Bolivia: Main Opposition Candidate Accused of Taking US Funds
Published 3 July 2019
"It is no coincidence that a few days after returning from the U.S., it was announced that Mesa has close to US$10 million," Movement for Socialism legislator, Valeria Silva, denounced.
Bolivia’s main opposition presidential candidate for the Citizens Community (CC) party, Carlos Mesa, is under fire as his party has been accused of receiving US$10 million in initial funding from unknown sources from the United States (U.S.).
“Mesa went a few days ago to the United States, the question is, did he go to look for contributors? It is no coincidence that a few days after returning from his trip, it was announced that (Mesa) has close to US$10 million for his campaign," Movement for Socialism (MAS) legislator, Valeria Silva, denounced.
On Sunday, the spokesman for Mesa’s party, Diego Ayo — a former employee for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) — assured that the amount was collected in charity festivals and with contributions from private individuals.
. . .
He is best known as serving alongside former president Sanchez de Lozada, who fled by helicopter to Miami just as Bolivia was experiencing one of its worst economic crisis. Also responsible for the ‘Black October’ massacre, during which state security forces killed over 60 Bolivians in the context of anti-privatization protests.
In more than one occasion, the right-wing candidate has expressed his open support for U.S. intervention in Bolivia, arguing that the Latin American nation is a "small country" and needs to have strong relations with the "world's largest power."
An opinion shared by the Bolivian opposition, who openly and constantly ask for U.S. intervention in the country, as the North American nation did during most of Bolivia’s history.
More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bolivia-Carlos-Mesa-Opposition-Accused-US-Funding-Campaign-20190703-0027.html
Following Massacre, Bolivians Demand Extradition of Former President Residing in the U.S.
Ten years ago, following the violent suppression of the Bolivian people, the U.S. facilitated the safe passage of Bolivia's disgraced president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to Maryland.
Aldo Orellana López
Oct 21, 2013 in Alternet
n the night of October 17, 2003, Bolivians were witness to an extraordinary split-screen spectacle on their televisions. On one side was the image of the nation’s President, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, fleeing by commercial airliner for the United States. On the other was the image of Sánchez de Lozada’s Vice-President, Carlos Mesa, taking the Presidential oath before the Bolivian Congress and asking the nation to observe a minute of silence for the more than 60 people killed during government repression over the previous month. Last week marks the 10th anniversary of Bolivia’s Octubre Negro, or Black October.
The Gas War
The events that would oust a sitting President and alter the course of Bolivian politics in deep and lasting ways began in September 2003 as news spread of Sánchez de Lozada’s plans to export Bolivia’s gas and oil at bargain prices through Chile to the U.S. Soon popular uprisings against the plan exploded across the Bolivian highlands. Sánchez de Lozada – a close ally of the U.S. whose 2002 election was managed by Bill Clinton’s campaign team – had already presided over a wave of repression in February of that year. In his efforts to meet a command for economic belt-tightening from the International Monetary Fund, the President imposed new taxes on people earning as little as $100 per month. The round of protests and repression sparked by that move left 34 people dead. When the new protests over his gas plans erupted, his response with troops, violence and bloodshed was more severe still.
. . .
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who had presided over a wave of national privatizations as President in the 1990s, won the divided 2002 elections with barely 22% of the vote and only lost public support further as he governed. When the government announced its insistence to move forward with its gas plans, social and indigenous organizations began blockading roads and highways in protest. On September 20, Sánchez de Lozada sent the first wave of troops out to clear the roads, in the community of Warisata, 60 miles from the Bolivian capital, La Paz. The assault left several people dead including Marlene Nancy Rojas Ramos, an eight year old girl.
As word of the killings spread, the protests by social organizations and repression by the military intensified, with its epicenter in the city El Alto, just above the capital. On October 12 a caravan of trucks (named by protesters, the ´Caravan of Death´) passed through El Alto escorted by troops carrying fuel supplies down to the more affluent capital. As the military sought to move past the protest blockades they opened fire, leaving twenty five people dead in their wake.
The killings sparked outrage across the nation. Union leaders, human rights advocates, prominent academics and intellectuals, and many others joined the protests in large numbers, mounting hunger strikes to demand Sánchez de Lozada’s immediate resignation. When he finally fled via a flight to Miami on the night of October 17th, joined by his despised Defense Minister, Carlos Sánchez Berzain, celebrations broke out across the country.
More:
https://democracyctr.org/article/following-massacre-bolivians-demand-extradition-of-former-president-residing-in-the-u-s/
