Bolivian President Cancels Plan to Export Gas (But people continue to protest)

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada said Monday he is shelving plans to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico that sparked massive, violent protests.

Weekend clashes between troops and demonstrators over the export proposals killed 16 people in El Alto, a poor industrial city outside the capital of La Paz, and Sanchez de Lozada declared martial law there.

La Paz was virtually paralyzed Monday by a public transportation strike against the government and the gas plan. Many shops, banks and offices were closed. Labor groups were organizing marches against the government, and roads were reported blocked in several parts of the country -- a traditional means of protest in Bolivia.

The embattled leader told a morning news conference that he will promote a national dialogue on Bolivia's gas exports, firmly opposed by indigenous and labor leaders. "There will be no gas exports to new markets," Sanchez de Lozada said, adding that his government will gather opinions from all over the country in a dialogue that will last until Dec. 31.

Leaders of the movement against the gas plan welcomed the announcement but said Sanchez de Lozada must resign. The government declared martial law in the city of 750,000 people after the weekend violence and sent soldiers with automatic weapons to patrol the streets and "to protect citizens and public and private properties." Shelving the gas project did not appear to ease tensions for the president. His spokesman, Mauricio Antezana, has said the protests are part of an effort to topple the government. "We will not stop until he (the president) goes away," said Roberto de la Cruz, a union leader in El Alto.

Congressman Evo Morales, a leader of the protests, said Sanchez de Lozada's resignation was "the only political solution to this crisis." The president's decision to shelve the gas plan "is not enough for the Bolivian people," Morales told Radio Cooperativa of Chile. "What the Bolivian people want is that the gas remain in Bolivia, for the benefit of Bolivians."

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But union leaders and the poor Indian majority, which has frequently led protests against government attempts to privatize Bolivia's state industries, argue the economic benefits won't reach them.

I need much more info to understand this. What is going on here?
If this was from the USA, I would denigrate the union & wonder why people expected benefits to "reach" them. Also, I would think that the industry should have been privatized long ago. However, I will reserve comments until I can understand more about this.
Do you have more info??

Sorry, I'm in the dark too. All I have to go on is what local people are saying and what I read on the internet. I've been in Cochabamba, Bolivia for over a month now and its been calm. The Bolivian family I live with tells me that tomorrow all public transportation here in Cochabamba will stop in order to protest the government. Also, my Bolivian family was telling me that no one has subterrainian rights, only above ground. They told me that the government has right to everything below ground and that the land owners won't receive money for the gas taken off of their land. They'll only receive a little money for the disturbance of the surface.

Here are a couple of sites that have links to Bolivian news:

http://newstrove.com/cgi-bin/search.pl?search=bolivia&title=Bolivia&category=world&alias=bolivia

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/cat/80fbc9d1af5a8119/

Well, based on the info below, it appears that the Marxists & Socialists are alive & well in Bolivia.

When you see the "Workers Party, the leftist, the "Movement toward Socialism", complaining about conservatives & centrists, you are in big trouble.

The next thing you have to look forward to is the Islamic-Facists joining in on the party! God bless & protect you. See below!

Brazil's leading Workers' Party decided Monday to postpone a meeting that would determine whether four of its members would be expelled from their ranks.
The Workers' Party, or PT, is mired in controversy surrounding certain lawmakers known in the Brazilian media as PT radicals for their criticism of the ruling party and for voting against party lines.
The radicals -- led by the outspoken Sen. Heloisa Helena -- maintain President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has betrayed the spirit of the leftist party during his nine months in office and are particularly critical of his economic policy.
Since assuming the presidency, Lula has made what are considered some "conservative moves", slashing social spending in the short term to increase the budget surplus.
He has even said publicly that he considered himself a "centrist".

The decision to postpone the meetings on the fate of the lawmakers comes one week after PT Rep. Fernando Gabeira decided he would leave the party accusing Lula of promoting an incoherent environmental policy.-------

Brazil leaders postpone expulsion meeting

Five people are dead in La Paz, Bolivia, after President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada ordered the military with tanks to quell street violence.
The president is accusing his political oppenents of provoking violence to drive him out of office. Anti-government protests began in mid-September, but the movement was soon joined by labor unions, students and indigenous groups.
"Movement Toward Socialism", presidential candidate Evo Morales, who is head of the country's "coca growers'union", denied Sanchez' accusations in a radio interview. He said the president was justifying his own coup to be able to shut down Congress, the New York Times reported.
He also said coca growers would set up roadblocks Monday to cut the main east-west highway, the Times said.

About a year ago, the president was elected with less than 23 percent of the vote and has been attempting to hold together a multiparty coalition.

Five dead in Bolivia protest

Let's get beyond the labels, because I think facts realy speak louder than ideology. An objective perspective on the facts in Bolivia is really helpful, and the facts in Bolivia are pretty straightforward.

At least 65 people have been killed by the government forces because these people have opted for their inalienable right to free speech. As Americans, I think we can be thankful that we are not shot dead by fascist-style trigger-happy forces when we raise our voices against policies that are harmful to our private welfare.

We are proud of our independence as individuals and we are proud that we have a level of power that we can wield, as free citizens, to sway our political system and thereby protect our basic rights to life, liberty and property.

When these rights begin to be stolen from us, we get angry. But more importantly, we get active and rise up to protect those rights. The reason we cando this is because we have a system which is based upon the respect for free speech, democratic process, etc. We are not shot dead when we speak up to protect our land, etc.

It seems to me that the people of Bolivia have some justification. They have said that "Bolivia is not for sale." I think WE, too, believe that "America is not for sale."

But, says the BBC's Elliott Gotkine in Bolivia, this was never just about gas. Bolivia is South America's poorest nation. These people are basically having the source of their wealth stolen from them. The money that is being garnered from the use of these resources is not going to the people of Bolivia. It is leaving these communities.

I have to have some respect for the independence of a people who don't just sit by idly while they are made into fools by money-hungry self-aggrandizing bigwigs masquerading as politicians. Remember, this is not the 1st World. This is the 3rd World, where most of the people in power are just powerful opportunists who see a chance to get rich quick in an unstable, backward world of powerlessness.

I think if we Americans were in the same situations, we would proudly demand that our resources stay ours and benefit our families. This isn't "communism" - it's just plain old American Democracy in its fledgling stages. When a government is not helping the people of its country, what should the people do? John Locke's answer was pretty clear: they should take a stand and demand that the government represent them. Without these words, the American Revolution would, arguably, have never ocurred. That these groups take up names like "Worker's Party," "Movement toward Socialism," etc., is due to the
fact that this is the Third World, not the First, where the cultural history and the popular rhetoric is different than it is up North. But we've got to look past the rhetoric to see what's actually going on on the ground.

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