Bolivian separatists taking up arms in movement which threatens Brazil

[StefanX]

Source: O Globo (Brazilian newspaper in Rio de Janeiro), by Leonard Valente (translation StefanX)

The wrap-up of Bolivia's Constitutaional Convention, scheduled for August, may become a powderkeg for one of the most serious crises in South America's recent history. The part of Bolivia known as Half Moon, made up mainly of the states of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Tarija, is heading for an outbreak of large-scale armed separatist conflict, if demands for greater autonomy for the region are not met by the new Constitution. According to regional leaders and analysts, the movement, known as Camba Nation, has militias with about 12,000 men, who are said to be receiving training from the paramilitary group United Self-Defense of Colombia (AUC, Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia). Brazilian military sources fear that, in case of a conflict, Hugo Chavez would intervene in favor of {Bolivian president} Evo Morales...

"We are just waiting for the wrap-up of the Constitutional Convention. If they don't guarantee us the autonomy we're demanding in the Constitution, the next step is separation. There is no room for compromise; the situation is untenable. We do favor a political solution, but we will not give way on our plans, because our development and the will of our people are at stake. Everything is on the table," said Sergio Antelo, one of the leaders of {the separatist group} Camba Nation.
...
The territory demanded by the separatists represents about 70% of Bolivia, generates most of the country's wealth and has the highest socio-economic indicators of {Bolivia}, one of the poorest countries in South America. The movement has existed for decades but it became stronger when Evo Morales came to power and proposed a "new foundation" for Bolivia and a review of what he calls historic injustices against the indigenous people -- the poorest group in the country. Autonomy supporters allege that Morales, with his goals of centralization, is taking resources from the richest regions via taxes, without offering investments in return.

"The poverty of the Andes region of the country isn't our fault. What he (Morales) is doing is impoverishing Bolivia, because the money of ours which he invests in the indigenous communities also isn't helping their situation. We have a clear goal, which is our campaign's slogal: 'Fatherland or Death'," says a high-level official of Santa Cruz state who is part of the separatist movement, who requested anonymity and confirmed the existence of appoximately 12,000 militia members.
...
The autonomy proposal which the separatists are asking {Bolivia's capital} La Paz to include in the new Constitution is modeled on a "bi-national state", which would give the states of Camba Nation independence in resource management, internal security and adminstration. Morales responds that the proposal is not conducive to a sovereign and integrated nation, saying that it's an "excuse for initiatives aimed at harming our unity and sovereignty." Morales has a force of about 25,000 men in {Bolivia's}armed forces, and in the last few months has received helicopters from Venezuela.

"If our demands are not met, we are in a position to rapidly close the access connecting Santa Cruz to the Andes region (where La Paz is located). This would prevent Morales's troops from entering. We realize that if we do this, Morales will have the support of Hugo Chavez to do air strikes. But if he accepts that support, he's going to be helping us instead of hurting us. If Venezuela gets involved, we'll have more support from the international community," the official stated, confirming that his forces are receiving training from Colombia's AUC and arms ordered from Israel. "We're not fools, we need to be ready for anything."
...
The possibility of a confrontation between Half Moon militias and Bolivian troops under Evo Morales could jeopardize the supply of gas to both Brazil and Argentina. The state of Tarija in Bolivia, which is responsible for more than 90% of the natural gas sent to Argentina and Brazil, is part of Half Moon and is said to be territory being claimed by the Camba Nation separatists in case of conflict. Two mega-oilfields (San Alberto and San Antonio) operated by {Brazilian state oil company} Petrobras are located there, producing about 80% of the Bolivian gas consumed by Brazil.



Read more: http://oglobo.globo.com/mundo/mat/2007/04/28/295556845.asp

---

This is (yet another) oil-rich region which is close to erupting in conflict.

The autonomy movement is in the oil-rich region (around the Amazon) and includes more people of European descent. Bolivia's government under Evo Morales (around the Andes) includes more indigenous people.

It's also worth noting that the 100,000 acres of land recently purchased by Bush is close to this oil-rich region.

We should keep an eye on this brewing conflict and support a fair, diplomatic solution.

Other links:
http://news.google.com.br/news?hl=pt&ned=pt-BR_br&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1103701107

[Peace Patriot]

1. And who's behind AUC? You guessed it--the Bush Junta!

$4 BILLION in our tax dollars to the folks running Colombia's military, which was recently exposed in a huge scandal in Colombia, for its rightwing paramilitary mass murder, drug trafficking and plots to assassinate Hugo Chavez and destabilize the Andean democracies--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador. The Colombia military chief! Cronies of Uribe (Prez/ Bush pal), and his former intelligence chief. All arrested or implicated.

This violent "separatist" scheme in Bolivia is a plot hatched in the White House!

Is there nowhere on earth untouched by evil of this US regime? Is there no limit to their corruption and destructiveness?

The good news is that the leftists (majorityists) are now in charge in South America, and are growing in strength in Central America. Leftist governments elected in Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador. Also Nicaragua. (And big leftist movements in Peru and Mexico.) The leaders of these countries will no longer put up with this kind of rotten-to-the core US interference in South America. So it's my prediction that the Bush Cartel's effort to create themselves these little enclaves of fascism in the midst of this enormous democracy movement will fail. That's not to say they can't cause considerable grief in the process. They have already done so in Colombia, where thousands of union organizers, leftists and peasants have been slaughtered. But the tide has turned so significantly in South America that these dinosauric schemes (US-installed fascist dictators and global corporate predator "free trade") can no longer succeed at stealing South American resources and enslaving its people.

Our job is to restore transparent vote counting here, and topple our own fascist junta, which is committing such atrocities in our name.

[IndianaGreen]

6. As the modern version of feudal lords they are, the capitalists are not about to go quietly

Here in America they usually succeeded by throwing morsels to the masses to keep them at bay. When that fails, they haven't hesitated to use brute force, as they did at the Haymarket Massacre and the unionizing strikes at car manufacturing and coal industries.

Latin America was always considered vassal states to their Colossus of the North. Thankfully, capitalism is now hard pressed by diminishing resources coupled with expanding demands by people across the world for their fair share.

The war in Iraq was a desperate attempt to impose American hegemony across the world. The fact that the US is bogged down there now, has not stopped the capitalists from mischief elsewhere, particularly in those countries where the blooms of social and economic justice are now seeing the light of day.

[Joanne98]

2. It was just a matter of time before Bushco interferred!

[Mudoria]

14. Source?

[Benhurst]

3. Recommended #2

[IndianaGreen]

4. Looks like the CIA is reprising what it did with breakaway Katanga province in Congo

Instead of progressive Patrice Lumumba, the target now is Evo Morales. BTW, the Bushes own property in adjacent Paraguay, and the Pentagon has deployed troops to that country under the pretext of GWOT. Last year several clever DUers took note that the oil and natural gas region of Bolivia just happened to be across the border from Paraguay, and the Bush property and all those glorious American troops.

A Katanga-style insurrection was predictable!

[conspirator]

5. BushCo evil is an octopus with long tentacles nt

[IndianaGreen]

7. Hillary is not much better! She already aligned herself with the Latin American elites

At a recent speech in which she cried "Take that, Venezuela!," she clearly aligned herself with the Latin American elites when she said (referring to Venezuelan people) that "their values are not our values." Hillary was addressing a gathering of the super wealthy at a fund raiser.

I wish I could say that Hillary is the only Democratic candidate or leader that supports exploitative neoliberal policies, but we all now that this is not true by a long shot.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Well, it really figures, doesn't it? My God. Hadn't hear that one, yet.

The Clintons were heavily influenced in the Cuba policy undoubtedly through the influence of Hillary's brother's wife, who is a Cuban "exile." They apparently have absorbed the right-wing Latin American attitudes, so dominated all these years by the worst scum in the U.S. Congress, with people like Jesse Helms calling the shots, working in tandem with Latin American elitists, often in "exile," and graciously accepting their campaign contributions.

As you know, there's a LOUD, extremely wealthy anti-Chavez faction in South Florida which bonded with the right-wing reactionary "exiles" several years ago. They claim responsibility for forming John Kerry's position on Chavez, and are happy to brag about it openly.

[IndianaGreen]

12. DU link for "Take that Venezuela" by Hillary to wealthy supporters

DU link for "Take that Venezuela"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3169674

Here are some of my responses on that thread:

''Take that, Venezuela." Hillary is either clueless or downright evil.

''I turn off a light and say, 'Take that, Iran,' and ''Take that, Venezuela.' We should not be sending our money to people who are not going to support our values,'' she said

Hillary is not talking about my values, or the values of the working class in America or in Venezuela. Hillary is speaking of her values, the values of the American and Venezuelan elites, the values of John Negroponte and Otto Reich, the values that led to a US instigated coup in Venezuela which thankfully failed.

We must redouble our effort to prevent this neolib/PPI imperialist version of a PNAC neocon from becoming President. Hillary will try to reconquer Latin America by either stealth or military force.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3169674#3169692

Hillary didn't say "Take that, EXXON!"

That alone is a big clue of which masters she serves, and whose interests she will fight for.

Hillary's interests and values are not the interests and values of the working class, nor the interests and values of the peasants and indigenous peoples of Latin America.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3169674#3170221

Hillary's recent statements, or lack of them, on LGBT rights, keeping a US footprint of troops and bases in Iraq past 2009, Venezuela, and other issues dear to progressives, are a big warning sign that she will split the party and polarize the Left were she to become the nominee.

In the event Hillary is elected President, be prepared for antiwar demonstrations to commemorate the start of the Iraq war to take place on March 2009, March 2010, and beyond.

Remember when Nixon turned a Democratic war into a Republican one?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3169674#3170211

Hillary should read this 2004 open letter to John Kerry regarding Venezuela

President Chavez’ goal, and the goal of peaceful Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela is to invest the country’s oil wealth in the people of the nation. Already many social reforms and programs have produced impressive benefits to the great majority of the population, many of whom have lived in dire poverty for decades. For example since 1998, 3 million people have received access to potable water for the first time and another 1 million have received sewage service. The military has built or refurbished over 30 thousand homes, built 700 new schools and refurbished over 2 thousand--employing 36 thousand new teachers. Over the past year 8 hundred thousand illiterates have graduated from the second phase of a 3 phase literacy program, 28 thousand children have received free vaccinations, and 18 million patients have been seen by clinic doctors in areas that had no medical facilities just 2 years ago. Thanks to micro-credits and grassroots empowerment, there are over 10 thousand cooperatives with over 6.5 thousand members. Similarly, hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone into the hands of women-owned, small businesses and cooperatives through the Women’s Bank. Landless campesinos have received over 2.5 million acres of productive land and over 30 thousand titles have been given to urban squatters. The airwaves have been opened up to accommodate dozens of independent radio and TV broadcasters who provide much needed uncensored news. These are just some of the current national programs; there are also tens of thousands of state, local, and community projects in complement. Mr. Kerry, in the past a minority of elite controlled the oil revenues of Venezuela; now the wealth of Venezuela belongs to all Venezuelans.

On May 27 you stated, “When the referendum process presented a legitimate challenge to his leadership, President Chavez lost an opportunity to demonstrate the popular support he claims to enjoy, instead showing a troubling disregard for the rule of law.” First, we would like to ask if you know of any other country, including our own, that has provided a Presidential recall referendum measure in their Constitution? Let us point out that it was President Chavez himself who proposed that a referendum be included in the Constitution in 1999. Second we would ask you to read the rule of law. The text of the 1999 Constitution in English can be found at: http://cybercircle.org/english/constitution.html . It clearly spells out the steps for arriving at a referendum.

Chavez has followed these steps to the letter. Because this is a new Constitution and because the referendum process had never been tried before, there were many legal details that had to be worked out in court. These proceedings were absolutely necessary for defining the process and setting precedence for the future. Those advocating that Chavez “call for” a referendum vote were in effect advocating that he take a dictatorial stance over the judicial branch and diverge from the Constitution. This is the 26th Constitution of Venezuela. It is a fragile document that cannot afford to be undermined by political pressure. The Chavez government chose to stick by the Constitution and the rule of law instead of bowing to political pressure.

The signature drive for the recall came up short. Due to countless irregularities thousands of signatures were of undeterminable validity. Instead of throwing these out, the Chavez administration agreed to a repair process through which those whose signature was considered controversial, could verify their signature, thus allowing several thousands of suspect signatures to be included in the final count as well as tens of thousands of signatures to be proven fraudulent. The November 2000 elections in the US may have ended quite differently for us if a repair process had been invoked

http://wwww.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1198

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=3169674#3169726

[Judi Lynn]

8. Do you remember hearing about Bush's meddling in Bolivia's military

right around the time of Evo Morales' election? He persuaded high-ranking officers in Bolivia to destroy some missiles before Evo Morales would be able to stop them.

It's discussed in this article:

Bolivia: the military plan and wait
Evo Morales and his Movement Towards Socialism still have plenty of opponents in and out of Bolivia: the separatist white elite in the rich oil and gas regions, army factions, multinationals, and the government of the United States.

By Maurice Lemoine

ADMIRAL Marco Antonio Justiniano, the commander-in-chief of the Bolivian armed forces insisted last August that “as a citizen, Evo Morales has the right and the freedom to talk to anyone he likes” (1). He was responding to calls for an investigation into links between Morales, the leader of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), and the governments of Venezuela and Cuba. With Morales expected to win the presidential election in December, the conservatives were extremely active.
(snip)

It is difficult to assess the relative strength of these opposing factions, but the US is taking no chances. In October a Bolivian anti-terrorist commando group, Chacha Puma, on instructions from the US embassy and accompanied by US officers, removed 29 Chinese-manufactured HN-5A surface-to-air missiles from the barracks where they were stored. At first Antezana claimed they had been removed because they had reached the end of their operational life. Actually, they had completed only nine years of a 20-year service life. He subsequently provoked a storm by revealing that the US had ordered them to be destroyed “in anticipation of Morales’s imminent victory”. On 18 January this admission cost him his job and forced the resignation of the defence minister, Gonzalo Méndez.

Last July 500 members of the US Special Forces arrived in the neighbouring state of Paraguay to train the army “in the struggle against terrorism and drug-trafficking”. Since August, as well as supervising military manoeuvres, the US army has rehabilitated the Mariscal Estigarribia airport in the Gran Chaco region, just 250km from the border with Bolivia. The 3,800m runway is long enough to take heavy transport aircraft, such as the B-52, the C-130 Hercules and the C-5 Galaxy. It is ideally situated as a base for intervention in Bolivia, if the separatist movement in Santa Cruz should decide that the country had become ungovernable.
(snip/)

http://mondediplo.com/2006/02/08bolivia

[conspirator]

10. This makes me sick. Such greed will destroy our planet nt

[Judi Lynn]

11. You'll feel even sicker if you read about Bolivia's US-serving dictator, Hugo Banzer.

He's the one who brought in water privatization by a company which started charging Bolivians for the RAIN they attempted to collect, after tripling the costs of their conventional water use.

Here's a concentrated look at his fine work:

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia
In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.
(snip/)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's more, ugly in every way, at Wikipedia:

Military and ideological formation
Hugo Banzer was native to the rural lowlands of the department of Santa Cruz. He attended military schools in Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and the United States, including the Armored Cavalry School at Fort Hood, Texas, and the renowned School of the Americas in the former Panama Canal Zone, where he was trained in counter-insurgency tactics.
(snip)

Frustrated by the political divisions and protests that characterized the Torres and Ovando years, and, traditionally an enemy of dissent and freedom of speech, Banzer banned all the left-leaning parties, suspended the powerful Central Obrera Boliviana, and closed the nation's universities. "Order" was now the paramount aim, and no means were spared to restore authority and stifle dissent. Buoyed by the initial legitimacy provided by Paz and Gutierrez's support, the dictator ruled with a measure of civilian support until 1974, when the main parties realized he did not intend to hold elections and was instead using them to perpetuate himself in power. At that point, Banzer dispensed with all pretenses and banned all political activity, exiled all major leaders (Paz Estenssoro included), and proceeded to rule henceforth solely with military support.

Human rights groups claim that during Banzer's 1971-78 tenure (known as the Banzerato) several thousand Bolivians sought asylum in foreign countries, 3,000 political opponents were arrested, 200 were killed, and many more were tortured. Many others simply disappeared <1>. Among the victims of the regime are Colonel Andrés Selich, Banzer's first Minister of the Interior and co-conspirator in the August 1971 coup. Selich was accused of plotting to overthrow Banzer and died of blows sustained while in custody. Two other generals with sufficient stature to potentially eclipse the dictator were murdered under suspicious circumstances while in exile: General Joanquin Zenteno Anaya and, more shockingly, former President Juan José Torres Gonzáles, both in 1976.
(snip/...)

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



The small dictator with right-wing monster dictator Pinochet is Hugo Banzer.

[Judi Lynn]

13. MAY DAY-BOLIVIA: New Style Work Force (post 1990's privatization)

MAY DAY-BOLIVIA:
New Style Work Force
Bernarda Claure

LA PAZ, Apr 30 (IPS) - The May 1 Labour Day marches in the Bolivian capital were a memorable sight two decades ago, a real celebration of workers' unity, led by thousands of helmeted miners carrying their drills. But today the workers' movement is a shadow of its former self, and the present generation of workers, out of necessity, are dispersed in new kinds of occupations.

Self-employed workers, small and micro businesses, workers in illegal sweatshops, garbage-pickers who classify and sell whatever can be recovered, street vendors -- in short, all the components of the informal sector of the economy are now a major part of the work force which Bolivia's leftist government is endeavouring to learn about and support.

Figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) indicate that in the 1970s, Bolivia's state-owned mining company (COMIBOL), then the country's main employer, had up to 60,000 employees. Today, mining companies employ no more than 15,000 workers.

The informal sector, on the other hand, where workers are unregistered and neither contribute to nor receive social benefits, currently employs 83 percent of the working population. The public and private sectors employ the remaining 17 percent of workers, the deputy minister of micro and small business, Ramiro Uchani, told IPS.

The hugely important informal sector mushroomed as a result of mass unemployment generated in the 1980s by the free-market economic policies espoused by the final administration of the late Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1952-1956, 1960-1964, 1964, 1985-1989), and by privatisations in the 1990s.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37559

[Judi Lynn]

15. Gone, But Not Forgotten:Why Bolivians want the United States to extradite their exiled ex-president

News > May 2, 2007
Gone, But Not Forgotten
Why Bolivians want the United States to extradite their exiled ex-president
By Wes Enzinna

~snip~
In October 2003, protests erupted in the impoverished and largely Aymara Indian city of El Alto over a government plan to export natural gas to the United States via Chile under economic terms protesters said would not benefit most Bolivians. The demonstrators filled El Alto and organized strategic blockades to stop gas from reaching the nearby capital of La Paz and later being exported. They also demanded nationalization of the country’s gas reserves.

President Gonzalo “Goni” Sánchez de Lozada, widely recognized as the architect of Bolivia’s neoliberal “shock therapy,” had orchestrated the gas deal, and on Oct. 11 he ordered the military into El Alto to quell the protests and break the blockades. By the end of October, more than 60 demonstrators were dead and 400 wounded—the result of soldiers firing “large-caliber weapons, including heavy machine guns,” into the crowd, as the Catholic Church testified in a public statement. León, stopped by troops along with four others, was unarmed when she was shot. Among the others killed were small children and a pregnant woman. In the wake of the massacres, Sánchez de Lozada fled the country for the United States, where he remains today.
(snip)

Sánchez de Lozada has a fortune estimated at $50 million, largely garnered through the privatization of the country’s state-owned mines. Even if a trial and conviction were to occur, it remains uncertain that victims would see any money. Various sources, who wish to remain anonymous, believe Sánchez de Lozada has “hidden his assets so that victims cannot collect damages under any circumstances.”

A trial could also have larger repercussions. “With this case, people have both a fear and a hope,” says Mayta. “The fear is that if the guilty parties are not sanctioned today, tomorrow another authority will order another massacre. The hope is that if we can bring to justice, it will serve as an inhibitor of future abuse and arbitrary violence.”

For a country where Indians were banned from walking on the sidewalk until and where neoliberal policies were typically carried out at gunpoint, Sánchez de Lozada’s trial would give the nation’s indigenous majority something they’ve always been denied. Says Guzman, “The extradition of Mr. Sánchez de Lozada, as part of a process that is in strict accordance with Bolivian laws, has only one meaning for the Bolivian people, and that meaning can be summarized with a single word: justice.”
(snip/...)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3136/gone_but_not_forgotten/

[Judi Lynn]

17. Bolivia: "a country where Indians were banned from walking on the sidewalk until 1952 "

I had to repeat that sentence from the article. Something went wrong when I posted it and the date was missing. Had to make sure people could read this in its accurate form.

That doesn't speak well for the invading European class in Bolivia. Let me remind you of Bolivia's LOATHESOME immediate past:

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia
In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.
(snip/)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html



Hugo Banzer is the one who, in being restored to Bolivia's Presidency at a later date, threw wide open the doors to privatization of Bolivians' water, which became controlled by a subsidiary of Bechtel. This company charged Bollivian citizens FOR RAIN WATER they collected in vessels on their own property.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Sharpshooter enlisted to slaughter protesting Bolivians

When a peaceful march was attempted, President Hugo Banzer summoned the police. They arrested protest leaders from their beds in the dark of night, shut down radio stations, and sent soldiers firing into the street . During two days of repression and tear gas attacks 175 people were injured. The people of Cochabamba made it clear they had reached their limit. When they refused to retreat, the Bolivian government declared a "state of siege". After four days of strikes Bolivian government officials were forced to nullify the contract they had signed last year.
(snip)

http://1worldcommunication.org/documentaryonbolivia.htm

[paulk]

16. i wouldn't be surprised if all out civil war engulfs Bolivia

within the year. This current state of affairs was fairly predictable given Bolivia's history.

If Vz gets involved, a regional proxy war could be the result. Look for the price of gasoline to go up, not to mention the price of cocaine! Neither Brazil or Argentina is going to be too happy about any of this, and could very well get involved.