The Unvarnished Truth from Santa Cruz, Bolivia - With Fury and Pain

From Santa Cruz, With Fury and Pain

Grover Cardozo - Alai-amlatina

Translation: Machetera

I’m at Santos Dumont Avenue at the height of Santa Cruz’s third ring. From the very heart of this land, from this region that is preparing for a hard episode in its history, I have a moral duty to denounce the following, to Bolivia and to the world:

Santa Cruz at the moment is a victim of a political agreement, a bloody pact by those who control the region with a strategy of fear. Powers that articulate a discourse with a Cruceñista appearance, but is nothing more than a concealment of the most perverse dark interests against the people and against the democratically elected government.

The social environment here in Santa Cruz is one of fear and uncertainty. Part of the population has taken on a festive atmosphere, joyful, with marches, carnival music, and dancing youth and children. Other sectors watch in silence, impotently biting their tongues against the activities of the affluent sectors, the light-skinned descendants of foreigners.

The strategy of fear has worked. The hard-line sectors have made the Union Juvenil Cruceñista (Union of Santa Cruz Youth) feared by a good part of the population. Other sectors in turn, put their fear aside and took to the streets and plazas to protest and express themselves on television, radio and alternative papers, but the press coverage of these voices is so small and insignificant as to give the impression that in Santa Cruz there’s only one slogan, one view and one political line.

The communication media in Santa Cruz have reached bottom in regard to their credibility. Radio, television and newspapers have established a direct umbilical cord between themselves and the Santa Cruz Pro Civic Committee as well as the Prefect.

FULL ARTICLE:
http://machetera.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/the-unvarnished-truth-from-santa-cruz-bolivia/#more-212

the Union Juvenil Cruceñista. I saw one of their trucks with a Nazi sign on it the other day in a photo. A group of people with enforcers like this must be hoping to become another Colombia!