go on the attack. But it is exactly for this moment that solidarity campaigns exist.”
Venezuelan charge d’affaires Felix Plasencia said that he was “honoured to stand with Bolivia as all Latin America struggles for dignity, sovereignty and independence. We have finally thrown off the US Monroe Doctrine that treated us as their ‘backyard’ for 200 years.
“The aim now is to extend this people’s power throughout Latin America and the solidarity shown to Bolivia as it fights back against counter-revolutionaries is a significant step in uniting our countries,” he added to great applause.  Full room some people couldn't get in. |
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The fascist coup has started in Santa Cruz |
"We are sufficiently strong to split the country,” threatens a PODEMOS Santa Cruz deputy Somos lo suficientemente fuertes como para partir al país", amenaza un diputado cruceño de Podemos
The fascist coup has started in Santa Cruz, denounces the Bolivian government
(Bolpress) translated by NIck Buxton.
The Bolivian government communicated today to the national and international community that a civil coup has been put into action in the departmental capital city of Santa Cruz, led by the President of the Civic Committee, Branco Marinkovic, and supported by Prefect Ruben Costas. The national government will not respond to “provocations by fascist groups” and will defend democracy and national unity without declaring a state of emergency in the convulsed regions.
The government denounced several times in the last few weeks that there were preparations for violent protests with internal and external support. Today the predicted events materialized and began a “civic prefectural coup against the unity of the country and democracy,” said the government minister Alfredo Rada.
Students and activists of the [neo-fascist] group the Santa Cruz Youth Union (UCJ) and shock groups of thugs paid by the business-led civic movement from Santa Cruz attacked on Tuesday offices of Internal Revenue, the National Institute of Land Reform (INRA) and the National Company of Telecommunications (ENTEL).
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Civil coup unfolds in Bolivia, democracy in danger by violent/racist opposition |
VIO Venezuela News and Action![]()
With little more than a month past since Bolivian President Evo Morales won a recall referendum with 67% of the vote, Bolivia's secessionist opposition has taken to the streets beginning in Santa Cruz, one of the wealthiest regions of the country. Three days of mayhem and violence have wracked the city of S anta Cruz resulting in at least 8 deaths so far, spurred on by calls broadcast over the national media to join in "civil disobedience" against the government. Journalists considered sympathetic to the government have also been harassed and injured. Opposition mobs ransacked the recently nationalized telephone office, and took control of the internal revenue and agrarian reform offices.
OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza quickly called for the violent actions of opposition groups to end. Calls to dialogue with the government were issued and the destruction and illegal seizures of government buildings, a human rights NGO, and a gas pipeline were condemned. The violence was not merely symbolic, but also carried economic consequences; damage to the pipeline slowed exports to Brazil, and repairs to the pipeline could cost an estimated $100 million.
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Indigenous Film Festival in Bolivia Suspended Due to Violence |
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Press release: For Immediate Attention Organizers Denounce Suspension of the 9th CLACPI Festival in Santa Cruz, Bolivia Violence and racism quell the indigenous film festival in Santa Cruz. La Paz, Sept. 10, 2008 The violence experienced on September 9 in the city of Santa Cruz has forced organizers to suspend, for security issues, the events planned in this city to launch the IX International Festival of Indigenous Peoples Film and Video. Following occupations by "civic" groups of the opposition of different Public institutions and communication media centers related to the government, fearing potential attacks to participants of the festival. These have reasons forced the indigenous organizations to suspend the Festival in Santa Cruz. |
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Bolivia: Historic Vote Confirms Will for Change |
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boliviarising.blogspot.com Federico Fuentes With 99% of the votes counted, Bolivia’s first indigenous president won a crushing 67.43% majority in the August 10 recall referendum. Surpassing the 53.7% he received in the 2005 national elections, which until then was the highest vote recorded by a presidential candidate in Bolivia’s history, the result confirmed the broad support for the Morales government’s project for wide-ranging social change. The vote was one of multiple referendums on whether to ratify or recall the president, vice-president, and eight of the nine departmental prefects (governors), held in an attempt to break the deadlock caused by opposition to the process of change by the right-wing oligarchy whose base of support lies in Bolivia’s resource-rich and predominantly white eastern region. Relationship of forces The vote not only ratified Morales and Vice-President Álvaro García Linera in their posts, it also revoked the mandates of two opposition prefects, José Paredes in La Paz and Manfred Villa Reyes in Cochabamba. Their positions will undoubtedly be filled in the upcoming elections by prefects aligned with the government, increasing the number of prefects from Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) from two to four. |
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por: Gervasio Umpiérrez
bolivia.indymedia.org/ |
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Bolivians vote to continue progressive reforms |
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By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Aug 13, 2008 11:04 PM With shouts of “Jallalah Evo” and “Jallalah Bolivia,” which roughly translate to “We will continue in the struggle,” thousands of exhilarated Bolivians celebrated their triumph over a recall referendum on Aug. 10. They gathered in Plaza Murillo facing Palacio Quemado, the presidential palace, awaiting their president, Evo Morales, after defeating the recall by a wide margin. Supporters of Bolivia's Evo Morales celebrate
during a rally in La Paz, Aug. 10. | Recall referendums are usually demanded by the opposition. This one in Bolivia, on the contrary, was proposed by Morales himself to confront attempts by the opposition to make his administration ungovernable. Morales is the first Indigenous person to be president of Bolivia, after being democratically elected in this predominantly Indigenous country in 2006. The opposition, led by a thoroughly fascist, wealthy white business elite allied to U.S. corporate interests, has tried to obstruct every new project of the Morales administration that would help lift up the living standards of the majority—Indigenous, peasants and urban poor. This obstruction includes resistance by the opposition to ratifying a new Constitution approved last December by the Constituent Assembly. The Constitution sets forth a new path for the country, away from the neoliberalism that has made Bolivia, a country with great natural wealth, one of the poorest in Latin America, forcing many of its people to emigrate. The new Constitution is a direct challenge to the interests of the wealthy capitalists who predominate in the four departments of the Media Luna—the eastern region of the country where wealth from the exploitation of natural gas has made it the hub of Bolivia’s industry. |
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stopeti.wordpress.com Telecom Italia is attacking Bolivia, through a chain of subsidiaries hosted in the Netherlands. Telefonica of Spain, now a key shareholder in Telecom Italia, is also directly involved. Case in brief: Telecom Italia vs Bolivia:On 12 October 2007, Euro Telecom International (ETI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia S.p.A. and controlled by Italian and Spanish capital, initiated legal action against Bolivia. History and Context of Telecom Italia’s involvement in Bolivia: Telecom Italia took over the former State telecommunications company, ENTEL in 1995 during a process of privatisation promoted by the IMF and World Bank. Its record in Bolivia has been mixed and increasingly questioned. Company profile: Telecom Italia and it’s wholly owned subsidiary are the key companies involved, as well as Telefonica of Spain, as a new and key player in Telecom Italia. What Telecom Italia says… and what’s real: The propaganda from Telecom Italia about its involvement in Bolivia and the realities of service failures and expatriated profits See also: Telecom Italia versus Bolivia: full background |
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To the International Community and Public Opinion ANTIDEMOCRATIC GROUPS SEEK TO SABOTAGE AND BOYCOTT THE AUGUST 10 REFERENDUM The Ministry of External Affairs of Bolivia informs the international community and public opinion that antidemocratic groups have started to carry out a series of violent actions to sabotage, boycott and derail the Bolivian Recall Referendum of August 10, 2008. The August 10 Recall Referendum was created by Law of the Republic No.3850, on May 12 of this year, promoted and approved in the Senate by all parties of the opposition who hold the majority in Upper Chamber of the Republic of Bolivia. In this Referendum, the people of Bolivia will independently decide whether or not to recall the mandate of the President, Vice-President and the Prefects of the Departments of the Republic of Bolivia. The National Court of Bolivia completed all the procedures of the Law to guarantee the transparency and legality of this consultation, and observer missions from the Organization of American States, UNASUR, and MERCOSUR, different countries of Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Committee of Latin American Electoral Experts (CEELA), and of civil society like Secours Catholique will also be on hand. In fact, after a detailed review and analysis, CEELA stated that the electoral roll was 97% reliable – the highest percentage of reliability of all countries in the region. In past weeks, various Prefects, Civic Committees and political Parties of the opposition, noting that different opinion polls show that the President and Vice-President hold a 60% approval rating and that some Prefects may end up being recalled, have begun carrying out a series of actions to try to block the holding of the referendum. In the last few days, these actions have grown and become more and more violent and illegal, becoming acts of sedition and contempt for the Rule of Law, and putting at risk the continuity of the democratic process. We cite a few examples: - the hunger strike of the civic committees in Pando, Chuquisaca, Beni, Santa Cruz and Tarija, which have now been reinforced by the participation of the Prefects who to this day do not enact the mechanisms of good government to guarantee the democratic process in their Departments. - the taking of public institutions by university students, members of the Civic Committee and the autonomous guard of Tarija, and the violent actions in front of the airport of that city that impeded the visits of the Presidents of Argentina and Venezuela on August 5. - the bullets fired at the car of the Minister of the Presidency of Trinidad, Beni, on August 5. - the threats made against the investiture of President Evo Morales, designed to block the presentation of his report in the Honorary session of the Congress of the Republic that should have occurred in Sucre on August 6. - the action of violent groups of the Union Juvenil Cruceñista, connected to the Civic Committee in the city of Santa Cruz, on August 6. - the taking of the airports of Pando and Trinidad by groups of paramilitaries to make impossible the arrival of the President of the Republic on August 7. - To all the above we must add the manipulation of trade unions in the attempt to block the main east-west highways through the dynamiting of a bridge in the area of Caihuasi, Oruro, an act that tragically resulted in two deaths and numerous injuries when the police attempted to stop it. Despite these actions of violence and sedition, the government of President Evo Morales has sought at each turn to avoid confrontation, going so far as to cancel regional, national and international engagements in order not to provoke these groups who seek the disruption of the democratic process so that they will not be subjected to the sovereign verdict of the people. In the face of this situation, the pronouncement of the international community is fundamental, condemning any attempt to destroy the Rule of Law in Bolivia, rejecting any action of sabotage and boycott of the August 10 Referendum, and insisting that all sectors of Bolivian society express their positions peacefully through the referendum vote. La Paz, August 7, 2008. Please circulate and send endorsements to:
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Bolivian Encounter Programme Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd August 2008 Synergy Community Centre, 220 Farmers Road, London SE5 0TW Information & Booking 07951519746 or 07846206155 183 years ago Bolivia was declared an independent country from the Spanish Crown, on the 6th August 1825. Let's celebrate not only the anniversary but our unity & diversity. Bolivian music and dance has a tradition that reaches back 5,000 years. During community celebrations, group solidarity is strengthened, while shared values and cultural identities are reaffirmed. At the encounter you have the opportunity to find out more about the political situation in Bolivia and learn some of the traditional dances, music or taste home made Bolivian food. Saturday 2nd August 11.00 to12.00 Tinku is a Pre-Colombian ritual from Potosi, in which two communities come together in a "fierce celebration." Tinku is also a musical rhythm done to a marching movement. Please book in advance for this dance workshop 11.00 - 12.00 Meeting What is the Recall Referendum? Patricia Ogay and Amancay Colque 12.00 -14.00 Lunch Traditional Bolivian Food: Quinua Soup and Quinua salad, Sajta (chicken spicy sauce). Home made fresh drinks. Salteñas (pasty filled with spicy, juicy stew of meat or chicken with chopped vegetables & olives 13.00 - 14.00 Tobas is an athletic dance comprising agile steps accentuated with many jumps and bounds. The Tobas were a tribe of warriors who lived in the Chaco region of Bolivia. Please book in advance for this dance workshop 13.00 - 14.00 Documentary Humillados y Ofendidos By Cesar Brie 13.00 - 14.00 Traditional Bolivian Music, Learn to play the haunting and powerful music of the Andes mountains. A professional musician will demonstrate and teach the most popular wind instrument, the zampoña. Please book in advance for this music workshop 14.00 - 15.00 Documentary Justice for Cleaners Campaign By UNITE T&G Union 16.00 - 18.00 Dance Rehearsal Tobas 18.00 till late Bolivian party "Expresion Bolivia" will play music from different parts of Bolivia. Tradicion Andina & Tobas Bolivia will perform traditional dances Tobas, Morenada, Llamerada, etc. Crèche available.
Sunday 3rd August
12.00 - 13.45 Sunday Street parade We will join the "Carnaval del Pueblo" parade that starts in Elephant and Castle 12.00, East St Market 12.30, Albany Road 13.00 and finally Burgess Park 13.45 "Apthapi" (community meal) at 14.00 to 15.00 15.00 - 15.15 "Mini Carnaval de Oruro" Main stage Carnaval de Oruro was declared by UNESCO a masterpiece of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity, ANATA presents a small version of this famous Bolivian Carnaval. 18.00 till late Bolivian Independence Party, Synergy Community Centre, 220 Farmers Road, London SE5 0TW "Expresion Bolivia" will play music from different parts of Bolivia. Tradicion Andina & Tobas Bolivia will perform traditional dances Tobas, Morenada, Llamerada, Raices de Tarija, and others. 20.00 Bolivian Ambassador Beatriz Souviron speech. Crèche available. Organized by the FedBol.org.uk |
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