Bolivia's Morales brands Bush a "terrorist"

Evo Morales, the winner of Bolivia's presidential election, branded U.S. President George W. Bush a "terrorist", in an interview with Arabic satellite television on Tuesday. "The only terrorist in this world that I know of is Bush. His military intervention, such as the one in Iraq, that is state terrorism," he told Al Jazeera television.

The leftist won slightly more than half the votes cast in Bolivia's election on Sunday and is set to become the country's first indigenous president. "There is a difference between people fighting for a cause and what terrorists do," he said in comments, which were translated into Arabic.

"Today in Bolivia and Latin America, it's no longer people that are lifting their weapons against imperialism, but it's imperialism that is lifting its weapons against people through military intervention and military bases." Morales has alarmed the Bush administration with his opposition to its strategy in the war on drugs and his admiration for U.S. foes President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and President Fidel Castro of Cuba.

A Morales government in Bolivia will add to a shift to the left in Latin America, where left and centre-left leaders are in power in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay and Venezuela. Latin Americans are unhappy with corrupt and inefficient governments and many, like the Bolivians, mistrust U.S.-backed free market policies.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-12-20T205100Z_01_ARM074001_RTRUKOC_0_UK-BOLIVIA-MORALES-BUSH.xml

I understand Dubya enjoys that sort of thing.

I wonder what it's like to chew coca leaves?

Way to go!

Evo Morales: US, Respect Sovereignty

La Paz, Dec 20 (Prensa Latina)

Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales publicly demanded Tuesday that the US respect the people´s decision, and made it clear that the time of submission diplomacy and subordination had ended.

In an extensive news conference, Movement to Socialism (MAS) leader Morales challenged the US to make a pact against drugs without damaging Bolivian sovereignty, farmers and coca used for a legal purpose.

On US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice´s remarks slamming the democratic nature of the next Bolivian government, the MAS leader called for respect for the sovereign will of Bolivians, who believe that talk is the best way to work out domestic and foreign problems, and that if the US bets on diplomacy, so will his government.

Translating the Quechua slogan "Huaiñuchum yanquis" (Down with Yankees), with which he closed a Sunday address to celebrate his landslide win in elections; the president-elect said it is a slogan of struggle, resistance and defense of dignity and sovereignty.

It is also a condemnation of the policies of hunger, abject poverty and submission we must raze to dignify Bolivians, Morales pointed out.

<snip>

On the presence of the US Drug Enforcement Agency in Bolivia, which even has authority over Bolivian army members and the police, he described this as unacceptable and vowed to fight drug traffic without foreign military intervention.

Prensa Latina

I hope now that Morales is getting attention, we'll be having more information on this evil treatment of his countrymen. Here's just one quick grab to illustrate:

Coca Grower Killed in Bolivia

Andean Information Network
February 7th, 2002

January 30, 2002 -- At approximately 5:15 p.m. yesterday, January 29, an Expeditionary Task Force patrol dispersed a group of coca growers attempting to block the Cochabamba-Santa Cruz highway in Shinahota. According to eyewitness testimony, members of the forces shot directly at a group of farmers on a market road perpendicular to the highway.

The forces shot Marcos Ortiz Llanos (34 years old) in the left side. The bullet exited his right side, apparently passing through his heart and remained lodged in his right arm. He died soon afterwards in the Villa Tunari Hospital. The forensic specialist of the Justice and Human rights Center is performing the autopsy at this time and will issue the corresponding medical certificate.

Multiple eyewitness testimonies state that Cnl. Aurelio Burgos Blacutt (School of the Americas Graduate, 1974) aimed and fired directly at Ortiz. Burgos is easily identifiable because he is missing his left forearm.

Several other people were wounded in the incident. Members of the Expeditionary Task Force continued to beat coca growers with nightsticks and kick them after the shootings.
(snip/...)

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1753

Down with Yankees????

Well it was the confederate south that adamantly placed the Bush
wacko in office and I find this offensive to the majority of
Yankees that voted against his ass.

Even in Canada and Britain.

Usually it is spelled Yanquis, e.g., Cuba Si, Yanquis No. The US is also referred to as the Colossus from the North, El Coloso del Norte.

A popular tale that describes the historical relationship between the US and Latin America is Juan José Arévalo's Fable of the Shark and the Sardines.

Google Translation:

The gold of California, once Mexican earth, had the providencial virtue to upset to the United States. Gold by tons in the Earth, gold fever in the souls. Rehílo of usury in the hands, that do not know where to settle; tremor of anxiety in the eyes, that do not hit upon with the precise horizon and the right course. Gold, more gold, much gold: the world is the gold gold, slopes, bracelets, rings, clocks, places setting, sets of teeth, bells, campanitas: the world is yellow, shining and tintinea metallically. Why the women will not be also of gold? Why not eaten it?


But that torrential wealth has difficulties: the gold of California must be transported to its manifest destiny: New York (the copper of Arizona also). The continental passage is uncertain, expensive, ventured, because in that terrestrial route they are the Mexican Indians and the Yankees. Better it would be to transfer it by sea. But not until Magallanes. We see the map: here -- you see -- in Central America. How many isthmuses possible of fracture to make interoceanic channels. A few calculations done by the bookkeeper, on the cost of the transports in one hundred years What cheap a channel and how surely! The gold shark watched with gluttony eyes the small Central American sardines.

"you see these so next Great Lakes of Nicaragua

to the pacifico that seems separated of him by losses

dunes. You see this narrow isthmus of Panama, province

Colombian, with this culebroso and muddy Chagres river

You watch Tehuantepec here, a throat that hopes

Squeeze of our hands. Everything so small so

Fragile, so sardine... And we, golden, the so powerful ones,

So audacious, so sharks."

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://libreopinion.com/reducto/revista/ver2000/tiburon.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dfabula%2Bdel%2Btiburon%2By%2Bla%2Bsardina%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

Spanish version:

LA FABULA DEL TIBURON Y LAS SARDINAS

Juan José Arévalo

Político y pensador Guatemalteco (1904- 1950)

El oro de California, otrora tierra mexicana, tuvo la virtud providencial de trastornar a los Estados Unidos. Oro por toneladas en la tierra, fiebre de oro en las almas. Rehílo de usura en las manos, que no saben dónde posarse; temblor de ansia en los ojos, que no atinan con el preciso horizonte y el justo rumbo. Oro, más oro, mucho oro: el mundo es el oro, pendientes, brazaletes, sortijas, relojes, cubiertos, dentaduras de oro, cascabeles, campanitas: el mundo es amarillo, brillante y tintinea metálicamente. ¿Por qué las mujeres no serán también de oro? ¿ Por qué no la comida?


Pero aquella riqueza torrencial tiene dificultades: el oro de California debe ser transportado a su destino manifiesto: Nueva York (el cobre de Arizona también). La travesía continental es insegura, costosa, aventurada, porque en esa ruta terrestre están los indios mexicanos y los yanquis. Mejor sería trasladarlo por mar. Pero no hasta Magallanes. Vemos el mapa: aquí --¿ve usted— en Centroamérica. Cuántos istmos posibles de fractura para fabricar canales interoceánicos. Unos cuantos cálculos hechos por el tenedor de libros, sobre el costo de los transportes en cien años ¡Qué barato un canal y cuán seguro! El tiburón de oro miraba con ojos de glotonería las pequeñas sardinas centroamericanas.

"ved estos grandes lagos de Nicaragua tan próximos

al pacifico que parecen separados de él por bajas

dunas. Ved este angosto istmo de Panamá, provincia

colombiana, con este río Chagres culebroso y cenagoso

Mirad aquí Tehuantepec, una garganta que espera el

Apretón de nuestras manos. Todo tan pequeño tan

Frágil, tan sardina ... Y nosotros, los áureos, tan poderosos,

Tan audaces, tan tiburones."

http://libreopinion.com/reducto/revista/ver2000/tiburon.htm

:evilgrin:

He is starting to unite a few more Americans as well.

but it would probably be a good idea to become fluent in Spanish.

"Morales has alarmed the Bush administration with his opposition to its strategy in the war on drugs "

As he plays the PR game of the "US war on Drugs" more coke and poppies
have been produced and sold during his reign.

And who profits?

Take a guess.

Morales is just putting a minor dent in his profits.

Eventually down the road though like the antimosity against the oil
corporations, South America will turn against the US pharmaceuticals
as well.

Well folks, I guess this is our future.

Unless the majority of US citizens join the poor and dispossessed and rise up against global corporatism then we all (US citizens) will be deemed the enemy of the majority of people of the world.

We should not underestimate Central and South America. Remember the huge demonstration last month in Argentina? Hugo Chavez was there, taunting "Mr. Danger". A famous soccer player called Bush "human excrement". It was amazing.

It must have drained the blood from the U.S. State Department. They can see only danger ahead when this kind of thing goes on.

I personally see things becoming VERY dicey for the Bush administration, right now. Here, Mr. Morales comes out openly and calls Bush a "terrorist".

The U.S. never really had the power to attack in multiple places at once (i.e. Iraq AND Iran AND Syria AND North Korea AND Venezuela AND Bolivia) now that the world is realizing this, the fear is gone - and as that fear dissapears so does the power.

in many many ways....

On Sunday, by a whopping and historic margin, Evo Morales was elected President of Bolivia. It looks like he will win with a 51% majority, the first modern Bolivian president to ever do so, or even come close.

Headline writers in the foreign press have had a field day trying to pin a label on Morales’ surprise victory. The New York Times announced the victory of a “coca farmer”. The Chicago Sun-Times abbreviated Morales as a “leftist”. CNN picked up a campaign rally declaration in which Morales called himself, the US government’s “nightmare”. But what does the election of Morales to the presidency here really mean?

A Clear Rejection of Economic Policies Imposed from Washington

First and foremost it means that the Bolivian people, across class lines and regions, are demanding a reversal of twenty years of market-crazed economic policies pressed on the country from abroad, and by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in particular. Growing coca leaves was not the issue in these elections. Recovering national control over gas and oil, privatized away at bargain prices in the 1990s, that was the issue.

Nearly six years after the people of Cochabamba took to the streets to take back their water from the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco (a privatization done under pressure from the World Bank), the nationwide voices of protest for economic change found their voice on the ballot through Evo Morales. Last night he told cheering supporters, “We will change the economic models that have blocked development for the people.” That change begins with Morales’ plans to take back control of the nation’s vast gas and oil reserves and renegotiate all the nation’s contracts with foreign oil companies.

http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/index.htm

it is a wonder to behold. These are by no means isolated events--the election of leftists in so many South American countries. Virtually the whole map of the subcontinent is now "blue," as we say. It is accompanied by regional political and economic cooperation and organization, and by common themes--for one, the indigenous, brown population finally coming into its own, and gaining leadership positions in rightful proportion to its numbers; for another, use of the country's resources to help the poor, with schools, medical care, and other services, and, not unimportantly, small business loans and land reform; and for a third, determination to cast off U.S. corporate exploitation, the heinous U.S. "war on drugs," and U.S. intervention in the form of coups, assassinations and thuggery. That it is all happening peacefully, and democratically (in highly monitored elections) has to be the miracle of our era.

It's amazing what you can do when you have the right to vote. Our first priority must be to retrieve OURs--from the private Bushite corporations (Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia) who have taken it over with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls--a NON-TRANSPARENT election system.

I don't think the people of South America have any hostility to the people of the United States--miraculously enough, considering what our government has done to them over the decades and centuries. I think--and I'm gathering this from some of Chavez's statements and activities--that they realize that we, too, are oppressed.

The South Americans are showing the way. Election reform. Count ALL the ballots. And maybe we, too, can have government of the people, by the people and for the people. That novel idea didn't perish from the earth. It just sent way south for the winter, and is due back here any time now.

--and pulled more votes than anybody in Bolivia's recent history. It was an overwhelming win. It forestalled any runoff. The people of Bolivia have spoken!

If only we could trade Hillary or Lieberman for a Chavez or Morales!

That guy?