Posted on 05/05/2008 3:03:47 PM PDT by blam
Bolivia's richest province votes for autonomy
By Jeremy McDermott, Latin America Correspondent
Last Updated: 4:55PM BST 05/05/2008
South America's poorest nation is threatened with partition after the country's richest province voted for autonomy, threatening the rule of President Evo Morales, the first indigenous Indian president and close ally of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.
Residents of Santa Cruz province celebrate the referendum result
In the rich eastern province Santa Cruz, 86 per cent of voters opted for greater autonomy, with another three provinces preparing their own votes next month. Between them the four provinces account for 80 per cent of Bolivia's GDP.
”With the vote the start of a structural reform of transcendental importance in our nation has been consolidated,” Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz, said.
"The ballot boxes have delivered their verdict: the emissaries of evil cannot impose their bitterness and hate.”
President Morales nevertheless sought to depict the day as a defeat for the separatists, insisting that abstentionism invalidated the vote, even though polls showed that well over 60 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
”This so called party day, this consultation of the Autonomy Statute, has failed totally,” said President Morales. “This illegal and unconstitutional consultation did not have the effect that some were expecting.”
Behind this struggle between the rich lowlands and the eastern highlands are profound racial, cultural and political divisions, revealed by the gatherings after the results were announced. In Santa Cruz the predominantly white population came out to celebrate, calling for greater control over the riches that their province generates for the country.
Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian, led his own demonstrations near La Paz. In the predominantly indigenous townships that surround the capital, ten of thousands of Indians gathered to support the president's plans to usher in a socialist regime, a land reform and a redistribution of the country's wealth in favour of the 60 per cent of the population that counts itself of indigenous extraction.
Mr Morales has sought to follow a template set out by his ally and friend, Hugo Chavez. He called a constitutional assembly to establish a socialist constitution allowing him to consolidate power. However, right from the start he was thwarted by a powerful opposition and his constitution was only passed last November without the presence of opposition delegates with the military sealing off the area. Its legitimacy has not been recognized by opposition parties.
President Chavez was swift to come to his ally's aid, condemning the violence on Sunday during voting where one man was killed and another 35 injured. He accused the “evil empire” of George W Bush of being behind everything.
”Who is responsible for this violence?” he said during his weekly programme Hello President.
“The oligarchy, which uses fascist groups.”
The Venezuelan leader insisted that this was part of “the imperialist plan and that of its lackeys,” to promote “an internal conflict of grand proportions.”
So far there is nobody calling for a partition of Bolivia, and both sides have called for dialogue.
However with three more provinces due to vote for autonomy next month, the clash between the two halves of Bolivia may increase and Mr Morales may have to choose between maintaining his tough Chavista rhetoric and making concessions to a growing opposition.
Increasingly even we Yanquis will see these sorts of movements as the USA disintegrates, circa 2020, due to the twin burdens of dysgenic fertility and funding the retirement of the Baby Boomers.
Chaotic times are ahead - prepare accordingly.
Seems like a bit of a doomsday take on “good” news that not everyone in Bolivia is willing to cowtow to this communist POS, Evo.
Our day of doom is coming - some time around 2020 [and possibly much sooner], the USA will cease to function, and will collapse under its own weight.
The pertinent question for us is whether we will allow that doom to swallow us up and consume us, or whether we will fight back and preserve our bloodlines and our way of life.
Some people will curl up in the fetal position and kiss their @sses goodbye; other people will be a little more reluctant to say "Uncle".
But if we want to be able to survive the impending demise of the USA, then we need to start preparing for it - now.
good luck with that...
Well, we better have a little “good luck” - the numbers are certainly stacked against us.
Why prevent it? It would be a good thing if the prosperous parts of the US broke away from what will be the dumps of California and New England.
Aren’t California and the Northeast the two most prosperous parts of the US?
They are now... but people and money have been leaving them, and that trend will continue.
I think we're in agreement here - if the Red States could figure out some way to peacefully secede from the Blue States, that would be just about the best of all possible rosy outcomes.
At this point, though, the far more likely outcome involves some crypto-Stalinist, like Barack Hussein Obama, seizing power and nationalizing everything to pay for the welfare state:
Senior benefit costs rise 24% since 2000Whatever the outcome, the USA cannot continue as it is presently constituted much past the year 2020.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-02-13-seniors_N.htmThe cost of government benefits for seniors soared to a record $27,289 per senior in 2007, according to a USA TODAY analysis...
The Fiscal Cost of Low-Skill Immigrants to the U.S. Taxpayer
http://www.heritage.org/research/immigration/SR14es.cfm...When the costs of direct and means-tested benefits, education, and population-based services are counted, the average low-skill household had a fiscal deficit of $19,588 (expenditures of $30,160 minus $10,573 in taxes)...
Of U.S. Children Under 5, Nearly Half Are Minorities
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050901841.html...Forty-five percent of U.S. children younger than 5 are minorities...
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Section 1, Population
[see especially Table 8 & Table 9, pages 11-13]
http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/08abstract/pop.pdfCLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE
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