Bolivian Agressors Expel American Ambassador

[chequita guevara]

Not unsurprisingly, as the American Ambassador has been supporting attempts by regional governors to break away from Bolivia.

While the Wall Street Journal claims that Bolivia has yet to produce evidence that Washington has been behind the break-away moves by the provinces, the other day the American ambassador admitted to working with the rebel governors to undermine the Bolivian government. It was only a matter of time before Goldberg got tossed.

Bolivia Expels American Ambassador
Move by Morales Follows Disruption
Of Gas Exports
By JOHN LYONS
September 11, 2008; Page A9

Bolivia's President Evo Morales moved to expel the U.S. ambassador, accusing him of promoting the country's breakup by encouraging a separatist movement in the eastern provinces.

The expulsion of Ambassador Philip S. Goldberg came hours after Bolivian officials blamed sabotage by antigovernment protesters Wednesday for disrupting gas exports to Argentina and Brazil. The State Department said it hasn't received official notification of the move.

The two events signaled an ominous escalation of feuding between Mr. Morales' left-wing government and conservative provinces in the eastern part of the country. The president's opponents accuse him of being an authoritarian who wants to impose a socialist state. Analysts fear the chronically unstable country could descend into open political violence.

Wednesday, the head of Bolivia's state energy company, YPFB, told reporters that a "terrorist act" had reduced gas transfers to Brazil by 10%. Brazil, which gets about half its gas from Bolivia, is Bolivia's biggest customer.

Gas-industry workers said two separate incidents curtailed exports. Protesters took over a gas plant in the state of Chuquisaca and shut it down, blocking the flow of about two million cubic feet a day from lines headed for Brazil, or about 6% of Brazil's total. Meanwhile, in the state of Tarija, an unknown person apparently sabotaged a valve on one of two pipelines that delivers gas to Argentina.

Hours later, Mr. Morales, an ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, said he was expelling the U.S. ambassador. Mr. Goldberg "should return to his country at once," Mr. Morales said, according to Agence France Presse.

For months, Mr. Morales has accused Mr. Goldberg -- to whom he occasionally refers derisively as the "gringo" -- of orchestrating the political opposition in breakaway provinces. While Mr. Morales has yet to provide evidence for his charges, the anti-U.S. rhetoric has energized his supporters. Mr. Goldberg, a career diplomat who served in Kosovo before arriving in Bolivia in 2006, was briefly recalled to the U.S. in June after rowdy protests outside the U.S. embassy raised security concerns.

Mr. Morales, an Aymara Indian, is seeking a new constitution to benefit his mainly poor, indigenous followers in the Andean highlands. That vision is colliding with an autonomy movement in economically crucial provinces of Bolivia's low-lying east.

Last month, a national referendum that put Mr. Morales's presidency and eight of nine governorships in play failed to settle the political standoff. Mr. Morales won a big majority of the electorate, concentrated mainly in the highlands. Key opposition governors, however, also won majorities in their regions.

Wednesday's gas disruptions came a day after protesters in four provinces of the gas-rich east -- Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija -- stormed government buildings to protest Mr. Morales' decision to schedule a vote on the constitution for December.

The new constitution redefines private property, grants special rights based on indigenous ethnicity, centralizes more economic power in the presidency and allows Mr. Morales to be re-elected. Critics say Mr. Morales will use it to seize farmland, nationalize more industries and remain in office indefinitely.

The four opposition provinces declared autonomy from the central government in recent months. Mr. Morales responded by holding back revenue owed to the provinces.

Mr. Morales is under increasing pressure to rein in the provinces, which account for more than half the nation's economic output. His aircraft has been forced to divert from provincial airports by protesters on several occasions. Meantime, he is facing opposition from onetime supporters. The indigenous governor of Chuquisaca state now opposes him.

The U.S. State Department said it hadn't yet received official notification of Mr. Morales' decision. "We are working to confirm the government of Bolivia's intentions," said Sara Mangiaracina, a State Department spokeswoman.

[GePap]

Unfortunately, it seems that Bolivia is heading towards civil war. Neither side appears willing to back down. I have sympathy for Morales's attempts to help the downtrodden indegenous mayority, but trying to centralize more power in the Presidency itself and then extending the President's possible time in office aren't the best answers to those socio-economic issues.

[chequita guevara]

Well, the whites aren't prepared to surrender the wealth and privileges they've stolen from the Indians for centuries, and the Indians aren't prepared to be second class citizens anymore. What Morales needs to do is arm his followers, cuz I doubt the military is loyal, given its own history.

[GePap]

NO, neither side should be arming anyone. Perhaps a violent disintegration of civil society is inevitable, but neither side should encourage that.

[chequita guevara]

So you favor the Indians being massacred without the means to defend themselves? See my sig.

[GePap]

I prefer that issue be solved politically, not militarily.

[chequita guevara]

It seems the civil war has already begun.

8 are dead today in battles between pro-Gov't supporters and secessionists in Provendencia.

Santa Cruz fascist violence - eyewitness report

http://www.marxist.com/orgy-fascist-violence-bolivia.htm

By our correspondent in Bolivia
Friday, 12 September 2008

The sound of explosions is constant; one can read the fear in people's faces. The TV reports two dead in fights in northern Bolivia, Pando (Cobija). Chaos in Santa Cruz and other Eastern regional capitals is almost total. What started on September 9th as vandalism against public institutions has developed into a fascist orgy of violence which threatens civil war.

On the 9th of September, right-wing fascist gangs attacked one public institution after another. The list of occupied institutions is long. Everything from tax offices, administration of land, immigration authorities to the department of forestry was brutally destroyed. The national administration of land had its entire inventory destroyed and burned, and the same happened to the nationalized telecom company ENTEL. ENTEL had its entire main building smashed and the fascist hordes stole everything of value.

Attacks on the Media and Trade Unions

Late at night, the state-owned TV station in Santa Cruz was invaded and almost burned to the ground. The motive? The station is one of the only channels in Santa Cruz which critiques the right wing.

10th September: the situation in Santa Cruz and other Eastern provinces further escalates. Now it is not about attacks on public institutions, but a consistent attack on all social organizations and government supporters.

In Santa Cruz, the human rights organization Cejis, is ravaged and their entire inventory is burned and destroyed. The same happens to CIDOB, the indigenous people's main organization in Eastern Bolivia. All left wing leaders are hunted and many have had to go underground.

In the Southern Bolivia, Tarija, the fascist gangs attack the
peasants' marketplace. Molotov cocktails are thrown at all the stalls and violent clashes erupt with several wounded. One right wing leader declares Tarija to be independent and declares civil war in the region.

On the night of September 10, I leave my home; one can sense the gas in the air and in the eyes. The railway and bus station of Santa Cruz is nearby. During several hours there has been violent fighting over the control of the station, which is defended by military and government supporters. After a fierce struggle, the fascists succeed in entering. They smash everything on their way.

It is half past one at night; I am a few hundred meters from the centre of violent street fighting. The location is Plan 3000, known as a stronghold for MAS in Santa Cruz, a gigantic and poor working class neighbourhood with 300,000 inhabitants. The big market in the neighbourhood is 800 meters away, the market which the right wing's groups of fascists try to attack and set on fire.

The workers have rallied to a massive defence against the 400 young fascists who attack the marketplace with clubs, Molotov cocktails and hand weapons. Rapidly, thousands rally for the defence which develops into extreme violence with many wounded. About 3 o'clock at night, the fascists have been driven out, but the inhabitants keep the entrenchment defended.

The situation is the same at all marketplaces in Santa Cruz where small traders constantly are on alert against the threat of robbery and destruction of their stalls and goods.

(...)

Santa Cruz, 11 September 2008.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by GePap


I prefer that issue be solved politically, not militarily.

Good for you. So while you're waiting for it to be solved politically, the right wing is solving it militarily. Guess which side will win.

[chequita guevara]

Oligarchs on the March
Bolivia: a Coup in the Making?

By JEFFERY R. WEBBER

Yesterday, in Bolivia, Minister of Government, Alfredo Rada, accused the right-wing autonomist leader Branko Marinkovic, and Santa Cruz prefect, Rubén Costas, of orchestrating a wave of violence as part of a “civic governors’ coup d’état.” Rada accused Marinkovic of having just returned from the United States where he allegedly received instructions for fomenting the coup attempt.

“Bolivia on the Brink,” is a phrase too often uttered by passing journalists unaccustomed to the country’s regular politics of the streets. But events of the last two weeks cannot be passed off as the ordinary business of protest. Rather, a right-wing coup attempt is in the offing in the five departments (states) governed by the right-wing opposition to President Evo Morales, of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party. The critical “media luna” departments of the eastern lowlands – Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando – have been joined in part by far-right elements in the government of the department of Chuquisaca. Thus far, these right-wing autonomists have not achieved critical support within the military, but the passivity of the Morales government in the face of ferocious racism, violence, and the takeover of state institutions and airports on an unprecedented scale, does not bode well for the future of Bolivia.

One indication of the seriousness of the situation is that Morales just announced that US ambassador Philip Goldberg is no longer welcome in Bolivia and will be asked officially to leave the country in the coming hours. Morales accused Goldberg of meeting with the oppositional prefects (governors) of the five departments in rebellion, to help coordinate what has become a full-scale destabilization campaign.

The campaign is being led by the Consejo Nacional Democrático (National Democratic Council, CONALDE), which brings together the prefectures and civic committees of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija, and Sucre, under the banner of “departmental autonomy.” These prefectures and civic committees in turn represent the agro-industrial, petroleum, and financial elite of these departments. While they are led by the bourgeoisie, the autonomists have won over substantial sectors of the popular classes by manipulating real democratic desires for decentralized “autonomous” self-governance, as opposed to alienating central state control. If the civic committees and prefects are the pretty face of autonomism, a growing network of proto-fascist youth groups linked to them are the clenched fist in the streets.

The immediate objective of the autonomist right is to destabilize the Morales government and to weaken left-indigenous forces throughout the country. One longer term goal is to reaffirm and consolidate private elite control over the natural gas and agricultural wealth of the country that is currently under threat due to widespread popular sentiment in favour of expropriation, nationalization, redistribution, and the establishment of social control over Bolivia’s riches. A related long-term objective of the autonomist right is to re-conquer state power at the national level.

The Post-Referendum Conjuncture

Evo Morales and Álvaro García Linera won the support of nearly 7 of every 10 Bolivians in a recent recall referendum. At the same time, however, right-wing prefects consolidated power in five of the country’s nine departments.

While the Morales and García Linera line since the referendum has been moderation and calls for negotiation and dialogue with the far-right, CONALDE has launched massive and coordinated direct actions: road blockades; racist attacks against unarmed pro-government rallies; gang-land terrorization of poor, mainly indigenous neighbourhoods in the eastern lowlands; armed assaults on military and police personnel guarding public institutions; occupations and shutdowns of airports; looting and burning of state offices; and the vandalizing of state-owned media outlets.

In so doing, the autonomist have established real power in most of the departments of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, and Pando, and urban areas of Chuquisca, particularly the departmental capital of Sucre. It is literally unsafe for the President and state representatives to visit these areas. Momentum is on the side of the right, and they are in no mood for negotiation.

Morales and his government have refused to declare a state of emergency and thus the right-wing advances and brutal acts of racist violence in over half of the country’s territory continue apace with impunity. “We are not going to declare a state of emergency,” stated Vice-Minister of Social Movements, Sacha Llorenti. “We are not going to succumb to the provocation.” Likewise, Foreign Affairs Minister, David Choquehuanca, said, “This is a government of dialogue…. The groups committing the violence, violating laws and human rights are small. We call on these violent groups to return to negotiations.”

But a state of emergency, in combination with the concerted mobilization and organization of popular left-indigenous forces throughout the country, might allow the government to reestablish constitutional order and to detain and bring to justice right-wing subversives bent on destroying a government which enjoys the support of 68 percent of the population. It would help to guarantee military and police protection of state property and basic rights for the civilian population in the face of racist terror. It would help to provide a means of defense against right-wing autonomists wielding guns and Molotov cocktails.

It might turn the tide against the colonial-era violence and public denigration of the indigenous poor in urban plazas of the major eastern lowland cities: whippings, beatings with clubs and two-by-fours, and punching, kicking, and swarming captured on private and state media alike. All of this is accompanied by disgusting racist epithets, and legitimated by the departmental prefectures and civic committees who say Morales’ “dictatorship” brought it all on.

Jorge Soruco, a human rights activist in the department of Beni, conveyed the exasperation of popular sectors loyal to the government living in the five departments in rebellion: “This is racist dementia, madness that we can’t allow. We are living in an era of insanity, where the people of the opposition… are confronting the people with situations of extreme violence.”

A Late-August Festival of Hate against the Indigenous of Santa Cruz

After registering astonishing levels of support in the referendum, the MAS government declared that it was going to bring forward for popular referendum the draft of a new constitution approved by the Constituent Assembly in Oruro several months ago.

In celebration, indigenous peasant and working-class supporters of the government set off on August 29 for a peaceful march to the Plaza 24 de Septiembre, in the centre of the city of Santa Cruz. A gathering of autonomists, organized in part by the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (Cruceño Youth Union, UJC), were there to greet them.

According to the mainstream daily La Prensa, one UJC speaker at the autonomist rally declared: “We are not going to permit [the entrance of the masistas] into the Plaza. When we go to their communities, they treat us like dogs. We want independence. We don’t want this damned race in our territory.” Other chants and phrases used that day, according to the vociferously anti-Morales La Razón newspaper, included: “****ty collas,” (colla is a racial epithet used in Santa Cruz to refer to indigenous people from the western highlands), and, “Indians return to your lands.”

After the speeches, the racists when on a rampage against the unarmed trade unionists and peasants, as well as any visibly indigenous person in proximity of the plaza. Indigenous women wearing the traditional pollera, or gathered skirt, were particularly vulnerable to beatings and racist taunts. One autonomist youth leader, Amelia Dimitri, was captured in video footage and photographs whipping an indigenous woman wearing a pollera. This occurred immediately after Dimitri addressed the crowd of autonomist thugs in a rousing speech. She’s only the latest face of hatred on the autonomist right.

On national television, Bolivians watched as racist teenagers wielded clubs, whips, and two-by-fours against unarmed indigenous workers and peasants. Images of men and women with broken noses and shirts literally drenched in blood quickly made their way to You Tube, private and national state media, and the front pages of the local newspapers. These are the “democracy supporters” supported by imperialism against the “dictatorship” of Evo Morales.

But where were the cops? Where was the military? The MAS government refused to act, calling instead for negotiations.

And in the following weeks things intensified further, such that in the last two days Bolivia has been perched on a precipice, below which lies the defeat of left-indigenous power – on the rise since the wave of insurrections between 2000 and 2005 – and the conquest of power by imperialism and the rich and the white-mestizo elite who have long-ruled the country, and who retain control of economic power despite Morales’ electoral victory.

The Makings of a Coup

The latest phase of pressure tactics in the “media luna” departments began in earnest with the initiation of a road blockade on August 25 in the Chaco region of the department of Tarija, followed a week later by parallel road blockades in the departments of Beni and Santa Cruz. This latter period also saw the occupation by force of several public institutions in Santa Cruz, as well as an attempt by the proto-fascist UJC to take over the police barracks in the capital city of that department, also named Santa Cruz.

As many analysts have pointed out, the latest actions by the autonomist right are merely the consolidation of their power in the eastern lowlands, given that for most of this year it has been impossible for the President and other government officials to safely visit major cities in the eastern lowlands, due to airport occupations and violent acts perpetrated against state ministers.

Yesterday, at least 22 state entities were occupied and taken over by the youth wing of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee and their sister organizations in the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija, Pando, and Sucre. The right-wing occupiers have declared that they will transfer power of these state institutions to autonomous departmental authorities.

In Pando, for example, the prefect, Leopoldo Fernández, named a departmental director of the National Agrarian Institute (INRA). President of the Beni Civic Committee, Luis Alberto Melgar, and Vice-President of the Pando Civic Committee, Ricardo Shimokawa, announced that the occupations and mobilizations in their departments to date were just beginning.

Among the state institutions taken over across the country were the state television channel, Televisión Boliviana, and radio station, Patria Nueva. The airports of the eastern lowland cities of Trinidad, Guayaramerín, and Riberalta were also seized by autonomist forces. Two natural gas stations were seized, and 29 different road blockades were erected on the highways of these five departments.

Despite presidential authorization to protect state institutions, the National Police and Military Police lost control of these entities, as they were forcefully driven from their stations by violent mobilizations of the far-right.

University students, proto-fascist political youth gangs, functionaries of the departmental prefectures, and an array of other social sectors, including organized housewives (amas de casa), participated in the right-wing autonomist assaults on public institutions and confrontations with the coercive apparatuses of the state. These street actions are directly linked, however, with the finely-dressed men occupying the highest institutions of departmental power – the prefectures and the civic committees. And these men represent the agro-industrial, petroleum, and finance capitalists. Indeed, many autonomist politicians have millions of their own money invested in these sectors.

The Scope of Right-Wing Assault

Santa Cruz, where the confrontations between the National Police and the Military Police and the UJC were most intense, witnessed the takeover of the National Tax Services (SIN) offices, the National Agrarian Institute (INFRA), and the state telecommunications company (ENTEL).

The offices of Televisión Boliviana and Nueva Patria in Santa Cruz were initially broken into at night by young thugs who damaged equipment and lit parts of the offices on fire. Security of the premises was then reestablished by state forces for a period of time yesterday morning, until bands of the UJC effectively drove the police forces away with Molotov cocktails. The state then lost control entirely of their state media companies in the city.

Right-wing autonomist forces also launched violent attacks against various indigenous NGOs and human rights organizations, such as the Centro de Estudios Jurídicos y de Investigación Social (CEJIS). CEJIS on two earlier occasions this year was attacked with Molotov cocktails.

The El Trompillo and Viru Viru airports have been taken over by the state military to ensure they are not taken over by autonomist forces.

In Tarija, where road blockades have persisted for the last 16 days in the Chaco region, the right-wing autonomist forces took over government tax offices (SIN), the offices of the National Agrarian Institute (INRA), and the border state’s migration offices. Perhaps most importantly, they also managed to occupy the offices of the Superintendent of Hydrocarbons. Given that roughly 82 percent of natural gas production occurs in the department of Tarija, this is of major concern.

In the department of Beni, the Jorge Henrich airport was taken over, and its runways blockaded with transport trucks and piled debris. The offices of the Administration of Airports and Aerial Navigation (AASANA) were taken over. Likewise, the airport of Riberalta was shutdown. Also in Riberalta, the doors of the offices of Televisión Boliviana were damaged, while the mob didn’t manage to enter the premises. The Bolivian Postal Service (ECOBOL), ENTEL, and the Migration offices were also taken over in this city.

In the community of Guayaramerín, autonomist activists violently seized the offices of the National Customs office and the airport terminal.

Elsewhere, in the city of Villamontes, the Civic Committee took illegal control of a natural gas station, giving it the capacity to turn off supplies to the Yacuiba-Río Grande Gas Pipeline (GASYRG), the main natural gas source for Brazil.

In Sucre, the Unión Juvenil de la Chuquisaqueñidad (Youth Union of Chuquisaca, UJCh – Sucre is the capital of the department of Chuquisaca) and associated organizations, took over the tax offices and other state institutions. These protests were led in part by the notorious Roberto Lenin Sandóval, currently awaiting trial for his participation in the right-wing take over of state institutions several months ago, as well as for his role in racist attacks against indigenous peasants as part of the Chuquisaca Conscience movement.

However, unlike in the other four departments controlled by the right, Chuquisaca’s autonomist actions against the central government have been limited to the capital of Sucre, as the countryside is controlled by indigenous peasants overwhelmingly aligned with the Morales government.

The future of left-indigenous liberation struggle in Bolivia lies in the balance. If this right-wing tide is to be turned, there must be wide-scale direct actions by the vast majority of the country against the right-wing conspiracy. Such action would be greatly facilitated by a shift in the Morales government away from negotiation with a right that clearly is uninterested in dialogue. Let’s hope that the banishment of US Ambassador Goldberg from the country marks the first step in such a turn.

Jeffery R. Webber is a Canadian currently in Venezuela. He writes frequently on Latin American affairs.

[Lancer]

Viva La Revolucia!

[Arrian]

the other day the American ambassador admitted to working with the rebel governors to undermine the Bolivian government.

Link?

-Arrian

[chequita guevara]

When I can find it. In the mean time, apparently the Bolivian ambassador has been expelled.

[Arrian]

It's always that way. Tit for tat.

-Arrian

[Riesstiu IV]

I prefer tit.

[chequita guevara]

Here's some of the hi jinx Goldberg has been up to