Posted on 10/16/2003 11:59:27 PM PDT by Stultis
LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct. 15 — The many Indian protesters who choked the streets and highways of this Andean nation again on Thursday may be poor and speak broken or accented Spanish, but they have a powerful message.
It is this: no to the export of gas and other natural resources; no to free trade with the United States; no to globalization in any form other than solidarity among the downtrodden peoples of the developing world.
The force of that message may yet topple President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who tried to quell the unrest by offering a package of concessions late Wednesday night that the protesters rejected.
Instead they vowed to continue with demonstrations meant to force his government to abandon a plan to export natural gas to the United States through a port in Chile. The protests have already left more than 80 people dead over the past month.
Sensing that public support for the president, weak to begin with, has all but vanished, opponents of the gas export plan have now moved to press their advantage.
"The blood that has been spilled is something sacred," Felipe Quispe, leader of the indigenous group that initiated the protests, said in response to Mr. Sánchez de Lozada's offer, made in a televised speech. "So we can't negotiate and we're not even going to talk."
Several thousand workers, mostly miners from the south and coca growers from the north, were reported to be marching on the capital Thursday. The armed forces demanded that they disperse, saying that the military would erect barricades to prevent them from entering La Paz, but the warning appeared to have gone unheeded.
More than merely threatening the longevity of Bolivia's government, the protesters have lent new energy to the discontent already percolating throughout the region.
Across South America, labor unions, student and civic groups and a new wave of leaders — Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, and Néstor Kirchner in Argentina — are expressing similar doubts about who actually benefits from a free flow of international trade and investment.
But nowhere have those doubts been expressed as forcefully as in this poor nation of eight million people, increasingly divided along class and racial lines. A majority of Bolivians have Indian blood, descended from the original inhabitants of this continent who got a foretaste of globalization centuries ago with the age of exploration and the arrival of European colonizers.
"Globalization is just another name for submission and domination," Nicanor Apaza, 46, an unemployed miner, said at a demonstration this week in which Indian women in bowler hats and colorful layered skirts carried banners denouncing the International Monetary Fund and demanding the president's resignation. "We've had to live with that here for 500 years, and now we want to be our own masters."
He and many other protesters see an unbroken line from this region's often rapacious colonial history to the failed economic experiments of the late 20th century, in which Bolivia was one of the first Latin American countries to open itself to the modern global economy. The $5 billion gas pipeline project is only the latest gambit.
Starting with the end of a military dictatorship two decades ago, Bolivia embraced the free-market model. State-owned companies were sold off. Foreign investment was courted. Government regulation was reduced, all in the name of a new era of growth and prosperity.
The policies brought to heel runaway inflation. But otherwise, the average Bolivian has had little to show for the government's embrace of policies urged on it by the United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, now the focus of so much resentment.
Exports have actually declined compared with their level 25 years ago. Growth has stalled for the past five years. Unemployment has soared, and Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America, with a per capita income of less than $950 a year — by some calculations, less than it was before the free-market reforms. "After 21 years, the economic model in place has not solved the problems of poverty and social exclusion," said Carlos Toranzo of the Latin American Institute for Research here.
The leading spokesman for the discontented here is Evo Morales, the charismatic 43-year-old leader of the coca growers' federation. As presidential candidate, he finished barely one percentage point behind Mr. Sánchez de Lozada in the election last year after a campaign that called for reversing the economic course.
While few development experts see much benefit from reinforcing economic barriers around an already landlocked nation, talk of self-reliance has taken on great appeal.
"If you talk to average people about the Free Trade Area of the Americas or even the gas export law, they really don't know that much about them," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivian scholar who is director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at Florida International University in Miami. "But Evo Morales and others have shrewdly used those ideas as a flag which plays on their deepest fears, the loss of identity and the giving away of what they consider to be their national patrimony."
At a recent regional anti-globalization forum in Argentina, Mr. Morales maintained that the United States and multinational companies have "a plan to exterminate the Indian" in order to seize control of the riches of Bolivia and neighboring countries.
"How much longer will the natural resources of Latin America remain in the hands of transnational companies?" he asked.
That suspicion is rooted deep in this country's bitter history. In the colonial era, silver from the mines of Potosí provided Spain with the wealth that allowed it to forge a global empire, and in modern times, tin made a few families, like the Patiños, fabulously wealthy.
"The wealth has always left the country and enriched foreigners, rather than staying here to improve our lives," said Pascuala Velázquez, an egg vendor of Aymara Indian descent, "but we cannot allow that to happen this time with the gas."
Rather than export gas and other resources, the protesters insist that they be used to help build an industrial base. But Bolivia does not have the money to carry out such a program on its own, and as a diplomat who represents a South American country asked, "Who in their right mind is going to be willing to invest in a country that is so unstable and hostile to foreign capital?"
Perhaps another president could have convinced Bolivians of the merits of the gas project, expected to quadruple the country's exports over the next decade. But Mr. Sánchez de Lozada, 73, a loyal ally of Washington and a millionaire former mining executive, is regarded here as so much a puppet of the foreign and domestic economic interests that his every word is suspect.
One demonstrator, Remberto Clavijo, a shoe repairman of Quechua Indian descent, said, "He has governed this country for the benefit of the gringos and the multinational companies and the Chileans, not for the Bolivian people."
Thousands in Capital Call for Resignation as Crisis Grows
Washington Post, DC - 3 hours ago
By Kevin Gray. LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct. 16 -- Columns of farmers, workers,
miners and indigenous groups moved into the Bolivian capital ...
Hunger strike against president continues in Bolivia
Xinhua, China - 3 hours ago
¡¡¡¡LIMA, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The peaceful protest against
Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez continued on Thursday with ...
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MSNBC - 4 hours ago
By Alistair Scrutton. In the biggest march during a month of protests in
South America's poorest country, a colorful column of demonstrators ...
Bolivian vice president rules out seeking presidency
Xinhua, China - 5 hours ago
¡¡¡¡LIMA, Oct. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Bolivian Vice President and National
Congress President Carlos Meza said Thursday that he would ...
Bolivians urge leader to quit
Guardian, UK - 4 hours ago
Indigenous leaders in Bolivia yesterday rejected an attempt by the president, Gonzálo
Sánchez de Lozada, to defuse a revolt and pledged to continue protests ...
US issues Bolivia travel warning
CNN Europe, Europe - 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Citing the "unstable political and security situation" in Bolivia,
the State Department Thursday urged Americans not to travel there and ...
Tens of thousands demand Bolivian president quit
Channel News Asia, Singapore - 7 hours ago
LA PAZ : Tens of thousands of people packed the center of La Paz to demand President
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resign, while armored cars protected the ...
Protesting Bolivians demand leader quits
Reuters, UK - 8 hours ago
By Alistair Scrutton. LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Tens of thousands
of poor indigenous Bolivians have marched into the capital after ...
Thousands march in La Paz
BBC News, UK - 9 hours ago
Tens of thousands of people are again marching through Bolivia's administrative,
La Paz, demanding the resignation of embattled President Gonzalo Sanchez de ...
Portugal warns against travel to Bolivia
EU Business, UK - 11 hours ago
Portugal on Thursday joined the growing list of European Union nations
which are advising their citizens not to visit strife-torn Bolivia. ...
Bolivian president proposes referendum on gas exports
swissinfo, Switzerland - 13 hours ago
The Bolivian president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, has proposed a referendum
on a controversial gas export plan which has sparked nationwide protests. ...
Thousands of Bolivian Protesters March Into Capital
Wired News - 13 hours ago
By Alistair Scrutton. LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Tens of thousands
of poor indigenous Bolivians marched into the capital on Thursday ...
Demonstrations Continue in Bolivia
Voice of America - 13 hours ago
Bolivia's opposition has rejected a proposal by President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada
to hold a referendum on a gas export deal that has triggered weeks of ...
Bolivian mob hurls dynamite
The Age, Australia - 15 hours ago
By Alistair Scrutton. Bolivia's army fought to stop a column of dynamite-wielding
miners from streaming into the besieged capital ...
Protests Against Bolivian Leader Spread
Washington Post - 15 hours ago
In La Paz, the capital and epicenter of the latest round of deadly rioting that
began over the weekend, soldiers took up positions to assert control as there ...
Showdown in Bolivia
Radio Netherlands, Netherlands - 16 hours ago
by Theo Tamis, 16 October 2003. Embattled Bolivian President Gonzalo
Sanchez de Lozada has held out an olive branch to the thousands ...
Bolivia Protesters Reject President's Olive Branch
Wired News - 16 hours ago
By Alistair Scrutton. LA PAZ , Bolivia (Reuters) - Indigenous leaders
on Thursday rejected Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de ...
Q and A: Bolivian gas protests
BBC News, UK - 17 hours ago
After more than a month of violent protests in Bolivia, the government says it
will hold a referendum on its controversial plans to export natural gas. ...
BOLIVIANS AGAINST BOLIVIA
Yahoo News - 22 hours ago
No one asks to be born in a poor country with a history of tyranny
and instability. But there are times when Third World peoples ...
Two miners die in clashes as several cities shut down
Miami Herald, FL - 23 hours ago
BY PHILIP WITHERS GREEN. LA PAZ, Bolivia - Coca growers, labor and
student groups, and miners armed with dynamite paralyzed several ...
Bolivian president offers referendum on gas deal amid unrest
Channel News Asia, Singapore - 23 hours ago
LA PAZ : Faced with spreading civil unrest, Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez
de Lozada offered to call a referendum on a natural gas export deal that ...
Bolivian leader tries to take political initiative
Forbes - Oct 15, 2003
By Alistair Scrutton. LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian President
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Thousands of Anti-Government Protesters March in Bolivia
Voice of America - Oct 15, 2003
Violent protests picked up again in Bolivia Wednesday, as thousands of anti-government
demonstrators marched in major cities around the country. ...
Troops prepare for La Paz protest
Financial Times (subscription), UK - Oct 15, 2003
By Mark Mulligan. Bolivian troops stepped up their defence of La Paz
yesterday as protesters from regional cities and rural areas ...
Hunger strikers press president to resign in Bolivia
Xinhua, China - Oct 15, 2003
¡¡¡¡LIMA, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- A group headed by a former ombudsman
began a hunger strike Wednesday at the city of La Paz, the ...
Marchers face tanks in La Paz power struggle
Telegraph.co.uk, UK - Oct 15, 2003
By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent. Thousands of peasants,
miners and farmers marched on the Bolivian capital yesterday ...
Bolivia's leader clings to power after backlash against gas sales
The Scotsman, UK - Oct 15, 2003
THE embattled Bolivian president, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, was clinging to power
last night amid growing calls for his resignation as violent protests swept ...
Two killed as thousands of Bolivians demand government resign
Canada.com, Canada - Oct 15, 2003
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched Wednesday
in major cities across Bolivia to call on the president to resign, as ...
| BOLIVIANS AGAINST BOLIVIA (Bolivia.....their own worst enemy)! ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/16/2003 1:33 PM CDT with 4 comments New York Post ^ | October 16, 2003 October 16, 2003 -- No one asks to be born in a poor country with a history of tyranny and instability. But there are times when Third World peoples are truly their own worst enemy. And right now in Bolivia - the poorest country in all of Latin America - there are people fighting to remain poor. Over the last month anti-government demonstrators have turned the capital La Paz into a war zone in an effort to stop a $5 billion gas pipeline to Chile, and secondarily to bring down President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. As many as 70 people,... |
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| Bolivia Protesters Reject President's Olive Branch (This Freeper's Livin' it!) ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/16/2003 1:11 PM CDT with 11 comments Reuters ^ | Thu October 16, 2003 09:42 AM ET | By Alistair Scrutton Bolivia Protesters Reject President's Olive Branch Thu October 16, 2003 09:42 AM ET By Alistair Scrutton LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Indigenous leaders on Thursday rejected Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's attempt to defuse a deadly revolt and promised to continue protesting until the "butcher" quit. As police in the blockaded capital stepped in to calm restless crowds jostling for scarce supplies like bread, the leaders of the monthlong uprising said the president's offer to change some of his hated free-market policies was too little, too late. "The only thing the people want is this butcher's resignation," indigenous leader... |
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| PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman: BOLIVIA ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/15/2003 11:30 PM CDT with 1 comment U. S. Department of State ^ | October14, 2003 | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Office of the Spokesman ---------------------------------------- Bolivia October14, 2003 This Public Announcement is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to violence generated by anti-government protests in many parts of Bolivia. It expires on January 14, 2004. Anti-government protests in Bolivia, primarily centered on the cities of La Paz and El Alto, have resulted in many deaths and injuries since early October. The airport serving the national capital of La Paz is located in El Alto and has, on occasion, been closed by the violence. Many private businesses and public offices in La Paz and El... |
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| Anti-Government Protests Sweep Bolivia (This Freeper's Living it From Cochabamba!) ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/15/2003 8:20 PM CDT with 15 comments HeraldTribune.Com ^ | Wednesday, October 15 | By KEVIN GRAY LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Thousands of anti-government demonstrators marched Wednesday in major cities around Bolivia to call on the president to resign, as popular resistance to the government spread in South America's poorest country. Two people were reported killed. About 1,000 miners clashed with government troops in the city of Patacmaya, 60 miles west of La Paz, killing two people and injuring nine others, radio and TV reports said. Independent Radio Erbol and private broadcaster TV 21 said troops fired tear gas and live ammunition at the column of buses carrying marchers, who responded by tossing lit sticks of dynamite.... |
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| Protests paralyze Bolivia; military backs president ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/15/2003 10:35 AM CDT with 5 comments YahooNews ^ | October 15, 2003, 2:56 P.M. Bolivia's military sought to crush fears of a coup, renewing support for President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who faced riots around the South American country demanding he stand down. Three days of clashes between police and protesters have caused 60 deaths. Protest organizer Felipe Quispe called Sanchez de Lozada "a butcher" and vowed disturbances would continue. The army clarified its commander's ambiguous support earlier Tuesday and voiced its "subordination, obedience and support" to the president, seeking to quash coup rumors. Food shortages worsened in La Paz, which was cut off from the rest of the country because of strikes. El... |
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| Bolivia Calls for Calm as Revolt Chokes La Paz ^ |
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| Posted by NormsRevenge On 10/14/2003 8:49 PM CDT with 5 comments Yahoo! News ^ | 10/14/03 | Rene Villegas - Reuters LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivia's embattled government appealed for calm on Tuesday as thousands of miners, peasants and farmers marched toward La Paz to join a popular revolt as the death toll in clashes with troops hit 53. Reuters Photo Rights officials said at least one worker was killed in the suburb of El Alto as thousands protested unpopular President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's free market policies and failure to tackle endemic poverty in South America's poorest country. The protests of the past month, which have choked food and fuel supplies into the paralyzed capital, were sparked by... |
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| Bolivian President Cancels Plan to Export Gas (But people continue to protest) ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/13/2003 5:40 PM CDT with 5 comments Washingtonpost.com ^ | Monday, October 13, 2003; 1:23 PM | The Associated Press 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... |
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| Bolivia puts city under martial law - Clashes between troops and protesters over gas exports ^ |
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| Posted by weegee On 10/13/2003 3:25 AM CDT with 11 comments Associated Press ^ | Oct. 13, 2003, 12:05AM | By CARLOS VALDES Bolivia puts city under martial law Clashes between troops, protesters over gas exports bring death toll to 16 LA PAZ, Bolivia -- Bolivia's government imposed martial law on a city outside the capital Sunday after clashes between troops and demonstrators angry about proposals to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico. Sixteen people have been reported killed. Soldiers manned major intersections in El Alto, a poor, industrial city 10 miles outside the capital, La Paz. But the move didn't stop protesters who repeatedly clashed with the soldiers and police trying to disperse them. Roman Catholic priest Asensio Mamani... |
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| Up to 8 Dead as Bolivian Troops Quell Protests ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/12/2003 9:59 PM CDT with 38 comments Reuters ^ | Sun October 12, 2003 07:57 PM ET | By Rene Villegas LA PAZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - Up to eight protesters were reported killed on Sunday after Bolivia's government sent thousands of troops backed by tanks to quell increasingly violent protests against President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Witnesses told local radio eight protesters were killed during pitched battles with troops clearing roadblocks choking food and gasoline supplies to the capital in and around the poor industrial suburb of El Alto, outside La Paz. The government, which has played down death tolls in recent protests, said four civilians and one soldier were killed and that around 30 others were injured. Sunday's clashes raise... |
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| Boiling Bolivia ^ |
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| Posted by Jacob Kell On 10/08/2003 3:24 PM CDT with 7 comments FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | October 8, 2003 | Michael Radu Bolivia is on the brink of a constitutional, indeed, societal collapse. It seems headed for a military coup d’état and general chaos. In the overall scheme of things in Latin America, Bolivia is of only marginal economic or political significance. But as the most acute case of a more general and disturbing set of problems affecting far more important countries in the region—an increased radicalization (and anti-democratic manipulation) of indigenous peoples, the return of long-discredited populist and Marxist ideologies, general government incompetence, and pathological anti-Americanism—it is a country we should be paying attention to. The immediate cause of Bolivia’s current... |
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| Boiling Bolivia ^ |
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| Posted by EsclavoDeCristo On 10/08/2003 9:39 AM CDT with 11 comments FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | October 8, 2003 | Michael Radu Bolivia is on the brink of a constitutional, indeed, societal collapse. It seems headed for a military coup d’état and general chaos. In the overall scheme of things in Latin America, Bolivia is of only marginal economic or political significance. But as the most acute case of a more general and disturbing set of problems affecting far more important countries in the region—an increased radicalization (and anti-democratic manipulation) of indigenous peoples, the return of long-discredited populist and Marxist ideologies, general government incompetence, and pathological anti-Americanism—it is a country we should be paying attention to. The immediate cause of Bolivia’s current... |
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| Is there a economic-interest war between the US and the EU in Latin America??? (vantiy rant) ^ |
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| Posted by El Conservador On 10/13/2003 5:00 PM CDT with 5 comments Yours Truly | October 13, 2003 | Yours Truly OK, it goes like this: These last days there's been civil unrest over the gas exports and coca crops in Bolivia, fueled by leftist NGO's. An expansion of Ecuador's national pipeline has been blocked by indigneous leftist organizations, funded by NGO's. There's an unstable populist leftist government in Venezuela, South America's largest oil producer, lead by Hugo Chávez, intent in controlling the industry. There's the guerrillas in Colombia, politically backed by the EU and European leftist NGO's. The government in Brazil is leftist, and has been very cooperative in economic aspects with Europe in detriment of the US. Argentina has... |
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| Bolivia and Ecuador: Crisis or Coincidence? ^ |
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| Posted by Axion On 04/11/2003 7:15 PM CDT with 5 comments STRATFOR ^ | Apr 11, 2003 Bolivia and Ecuador: Crisis or Coincidence?Apr 11, 2003 Summary Unnamed opposition groups in Bolivia and Ecuador appear to be stirring up instability in an effort to force regime changes through early resignations or assassination. The simultaneous crises could be coincidental, but it also is possible that a deliberate effort may be under way to destabilize both countries at the same time. Analysis The recently elected presidents of Ecuador and Bolivia are under attack by extremist opposition groups that appear to be trying to foster social and political instability in order to force an early change of government. Ecuador's national... |
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Except for this nugget of truth buried near the end of the article:
But Bolivia does not have the money to carry out such a program on its own, and as a diplomat who represents a South American country asked, "Who in their right mind is going to be willing to invest in a country that is so unstable and hostile to foreign capital?"
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