AP: Bolivia's Coca Leader Gives Deadline

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LA PAZ, Bolivia - The leader of Bolivia's coca leaf farmers has thrown his support behind the nation's new president but warned a lack of quick progress in reducing overwhelming poverty in the nation could lead to a resumption of the protests that ousted the previous government.

Coca farmer Evo Morales, an opposition congressman, says President Carlos Mesa's philosophy is very similar to the socialist thinking behind his own political party.

But Mesa, a former journalist, has yet to state publicly his position on the issue of coca leaf, the base ingredient of cocaine.

Morales and the coca leaf farmers he represents are staunchly against a U.S.-backed government program to eradicate the crop, arguing that the crackdown has unfairly deprived thousands of their livelihoods.

<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031022/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/bolivia_031020074228>


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Bolivian indigenous leader and MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) party deputy Evo Morales gives a press conference on the social crisis that reached the country in his office in La Paz, Bolivia on Tuesday, October 21, 2003. Morales, the opposition congressman who has championed the cause of Bolivian coca leaf farmers, accused the former government of ``economic genocide'' and said Sanchez de Lozada should be jailed. (AP Photo/Dado Galdieri)

The fundamental failure of the war on drugs:

"Let's punish poor Andean farmers who grow coca since Americans don't have any responsibility for what they sniff or smoke."

(snip) As for the coca leaf, Morales said production should be increased, so the crop can be exported for legal uses, such as toothpaste, gum and shampoo.

"I have offered to create a drug-fighting alliance," Morales said. "But coca is not a drug within the Aymara and Quechua (indigenous) cultures." (snip)

How Americans pervert coca's use should not affect these people.

Thanks for the photo, Say_What. It gives a human dimension to things.

From Foreign Policy.com

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...In all of human history, no society has ever been drug free, nor will any be so in the future. Drugs are not going to disappear; the challenge is to mitigate the harm they cause. The wisest course for Latin America would be legalization. The presidents of Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, and Uruguay have all said or hinted as much. But legalization is still too radical an option; it is a commonsense solution whose time has not quite arrived. For now, countries in Latin America can lower the toll of both drugs and the war on drugs by pursuing three strategies: embracing the concept of “harm reduction,” rehabilitating the cultivation and sale of coca, and creating a “coalition of the willing” to resist Washington’s simplistic prohibitionist paradigm.

...Restore coca’s good name. At the same time, the region should move to relegalize the sale of coca-based products. The coca plant, indigenous to Bolivia and Peru, has a number of sound uses and may well offer health and medicinal benefits. For instance, coca contains high levels of both calcium and phosphorus. The World Health Organization documented these positive effects in a landmark study produced in 1995. There was a thriving global market for coca a century ago. There would surely be substantial worldwide demand today for coca-based products such as lozenges, gums, teas, and tonics were it not for the current restrictions, and lifting them would provide a much-needed boost to economic development in both Bolivia and Peru. The effort to eradicate coca has been a complete flop, and a cruel one, too. The entire region should undertake a campaign to relegitimize coca.


Create Latin America’s own “coalition of the willing.” Indeed, the effort to bring some sanity to the discussion of drugs must be a regional project. No one Latin American government can stand up to Washington. But bullying Bolivia with the threat of an aid cutoff is one thing; bullying an entire region is quite another, and the United States would have a real problem were it to face an organized revolt involving a number of Latin American countries.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/story.php?storyID=13794

You have to wonder if someone in government ever imagined people getting pushed beyond endurance might finally try to protect themselves.

It never seemed a consideration as long as thick Washington officials recognized we had the material to blow Latin American countries off the face of the map. That's so much easiser than meeting them as people, and acting as the "grown-ups" _Bushbots boast they are.

Apparently they saw the lack of organized resistance as being a proof of compliance, and acceptance of our will to dominate.

A Latin American coalition for Latin American's own interests seems like a good idea. It's a lot more rational than letting fools in the U.S. tell them how it's gonna be, even though it may mean some very tense times on the way.

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They go over the side rail and disappear, hounded off the ship of state by the people's outrage and the scheming of their opponents. Last week, it was Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's turn. And when the hapless ex-president of Bolivia surfaced in Miami, it only seemed to vindicate the sneering epithet they tagged him with in the streets of La Paz -- el gringo.

Mr. Sanchez de Lozada was the eighth South American president forced to step down in mid-term since 1992 -- all of them replaced, remarkably, by civilians rather than gold-braided generals. Some resigned or were impeached over corruption scandals. But more recently, popular unrest has replaced personal peccadilloes as the trigger. At bottom, what toppled Jamil Mahuad of Ecuador in 2000, Fernando de la Rua of Argentina in 2001 and now Mr. Sanchez, was deep disenchantment with the imposition of unworkable imported economic theories, layered over the structural inequalities of Latin American life.

Each country is different, but there are common themes. In Ecuador, Argentina and Bolivia, popular unrest exploded at different stages of structural economic upheaval. This came largely at the behest of the International Monetary Fund and foreign creditors, who demanded the imposition of market-friendly policies as the price of continued support to local elites facing debt, currency, or commodity-price crises.

Bolivia, in the mid-1980s -- and with Mr. Sanchez de Lozada's heavy involvement -- was the first South American country to follow what is known as the Washington consensus. It involved measures such as slashing tariffs, cutting subsidies on food and other necessities, and privatizing state-run services. Other countries adopted currency wrinkles, too. Argentina produced the illusion of prosperity by means of an overvalued peso, and Ecuador adopted the U.S. dollar as its currency.

<http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20031022.knox22/BNStory/International/>

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People raise the Whipala flag, that represents the Indian nations of the Andean region during a mass rally in downtown La Paz, Bolivia on Monday Oct. 20, 2003. Tens of thousands of Indians, farmers and students marched on the Bolivian capital of La Paz on Monday celebrating a popular revolt that forced the ouster of former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

{The following report on the COB’s actions is from the web site Bolpress.com. It has been translated with the help of Eduardo Quintana, a trade union activist in Arizona whose native language is Mexican Spanish.}


“COB Proposes Minimum Program to New Government”

(Bolpress.com)—An enlarged session of the leading body of the COB, with the participation of twenty different affiliates (trades or branches of industry), decided, overnight, to continue the open-ended general strike until the next government has made a commitment “in front of this organization, not to export gas, either to Chile or Peru, and to repeal the Law on Hydrocarbons.” {Apparently this is a recent law that allows the multinational corporations, once again, to gain control of Bolivia’s gas and oil. In Bolivia’s great national revolution of 1952, those natural resources were nationalized.}

In addition, the COB approved a document that presented the new government with a minimum program. Most prominently, the program calls for revision of privatization contracts, annulment of the agrarian reform law {which now apparently allows communally owned land to be
sold on the market}, revival of national industry, and the bringing to justice of those responsible for “genocide” against the people during the so-called ‘gas war.’ {“Gas war” is the journalistic name that has now been given to the mass protests since late September against the exporting of Bolivia’s natural gas by foreign multinational
corporations.}

The COB decided not to give support to the new government, because it considers the ouster of Sanchez de Losada to be only a change of individuals, not a change in economic policy {literally, “no change in the economic model”}.

In addition, the COB prefers to maintain its “class independence,” that is, not to compromise with a government that is not of the working class. But since the COB ought to be responsive to the existing situation, COB President Jaime Solares indicated that, in order for the indefinite general strike to be called off, the government would have to “make a commitment, in front of this organization (the COB), not to export the gas, either through Chile or Peru, and to repeal the law regarding gas and oil.”

In this connection the COB presented the new government with a minimum program, which in its view expresses “the outcry of the people.” As long as the newly mandated government works in this direction, the COB will remain alert and vigilant. If the opposite occurs, “the roads and streets will again be turned into barricades.”

Among the points in the proposal are: “Review by the Congress of all privatization contracts, ‘shared risk’ contracts, and leasing of petroleum deposits, mines, and state-owned companies, so that the Political Constitution of the nation will be respected.” {The Bolivian constitution apparently intends that the mineral wealth of the country be preserved for the nation as a whole.}

The proposal also demands: “Annulment of the agrarian reform law, which commercializes the land. Redistribution of the land. And respect for communally owned land and land originally owned by the indigenous peoples.”

The third point in the proposal specifies: “Restoration of the social rights of the Bolivian workers. Immediate annulment of 'free contracting.’” {“Free contracting” apparently allows employers to hire and fire at will, without any legal restrictions.} In addition, the proposal urges: “Revival of national industry, rejecting the kind of ‘free trade’ that the FTAA would establish.”

The final demand is “bringing to justice those responsible for genocide against the people of Bolivia, who rose up in defense of the nation’s natural resources and in defense of democracy.” The COB also demands “annulment of the Law of Security of the Citizen” {which apparently gives excessive powers to the security forces}.

The enlarged session began at five in the afternoon, after the arrival of miners from the cooperatives of Caracoles, who entered the Plaza of San Francisco, setting off dozens of sticks of dynamite. This group of miners were received with applause {by the crowds of protesters in the plaza; it is estimated that as many as 350,000 had turned out in La Paz that day}. The miners {on their way to La Paz} had suffered two fatalities in the locality of Patacamaya, when the army cowardly fired on them. Immediately a rally was organized, in which the miners’ leaders participated, along with David Vargas {the former police major who helped leaded the police rebellion of February 2003}.

At the closing of the enlarged session of the COB, at eight in the evening, Solares called for another enlarged session at 10:00 a.m. the next morning, at the Teachers’ Social Center, for the purpose of discussing such subjects as the strengthening and unity of the COB, and for the purpose of calling an Assembly of the People, which is the political solution, for the medium term, that the workers will be discussing and analyzing.

The enlarged session of the COB also approved a letter that will be sent to the acting president of the National Congress, Carlos D. Mesa,
in which the COB “demands that the Congress publicly reject any request to allow foreign troops to enter Bolivian territory.” This letter followed hot on the heels of an announcement that the Pentagon would be sending troops to Bolivia to defend U.S. citizens and the U.S. embassy.

They are demanding that the U.S. not interfere.

Yesterday morning {October 16}, 100 U.S. residents in Bolivia issued a statement demanding that their government “not intervene in this internal conflict.” They reminded their government that “the people of olivia have the right to determine their own political future free from pressure or sanctions by the United States.”

Bolivia: Deterioration of Human Rights Must End
Tuesday, 21 October 2003, 8:29 am
Press Release: Amnesty International

Bolivia: Put an end to the alarming deterioration of Human Rights in the country
In the light of recent developments in the Human Rights crisis in which the country is immersed, Amnesty International reiterates its urgent call to the authorities and to all sectors of Bolivian society to prevent an increase in the escalation of violence and further bloodshed.

"The spiral of violence must be stopped", said Amnesty International. "The authorities must give orders to the highest levels of the security forces to refrain from using excessive force against demonstrators."

According to information received by Amnesty International, the number of deaths since mid-September exceeds 70 and hundreds of people have been injured. Reports indicate that the majority of victims were wounded by gunshot.

"The Bolivian state has both the right and the obligation to maintain public order and respect for the law" said Amnesty International. "However, the authorities also have the unavoidable obligation to respect and protect at every juncture the right to life, to physical integrity and to freedom of expression of the whole population, as prescribed by international law." (snip/...)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0310/S00209.htm

Justice on the streets

The ousting of Bolivia's president is a warning that the demands of Latin America's poor cannot be ignored

Isabel Hilton
Tuesday October 21, 2003
The Guardian

Bolivia's president of 15 months, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, was protesting to the last when he finally resigned on Friday after months of street protests. His resignation, he remarked sourly, was a blow for democracy in Bolivia and Latin America.
The president's democratic credentials were not impeccable: he was elected, certainly, but with only 22% of the vote. By last week, he retained the loyalty of less than half of even the small minority who had actually voted for him. He presided over government forces that shot 50 demonstrators dead in the days leading up to his resignation.

Democracy, it is true, has had a pretty patchy run in Bolivia. In the 50s, one president abolished the army, only to be overthrown (with US encouragement) shortly thereafter. Twenty years of military dictatorship finally reached its apogee in the early 80s - after one spectacular episode when there were five presidents in a single day - with the coca-peddling General Luis Garcia Meza. At this point the US belatedly concluded that military dictatorships were not necessarily reliable allies. (snip/...)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1067411,00.html


Bolivia's ex-President with _Bush's Secretary of State

The article explains the different organizations who have led the protests and their leaders (COB, CSUTCB, CNRDG) and explains that many of them were part of the Coalition in Defence of Water and Life that successfully fought the US multinational Bechtel’s takeover of the water system in Cochabamba in 2000. Also, it looks like the same dirty tricks are being used in Bolivia that were used in Venezuela--blame the peasants for the murders and plaster their photos in the papers.


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...The protesters oppose plans to export natural gas to the US. They say rich foreigners are plundering Bolivia’s natural resources, and demand that 250,000 homes in Bolivia be supplied with free gas before any is exported.

..Demonstrators have faced repression from the police, who have routinely used tear gas to disperse thousands of marchers. On 20 September, troops attacked peasants in Warisata, killing seven people. In response, peasant leader Felipe Quispe, head of the CSUTCB, called for an indigenous uprising and CNRDG leader Oscar Olivera said that weeks of confrontation and struggle remain ahead.

...Though government officials maintain that the security forces were ambushed by peasants, Human Rights investigators stated that there was no evidence of an ambush and that the military had been securing the area around Warisata from early Saturday morning, and that later in the afternoon, though talks had been going on with the peasants to end the blockade, the military had aggressively moved in for the confrontation.

Government officials said that “racist and armed terrorist groups” were to blame for the violence in Warisata. Photos of armed peasants were on all the front pages of Bolivian newspapers. Many believe these comments and propaganda are simply an attempt to justify excessive use of force by Bolivia’s police and military in Warisata. Felipe Quispe, Campesino Federation Leader, said that no such terror groups exist and that it was the security forces who had provoked the conflict.

Dozens of union groups and political parties met in Cochabamba to decide what course of action to take regarding the deaths in Warisata. At this meeting various leaders, including those from the Movement Towards Socialism, the People’s High Command and the Bolivian Workers Union (COB), threatened that if these massacres persist nationwide strikes and road blockades will go on indefinitely.

<http://www.workersliberty.org.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1307&mode=thread&order=0>

Never happen--he's in Miami where all terrorists live in impunity by Uncle Sam.

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LA PAZ, Bolivia, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Bolivia's leading opposition congressman said on Wednesday he has asked for genocide charges to be brought against former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada for the bloody attempt to suppress a popular revolt that ousted him last week.

Coca farmer and indigenous leader Evo Morales, who serves in Bolivia's lower house, told Reuters he met the attorney general and asked him to bring the charges before Congress after at least 80 people died in the month-long uprising.

"The ex-president must answer to crimes against humanity, among them genocide and economic damage to the Bolivian state," Morales said.

The attorney general was not available for comment on whether he would act on Morales' request.

<http://www.borsaitalia.it/fwa-cgi-bin/news.pl?id=1066853513nN22231281&tit=>

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...Tip of a Larger Iceberg

...While Bolivia's social movements enjoy broad public support for their demands - a fair deal or no deal on gas, opposition to privatization, etc. - the non-protesting majority is growing weary of their tactics. As the old saying goes, "When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail." In Bolivia, every protest seems to turn into highway blockades and other disruptions that hurt the poor more than anyone else. Unfortunately, it seems that massive disruption is the only language that Bolivian political leaders can hear.

If Pacific LNG follows Bechtel's path - watching on CNN as Bolivia falls into bloody chaos on its behalf - its dreams of a California gas deal will also fall into chaos and its public reputation, deservedly, will pay a heavy toll. Instead, it should tell the Bolivian government to put away its tanks and tell the Bolivian people that it wants to make a deal worthy of broad public support. Bolivia's new President, former Vice-President Carlos Mesa, vowed to support a binding public referendum on the gas deal the night he took office.

Support for a revising the deal has also come from key California consumer groups. "We can't solve our energy problems by purchasing gas that has been in effect robbed from other countries," said Nettie Hoge, executive director of The Utility Reform Network, California's largest utility consumers' advocacy organization. "Pacific LNG has the power to demand that the Bolivian government stop shooting at protestors and the power to negotiate a fairer gas deal for the Bolivian people. They should do both as soon as possible."

http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=8828

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...Demonstrators carried the bodies of the dead through El Alto, chanting, “murderers, murderers,” and “Goni must go.” Only one soldier was among the dead, reported the local media. He was executed by his commanding officer after refusing to open fire on demonstrators.

...Washington’s crude intervention in Bolivian politics on the side of the hated president further inflamed the protests. U.S. State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher said October 14 that the U.S. government “will not tolerate any interruption of constitutional order.” The U.S. embassy had issued a statement the previous day saying, “We express our full support for this government… must not be replaced by one brought in by force or violent delinquency.” It said, “Sticks and stones are not a form of peaceful protest”—as army troops were shooting down demonstrators in the street.

...Sánchez de Lozada also earned the hatred of many peasants through his cooperation with Washington in its so-called “war on drugs,” under which agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) using specially trained units of Bolivian police have destroyed thousands of hectares of coca plants—the raw material for cocaine. The program, which serves as a Trojan horse for deeper U.S. military intervention throughout the Andean region, threatens many peasants with ruin.

These U.S.-trained police units have earned a reputation for brutally assaulting working people in the coca-producing regions. A 1995 Human Rights Watch report titled “Bolivia, Human Rights Violations and the War on Drugs” states: “The antinarcotics police run roughshod over the population, barging into homes in the middle of the night, searching people and possessions at will, manhandling and even beating residents, stealing their goods and money. Arbitrary arrests and detentions are routine.”

Washington already has a military presence in Bolivia, stationed partly under cover of the “war on drugs.” DEA agents operate near the country’s mountainous borders with Brazil and Argentina. The DEA has offices in La Paz, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and Trinidad—more cities than in any other Latin American country. U.S. forces also function in Bolivia under the Andean Initiative, the Pentagon’s program of military funding, training, and intervention in the region that also includes Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Panama.

http://www.themilitant.com/2003/6738/index.shtml