Update from Bolivia

international | anti-capitalism | news report

Monday October 13, 2003 20:34

by Sian Muldowney

sianmuldowney at yahoo dot co dot uk

Tupiza, Bolivia

The struggle against the sale of Bolivia`s natural gas to the US and Mexico continues. Martial Law has been declared and the violence has escalated.

Since the last time I reported from Bolivia the situation has worsened. The violence has escalated and the blockades have increased, now nearly all the major roads are blocked. The people are still determined to resist the sale of their natural gas to the United States and Mexcio.

Minutes ago, I was watching images of La Paz on the television. The streets are full of riot police and the center has been cordoned off. Riot police over here are armed with automatic weapons and tear gas grenandes among other things.

The government have imposed martial law on El Alto, a city 10 kms outside of La Paz, following major clashes between the army and protestors. El Alto is the fastest growing city in South America and there is a very high level of poverty. It was here that the blockades were first erected over 5 weeks ago. The estimated number of those dead range between 16 and 24 (depending on who you listen to) with over 30 injured. Among the dead was a 7 year old boy who was killed by a stray bullet. A government spokesman said that the decision to impose martial law on El Alto was taken after the protestors attacked soldiers with rockets and firearms.

The blockades have been amazingly successful. La Paz has been experiencing a serious shortage of fuel and food as supplies have been unable to reach the city due to the protests. The army escorted 12 trucks into the city to supply some of the many who have been queing at petrol stations.

Evo Morales, of the Movement Towards Socialism Party, is still calling for the resignation of Lozada, the president. The president has also received severe criticism from within his own cabinet. The vice-president stated that he was withdrawing his support from Lozada and that the violence of the last few days was completly unjustified. The president has stated that he has no intention of resigning and will stay in office until his mandate in 2007.

The campesiños continue to call for the nationalisation of the gas. The country is coming to a virtual standstill. It is unclear how this will play out in the coming days.

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Comments (8 of 8)

link to daily updated photographs of the Bolivian Gas crises.

by ipsiphi (by being a reader just like you)

Mon Oct 13, 2003 22:50

these photographs have been published on Bolivian indymedia and other independent news collectives and are assembled on a Yahoo newsgroup with accompanying commentaries in English.

our faces and our masks their faces and their masks

Isiphi, you clown!!!

by Josef

Tue Oct 14, 2003 03:18

Any comparison between you middleclass student malcontents and impoverished peasants of Bolivia is wrong, immoral and an insult to their suffering.

You are not a campesino, don't insult them by comparig your comfortable existence to their struggles.

Josef

by Night Watchman

Tue Oct 14, 2003 03:55

I don't think iosaf is middle class, and I think it's a while since he was a student (if he ever was, although he is certainly very well read). Anyway you don't know much about his circumstances, so how can you judge?

How about yourself, Josef? What Josef are YOU named after, Josef Mengele perhaps?

on judging masks:

by with a "phi"

Tue Oct 14, 2003 13:02

http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=61467&type_id=all&search_text=masks

Nor do we know if the bolivians above are campesinos, or strike breakers, or vigilantes, perhaps they are followers of the neo-Zapatista movement perhaps not, perhaps their masks are as subject to debate in their society as any mask is in Irish society.
Now there certainly are a lot of students about.
Don't worry this happens at this time of year, and is quite normal, some try their best to appear "really bright", others appear to appear "disinterested", others just can't clear the head of the hormones and attention is focussed on the cute person sitting next to them.
My students mostly come from comfortable formerly working class or formerly middle class backgrounds, I do have a reserve of "others" who come from illiterate and "nomadic" backgrounds but this week focusses my attention on the "average" kind of student.

Give me a student at 18 years and I will shape your future.

{you will note that at the bottom of the bolivian news update yahoo group there is a link to a travel agency which will bring you to Bolivia}.

in memory of ALEX MOLLERICONA aged 5 years.

by ipsiphi

Thu Oct 16, 2003 01:45

killed in the second week of a strike by workers, students, campesinos and Bolivians against the poverty they live in.

The average Bolivian can not afford to use Bolivian piped Gas.
The average U:S: American can and yet generally uses Gas or Oil sourced in other South American countries.

ALEX MOLLERICONA was killed in the Bolivian City of el Alto by a "stray" bullet.
Both Bolivian police and army were firing bullets.
There has been no inquiry.
THere has been no apology.
There has been no indication that this is unacceptable.

= ¿do you have a reason to write a letter?

he was not wearing a mask.

by -

Thu Oct 16, 2003 01:47

...yet

news as of yesterday. (C&P)

by Reporters Without Borders

Thu Oct 16, 2003 12:49

Media targeted in serious social and political crisis

Reporters Without Borders today denounced threats made against journalists covering Bolivia's two-week-old political crisis and social unrest. Staff of radio station Radio Fides and TV stations Canal 2 and Canal 39 received anonymous phone threats on 13 October as did personnel at radio stations Pachamama, Celestial and Erbol two days earlier.

"We call on the government to do all they can to see that the media can continue to do their job," said the press freedom organisation's secretary-general, Robert Ménard. "Journalists must be allowed cover the crisis in complete freedom and put out the news they see fit."

Pachamama and Celestial, in the town of El Alto, near the capital, La Paz, and the other stations, in La Paz itself, were warned that "something" would happen to them, that they should "watch out," should stop broadcasting and that the stations would be bombed. Demonstrators tried to stone the studios of Radio Fides, owned by the Catholic Church, on 13 October but were prevented by police.

Seven journalists at the government-run TV station resigned on 12 October in protest what they said was the management's "distortion" of the news and "lying by omission." They accused the government of intervening to stop news being broadcast about the clashes between demonstrators and security forces in El Alto. They also said they had been threatened because of the station's news broadcasts.

Juan Yupanqui, of the daily paper El Diario, was beaten up by special security police on 7 October as he followed demonstrators walking from El Alto to La Paz who were tear-gassed and attacked by police barring their way.

Bolivia has been gripped by serious unrest in recent weeks. Trade union and indigenous leaders have called for a general strike in protest against a plan to export Bolivia's natural gas through neighbouring Chile. El Alto, 15 km from La Paz, has been the focus of the unrest in past few days. About 60 people have been killed in clashes with security forces since the crisis began and President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada decreed martial law in El Alto on 12 October.

************************************
the margin of difference between the President and his rival is 1.5% of votes cast.
The President relies on a coalition of interests one of which is predicatably the armed forces.

more-

Fri Oct 17, 2003 15:17

Bolivia somos todos
=
we are all Bolivia.

Solidarity demonstrations in South America:
Argentina
Thurs 16th Embassy.
Friday 17th March Solidarity in Buenos Aires. 16:00
Brukman (Jujuy y Belgrano)[imc argentina home], 17:00 Congress, thence to embassy.
Córdoba: friday 17th Consulate

Chile:
today Consulate in Santiago

Ecuador
yesterday 11h00: grounds of Bolivian embassy.
Tuesday 21st 10h00. solidarity events.

Send info on what you do for Solidarity to [email protected] / [email protected]

radio streaming includes:
Radio Comunitaria Aire Libre [Argentine trots] [email protected]
http://217.160.142.10:8000/listen.pls o http://liveradio.indymedia.org:8003/bolivia.mp3.m3u

The leader of the cacerolists (noisy protesters who "began" the current drama) Evo Morales, one of the most important leaders /figures
/spokespeople of both people and Bolvian workers, assured supporters and media this morning (local time) that the "_Neo-Liberal government of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada "is imposing a savage and violent system", and he affirmed that" a criminal president is being maintained" [in power].
AUDIO MP3: interview with Evo Morales in Spanish, (16/10/03) http://asambleasociales.org/especiales/bolivia/audio/evo_morales_entrevista_1610_mitre.mp3

the other recommended links to follow what's going on with many pages translated into "inglés = english".

http://bolivia.indymedia.org
http://www.bolpress.com
http://www.econoticiasbolivia.com
http://www.renacerbol.com.ar
http://www.argenpress.info/
http://argentina.indymedia.org/
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/free/imf/bolivia/txt/2003/guerra_del_gas_octubre.htm
http://news.google.com.ar/news?hl=es&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=bolivia
http://www.geocities.com/proyectoemancipacion/congresobolivarianodelospueblos.htm
http://www.geocities.com/proyectoemancipacion/

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Update from Bolivia

Comments (8 of 8)