Reply #6: interesting.. another--

[Aidoneus]

Nice detailed background on gov't/IMF policies also.. The helicopter against virtually unarmed protestors is a fine touch, and the energetic backing of the ex-CIA US Embassy a predictable addition on the side.

26 reported killed
Bolivian troops massacre strikers
By César Uco and Bill Vann
14 October 2003

Bolivian army troops backed by tanks killed at least 26 workers and peasants and wounded some 90 more Sunday, as the US-backed government of President Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada unleashed murderous repressive force in an attempt to crush a month-long rebellion against his government’s International Monetary Fund-dictated austerity policies.

The army moved into the industrial suburb of El Alto, outside La Paz, which has been the center of the movement of strikes and protests that has challenged the government. Witnesses said that troops opened fire with machine-guns on residents of the town, who had nothing more than sticks and stones to fight back.

“They are massacring us,” reported Roberto de la Cruz, a union leader and organizer of the strike in El Alto. “There is no battle. They shoot at us at will, firing at the crowd.” Among the dead was a five-year-old boy cut down by machine-gun fire. Local hospitals were overwhelmed by the number of wounded, and appeals were made for donations of blood.

An attack helicopter was also used in the assault, which was aimed at breaking a virtual siege of La Paz by strikers and protesters. The army’s immediate objective was to resupply the capital’s dwindling fuel and food reserves.

--snip--

Opposition leaders charged that the US Embassy played a decisive role in urging the government to drown the protest movement in blood. US Ambassador David Greenlee served in the 1980s as the chief CIA agent in the country. He is widely blamed in Bolivia for the implementation of draconian repression against coca growers and in particular for a 1988 massacre at Villa Tunari that claimed the lives of 28 peasants.

In the present confrontation, the US Embassy is promoting violent repression to further the interests of the same handful of politically connected energy corporations whose interests have driven US aggression in Iraq and elsewhere.

--snip--

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/oct2003/boli-o14.shtml