Morales Leads March in Bolivia

[Joanne98]

Source: Prensa Latina

La Paz, Nov 26 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Monday the group of farmers who are marching for several days in support of social measures and the State's Political Constitution.


The statesman's unexpected appearance at daybreak today produced a whoop of joy and support from the almost 1,500 demonstrators, who have toured hundreds of kilometers from different departments of the country to the government headquarter.



Morales leads the demonstration, along with union and indigenous leaders, who reject the Senate's continuous obstacles to several beneficial projects to the country, like the universal ó Dignity ó pension for elders.



The measure establishes the monthly payment of 200 bolivianos ($25) to people older than 60 years old, but the Senate approved it with changes in financing sources.






Read more: http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BD47BBEC6-A57A-4AC9-9E11-F7CED092539B%7D)&language=EN

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Isn't it sad, that spoiled brat, CIA sponsored college students are protesting giving the seniors a tiny 25$ a month Social Security check! What kind of selfish little brats are they? I hope Morales puts them all in a baseball stadium and shoots them!

[sasquatch]

1. "I hope Morales puts them all in a baseball stadium and shoots them!"

Isn't that a little over the top.

[Joanne98]

3. Pinochet Chile 1973. What's good for the goose!

[izquierdista]

2. A statesman is he?

Certainly has climbed far in the world. May the circle be completed and may Dubya get the chance to live where Morales started out.

I would have liked to read the article, but the link didn't work for me.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Hoping he will survive the fiendish, racist right-wing efforts to re-seize control.

They've always done such filthy jobs to the poor of Venezuela every chance they've had already.

May they all burn in hell.

How can be blind enough to not recognize the connection between the sudden uprisings by right-wing oligarchy students in these countries which have been controlled by US-supported genocidal maniacs previously?

Bolivia's notable 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.
(snip/)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

He also served as president all over again, from 1997 to 2001, when he resigned, due to cancer, before dying. He was the one who opened the door to privatization of Bolivia's water by the Bechtel Company's seizing Bolivia's water, even claiming to own the water in the lakes, rivers, and streams.

In 2000, in Cochabamba , Bolivia, a people's revolt against Bechtel's water privatization was sucesseful. The Bechtel corporation (which has since been contracted to deal with reconstruction efforts in New Orleans and Iraq) pushed this privatization deal with Cochabamba which increased the cost of water by up to 300%. People were billed for using rain water and drinking from wells they had created themselves. Cochabamba residents organized protests, road blockades and city-wide strikes against the privatization. Eventually Bechtel packed up and left town and water was again made a public work.
(snip)

http://www.soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=1065

Bolivia timeline, from the BBC:

~snip~
Military coups

1952 - Peasants and miners overthrow military regime; Victor Paz Estenssoro returns from exile to become president and introduces social and economic reforms, including universal suffrage, nationalisation of tin mines and land redistribution, and improves education and the status of indigenous peoples.

1964 - Vice-President Rene Barrientos stages military coup.

1967 - US helps suppress peasant uprising led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who is killed after being betrayed by peasants.

1969 - Vice-President Siles Salinas replaces Barrientos who is killed in plane crash, but Salinas is himself deposed by the army, which rules with increased severity.

1971 - Col Hugo Banzer Suarez comes to power after staging military coup.

1974 - Banzer postpones elections and bans political and trade union activity in the wake of an attempted coup.

1980 - General Luis Garcia stages coup after inconclusive elections; US and European countries suspend aid in view of allegations of corruption and drug trafficking.

1981 - General Celso Torrelio Villa replaces Garcia, who is forced to resign.

1982 - Torrelio resigns as the economy worsens; military junta hands over power to civilian administration led by Siles Zuazo, who heads a leftist government.

1983 - US and European countries resume aid following the introduction of austerity measures.

Democracy and economic collapse

1985 - Siles resigns in the wake of a general strike and an attempted coup; elections held but are inconclusive; parliament chooses Paz Estenssoro as president.

1986 - Twenty-one thousand miners lose their jobs following the collapse of the tin market.

1989 - Leftist Jaime Paz Zamora becomes president and enters power-sharing pact with former dictator Hugo Banzer.

1990 - Some 4 million acres of rainforest allocated to indigenous peoples.

1993 - Banzer withdraws from the presidential race, which is won by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

1997 - Banzer elected president.

1998 - Banzer tells the United Nations that he is committed to freeing Bolivia from drugs before the end of his term in 2002.

1999 - Encouraged by moves to prosecute former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, opposition demands inquiry into Banzer's role during the repression of the 1970s.

2000 - Banzer announces the almost total eradication of the coca plant in the Chapare jungle region.

2001 January - Government declares almost half of Bolivia a natural disaster area following heavy rains.


Banzer dies

2001 8 August - Vice-President Jorge Quiroga sworn in as president, replacing Hugo Banzer who is suffering from cancer. He dies in May 2002.

2001 December - Farmers reject a government offer of $900 each a year in exchange for the eradication of the coca crop used to produce cocaine.

2002 August - Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada wins a clear victory in a National Congress run-off vote and becomes president for a second time. His rival, coca growers' representative Evo Morales, leads a strengthened opposition.

2003 February - More than 30 killed in violent protests against proposed income tax. President Sanchez de Lozada withdraws the proposal.

2003 September-October - 80 killed, hundreds injured in protests fuelled by government plans to export natural gas via Chile. President Sanchez de Lozada resigns under pressure of protests and is succeeded by Carlos Mesa.

Energy protests

2004 April - President Mesa signs natural gas export deal with Argentina. Opponents say deal pre-empts referendum on gas exports planned for July. Protesters take to streets, demand president's resignation.

2004 July - Referendum on gas exports: Voters back greater state involvement in the industry and approve exports of the resource.

2004 August - Landmark deal signed to allow Bolivia to export gas via a Peruvian port.

2005 January - Rising fuel prices trigger large-scale anti-government protests and blockades in Santa Cruz, the country's largest and wealthiest city, and in El Alto, near La Paz.

Civic and business leaders in Santa Cruz push for autonomy for the province.

2005 March - President Mesa submits his resignation, blaming protests which he says have made it impossible to govern. Congress rejects the offer, as well as a later request by the president for early elections, and Mr Mesa remains in office.

2005 May - Protests over energy resources bring La Paz, and government business, to a near standstill. President Mesa promises a rewritten constitution and a referendum on autonomy demands from resource-rich provinces.

Socialists in power

2005 June - As angry street protests continue, President Mesa resigns. Supreme Court head Eduardo Rodriguez is sworn in as caretaker president.

2005 December - Socialist leader Evo Morales wins presidential elections. He becomes the first indigenous Bolivian to take office.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1218814.stm

[David__77]

5. The right will fall in Bolivia.

They'll lose their last bastions of power. I'm sure Miami will have a few thousand more fascists before long...

[Judi Lynn]

6. Sure hope you're right! They just extradited a violent maniac from the U.S. back to Bolivia.

US to Extradite Ex Bolivia Minister

La Paz, Nov 20 (Prensa Latina) Bolivia's ombudsman Waldo Albarracin confirmed Tuesday former Government Minister Luis Arce Gomez will be extradited from the US, where he is imprisoned for drug trafficking, in line with reciprocal treaties signed by the two governments.

According to Albarracin, the former minister should be sent back on November 23, under maximum security measures, to then serve another 30 years in the Chonchocoro prison, with no right to pardon.

He explained that a group of lawyers is in Washington arranging the expatriation to Bolivia of the so called ó cocaine minister, ó who served during the military dictatorship of Luis Garcia Meza (1980-1981).

Arce Gomez is charged with genocide, murder, and damage to the State economy.

~~~~ link ~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luis Arce Gómez:

Colonel Luis Arce Gómez was a Bolivian military officer. Of strong conservative, anti-communist persuasion, in 1980 he backed the bloody coup (sometimes referred to as the "Cocaine Coup") that brought to power the infamous General Luis García Meza. Indeed, Arce served as García Meza's right-hand man and Minister of the Interior.

Arce Gomez's tenure as Bolivia's chief repressor including the passing of such measures as the banning of all political parties, the incarceration and/or exile of most political opponents, the repression of the unions, and the censorship of the media. Among García Meza and Arce's collaborators were former Nazi officer Klaus Barbie, Italian terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, and professional torturers allegedly imported from the murderous Argentine dictatorship of General Jorge Rafael Videla. Some 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Bolivian security apparatus in only 13 months. Apparently, Arce Gomez meant it when he cautioned that all Bolivians who may be opposed to the new order should "walk around with their written will under their arms." The most prominent victim of the dictatorship was the congressman, politician, and gifted orator Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, murdered and "disappeared" soon after the coup. Quiroga had been the chief advocate of bringing to trial the former dictator, General Banzer (1971-78), for human right violations and economic mismanagement.

As if all this were not enough, the García Meza government was also deeply involved in drug trafficking activities, and may have come to power financed directly by the drug cartels. The main link of the regime to the drug dealers seems to have none other than the notorious Colonel Arce. The impunity with which he and García Meza operated led to the complete isolation of their government. Even the new, conservative U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, kept its distance and seemed to prefer better options. Eventually, Arce Gómez was forced to resign, as was his boss, García. In the late 1980s, Arce was extradited to the United States, where he is currently in jail, serving a lengthy sentence for drug trafficking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Arce_G%C3%B3mez

On edit:

As for Miami, a few thousand more fascists will just get lost in the fascist crowd! I read an article once which described the transplanted culture there as looking as if Latin America had vomited up its murderous dictators and death squads on the shores of Florida. Any time a country has managed to shake off the muderous claws of some former SOA-trained, U.S.-maintained tyrants, they always take the first plane out to Miami.

It's getting pretty crowded there, from what I've heard.

An infuriating feature of recent news from Miami is the fact that the Cuban right-wing Congresscritters have been trying to ram through legislation in Washington which would allow the wealthy Venezuelans who are pouring into South Florida to also be able to get the Cuban Adjustment Act extended to other Venzuelans so they'll ALL be able to cash in on the U.S. taxpayer gravy train, and ALL of them receive things like instant legal status the moment they arrive here, instant social security, work permit, welfare, food stamps, Section 8 U.S. taxpayer financed housing, medical treatment, educational assistance for schooling. This would be a whole LOAD of freebies which would kick in and even help them bring their employees here.

It's a BIG deal in Miami for Cuban "exiles," with the final straw being a story of Florida "exile" State Congressman Rudy Garcia's cranky old grandmother, her trip to the local food stamp place, and the subsequent firing of SIX EMPLOYEES when someone didn't jump high enough to suit her tastes:

Stalin Would Be Proud
And only Kafka could have dreamed up a character like Rudy Garcia
By Tristram Korten
Published: May 1, 2003

The dismissal of six workers from a local office of the Department of Children and Families is one of the most surreal governmental dramas to play itself out in some time. Certainly you recall the incident. On March 4 an aide to state Sen. Rudy Garcia was accompanying the senator's 94-year-old grandmother to the Hialeah DCF office to inquire about her food-stamp eligibility. The aide, Francis Aleman, claims she and Garcia's abuela were treated rudely. She complained to DCF brass in Tallahassee and voilà, everyone up the chain of command got the axe. Garcia happens to sit on two committees that fund and supervise DCF, and the senate is about to vote to confirm DCF Secretary Jerry Regier's permanent appointment.

Two of the fired employees had not even worked at the Hialeah office for one and a half months. They never saw, heard, or talked to the grandmother. The day they were canned they must have felt like characters in a Kafka novel, complete with self-important politicians (and their aides), obsequious bureaucrats, and a labyrinthine system so mindless that once set in motion, it couldn't be stopped.

This is as absurd as it gets. First, what the hell is the grandmother of a state senator doing on food stamps? Much less a senator who in 2001 listed his net worth as $100,212, and his income as $63,829. "She's an American citizen and she wants her independence," Garcia explained to me. "I can't tell her what to do. This is a nominal amount, around $30 a month."
(snip/...)

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-05-01/news/stalin-would-be-proud/

The story has also appeared in the Miami Herald. It's enough to make a maggot gag. Lincoln Diaz Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen have been attempting to get these same privileges extended to the incoming Venezuelan community.