Bolivian provinces reject ruling against autonomy plan

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivian provinces reject ruling against autonomy plan
Irish Sun
Sunday 9th March, 2008
(IANS)

Four opposition-controlled provinces have rejected a ruling by Bolivia's top electoral tribunal that declared planned referendums on autonomy proposals to be illegal, EFE news agency reported Sunday.

The governor of Bolivia's eastern province of Santa Cruz,Ruben Costas, said Saturday the National Electoral Court, known as the CNE, has no authority to prohibit a plebiscite on autonomy for the state as the referendum was called by the province's elected officials and is 'fully constitutional'.

The provinces of Beni, Pando and Tarija have also rejected the court ruling.
(snip)

Morales, who took office in January 2006, is the first indigenous president of Indian-majority Bolivia. Winning 54 percent of the vote, he triumphed over 10 other candidates in the December 2005 elections, which saw the biggest turnout in decades.

The draft constitution is aimed at redressing Indian grievances and narrowing the wealth gap in South America's poorest nation.

http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/335585/cs/1/

[Judi Lynn]

1. Bolivia court halts referendum on new constitution

Saturday, March 08, 2008

Bolivia court halts referendum on new constitution
Nick Fiske at 11:08 AM ET

Bolivia's National Electoral Court on Friday blocked a national referendum on the country's new draft constitution which was to take place on May 4. The new constitution, supported by Bolivian President Evo Morales , was passed by the Bolivian Constitutional Assembly on December 10, and gives the president more power over natural resources, collapses Bolivia's legislature into one body, and allows the president to seek election to two consecutive five-year terms. The court found that the proposed referendum failed to satisfy a constitutional provision which requires the national vote to be held within 90 days of congressional approval of the new legislation. Reuters has more. (See http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080308/wl_nm/bolivia_constitution_dc_1 )

The national referendum was narrowly approved by the National Congress of Bolivia last week and Morales supporters rallying outside of the congressional building Thursday prevented many of the opponents of the draft constitution from entering the building and participating in the vote. The Constitutional Assembly first gave preliminary approval to the new draft constitution in November 2007 amid protests that the constitution gave the president indefinite power; the current constitution prohibits a president from seeking election to consecutive terms. The Constitutional Assembly was suspended in September after violent protests by students and opposition parties, and governors from the country's six wealthiest provinces have consistently opposed the reforms .

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/03/bolivia-court-halts-referendum-on-new.php

[magbana]

2. These are serious developments

The Bolivian Vice Minister for Lands in the Ministry of Rural Development, Agriculture and Environment will be in DC on Tuesday to talk about the "New Agrarian Revolution." Sometimes the Bolivian ambasssador shows up or at least the First Secretary. I will be attending and if I find out any news about all this, I will post it on Tuesday nite. Sometimes, it makes you want to holler!!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Looking forward to your comments on his speech. You're really right in the midst of things.

When I read your post, I immediately remembered Evo Morales was in the country fairly recently. Did you get to see him, too?

I saw him on "The Daily Show" with John Stewart, and he was excelllent.

Concerning this group of landowners who have been controlling Bolivia all this time, did you ever see this small thumbnail sketch of Hugo Banzer, recent President, and earlier President in the 1960's?

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.

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've been wanting for so long to get the time to start reading on these landowners and finding out who they are, and their history in Bolivia. I have already read the unbelievable account of the actually brutal behavior of some missionaries in their dealings with indigenous Bolivians. I mean phyically brutal, vicious, cold, cruel, evil. They truly had no respect for them as human beings whatsoever.

This is one guy I want to know more about when I get time. I imagine he's one of the white South African landowners. (Living on stolen land). The other one is Branko Marinkovic, in Santa Cruz, also a "hunger striker." If their history fits the model we've seen elsewhere, these two "opposition" leaders have been making trips to the State Department, too:



Lechín Weisse, Branko Marinkovic

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You may recall the last hunger strike in December. Here's a wry comment:

In Bolivia, Hunger Strikers Wait Out Political Standstill

By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 8, 2007; Page A09

~snip~
That's how they pass much of the time here -- criticizing Morales and his supporters. The other side does the same to them: When some opposition senators launched a brief hunger strike last year, they were the subject of much ridicule among Morales's base -- especially after a BBC camera caught a few of the senators eating fried chicken that had been smuggled into Congress during the night.
(snip)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/07/AR2007120702024.html

[Peace Patriot]

4. This is not good news. Rumsfeld's plan is in motion.

"The Smart Way to Beat Tyrants Like Chávez," by Donald Rumsfeld, 12/1/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/30/AR2007113001800.html

I more and more believe that it is a backdoor plan through Bolivia, by exploiting (and probably funding/organizing) the rightwing separatists, in the provinces rich in gas and oil. When Rumsfeld says he wants "swift action" by the U.S. in support of "friends and allies" in South America, I think this is who he was talking about. They will declare "independence." Morales will be forced to use the military to try to hold the country together. They will request U.S. military aid. And Rumsfeld will have U.S. boots on the ground in the Andes, and will have gained strategic ground to add to the base in Paraguay, and to make up for the potential loss of the base in Manta, Ecuador (which Rafael Correa has pledged to kick out in 2009, when the lease comes up). Bolivia is easier to destabilize than Venezuela and Ecuador, because of this separatist movement.

The U.S./Colombian attack on Ecuador was also an instance of acting "swiftly" in support of "friends and allies" (Colombia--literally the only "friend and ally" the Bushites have on the whole continent, other than fascist coup groups within many leftist countries). They acted to "swiftly" kill the hostage negotiations and peace talks--such a grave danger to Uribe and war and drugs profiteers. But they couldn't contain the diplomatic disaster, and Correa's and Chavez's own "swift" actions--getting military battalions to their borders--checkmated Colombia, and I think will continue to do so. Rumsfeld won't--and can't--go head-on against these countries. They have to create more chaos first--and weaken and distract everybody. And Bolivia, unfortunately, is teetering on the brink of exactly the kind of chaos that Rumsfeld can exploit.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Bush's administration started trying to prevent Morales' election long before the election.

He had already earned the respect of his community, however, or of course he wouldn't have made it on politics alone. It looks as if they really are going to keep on this until they can either kill him or get the four states organized and violent enough the government can't prevent their will's taking the other hand, aided by U.S. force, just like Hugo Banzer's theft of the country.

Powers here are determined there WILL be no democracy in Bolivia, and to use Bolivia to try to reverse the democratic movement in Latin America.

I hope they will be in for some spectacular surprises. This should be the end of foreign control of the Americas.

[Peace Patriot]

6. Yeah, I feel hopeful, too--especially having watched the dynamics at Rio

(which you put us onto--the YouTube vids). The contempt for Uribe was palpable. And the new South American leadership seems quite capable of pulling together and dealing with U.S./Bush aggression. And in this case, they understood the need to, a) prevent Uribe/U.S. from starting a hot war; b) display a show of force (Ecuadoran and Venezuela military battalions to the borders); c) investigate/expose U.S. involvement (which Ecuador did quickly and beautifully--got to the bodies right away, retrieved and examined the ordinance, etc.); d) not get distracted and divided over their response (go for a swift OAS declaration of Colombia's violation of treaties), restore diplomatic relations and trade, and work to restore the peace process in Colombia's civil war.

The new leadership has been pulling together for some time, if you look just beneath the surface of events recently and over the last half decade. The Colombian assassination plot against Chavez. (They even got the center/right leaders on board to resist that one--such as Calderon in Mexico--and it's interesting that everybody knew it was Bush/U.S. interference.) The CIA "suitcase full of money" caper out of Miami (--failed to "divide and conquer Venezuela-Argentina; exposed as ludicrous). The Bush directive to South American leaders that they must "isolate" Chavez (Kirchner says, "But he's my brother!"; Lulu goes to visit him, etc.). Correa pledges not to renew the U.S. military lease in Ecuador. Bush/U.S. strongarms Chile on Venezuela's seat on the UN Security Council, and wins that round, but the OAS then votes Venezuela onto its Human Rights Commission--and Mercosur also votes them in. Venezuela helps get a number of countries out of World Bank debt--the World Bank loan sharks lose almost 100% of their lucrative, usurious portfolio in South America. They form the Bank of the South, and even Paraguay (center-right) sees that it's a good thing, and joins.

The list goes on and on--way back to the 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela, which nakedly exposed the U.S./Bush hand--and before that, to the Latin members of the OAS (and others--the Carter Center, the EU), and grass roots civic groups, and their long term work on honest, transparent elections, the basis for all of these positive developments.

I am more and more confident that the Rio group, and the Latin members of the OAS, can handle what's coming. It may get messy in Bolivia with the rightwing separatists--where I think Rumsfeld & co. will strike first--but, ultimately, the South Americans will deny the U.S. that foothold in the Andes, and Bolivia will remain in tact--and Morales' administration will survive. The U.S. will lose the Manta, Ecuador spy base. And leftists will be elected in Paraguay and Peru, solidifying the continent against dinosaur Colombia and its U.S. puppetmasters. The new progressive leaders of Guatemala, the right/corporatists in Mexico and remaining problem nations in central America are all feeling the strong leftist winds. They are BENEFITING from Chavez's leadership on the goal of Latin American self-determination. And the issue of the sovereignty of Latin American countries will continue to strongly influence events. I expect stronger steps to be taken against various kinds of U.S. interference.

[Judi Lynn]

7. It would be so beautiful seeing the continent turn in its OWN direction, finally.

They were manipulated and coerced into right-wing fascist coups, juntas, dictators, mind-searing atrocities in the hundreds of thousands during the 1960's, 1970's by U.S. right-wing interests from Washington, and US-based multinationals.

It's their time now. Hoping there is nothing _Bush can do to destroy their unity. It's so unlikely he will EVER get any of his "coalition of the willing" to back him up if he goes wacko against any South American country.