Morales sends troops to Bolivia's oil, gas installations

[Judi Lynn]

Morales sends troops to Bolivia's oil, gas installations
24 minutes ago

President Evo Morales said he has put all of Bolivia's gas and oil installations under military protection, as protesters geared up in three energy-rich provinces against federal encroachment and socialist reforms.

"I've spoken with Armed Forces commander in chief, General Luis Trigo, who has precise instructions to safeguard and defend the Bolivian people," Morales told a meeting of pro-government labor unions in the central city of Cochabamba on Saturday.

"The government will protect the (oil) pipelines and (gas) valves," he added.

The move to put all government-owned energy installations under military guard followed protest plans to throw up major roadblocks in the energy-rich eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Chuquisaca and Tarija starting Monday.

The demonstrators are against Morales's decision to tax regional revenues from gas fields. Provincial governors are demanding the government return 166 million dollars already raised through the levy, and substantially increase the price of gas exports to neighboring Argentina and Brazil.

Protesters are also venting anger at an upcoming referendum on constitutional reforms approved in December by Morales' followers in Congress that would expand the president's socialist agenda and his executive powers.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080824/wl_afp/boliviapoliticsprotestgasoil;_ylt=A0wNcwSpv7BIybIA3w4PLBIF

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bolivia: Awakening a 'mountain that eats men'

Bolivia: Awakening a 'mountain that eats men'
Indigenous workers find mixed rewards at infamous Spanish colonial silver mine
Rory Carroll and Andres Schipani in Potosi
The Guardian, Thursday August 21 2008

It was called the "mountain that eats men", and from its slopes you can sense why. The cone, a soaring Andean peak, is lacerated with gaping holes and tunnels. At sunset its rocky surface glows red, as if burning.

This is Cerro Rico, a majestic mountain in Bolivia that was once the world's greatest treasure trove, an immense silver mine that for centuries bankrolled Spain's empire. A silver bridge from here to Madrid could have been built with enough of the precious metal left to carry across it, went the legend.

A grimmer version said you could do likewise from the bones of the miners who died here. Hundreds of thousands of Incas and other indigenous slaves - some say millions - succumbed to horrific working conditions. Lung diseases, mercury poisoning, exhaustion, accidents, all took their toll.

"Our ancestors suffered here," said Marco Quispe, 41, an indigenous miner. "But things are different now. For our people these are good, happy days."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/21/bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

2. Bolivia split in two as the wealthy aim to defy the Morales revolution

Bolivia split in two as the wealthy aim to defy the Morales revolution
The President's bid to tilt the nation's balance of power towards the Indian majority has met with violence from a right-wing rebellion
Rory Carroll and Andrés Schipani in La Paz The Observer, Sunday August 24 2008

Violent protests against President Evo Morales have shaken Bolivia and cut the Andean nation in half, with rebel provinces blocking government attempts to regain control and tensions running dangerously high between the country's Indian majority and inhabitants of the richer and whiter eastern provinces.

Militia groups armed with clubs and shields took to the streets last week to impose a strike which paralysed much of the eastern lowlands and deepened a political crisis. Youths opposed to Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, beat up senior police commanders in front of television cameras, underlining the brazen challenge to central government authority.

Five eastern provinces, where the people are paler and richer than in the indigenous western highlands, have vowed to resist the President's attempt to 'refound' Bolivia as a socialist state which champions the long-neglected Indian majority. Protesters have halted beef supplies to the west, blockaded highways and made moves to create a new police force to assert their push for autonomy from the capital, La Paz.

Morales, flush with victory in a recall vote which renewed his mandate, has ordered the police to be on alert and hinted he would soon call a referendum on a new constitution to entrench his reforms, a red rag to the opposition. Some of his supporters threatened violent retaliation against what they termed 'oligarchs' and 'fascists'. Peasants blocked roads leading to the city of Sucre to isolate the opposition stronghold.

~snip~
'There are two Bolivias now,' said Damian Caguara, a pro-Morales member of a popular assembly. 'The Bolivia of the traditional, conservative, right- wing governments and the peasant one, the poor one, the indigenous one that has been in a state of submission for years. The latter is the one that is now running the political scene and this is provoking a harsh reaction from the bosses that cannot stand their servants, the Indians, to be ruling. For them, this is simply humiliating.'

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/24/boliviaBolivia split in two as the wealthy aim to defy the Morales revolution
The President's bid to tilt the nation's balance of power towards the Indian majority has met with violence from a right-wing rebellion
Rory Carroll and Andrés Schipani in La Paz The Observer, Sunday August 24 2008

Violent protests against President Evo Morales have shaken Bolivia and cut the Andean nation in half, with rebel provinces blocking government attempts to regain control and tensions running dangerously high between the country's Indian majority and inhabitants of the richer and whiter eastern provinces.

Militia groups armed with clubs and shields took to the streets last week to impose a strike which paralysed much of the eastern lowlands and deepened a political crisis. Youths opposed to Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, beat up senior police commanders in front of television cameras, underlining the brazen challenge to central government authority.

Five eastern provinces, where the people are paler and richer than in the indigenous western highlands, have vowed to resist the President's attempt to 'refound' Bolivia as a socialist state which champions the long-neglected Indian majority. Protesters have halted beef supplies to the west, blockaded highways and made moves to create a new police force to assert their push for autonomy from the capital, La Paz.

Morales, flush with victory in a recall vote which renewed his mandate, has ordered the police to be on alert and hinted he would soon call a referendum on a new constitution to entrench his reforms, a red rag to the opposition. Some of his supporters threatened violent retaliation against what they termed 'oligarchs' and 'fascists'. Peasants blocked roads leading to the city of Sucre to isolate the opposition stronghold.

~snip~
'There are two Bolivias now,' said Damian Caguara, a pro-Morales member of a popular assembly. 'The Bolivia of the traditional, conservative, right- wing governments and the peasant one, the poor one, the indigenous one that has been in a state of submission for years. The latter is the one that is now running the political scene and this is provoking a harsh reaction from the bosses that cannot stand their servants, the Indians, to be ruling. For them, this is simply humiliating.'

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/24/bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

3. LTTE: Racism in Bolivia

August 21, 2008
Letter
Racism in Bolivia
To the Editor:

Re “Everybody Loses” (editorial, Aug. 15):

You are right that dialogue between Bolivia’s battling political factions is key. But there is a larger point.

President Evo Morales, despite important missteps, is the political expression of the desire of the nation’s impoverished and indigenous majority to chart a new course for the country. His victory in the referendum, with more than two-thirds of the popular vote, confirms that. Yet instead of negotiating, Mr. Morales’s opponents have thrown obstacles in the way.

Some, although not all, of Mr. Morales’s opponents are driven by overt racism against the country’s first indigenous president. In May, indigenous supporters of Mr. Morales were marched by a mob to the center of one opposition city, Sucre, stripped of their clothing and made to chant anti-Morales slogans.

Genuine dialogue takes two sides, and until a responsible opposition unhooks itself from alliances with racists and radicals, Bolivia will continue to be ungovernable.

Jim Shultz
Executive Director
The Democracy Center