Bolivia's Morales calls for vote on his presidency

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Bolivia's Morales calls for vote on his presidency
Wed Dec 5, 2007 9:16pm EST

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivian President Evo Morales called on Wednesday for a nationwide referendum to decide whether he should stay in the job as a way to resolve a deepening political crisis in the country.

The leftist leader's plans to overhaul Bolivia's constitution have reignited long-running conflicts between more indigenous Andean regions, where Morales has his support base, and wealthier lowland areas.

In an apparent bid to draw a line under the conflict, Morales proposed a referendum to decide whether he and nine regional governors should remain in their posts. Six of the country's nine regions are controlled by his opponents.

"If the people say 'Evo's going', I've got no problem. I'm democratic," the former coca farmer said in a televised speech. "The people will say who's going and who's staying to guarantee this process of change."



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN057134720071206

[KingOfLostSouls]

1. This really puts a dent in the Idiot-ocracy

first chavez demonstrated what real democracy is. he put it to the people and trusted in their wisdom and showed himself both a humble and wise believer in the power of democracy


now evo morales is saying the same thing, that he has faith in the people.

and what unites them? both love their countries, love their people, and the corporate/busholvik idiot-ocracy consider them threats to democracy.

I say bravo to evo morales. whether he wins or loses, he is showing he is a true leader.

[IntravenousDemilo]

2. Why, oh why, can't they just have regular elections scheduled according to something...

...arbitrary and impartial, like the calendar? Same with Venezuela.

I'd like Presidents Morales and Chávez to meet me at Camera Three...

Look Evo, look Hugo, you don't want a referendum, you want an election. If you're doing a good job, the people will keep voting for you... all right? You don't have to try monkeying around with your constitutions in an attempt to glom onto power longer than you're entitled to. The people obviously thought you were a good idea, so just keep doing the things that made you desirable to the people, and you'll be fine.

[boricua79]

3. in the Bolivian case

I think it's because President can only serve one term. So, it's either this, or the poeple have to elect someone else. I THINK....

[nerddem]

9. in bolivia it's been non-consecutive terms, like virginia. nt

[harmonicon]

8. yeah, why don't they?

Why don't these other countries have elections every two and four years - just like the SUPER BOWL, WORLD CUP, OLYMPICS!!! YAY!!!! this way we can pay no attention to what's going on until right before the BIG game. Lots of countries don't have elections until their leaders call for them (the UK is an example), and it works just fine. In some respects, I think it would be better in the US that way - anything that would stop this two-year-long dog and pony show.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Some background on the crisis ongoing in Bolivia couldn't hurt.

The Berkeley Daily Planet
News Analysis: The Battle in Bolivia
By Roger Burbach, New America Media

While international attention is focusing on President Hugo Chavez and the Sunday referendum on the Venezuelan constitution, a conflict that is just as profound is shaking Bolivia. Evo Morales, the first Indian president of the country, is forcing a showdown with the oligarchy and the right wing political parties that have stymied efforts to draft a new constitution to transform the nation. He declares, “Dead or alive I will have a new constitution for the country by December 14,” the mandated date for the specially elected Constituent Assembly to present a constitution for the country to vote on by popular referendum.

A violent conflict that left three dead and hundreds injured erupted over the past weekend in the city of Sucre where the Constituent Assembly has been meeting. After more than a year of obstructionism by the right wing parties, Morales’ Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and its allied parties that control 60 percent of the Assembly’s vote, approved the broad outlines of a new constitution designed to alleviate economic inequalities, codify a new agrarian reform program and end the apartheid system that the indigenous population has lived under for centuries.

The “New Left” presidents that have emerged in Latin America in recent years reflect a social insurgence that is challenging the old political leadership and demanding an economic alternative to the neo-liberal policies of Washington that favor foreign interests and the multinational corporations. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador and even Chilean leaders are carrying out social and economic reforms, although with the possible exception of Ecuador under President Rafael Correa, these reforms are taking place with little or no defiance of their country’s dominant business and financial interests. Upheavals verging on a revolution are taking place in Venezuela and Bolivia.

In Bolivia the upheaval is very different from Venezuela’s in that it is lead by the Indian majority against the historically dominant “k’aras,” meaning whites and mestizos. The opposition to Morales is lead by the eastern city of Santa Cruz where the business elites and the right wing parties exercise political and economic control. In Sucre and some of the other major departmental (state) capitals where the whites and lighter-skinned peoples tend to concentrate, Santa Cruz has recruited allies, particularly among young university students who are acting as shock troops to confront indigenous organizations and members of the Constituent Assembly.

More:
http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=12-04-07&storyID=28629

[Judi Lynn]

5. Background on Bolivia's government prior to Evo Morales:

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Banzer also served as President from 1997 until he retired in 2001 due to cancer.

http://www.lostiempos.com.nyud.net:8090/noticias/16-07-07/fotos/familiares.jpg
It's appropriate to add to this post that the struggle has been so extreme in Bolivia, that Bolivian indigenous people were BANNED FROM WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK until 1952.

Why the #### would NOT the vast majority of citizens in Bolivia want to demand important change in that blighted country?

[Judi Lynn]

6. NY Times: Bolivia to Vote on Leader’s Job

Bolivia to Vote on Leader’s Job

Published: December 6, 2007
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Dec. 5 (Reuters) — President Evo Morales of Bolivia on Wednesday called for a nationwide referendum to decide whether he should stay in office as a way to resolve a deepening political crisis in the country.

The plans by Mr. Morales, a leftist, to overhaul Bolivia’s constitution have reignited long-running conflicts between more indigenous Andean regions, where Mr. Morales has his support base, and wealthier lowland areas.

In what appeared to be an effort to address the conflict, Mr. Morales proposed a referendum to decide whether he and nine regional governors should remain in their posts. Six of the country’s nine regions are controlled by his opponents.
(snip)

Bolivia’s sweeping constitutional changes, a major project for Mr. Morales’s government, are at the center of a power struggle between Mr. Morales and his conservative rivals, who are concentrated in lowland areas that are also home to large natural gas fields.

His foes shut down large parts of the country last week in a one-day strike after his allies pushed through a draft constitution in an elected constitutional assembly boycotted by the opposition.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/world/europe/06bolivia.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

[Judi Lynn]

7. Something our media didn't include: they removed Bush's immunity for his soldiers on Bolivian soil!

Bolivia president says to call vote on his mandate
www.chinaview.cn 2007-12-06 10:32:58

LIMA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Wednesday that he would call a nationwide referendum to decide whether he should stay in the job or not, news reaching here said.

In a televised speech, Morales said he would send congress a proposal to put his leadership to a popular "rapid vote."

"If the people say that I should go, I don't have any problem with that. Let the people say who goes and who stays," said Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president.

"If they are democrats, let's bet on democracy," he said.

The president did not give details on the referendum.

A political crisis is deepening in the country which was triggered by Morales' constitutional reforms.

Bolivia's new constitution, passed on Nov. 24 in a controversial session boycotted by the opposition, lifts the immunity from prosecution granted to foreign soldiers operating on Bolivian soil.
(snip/...)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/06/content_7208793.htm