Bolivian police occupy American's ranch as Morales presses ahead with ambitious land reform

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivian police occupy American's ranch as Morales presses ahead with ambitious land reform
By CARLOS VALDEZ | Associated Press Writer
2:46 PM EST, November 22, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) _ Police and government land inspectors have occupied a ranch owned by a U.S. man who has resisted President Evo Morales' plans to redistribute idle land to the country's poor.

Land Minister Alejandro Almaraz said police detained three people on Friday as they tried to block land inspectors and officers from entering the sprawling Caraparicito Ranch owned by Montana native Ronald Dean Larsen, a fierce critic of the leftist president's land reform plans.

The future of the ranch was unclear on Saturday. Officials have not yet determined if all or part of the property might be expropriated because they have not yet finished inspecting the land and titles.

A court is still weighing officials' request for charges against Larsen for briefly clashing with land inspectors who entered his property earlier this year and for allegedly organizing a highway blockade to prevent government inspectors surveying land for possible expropriation.

~snip~
Larsen purchased the remote Caparicito ranch in 1969. Government officials claim Larsen and his family own a total 141,000 acres (57,000 hectares), but Larsen told the Associated Press his family's property totals only 22,000 acres (8,700 hectares.)

His son Duston won the title of 2004 Mr. Bolivia male beauty contest and appeared as himself in a hit Bolivian movie, "Who Killed the Little White Llama?"

More:
Bolivian police occupy American's ranch as Morales presses ahead with ambitious land reform
By CARLOS VALDEZ | Associated Press Writer
2:46 PM EST, November 22, 2008

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) _ Police and government land inspectors have occupied a ranch owned by a U.S. man who has resisted President Evo Morales' plans to redistribute idle land to the country's poor.

Land Minister Alejandro Almaraz said police detained three people on Friday as they tried to block land inspectors and officers from entering the sprawling Caraparicito Ranch owned by Montana native Ronald Dean Larsen, a fierce critic of the leftist president's land reform plans.

The future of the ranch was unclear on Saturday. Officials have not yet determined if all or part of the property might be expropriated because they have not yet finished inspecting the land and titles.

A court is still weighing officials' request for charges against Larsen for briefly clashing with land inspectors who entered his property earlier this year and for allegedly organizing a highway blockade to prevent government inspectors surveying land for possible expropriation.

~snip~
Larsen purchased the remote Caparicito ranch in 1969. Government officials claim Larsen and his family own a total 141,000 acres (57,000 hectares), but Larsen told the Associated Press his family's property totals only 22,000 acres (8,700 hectares.)

His son Duston won the title of 2004 Mr. Bolivia male beauty contest and appeared as himself in a hit Bolivian movie, "Who Killed the Little White Llama?"

[Judi Lynn]

1. Background on the American rancher, Ronald Larsen.

U.S. Rancher in Bolivia Showdown
By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky/La Paz Friday, May. 02, 2008

~snip~
U.S.-educated Duston Larsen, referring to Morales' efforts to empower Bolivia's indigenous, wrote on his MySpace page in 2007, "I used to think democracy was the best form to govern a country but ... should a larger more uneducated group of people (70%) be in charge of making decisions, running a country and voting?" The fact that Duston, in 2004, won the Mr. Bolivia beauty pageant, in the eyes of many government supporters, puts him in the company of the country's European-oriented elite. (That same year, Miss Bolivia, Gabriela Oviedo, also from the country's east, suggested Bolivia shouldn't be considered an indigenous nation: "I'm from the other side of the country. We are tall, and we are white people, and we know English.")

More:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1737244,00.html?iid=fb_share

~~~~~~~~~


Ronald Larsen



with his sonny boy, Duston, Mr. Bolivia

http://bp0.blogger.com.nyud.net:8090/_GEDUTlyzpkI/SCSenUaRReI/AAAAAAAAAVs/deIeCWubL7c/s320/DUSTON_LARSEN_MT19_001.jpg http://bp1.blogger.com.nyud.net:8090/_GEDUTlyzpkI/SBjs927o9QI/AAAAAAAAAUs/kSFHvC8MT0A/s320/DUSTON_LARSEN_MT43.jpg

Little Mr. Bolivia, 2004


Humanitarian and rocket scientist, Miss Bolivia 2004, Gabriella Oviedo

~~~~~~~~~

Friday, May 09, 2008
Meet Ronald Larsen, Pobre Patrón

Remember that lazy Latin American corespondent for the NY Times, Simon Romero, who thought fascists weren't so bad after all? Well he is back in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. And he thought he would take a break from misrepresenting the autonomy vote to visit a nice touristic nature reserve, Caraparicito, and chat with its owner Ronald Larson- that guy wanted by the police for kidnapping and leading an armed gang against visiting government officials. Romero might want to let the officials know how he got in there, the Ministry of Land and National Police have been trying to get into Caraparicito for months. Well, the product is today's NY Times piece "American Rancher Resists Land Reform Plans in Bolivia". Basically, I have to thank Simon Romero for vindicating my analysis of the story last month and my analogy of the Larsens to the cultural archetype Mr. Freedom!

More:
http://casa-del-duderino.blogspot.com/2008/05/meet-ronald-larsen-pobre-patrn.html

~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Mr. Freedom! Now Appearing in Bolivia

A story has emerged out of Bolivia in the last month that, embarrassingly, I had payed little attention to until I realized that it is the kind of ridiculous and tragic drama which cuts right to the heart of Bolivia's national moment (appearing to be careening towards climatic crisis on May 4th) and repeats in all too typical fashion the horror laid bare of American Empire at its peripheral, contested, and bloody edges- the Old South in the Resisting Global South.

In late February 2008 Bolivia's National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) began the process of land ownership accounting (first step in establishing legal titling and if necessary redistribution procedures), called saneamiento, in an area of the southern part of the eastern department of Santa Cruz, Alto Parapetí. This move had been long sought by indigenous groups of the area, specifically the Guarani Popular Assembly (APG) which supports Evo Morales MAS government, in a region known as El Chaco (including parts of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca, and Tarija), an area rich in subsoil natural gas reserves and historically dominated by large ranching estates and recently soy plantations despite preexisting Guarani claims to much of the land. The Chaco's latifundias (illegally extensive holdings) are also known for perpetuating the practice of slavery, indigenous Guarani held as laborers on such properties via some mixture of debt and coercive bondage- something well documented in other parts of the Chaco, highly suspected in Alto Parapetí, and off guardedly admitted to by several Alto Parapetí commercial ranchers and farmers. Under Bolivian law any landholder found to be exploiting servitude labor lose all rights to land title.

When the Vice Minister of Lands Alejandro Almaráz and the National Director of INRA Juan Carlos Rojas, and the President of the APG, Wilson Changaraya, along with other INRA officals entered Alto Parapetí to formally begin the long awaited saneamiento with all the authority necessary by visiting the sites in question and notifying the property holders their vehicle was stopped by a armed posse headed up by local landholders (later referring to themselves as the "Alto Parapetí Defense Committee"). They shot out the tires, threatened "No one is going to leave here alive, now blood will run”, and took the group hostage- managing to escape after eight hours. This incident coming a day after the local INRA offices in Camiri were looted. Several weeks later in April returning with a larger contingent, Almaráz, Rojas, representatives of the APG, and several dozen national police twice attempted to enter Alto Parapetí. They were blockaded on both occasions by a vastly reinforced "defense committee", and on the second attempt ambushed by armed assailants, resulting in more than forty injures, five persons listed as "disappeared", and several accusations of kidnapping and torture. "The government temporarily has suspended saneamiento activities and recalled Almaráz to La Paz."

More:
http://casa-del-duderino.blogspot.com/2008/04/mr-freedom-strikes-again.html

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0aN55lwezBgQ1/340x.jpg http://static.guim.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2008/08/23/Bolivia-460x276.jpg http://news.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/39572000/jpg/_39572039_bolivia_afp300.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2007/09/14/world/14bolivia.600.jpg

Bolivian people.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Shoeshine boys still in school wear masks because they are ashamed to be seen.

I've read this, and wanted to share it, after I saw a photo this week of President Evo Morales and his Vice President going into the streets recently and shining some shoes with the kids. I'll post that one if I find it.

Here's a quick quote I found in a google grab:

Shoeshine boys who conceal their identity by covering their faces with scarves and ski masks, because they're ashamed of their profession. One of them told me they didn't want any kids or teachers from school to see them. No matter who they are, they give a damn good shoeshine for about US$0.13.

http://www.whereislarry.com/sa011.htm

I posted this link hoping you'll look at the amazing photo!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~snip~
And the shoe shine boys here all wear ski masks and baseball hats, only their eyes visible. According to the Lonely Planet, this is because they are mostly students, ashamed of having to shine shoes for a living.

More:
http://billandjeeheon.blogspot.com/2007/07/bolivia-la-paz.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~snip~
Some of the shoe shine boys wear face masks, something like what skiers in Canada wear on very cold days. They are ashamed to be supporting their families this way.

More:
http://www.ohara.com/osi/ceso/pages/bolivia.htm
Very interesting photos.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Found that photo of Evo Morales shining shoes!

http://upload.wikimedia.org.nyud.net:8090/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Evo_shoeshine.jpg/450px-Evo_shoeshine.jpg

Evo Morales and Bolivian vice-president Álvaro García Linera shining shoes.
Beautiful gesture from the Bolivian President.