US troops to Bolivia, ostensibly to "evacuate Americans"

other people have found the links.

I have changed the title of my post to reflect the regime-approved language regarding impending "military actions" in Bolivia.

You have GOT to be kidding...

n/t

<clips>

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon dispatched an assessment team to Bolivia on Friday to determine whether the U.S. Embassy needed more protection or should be evacuated because of anti-government riots raging through La Paz, the capital.

The team of fewer than six military experts was sent as an ally of Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said the president would resign. Bolivia has been wracked by weeks of protest marches and bloody street riots triggered by a government plan to export natural gas.

The American military planners will assess the situation on La Paz's streets and recommend possible changes to the embassy's evacuation and protection plans, said Army Lt. Col. Bill Costello, a spokesman for U.S. Southern Command.

Southern Command, responsible for U.S. troops in Central and South America, decided to send the team despite the lack of a request from either the State Department or the Bolivian government, Costello said.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/breaking_news/7039659.htm

<clips>

...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) The repression of coca growers was a ‘success’ in Bolivia: it displaced most coca production from Bolivia to Colombia. Now, Colombian peasants are being fumigated by the US drug war, while Bolivian peasants have been left with no livelihood and no recourse but to mobilize, and there has been no appreciable effect on drug consumption or abuse in the United States.

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

<clips>

Editor's Note: To Bolivians marching in the streets, "free" trade of natural gas or other resources from their impoverished country to California is just another name for theft.

LA PAZ, Bolivia--Bolivians don't know what's good for them, declared the editors of the New York Post. Citing widespread opposition and protest to a proposed deal to export Bolivian natural gas to California, the paper observed: "And right now in Bolivia -- the poorest country in all of Latin America -- there are people fighting to remain poor."

The broad opposition to the proposed gas deal is not fueled by stupidity. Ordinary Bolivians have not stood before armed soldiers because they just don't understand the subtleties of global economics. At work is a conflict between the country's two very different populations, one glowingly rich and the other abjectly poor. The real issue in the "gas war" is how Bolivia should integrate itself into the global economy -- who will win and who will lose.

Two hundred miles away from the eye of the conflict in the capital city of La Paz lies the small city of Potosi and behind it the small mountain "Cerro Rico" (Rich Hill). For 300 years, from the mid-1500s to the mid-1800s, this single hill of silver bankrolled the Spanish empire. Millions of Bolivian Indians and slaves died extracting the silver for the Spanish. Here is a history written into the Bolivian soul -- a country that sat atop one of the greatest sources of mineral wealth in the history of the planet ended up being the poorest in South America.

<http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=8e7890e37f836788252aaac364cf501d>

Thankis for the clarification and context. :toast:

<clips>

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

U.S. to send troops to Bolivia to evacuate Americans, if necessary, Southern Command reports. Details soon.

Evacuations are not an invasion, unless you're Grenada. We should still keep on eye on the situation. Sounds like the ruling government there is pretty right-wing and oppressive to the majority. Maybe we'll see a new installment of people power and the rise of a Bolivian Chavez or Gutierrez.

but then that's just my take.

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The regime will call it something else, maybe Operation Bolivian Freedom?

Embattled Bolivian President to Resign


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&e=5&u=/ap/bolivia_protests

from breaking out, as that might impact negatively on US business interests. (gas exports)

Not to occupy. Course I haven't heard anything about trouble in Bolivia...though I guess the media had more important things to report, like Kobe Bryant...you know...important stuff like that

(sorry the link is long -- it was the first thing I saw on Google News that was relevant).

Bolivia Coalition Falls, Protests at Fever Pitch

LA PAZ , Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's government coalition fell apart on Friday after a main ally of embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada withdrew his support, echoing demands from protesters for the unpopular leader to step down.

Tens of thousands of miners, farmers and Indian women marched to the colonial center of the besieged capital, shouting "quit, quit" and exploding dynamite sticks two blocks from a government palace guarded by troops and assault vehicles.

(more ...)

http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.asp?section=Breaking&storyId=791367&tw=wn_wire_story

from Argentina to take over, no doubt.

I wouldn't be so apprehensive to this cept last I checked, didn't we send troops to stop WMDs and "liberate an oppressed population of homogenous, american-at-heart Iraqis", which has turned into an ocupation. Yes, this is different, but I would entirely gaurentee you that Bush and crew will do whatever they can to fuck up this situation for the worse. :)

Sorry Ductape, but I was watching CNN, too, and this title doesn't even begin to reflect what was said.

The Bolivian president has resigned. A handful of military people are going there to assess the security situation.

This *IS* LBN, but your title is out of bounds. Please feel free to repost with a more accurate title. Thanks!

Dookus
DU Moderator

on edit: LOL just as I locked it, you changed the title. Thank you very much. Unlocked now.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

are simple. Please read them. I saw exactly what you saw on CNN. The word "invasion" was never used. Not even implied. Not even remotely.

If you have problems with "the regime" please go to Ask the Administrators forum and raise the issue.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

And this is the third time you have broken it.

I do not blame the moderators for that.

I did not know that it was a forbidden term, I have seen it used quite a bit here, and I think it would make the moderators job easier if new rules could be added to the readable list, and if notices could be posted when this is done, it would make it easier for people to be sure they were abiding by all the rules, as well as require less work on the part of the moderators.

I originally intended to lock the thread because the title did not accurately reflect the story being reported. You changed the title and I unlocked it immediately.

Your use of the term "regime" in response to my post was interpreted by many to be in reference to the DU Admins and mods, not the Bush administration.

I posted the original title because I didn't have a link, when links were available I changed it to reflect the (bush) regime-approved nomenclature for Operation Stop Bolivian Democracy.

That is what I was trying to tell you in my original post.

Changing the headline was also a way to illustrate how quickly the media is instructed what words to use to describe the arrival of bush regime gunmen in yet another country.

To be brutally frank, I was not thinking about the admins of this or any other board, and haven't yet seen one that I think of as being quite up to my admittedly high standards for qualification as a regime.

However, the first board I see that gets some planes and starts bombing people, I will be happy to reconsider.

I've asked Skinner for some advanced weaponry, but for some reason, he refuses to provide it. ;)

very discretely, of course. No need to mention it to anyone...

From the CNN article someone posted above:

Poor Indians, blaming Sanchez de Lozada for the deaths of an estimated 74 people in a month of protests, took to the streets on Thursday to reject the president's attempt to win over foes by watering down his hated free market policies.

It was the biggest march since the protests began. Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched on La Paz, exploding dynamite sticks. Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on some protesters who tried to approach the government palace.

Sanchez de Lozada, a 73-year-old U.S. educated businessman and one of the wealthiest people in the country, is disliked by millions of Bolivians who see him as a "gringo" out of touch with the needs of South America's poorest country.

A U.S.-led effort to eradicate coca plantations and an unpopular plan to export natural gas sparked the unrest in the landlocked nation of 8 million, mainly indigenous, people.

For many Bolivians the question is not if the president will leave office but when and how he will go -- either by quitting, by a coup or through street riots. Most analysts say it is nearly impossible he will finish his term in 2007.

But as protests escalated and the capital city came under siege, the president refused to quit, telling CNN on Thursday that the protests were "a coup against democracy."

Facing Bolivia's worst crisis in over 20 years of democracy, the president has infuriated Indian leaders by calling protesters "terrorists," "narcos" and "anarchists."

They, in turn, label him as a "murderer" and "thief."

Ripe for the takeover by the Bushevik Imperial Family.

Also, even if we tried, don't think the Busheviks wouldn't mow us down like the animals they think we are.

if Washington looked like this?

homelessness, prison, etc., then and only then will there be a change. Even though these people are poor, they are strong of spirit and THAT is the difference!

Most Americans are to numbed by tv/media/and all manner of THINGS to see that most of the issues here are from broken spirits that are no longer connected to all living things...only to the matrix.

While 'muriKans lay safely under their blanket of false security thinking that they live in a *free and democratic* country, the US as we knew it is slowly turing into the next third world country. Bushwacked 'muriKan's comfortable with their SUVs, computers, and Big Macs think that what's happening in Bolivia could never happen here. Sad.

<clips>
3rd World Austerity Policies: Coming Soon To a City Near You

Policies traditionally carried out overseas by “international lending institutions” such as the World Bank or International Monetary Fund (IMF) are quickly becoming part of the U.S. domestic economy. Privatization, loss of social services, bifurcation of the economy and an overall decline in the lives of working people are an ongoing reality in the U.S.

Officially, IMF and World Bank measures were imposed to curb inflation, increase exports and strengthen the fiscal condition of debtor nations, allowing them to pay back their loans. In actuality, however, the common result of structural adjustments has been depressed wages, reduced consumer purchase-power, and environmental degradation, while boosting profit rates for multinational investors. Small farmers, having lost their subsidies and import protections, are driven off their land into overcrowded cities. According to a number of economists, including the former chief economist for the Wold Bank, as western investment in the Third World increased throughout the '90s, so did poverty and social instability.

The World Bank and IMF have a four-step "reform" formula for each country. The formula includes Capital-market liberalization, privatization, market-based pricing, and, finally, the introduction of “free trade.” In step one, capital is freed up to flow in and out across the borders. Generally the result is the increased flow of capital out to external businesses with no guarantee that the money will flow in through foreign investment.

Privatization is the second step. This refers to the transfer of traditionally state-run services and utilities like gas, oil, roads, water, post offices, and banks to private companies. The problem, say critics, is that private ownership of a country’s framework leaves it unable to protect its citizens or natural resources from abuses of power.

http://www.projectcensored.org/publications/2004/21.html

Bolivia can sell natural gas to US for the next 20 years

<snip>
13-09-03
Bolivia wants to export 10 tcf of LNG to the United States during the next 20 years, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said during a state visit to Mexico's capital. The income from the fuel can help his country build economic alternatives for farmers who cultivate coca and will also go a long way toward stabilizing a nation torn by civil unrest, Sanchez de Lozada told a small group of foreign correspondents.
"The only thing which will really stop coca production are permanent jobs," Sanchez de Lozada said. "We have to take advantage of this immense richness in our country: our vast gas deposits."


http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/search/welcome.html



Reforming Bolivia's Oil and Gas Sector

<snip>
With proven reserves estimated at more than 880 million barrels of oil, potential reserves estimated at more than 4.8 billion barrels, and large unexplored sedimentary basins, the sector has strong potential for attracting foreign direct investment and providing needed resources for economic growth to Bolivia.


http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20020305~menuPK:34460~pagePK:64003015~piPK:64003012~theSitePK:4607,00.html




MIGA and the United States of America

Largest Investors (Gross Exposure Percentage)

EPED Holding CompanyArgentina, ChileOil and Gas 31.4

El Paso Energy International CompanyBolivia, BrazilOil and Gas 14.6

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:lfjrpmmGRlYJ:www.miga.org/screens/pubs/factsheet/USA.pdf+bolivia+oil+%22united+states%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8



(Who is EPED Holding Company??)

<snip>
The U. S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) was estab-lished to mobilize American private capital in the growth of developing countries and economies that are in transition to democracies and free markets.

EPED Holding Company Houston, Texas
(Can't find more info on this company. Have a sneaking suspcion that of a larger parent company at work here...but who?)

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:1zDwIvMorcoJ:searchpdf.adobe.com/proxies/2/30/48/50.html+%22eped+holding+company%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

CEO of El Paso is former COO of Halliburton!
http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2003/07/21/story4.html
El Paso is BAAAAAD!
http://www.enronwatchdog.org/PDFs/badactors/ElPaso.pdf
EPED is harder to find. Financed by World Bank.
http://www.miga.org/screens/pubs/factsheet/lac.pdf
I believe EPED is part of El Paso Energy. the Bolizia situation has Cheney's fingerprints all over it! (Energy task force/Halliburton)

I found a page that can be viewed through the Google cache. (If you click on the link directly, you
need a registration to proceed.)

http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:74_dMFHDicEJ:www.transnationale.org/fiches/914541467.htm+eped+houston&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

I'm not sure just what it is -- some sort of rundown on El Paso, aparently. It lists among El Paso
subsidiaries EPED A Company and EPED Aguaytia Co, both registered in the Cayman Islands.

It also gives a list of recent company misdemeanors:

El Paso agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle California lawsuits claiming the company manipulated gas
prices by constraining fuel capacity on an El Paso pipeline.
Bloomberg USA 20/03/2003
El Paso Settles California Lawsuits for $1.7 Billion

El Paso reported false data about the price of natural gas. State Senator Joseph Dunn: "wholesale
manipulation at every level (...) effort to drive up prices by any means necessary"
New York Times USA 18/11/2002
Researcher Is Accusing Energy Firms of Deception

El Paso allegedly cut the flow of natural gas into California during its energy crisis to inflate profits,
cost Californians $3.3 billion.
Reuters USA 08/11/2002
California looks to antitrust action against EL Paso

El Paso Merchant Energy LP deliberately reported false natural gas prices and volume in an effort to
influence the market: settles charge for 20 US$ million
Reuters USA 26/03/2003
El Paso unit settling manipulation charges

SEC probe: questionable accounting and trading activities.
CNN (Cable News Network) USA 01/11/2002
Fraud Inc.

More info!! Now...how to get this to the media?

http://www.bigleftoutside.com/

Bechtel is in this somewhere as well.