Split opens in Bolivia coalition

Can you say "toast"?

A chief coalition partner of
embattled Bolivian President
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada has
withdrawn its support for the
government.

BBC

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A Report from La Paz Boliva in Turmoil

I arrived in La Paz on Saturday October 11, just in time to witness the showdown between the campesinos and the government. These days have been, as Dickens famously wrote of the French Revolution, the best of times and the worst of times. I am writing this on Wednesday the 15th, the third day of a total shutdown in La Paz. Schools, banks, shops, and restaurants remain closed, and transport is shut down, but the kids are playing soccer and volleyball in the streets. In the tension of uncertainty, there is now peace and calm after the confrontations of Sunday and Monday, confrontations that left 54 people dead, raising the total since the confrontation started in August to about 70. This is the second major set of confrontations of the year, the other having occurred in February when 32 people died. So the total for the year is over 100, almost all campesinos.

Since Bolivia is little more than a name for most of us, it will be useful to provide some background and then discuss the issues that divide the country at the present time.

Background

Like most of Latin America Bolivia can be divided, with a little simplification, into city (ciudad) and country (campo), and the campesinos are the part of the population who identify with the country rather than the city. They may have moved to the city but still have roots in the country. There are also, of course, younger people, children of campesinos, who were born in the city and even have advanced degrees and who do not fall easily into either group; they are no longer real campesinos but identify more with them than with the government.

The division between city and country is accompanied by an ethnic difference, the difference between the indigenous peoples and the people with substantial European (mostly Spanish) heritage. The campesinos are wholly indigenous, and it has always been the people of European descent who have ruled the cities and held the reins of political power. During the Spanish period the indigenous peoples were mostly slaves on estates _bought and sold as part of the estates--and it was not until the revolution of 1952 that they could legally be educated.

http://www.counterpunch.org/garver10172003.html

Real soon now, the ruling class will start working to
salvage what they can and form a new goverment that still
leaves them with some advantage but is acceptable to the
campesinos, that gets the campesinos to go home and start
working again instead of gumming up the works. Concessions
will be made but real power will be given up grudgingly.
At that point it all depends on how intransigent the different
factions decide to be.

and according to an article earlier today, Argentina and Brazil both sent delegations to try to help find a solution.

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Argentine and Brazilian presidents have sent two special envoys to Bolivia to help find a solution to the political and social crisis that has left a toll of dozens of protestors killed, virtually paralyzed all economic activity and has the country in the verge of an institutional meltdown.

The mission of observers headed by Argentina’s Latinamerican Affairs Secretary Eduardo Sguiglia and Marco Aurelio García, President Lula da Silva foreign policy advisor, is scheduled to meet the main political leaders of Bolivia including president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada whose resignation protestors are demanding; Evo Morales, the outstanding figure of the civilian unrest and other members of the ruling coalition.

Bolivia’s capital La Paz is virtually under siege by demonstrators who have interrupted supplies and fuel and are demanding the exit of Mr. Sanchez de Lozada and a review of all the hydrocarbons legislation of the country.

Sanchez de Lozada called in the Army to impose law and order in La Paz, and although still loyal to the constitutionally elected President, the Armed Forces are expected to support any political solution to the crisis that is legitimated by Congress.

http://www.falkland-malvinas.com/Detalle.asp?NUM=2741

Meanwhile, OAS Secretary General Gaviria (of Venezuela fame) is giving full support to the Bolivian government while not even acknowledging the deaths of the compensinos. Another article from yesterday speculated a that Bolivia is heading for a coup.

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...In contrast, the Gaviria who spoke on Bolivia seemed like another person. He spoke very insistently about the defense of the constitutional order "represented by President Sanchez de Lozada," and made a call for “closing ranks around the country’s democratic institutions.” Not a single word on the dozens of deaths as a result of the repression ordered by President de Lozada, which until now exceeds sixty. Not a single word either on the censorship of the Bolivian media, when several newspapers have been taken out of circulation, three TV channels have reported being pressured by the government, (one of them had its antenna sabotaged), and some radio stations have been sabotaged, all of which have forced several journalists to go on strike.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1034

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they have the guts to stand up to the US oligarchies their puppet governments. If the rest of the world recognizes that by sticking together they could make the US stand down and act like a decent member of the family of nations, this could help us all and the rest of the world too. Or are we going to bomb Bolivia and began attacking all other South and Central American governments as we are trying to do with Venezuela? I don't think so. There too many of us Hispanics in this country.

US-Imposed Repression, Military Dictatorship, and Persecution of the Press, Return to Bolivia

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...Gustavo Guzmán, editor of the weekly Pulso, denounced that his magazine had been seized in various regions of La Paz. The page one headline read: “In the Name of Democracy the President Must Resign.” Pulso included an investigative report documenting that four United States military officials are, in fact, directing the Bolivian military’s actions during this crisis.

Authorities also raided and shut down Radio Jiménez, which broadcasts in the Aymara indigenous language from a poor neighborhood of La Paz, Bolpress reported.

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reports that five journalists from the state-owned TV station resigned in protest because “the channel has withheld information about the unrest and the number of people killed.”

The Narco News Bulletin warns the United States Embassy and Ambassador David Greenlee that the U.S. government, as an institution, and Greenlee, as an individual, will be held institutionally and personally responsible for any further attacks on our journalists who are reporting on the events in Bolivia. As Pulso magazine has demonstrated, US military operatives are now commanding Bolivian military and police forces in a last-ditch effort to salvage the unpopular and disgraced regime of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. Therefore, the attack and illegal forced holding of journalist Alex Contreras Baspineiro today upon his return to his native Bolivia from reporting in Venezuela, could not have occurred, in our judgment, without the aid, consent, and intelligence operations of the Embassy. Be advised, Ambassador, that any harm or further repression against Contreras, against Narco News Andean Bureau chief Luis Gómez, against correspondent Andrea Alípaz Arenas (the latter two have also been reporting for the Mexican daily La Jornada this week), or any other sources or correspondents, will be considered and dealt with as a direct attack on all of us and will be dealt with accordingly for as long as it takes for justice to be done.

http://www.narconews.com/Issue31/article882.html

that 9% better be damn rich with lots of ammo stored up, or he may have problems with his pulse soon (or at least a sudden job re-assignment). Gray Davis had a bigger fan club than this fellow.

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...The United States is backing Goni, who has accepted US drug war policies and IMF economic prescriptions wholeheartedly. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the US ``will not tolerate any interruption of constitutional order and will not support any regime that results from undemocratic means.'

This is a rather far cry from the US’s behavior in April 2002, when it endorsed the military coup against Venezuela’s president Chavez. At the time, the Venezuelan opposition shot several Chavez supporters and claimed that Chavez was responsible , claiming that Chavez should resign because of his responsibility in the deaths. The US repeated the Venezuelan opposition’s claim that Chavez should resign because of these deaths, and that they essentially legitimated a military coup. But when Goni’s regime is undoubtedly guilty of what Chavez’s regime was accused of without such unequivocal evidence, the US insists that it “will not support any regime that results from undemocratic means.” Meanwhile, as Hylton noted, US officials are helping to direct the repression on the ground.

The US’s drug war policies have helped bring Bolivia to a boiling point. Coca leaf has been a key crop in Bolivia and throughout the Andean region for centuries, because of its nutritional value. During the centuries of mining exploitation, chewing coca leaf was indispensable for the survival of workers at high altitudes. After the neoliberal opening, coca became the only crop that enabled campesinos to earn a living – other crops did not fetch an economic price on the market and price supports were no longer available. A Foreign Policy in Focus review said of the US policy of eradicating coca farms that ”aside from destroying the country’s economy without providing alternatives, it has led to a greatly increased military presence in the Chapare coca-growing region and to widespread harassment, torture, and even murder of its indigenous people.” (12)
Also, historically, the US has trained some of the most repressive dictators in Bolivian history at its School of the Americas, among them Hugo Banzer, whose remarkable career and long links to the US are detailed in a story by Jerry Meldon (13) US intervention in the region, based in Colombia and Ecuador, is increasing, targeting popular movements like that of Bolivia and regimes like that of Venezuela.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/trade/2003/1017gasbolivia.htm

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Aleida Guevara March, daughter of Ernesto Che Guevara, and Irma,
daughter of imprisoned René González, have just completed a tour of
11 Canadian cities between September 26 and October 12. They were
invited by the combined Canadian solidarity with Cuba movement with
the main objective of informing the Canadian public about the case of
the Five Cubans who are incarcerated in the United States after a
flawed trial in a Miami court.

At a press conference in Havana, Wednesday, both expressed their
satisfaction with the very full schedule of meetings, interviews and
conferences they had given during the tour, which they said enabled
them to bring to light a subject that is kept suspiciously unreported
by the mainstream Canadian press.

Bernie Dwyer was at the conference and asked Irma and Aleida about
their experiences in Canada.

Both women said that they felt a little overwhelmed at the ignorance
of the case and that perhaps the main thing that they achieved was to
open a door through which people can know a little and become
interested enough to find out more and take action.
Irma González explained that both women had received very warm
welcomes from Canadian solidarity groups across the country, which
compensated for the fatigue they felt during the strenuous tour.
There were even US citizens present who crossed the border to
participate in their conferences. During the interview with Radio
Havana Cuba Irma talked about all the cities they visited.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/21383

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Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada is, still, the President of Bolivia. But viewed from the perspective of popular wrath, he is a president dressed in death and, politically, a President without a Vice-president. Substantively Sánchez de Lozada is a President who survives, in terms of real power, thanks to the support of the US Embassy and peculiar US military command that has taken over the command of the "Armed Forces of the Nation."

The US Embassy has not only pulled together "international support" for this fictitious president and called on the press and media "in the name of democracy". The Embassy has also "pitches in" with four men who operate in Bolivian, three in the Joint Commnand - the Central Barracks in Miraflores - and one working out the US Embassy on Arce Avenue in La Paz. In this support of the US Embassy is the real force that keeps Sánchez de Lozada and his vacillating partners, then MIR and NFR parties, in power.

One of the three men operating out of Miraflores is a kind of politico-military coordinator, who concerns himself with pulling together and processing information distributed to the Bolivian military and, fundamentally, the US Embassy. The second of these military men exercises the general coordination of the three branches of the Bolivian military; it was his idea to mobilize troops form the eastern lowlands to operate in the highland city of El Alto. The third of these men is occupied with - in military terms - what is called logistics, supply of munitions and food for Bolivian troops that are under their command (US provisions arrive in Hercules planes from Miami).

The fourth of these men, who operates from the US Embassy on Arce Avenue, is the US Defense Department Attaché, and it is he who relates directly with the Minister of Defense of Bolivia, Carlos Sánchez Berzaín, the perfect wildcard, the connection between the US Embassy and the Presidential Palace, where the fictitious President lives and "rules". On the basis of this very real occupying power that supports Sánchez de Lozada - the Armed Forces - one can explain growing frustration of the Bolivian Military, a frustration of people in uniform who still bear the Bolivian flag in some part of that uniform. This is the environment of real power with which Sánchez de Lozada still exercises that power that he retains, but he is a President without a Vice-president.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=52&ItemID=4358

12 minutes ago, Agence France Press became the first media org to report that, according to high government sources, the Bolivian president will resign today.
3:27 p.m. La Paz Time: CNN Español reports that AP and Reuters have both confirmed the resignation of Goni.
http://www.bigleftoutside.com/

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LA PAZ, Bolivia (October 17, 11:55 a.m. ADT) - Embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada will resign after weeks of deadly street riots triggered by a government plan to export natural gas, a close presidential ally said Friday.

Sanchez de Lozada said he would issue a statement at 4 p.m. His government coalition received a crippling blow earlier Friday as his last key supporter withdrew after weeks of nationwide street demonstrations.

Jaime Paz Zamora, a former president himself, called the impending announcement by Sanchez de Lozada a "patriotic decision."

Asked by reporters whether he meant a presidential resignation, Paz Zamora responded, "You are intelligent people. You know what it is."

http://www.adn.com/24hour/world/story/1030436p-7232345c.html