Morales' popularity up before Bolivia recall: poll

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Morales' popularity up before Bolivia recall: poll
Sun Aug 3, 2008 3:47pm EDT
By Carlos Alberto Quiroga

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales' approval rating rose to 59 percent in July, according to a poll published on Sunday, a margin that would see him survive a recall vote next week if voters poll accordingly.

Morales and a group of opposition governors face a recall vote on August 10 that the leftist leader proposed last year in a bid to undermine right-wing opponents who have challenged his economic and constitutional reforms.

Pushing for autonomy, they have forced him to put on hold his plan to redistribute land to poor farmers.

An Ipsos Apoyo poll of 1,002 people published in newspaper La Razon showed Morales' approval rating rose from 57 percent in June. It was his highest approval rating measured by the pollster in nine months.

However the survey did not measure voting intention.

Morales, who took power in the poorest nation in South America two years ago, needs to win 46.3 percent of the vote to stay in office.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN0326638720080803?rpc=401&feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=401

[David__77]

1. They really should remove these governors from office.

They are like the southern governors during our own civil war. They are traitors and secessionists.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. How many of them have proposed seceding?

Autonomy does not equal secession.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Reuters' sneaky disinformation messages....

Morales didn't propose this recall vote "to undermine right-wing opponents." He proposed it in order to determine the will of the people. That is a different thing. He proposed a fair vote on the matter of his presidency. It is they who are seeking to undermine the legitimate government--already elected by the people--with their goddamned, fascist, Bushite-supported secessionist plots.

Reuters colors this wrongly.

"Pushing for autonomy, they have forced him to put on hold his plan to redistribute land to poor farmers."

They have not just pushed for 'autonomy,' they have disrupted the constitutional re-write process (mandated by the people) with riots, have held illegal votes within their provinces, have threatened lawful federal authorities, and have promoted a racist agenda against the first indigenous president of Bolivia (a largely indigenous country).

Reuters is cleansing their behavior, the way corporate media cleanses Bush's and Cheney's and Rove's behavior. And they have furthermore completely ignored Bushite support for these racists in Bolivia, using USAID-NED funds and other budgets (our misappropriated tax dollars), and spying (and God knows what else) out of the U.S. Embassy.

Disinformation can be outright lies. And it can also be 'framing' and leaving black holes in a news story where context should be. This is an example of the latter.

[Judi Lynn]

3. They nearly have to tie themselves in knots trying to avoid getting too close to the truth, don't

they? To hear these guys go on about what kind of wild-eyed, primitive bomb tosser you're supposed to believe has been elected in Bolivia, you'd get the impression Bolivia has been INVADED by some kind of violent, power mad lunatics, intent on stealing the very bread from the mouths of all those nice European descended, hard working civilized people in the oil-rich, natural gas-rich, verdant agriculturally blessed areas.

It's important to inform people who haven't heard, yet, or taken the time to research, of a few brief, but pungent facts.

They need to know the U.S. has meddled, and violently, against the poor, the indigenous population of Bolivia for a very long time. They have been treated as strangers, as unwanted beggars in THEIR OWN COUNTRY by people who have seized control through violence.

As late as 1952, when the country experienced one significant revolution, the indigenous Bolivians COULD NOT VOTE, NOR WERE THEY EVEN ALLOWED TO WALK ON SIDEWALKS. Astonishing, and shameful beyond endurance.

As for U.S. involvement in one pivotal era in Bolivia, in which the ownership of so much of the disputed land was stolen, see the following:

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.

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





Standing with another torturing, mass mudering
South American U.S. Republican-supported dictator,
Chile's Augusto Pinochet.

The thumbnail look at Banzer's reign of terror (only for the indigenous majority in Bolivia, of course!) was written before Hugo Banzer got another run at the country, and served once more during the late 1990's, and dropped out due to death, or god knows, he could have stayed far longer!

He did a lot of damage the second time, too.

[arcos]

4. Actually, the Governors were the ones who first proposed the recall...

But I guess they never expected to be included in the recall ballot as well, they wanted to just recall Morales. But Morales was very very smart, and he quickly accepted and turned the tables on them.

The sad thing, is that they will continue pushing for secession even though they will lose the recall. I think it's perfectly fine for them to disagree with Morales's policies, but they have to be fair, and if those who disagreed with their right wing policies accepted it, then they should accept to be in the opposition. Of course, this is all too common in Latin American right wingers so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, but at least the international community will be able to see them as what they are, hypocrites and opportunists.

[nerddem]

5. i wonder when they're going to allow bolivian expats to vote

i would have liked to have had a chance to vote in this one...

[Judi Lynn]

7. Recall referendum opinion polls ratify Bolivian president

Monday, August 4, 2008

Recall referendum opinion polls ratify Bolivian president

Bolivian president Evo Morales is comfortably favored for ratification in the recall referendum of next August 10 with 59% support, according to the latest public opinion poll published Sunday in the capital La Paz main daily La Razón.

President Morales, vice president Alvaro García and eight governors (six from the opposition) will submit their posts to the voting booths as part of an agreement to overcome the ongoing political stand off with the opposition, which has virtually paralyzed the land locked South American country.

President Morales support is particularly strong in the country’s main four cities. His support was 56% last March, while disapproval dropped from 40% in March to 37% in July.

The public opinion poll interviewed 1.002 people, between July 19 and 27, in the cities of La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. Results have a plus/minus margin error of 3 percentage points.

In the city of El Alto next to the capital La Paz and one of the poorest urban areas of Bolivia, Morales support reached 90% and remains his foremost stronghold while the city of Santa Cruz, which leads the opposition, his rejection is the highest, 59%.

More:
http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=14154&formato=HTML

~~~~~~~~~~
The article indicates the opposition is threatening to undergo another "hunger strike." They already did this, spearheaded by Croatian-Bolivian Branko Marinkovic, until it was discovered by Morales supporters that they were cheating when they found people sneaking into their offices late at night bearing bags of FRIED CHICKEN.







Branko Marinkovic



This guy shared a feature with Marinkovic,
but it never turned HIM into a racist, greedy
fascist. This guy remained human, and decent.