Soldiers hunt rebel governor (Bolivia)

[bemildred]

Source: News.com.AU


SOLDIERS were hunting a rebel governor in Bolivia today as President Evo Morales struggled to assert his authority over opposition regions amid worsening unrest.

The troops had orders to arrest Leopoldo Fernandez, governor of the northern state of Pando, for refusing to accept martial law that Mr Morales imposed on his territory, presidential minister Juan Ramon Quintana said.

Pando has been the scene of the worst violence so far in a week of upheaval in Bolivia, with at least 16 people killed there in armed clashes between peasants supporting Morales and anti-government protesters.

Another two people, a soldier and a civilian, were killed on Saturday when 100 troops flew in to retake the state's principal airport in the town of Cobija from protesters, authorities said.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,24346652-23109,00.html

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1. Bolivia army patrols town under martial law

LA PAZ, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Bolivian troops patrolled a restive city in the impoverished nation's north before dawn on Sunday, the mayor said, as the death toll rose to 30 from days of clashes between government and opposition supporters.

Troops fanned through the streets of Cobija city early on Sunday after forces grouped in the airport for two days when leftist President Evo Morales declared martial law on Friday in Pando province, where Cobija is the capital.

"Troops left the airport and went through all the streets of Cobija. It was early this morning," Cobija Mayor Luis Flores told Reuters by telephone.

Flores said troops were in control of the city but a Reuters witness said the town was deserted on Sunday morning and there was no sign of troops.

http://africa.reuters.com/energyandoil/news/usnN14392717.html

[Nambe]

2. He is probably on the run with the US ambasador.

And a bag of $US.

[ohio2007]

3. he's probably at 'the rebel base' with Luke and that bigfoot guy

Use the force

[bemildred]

4. Bolivia: Compromise Reached

The Bolivian government said on Sunday that it had reached a compromise with the opposition. The opposition and supporters of the government clashed with each other for several days in the province of Pando. The fighting left 28 people dead, according to government officials.

The deal was the result of eight hour long talks in the capital, La Paz.

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Bolivia’s Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said the government had ordered the arrest of the region’s Governor, Leopoldo Fernandez. He is accused of hiring “Brazilian and Peruvian assassins” to carry out the “ambush” of farmers supportive of President Morales.

Bolivian ambassador to the UK, Maria Beatriz Souviron Crespo added that Mr Fernandez was “acting outside of the law.”

http://poligazette.com/2008/09/15/bolivia-compromise-reached/

[Judi Lynn]

5. Details of El Porvenir massacre

Details of El Porvenir massacre
September 14, 2008 ·
How the Massacre in Porvenir Happened

Luigino Bracci Roa, with reporting from Erbol and ABI - ABI Yvke Mundial

Translation: Machetera

Sunday, September 14, 2008 9:05 a.m.

Last Thursday, a thousand peasants marched toward Cobija to protest the violence driven by the Prefect Leopoldo Fernández, when they were ambushed on a bridge located 7 kilometers from the town of Porvenir, in the department of Pando. This was the scene of a massacre, executed by civilian groups who’d received weapons training by the government of Leopoldo Fernández.

Initially on Thursday there were 8 deaths reported. The figure was rising steadily, to 9 dead, then 14, later 15. This Saturday evening, the government minister Alfredo Rada confirmed that there were 30 dead. But other officials fear the figure could reach 50 or even 70.

The lack of exactness in the figures is due to the fact that the Prefect Fernández and the armed gangs he commanded prevented the arrival of humanitarian organizations at the scene of the massacre. The government declared a state of siege last Friday, after the soldier Ramiro Tañini Alvarado was killed by .22 caliber gunfire, when civilian groups faced off against the military over control of Pando’s airport.

Prefect Fernández had insisted that what took place on Thursday had to do with an armed confrontation “initiated” by the national Bolivian government. The facts contradicted him. Roberto Tito, one of the rural workers who was at the bridge when the shooting began against defenseless people, bore witness that they’d marched unarmed, but right away they heard the shots and some people began to fall, mortally wounded.

Snipers located in the upper reaches of the trees shot toward the crowd without considering that children and women were mixed in with the peasants, whose only weapons were sticks and machetes.

“We were unarmed, contrary to what they said. They stopped us some seven kilometers before Porvenir and afterwards they attacked us when we reached the bridge, where they ambushed us and began to shoot with automatic machine-guns,” said Tito, sorrowful over the deaths of at least 10 of his comrades, now that since Friday an undetermined number of missing have been reported.

“The comrades had to escape wherever they could. They didn’t spare even the children or the women. It was a massacre of the peasants; it’s something that we must not allow,” said the rural worker.

Tito’s testimony is backed by the version of Senator Abraham Cuellar, who insisted that at the height of the Bridge of Cachuelita, there was a gap 10 meters wide and deep so that neither trucks nor people could pass. It was in these circumstances that the shooting began.

“The people were walking on foot, there had been an ambush prepared by the Prefecture, planned with military weaponry and with the regrettable result that there were many deaths on the side of the peasants and the majority are from jurisdictions governed by mayors that are not associated with MAS but rather with organizations that support the government,” said Cuellar.

More:
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/details-of-el-porvenir-massacre/#more-851

[Judi Lynn]

6. 106 Missing in Cobija; Commission Begins Search

106 missing since Thursday massacre in Porvenir
September 14, 2008 · No Comments
Photo: El Deber, Bolivia (Some of the dead from Thursday’s massacre)
106 Missing in Cobija; Commission Begins Search
Luigino Bracci - ABI, Erbol
Translation: Machetera
Sunday, September 14, 2008, 1:30 p.m.

Cobija (ABI). - A humanitarian commission, headed by the Presidential Minister Juan Ramón Quintana and Health Minister, Ramiro Tapia, arrived at 5 p.m. this Sunday in Porvenir, Filadelfia, Puerto Rico and other conflict areas to undertake a search for missing people and attend to the wounded, victims of a massacre executed by hired assassins sponsored by Pando’s prefecture.

The commission, previously in Cobija, inspected the health centers, above all, Hospital Roberto Galindo, to evaluate the wounded. After visiting the wounded and receiving a clinical report from the directors of these centers, the Health Minister, Ramiro Tapia, assured that all those who were part of the massacre at Porvenir are receiving medical attention.

To evacuate dead and wounded, three ambulances are making the rounds of Porvenir, Filadelfia, Puerto Rico and other communities. The situations of the people or bodies recovered from all these areas will be analyzed in order to bring them to La Paz or to Cobija.

“The President has asked us to assist with the humanitarian support for people who are missing, wounded and have not had the necessary support,” said Minister Tapia. The governmental humanitarian aid commission arrived this Saturday at 2:00 a.m. at the “Aníbal Arab” airport in Cobija, headed by the Presidential and Health ministers in order to begin the work of helping and searching for missing peasants.

106 Missing

The Peasant Workers’ Federation of Pando reported that there are 25 dead and 25 wounded as well as 106 people missing after last Thursday’s brutal massacre in the town of El Porvenir.

The leader Luis Adolfo Mayar, in statements to the Erbol Network, reported that nine dead had been identified, while 16 were still not claimed by their families. According to the government, the number of dead is at 30, since in recent hours additional bodies of peasants were found in the bushes and rivers of the area where the slaughter took place.

http://machetera.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/106-missing-since-thursday-massacre-in-porvenir/

Bolivian source:
YVKE Mundial :: Internacionales
Masacre de Porvenir
Hay 106 desaparecidos en Cobija, Comisión inicia búsqueda
Para evacuar a heridos, fallecidos y desaparecidos se emplea tres ambulancias que están recorriendo las áreas de Porvenir, Filadelfia, Puerto Rico y otras comunidades. Las personas o cuerpos que sean rescatados de todos estos lugares, se analizará su situación para trasladarlos a la ciudad de La Paz o en su caso a Cobija.


Domingo, 14 de Sep de 2008. 1:30 pm
http://www.radiomundial.com.ve/yvke/noticia.php?11595