Six of Bolivia’s richest provinces on 48 hours protest strike

Source: MercoPress

Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Six of Bolivia’s richest provinces on 48 hours protest strike

Six of Bolivia's nine provinces, which hold 80% of the country’s wealth, have called a 48 hours general strike for Wednesday in protest at a new draft constitution.

The strike call was announced in the oil and farm rich Santa Cruz region together with the provinces of Tarija, Pando, Beni, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca. Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas has emerged as the great leader of the opponent provinces.

Precisely in the main city of Chuquisaca, Sucre at least five people died, including a policeman lynched by a mob, and hundreds were injured over the weekend after violent protests broke out against the reforms. President Evo Morales says the new charter is part of a democratic revolution but opponents say the proposed reforms concentrate power.

The strike is also geared to protest a recent decision from the Bolivian government to take hydrocarbons’ taxes resources from the provinces and invest them in a pensions’ scheme for the destitute elderly.



Read more: http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=11987&formato=HTML

My feelings weren't clear until I read that.

COLONEL HUGO BANZER
President of Bolivia

In 1970, in Bolivia, when then-President Juan Jose Torres nationalized Gulf Oil properties and tin mines owned by US interests, and tried to establish friendly relations with Cuba and the Soviet Union, he was playing with fire. The coup to overthrow Torres, led by US-trained officer and Gulf Oil beneficiary Hugo Banzer, had direct support from Washington. When Banzer's forces had a breakdown in radio communications, US Air Force radio was placed at their disposal. Once in power, Banzer began a reign of terror. Schools were shut down as hotbeds of political subversive activity. Within two years, 2,000 people were arrested and tortured without trial. As in Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, the native Indians were ordered off their land and deprived of tribal identity. Tens-of-thousands of white South Africans were enticed to immigrate with promises of the land stolen from the Indians, with a goal of creating a white Bolivia. When Catholic clergy tried to aid the Indians, the regime, with CIA help, launched terrorist attacks against them, and this "Banzer Plan" became a model for similar anti-Catholic actions throughout Latin America.
(snip/)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/US_ThirdWorld/dictators.html

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Banzer was from this same area. The post above was written too soon to include the information that he was the Bolivian President again from 1997, to 2001, at which time he was stricken by cancer and resigned.

Obituary: General Hugo Banzar Suarez; Bolivian Dictator Who Took Up Democracy Monday, May 6th 2002

The Independent (London)

James Painter Banzer: ideological acrobatics

General Hugo Banzer Suarez was one of a very small number of Latin American dictators who later became president by the democratic route.

He ruled Bolivia from 1971 to 1978 (in a period known as the Banzerato), one of a crop of military strongmen who dominated South America at the time. Once ousted, most dictators seek quieter times, hoping the past does not catch up on them. But Banzer dedicated the rest of his life to shaking off his authoritarian (but not right -wing) past. It eventually paid off. After standing in six presidential elections over a period of almost 30 years, he finally triumphed in 1997.

The grandson of German immigrants, and the son of an army commander, Banzer was born in 1926 in Concepcin, an old Jesuit mission, not far from the centre of Bolivia's tropical east, Santa Cruz, then as now almost a separate country from the high plains around La Paz. Only 14, he joined the army college, where he was the smallest but most distinguished cadet.

Rapid promotions made him a colonel at 35, and head of the army college in 1969. His strong point was logistics. He spent several periods in the United States, first at the School of Americas in Panama (known pejoratively as "the school for coups"), and later as military attache in Washington in 1967 after he had served as Education Minister under President Rene Barrientos. This imbued him with a strong admiration for the US.

He seized power in a coup against the left-leaning government of General Juan Jose Torres in August 1971, and soon afterwards received unprecedented amounts of US aid. Initially he could count on the formal support of two parties, including the MNR (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement) which had overseen Bolivia's nationalist revolution in 1952. Brazil too was keen to enlarge its influence in Bolivia, and lent Banzer its support.

In November 1974, he performed an "autogolpe", dispensing with his civilian allies and passing several authoritarian laws not unlike those imposed by General Augusto Pinochet in Chile. Indeed, in many ways his regime was similar to those right across the Southern Cone: a free-market model with strong incentives for foreign investment, an avowal of Christian and nationalist values against the perceived threat of Communism, and a brutal response to virtually all opposition activity.
(snip/...)

http://www.soaw.org/newswire_detail.php?id=54

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I think it's absolutely essential that anyone who cares about right and wrong in the Americas gets to know what Banzer did to terroize and brutalize the Native Bolvians, and the horrendous insult he perpretrated by bringing in White South Africans to the country, and handing over the very land on which the Bolivians had lived for generations, in hopes of actually creating a new, whiter Bolivia.

He stole their land, gave it to strangers, and they were far, far worse off than ever before. Unspeakably evil.

And lynching policemen is not a very nice thing to do. I fear this might lead to civil war.

evo is almost akin to lincoln in that sense.

talk of civil war has been going on for awhile. both sides have their paramilitary forces ready. what bolivia needs right now is an obama, instead, we have bush. rather than giving concessions to haliburton, though, evo gives concessions to venezuela

Everything I've read, up until now, has indicated Bolivia has received some excellent assistance from Venezuela, including some essential loans, which, in earlier times, as with the racist dictator Banzer, came from the World Bank, etc., at exorbitant costs, and hideous effects within Bolivia.

A quick look for links provides things like:

Venezuela, Argentina Sign Bolivia Energy Accords
BOLIVIA: August 13, 2007


TARIJA, Bolivia - Argentina and Venezuela pledged new oil and natural gas investments on Friday in their neighbour and leftist ally Bolivia, which is seeking new investors after nationalizing its energy sector last year.

Leaders from the three countries met in Tarija, Bolivia's natural gas capital, where President Nestor Kirchner said Argentina would give Bolivia soft loans for a $450 million processing plant to ship more natural gas to Argentina.
Bolivia and Venezuela launched an ambitious energy alliance earlier in the day, announcing $600 million in oil exploration by a new binational company, YPFB-Petroandina.
(snip)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who this week toured the region promising new energy investments in Argentina, Uruguay and Ecuador as well as Bolivia, has used wealth from his country's oil exports to extend his regional influence.

His new joint venture with Morales -- 60 percent Bolivian and 40 percent Venezuelan -- will explore in the unexplored Amazon region north of La Paz and in blocks in Chaco, in southeastern Bolivia.

Chavez also pledged financial backing for Bolivia to start developing a petrochemical industry.
(snip/...)

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/43655/newsDate/13-Aug-2007/story.htm

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Venezuela, Bolivia deals include iron joint venture
Sun Sep 9, 2007 3:53pm EDT

CARACAS, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Venezuela and Bolivia on Sunday signed a preliminary joint venture agreement for Venezuela to participate in the development Bolivia's massive El Mutun iron deposit believed to hold some 40 billion tonnes of ore.

During a visit to Venezuela to boost ties between the two leftist allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales joined Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to ink the deal on a Sunday television broadcast.

Bolivia's parliament is currently reviewing an agreement for India's Jindal Steel and Power (JNSP.BO: Quote, Profile, Research) to invest $2.1 billion to develop 50 percent of the Mutun Reserve.

Bolivia and Venezuela also inked an agreement to build a petrochemicals plant in the Bolivian region of Cochabamba that would process natural gas from nearby fields.

They also signed accords to develop a cement production facility and a forestry joint venture.

Chavez said the agreements would help advance the ALBA trade initiative meant to promote integration among Latin American countries that the leftist leader has presented as an alternative to U.S.-backed free-trade deals.
(snip/...)

http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSN0926949320070909

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Venezuela to give up UN candidacy for Bolivia: Morales
by Leonard Brody | October 25, 2006 at 04:43 pm

Venezuela has agreed to drop out of the hotly contested race for Latin America's open seat on the UN Security Council and asked Bolivia to run in its place, Bolivia's president said.

"Comrade (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez says that to find a consensus he leaves the candidacy to Bolivia," President Evo Morales said at a ceremony with small business owners in the La Paz suburb of El Alto.

US critic Venezuela has battled for the seat against US-backed Guatemala but neither country was able to win the two-thirds majority needed to win the spot after three-dozen polls at the UN General Assembly.
(snip/...)

http://www.nowpublic.com/venezuela_to_give_up_un_candidacy_for_bolivia_morales

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Venezuela, Bolivia form oil exploration venture
Fri Aug 10, 2007 3:38pm BST
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More Business & Investing News... By Carlos Alberto Quiroga

LA PAZ, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Bolivia and Venezuela launched early on Friday an ambitious energy alliance, announcing $600 million in oil and natural gas exploration by a new binational company, YPFB-Petroandina.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, on the last stretch of a tour announcing energy investments in four South American countries, made the announcement with his ally and fellow-leftist, Bolivian President Evo Morales, after a late-night meeting in La Paz.

Chavez and Morales signed an agreement to form YPFB-Petroandina -- a joint venture 60 percent controlled by Bolivian state oil firm Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos and the rest by Venezuelan state oil firm PDVSA.
(snip)

"We said we wanted partners and not bosses, and now we have a partner," said Morales, who nationalized Bolivia's energy industry in May 2006, hugely increasing the government portion of profit from foreign oil companies operating in its large natural gas fields.
(snip/...)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1046925220070810

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This does NOT sound as if Bolivia is being exploited, forced into "concessions," as it used to be, in the grips of foreign multinationals, and the World Bank, etc. During those days it was raped endlessly, and brutally, deriving only a fraction of the profits it should have been realizing all the way along, while its people were worked mercilessly for next to nothing.

The majority of the people are behind Evo morales. The country itself is a majority of Indians. What...the rich white elites are going to form an army to fight the rest of the country and the government (with its control over the armed forces)?

What I see is the elites losing this battle. They are politically outnumbered and have no military power to contest the democratic processes that are taking resources away from their control.

But you must be aware that El Norte has intervened in these matters from time to time. And this seems to fit that pattern, so it seems to be worthwhile to worry about it.

Surely they can't be THAT obviously callous.

Imagine someone trying to protest raising taxes to help the elderly here in the united states...and the DESTITUTE elderly at that!

Don't they know they are just supposed to let the elderly DIE so the rich can keep their money? Shame on them!!! (sarcasm)