Morales seen winning Bolivia vote, reforms in air

Morales seen winning Bolivia vote, reforms in air
Thu 7 Aug 2008, 13:30 GMT
By Simon Gardner

LA PAZ, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales is expected to survive a recall vote this weekend but a political crisis in South America's poorest country may intensify as right-wing opponents try to block his socialist reforms.

Morales and eight of Bolivia's nine provincial governors face Sunday's recall votes, which Morales ordered in a bid to undermine the governors and sap momentum from autonomy movements in eastern provinces.

Bolivia's first indigenous leader and a former coca farmer, Morales hopes a recall win will allow him to relaunch reforms such as nationalizations and land redistribution in the landlocked Andean country.

"I'm going to vote for him because he does good things for peasant farmers," said Ignacia Cordero, a wheat and potato farmer from El Alto near La Paz, dressed in a woolen hat and traditional multilayered, multicolored skirts.

"He gives money to the aged, and for children too," the 67-year-old added, her four-year-old grandson slung over her back in a piece of woven cloth. "He won't lose. There are plenty of farmers like me who will vote for him."

More:
http://africa.reuters.com/energyandoil/news/usnN07228407.html

The people of Bolivia have started voting on whether they want President Evo Morales and eight regional governors to remain in office.

The recall referendum was organised to consolidate the leaders in office amid growing divisions over the president's attempts to reform the constitution.

Mr Morales has criticised what he calls privileged groups who talk of separation and oppose change.

Protests increased in the run-up to the referendum

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7551994.stm

edit.....whoops - didn't notice you'd already posted this elsewhere. 'pologies :eyes:

Looks as if they're making sure everyone's voted who intends to vote before they start releasing any news from today.

Things seem to point to a general belief Morales will win, but the hatred and hostility from the 6 racist governors will only be stoked and they will be more resolved than ever to go violent against Morales.

Not a good prospect, but predictable from these people living on stolen land given them by filthy Nazi Hugo Banzer in his attempt to create a "White Bolivia" by throwing the former residents out of the own homes and importing European descended settlers from South Africa and Rhodesia.

Monsters.

Indigenous Bolivians comprise most of the poor, and the poor comprises the majority of Bolivians. They number around 60%, from what I've read. They should stand their ground and push these pig-faced people back.

Bolivia's President Evo Morales has claimed victory in a referendum on whether he should continue in power.

Unofficial results gave Mr Morales a convincing win, and he promised to continue his reforms, including the nationalisation of key industries.

Four of six opposition governors, who have led protests against the president and demand more autonomy, also won the right to stay in office.

The outcome of the vote is likely to leave Bolivia divided, analysts say.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7551994.stm

to get the f### out.

He was there to assist in the turnover of Cochabamba's privatization of water, the bleeding of the poor in his region, and the calling in of sharpshooters to pick off the protesters who were driven to protest the theft of the peoples' only water supplies and the holding of it for a ransom no one of them could afford.

What an evil P.O.S.

Here's a great site I just found this evening. If there aren't captions under the WONDERFUL photos, hold your mouse over the the photos and the captions will loom into view. There's an amazing mural of an ancient warrior on a wall, and a lot of unusual information we just don't get in our own media:

http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/bolivia/indigenous_revolt_evo_morales_president.html#this_is_real



Mr. Wonderful in his own eyes, Manfred Reyes Villa

Whenever I see pictures of the indigenous population wearing those hats I can't help but think of :

I just found a quick Wikipedia on it. They are called both "bowlers" and "derbys:"

It has also been worn by Quechua and Aymara women in Peru and Bolivia since the 1920s when supposedly a shipment of bowler hats was sent from Europe to Bolivia via Peru for use by Europeans who were working on the construction of the railroad. The hats were found to be too small and were distributed to locals. The luxurious, elegant and cosmopolitan Aymara Chola dress which is an icon to Bolivia (bowler hat, Manila Shawl, heavy pollera (a type of skirt) with petticoats, boots, jewelry, etc.) was born and evolved in Chukiago City and it is clearly not provincial but urban. The dress has become an ethnic symbol for the Aymara women. In addition, numerous Aymara live and work as campesinos in the surrounding Altiplano.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowler_hat

Here's an interesting article from the N. Y. Times regarding Bolivian hip hop kids, and an interesting photo of an Aymara woman crossing paths with some hip hop kids:



May 26, 2005
Young Bolivians Adopt Urban U.S. Pose, Hip-Hop and All
By JUAN FORERO
EL ALTO, Bolivia, May 24 - This sprawling city on Bolivia's windswept high plains, home to nearly 800,000 Indians, is a tradition-bound place where the language is Aymara, the women wear derby hats and layer-cake skirts and families relax to centuries-old Andean music, which is heavy on pipes but devoid of lyrics.

In other words, not exactly the place you would expect to find a thriving, politically charged rap culture.

But El Alto - a flash point for protest and the capital of indigenous Bolivia - is seething, and a growing number of young Aymara are expressing their anger in a hard-driving rap, complete with rapid-fire lyrics excoriating Bolivia's leaders and venting about the dire social conditions of the country's Indian majority.

Adopting the trappings of American hip-hop, young Aymara wear baggy pants and baseball caps and strike the pose of urban America, hand signs, cocky talk and all.

Their inspiration, though, comes straight from Bolivia's recent tumultuous history: the fall of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in October 2003 after protests in which 60 Indian demonstrators were killed, the bitter struggle over development of Bolivia's huge natural gas reserves, the indignation over the Washington-financed eradication of coca and the desperate poverty.

"We have lyrics about Black October," said Abraham Bojórquez, 22, the natural leader of a group of about 20 rappers. "We sing about coca, about poverty. Our singing is revolutionary. We protest without marches or strikes. We do it through music, to reach as many people as possible."

In the song "Jichaw" - Aymara for "Now" - the chorus, also in Aymara, captures the fervor of Bolivia's emboldened Indians: "Now we are speaking. Now they will know us. Now we will rise up." Switching to Spanish, the rappers then sing of how "the revolution has started, against the system and the state."

The rappers, belonging to groups with names that translate as, for example, Insane Race, the Lyrical Urban Movement and the Clandestines, often mix Aymara with their Spanish. Their songs combine a strong love of their country with a deep resentment toward those who have oppressed and exploited it, whether insiders or outsiders.

"Proud to be born in my Bolivia," goes one song by Lyrical Urban Movement, "though a land wounded by oppressors who call themselves defenders of my land."

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/26/international/americas/26bolivia.html

There's an audio side show in the left column.

http://www.cinematical.com.nyud.net:8090/media/2006/06/charlie_chaplin01.jpg

Love those dancing Laurel and Hardy guys. They move divinely!

I really had no idea that it was a more or less latter day ethnic fashion statement of sorts which only went back to the twenties. I'd thought it was a convenient update of an earlier style.

Good job it wasn't Charleston dresses instead of bowlers. The mind boggles. :)

at least for the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala. I imagine Peru, Bolivia, and everywhere else its the same.

I don't believe women were wearing wool skirts or the type of blouses now "traditionally" worn in the pre-Columbian era. the unique woven designs from just about every town made it easy for the Spaniards to identify the place of origin of the wearer.

n/t

It was a highly ornamented baby blue satin matador suit with lavish gold braid, shoulder things, loops, car fresheners, can opener, etc.



You'd want to check when you wear this one, in advance, to make sure no one else will be showing up in one just like it.

You don't see that many faces lined in real suffering in our own cultures. There's no mistaking the hardship these people have lived with every single day of their lives. It makes its mark on people. What a sorrowful pity they have had no options whatsoever, and that all roads have been blocked to them by the hogs who stole their country by violence.

What a shame these people COULDN'T EVEN WALK ON THE SIDEWALKS UNTIL 1952, when they staged a successful revolution of sorts. Clearly it didn't get all the work done, did it?

Juan Karita / AP Photo

Aymara voters line up to cast their ballots outside
a polling station in Walata Chico, north of La Paz,
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Juan Karita / AP Photo

Dinocio Coronel Aymará looks at his empty ballot
before deciding his vote in Walata Chico, north of
La Paz, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

A coca grower, second from left, checks her
identity document while lining up to vote at a
polling station in Villa 14 de Septiembre, in the
Bolivian state of Cochabamba,Sunday,Aug. 10,2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

Bolivia's President Evo Morales holds up his vote
before casting it at a poll station in Villa 14

de Septiembre, in the Bolivian state of Cochabamba,
Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008.



Dado Galdieri / AP Photo

A child peeks through the legs of trade union
coca growers wearing T-shirts with the face of
Bolivia's Pesident Evo Morales who are lined up
to prevent the crowd from getting too close to
Morales, unseen, as Morales arrives to campaign
in Paractito village in the coca region of Chaparein
in Bolivia's Cochabamba department, Saturday,
Aug. 9, 2008.

Bolivians back Morales in recall vote
Posted on Sun, Aug. 10, 2008

By FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Voters vigorously endorsed President Evo Morales on Sunday in a recall referendum he devised to try to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist crusade, partial unofficial results showed.

More than 62 percent of voters in this bitterly divided Andean nation ratified the mandate of Morales and his vice president, Alvaro Garcia, according to a private quick count of votes from 900 of the country's 22,700 polling stations.

The 53.7 percent by which Bolivia's first indigenous president won election in December 2005 had been the previous best electoral showing for a Bolivian leader.

Morales had proposed Sunday's recall in a bold gamble to topple governors who have frustrated his bid to redress historical inequities in favor of Bolivia's long-suppressed indigenous majority and extend his time in office.

Eight of the country's nine governors were also subject to recall - and two Morales foes were among the three ousted, according to the quick count, which was conducted by the Ipsos-Apoyo firm for the ATB television network. First official results were not expected until late Sunday.

Morales' leftist agenda has met with bitter opposition in the unabashedly capitalistic eastern half of the country, where protesters who accuse him of being a lackey of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week blockaded airports to keep Morales from touching down for campaign visits.

All four governors there easily survived Sunday's plebiscite, as expected.

But Morales did score gains with the defeat of opposition governors in the highland province of La Paz and in Cochabamba, seat of his coca-growers movement. The recently elected governor of central Chuquisaca province was exempt from the referendum.

Cochabamba Gov. Manfred Reyes, a conservative three-time presidential candidate, promptly refused to recognize the results and called the referendum unconstitutional.

Under the law that set the referendum's rules, politicians whose "no" votes exceed the percentage by which they were elected are ousted. It also lets Morales name temporary replacements pending provincial elections.

~snip~
"For more than 500 years we've lived in slavery," said Rolando Choque, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher voting in Achacachi. "Change doesn't come overnight. It's a long road."

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/AP/story/636069.html