Sunday, September 14, 2008

Bolivian developments

Bolivian President Evo Morales is moving more forcefully against the separatist rebels, whose opposition to the national government developed into armed rebellion during this week. He has declared martial law (estado de sitio, literally "state of siege") in the norther rebel province of Pando. (Bolivia declara el estado de sitio en la violenta región de Pando El Mundo/EFE [Spain] 13.09.2008) He has arrested the governor of the rebellious department (province) of Pando.

The PBS Newshour presented a major report on the Bolivian situation on Friday, Unrest in Bolivia Leads to Ousting of U.S. Diplomats 09/12/08:

Opposition protesters reportedly shot and killed seven peasant farmers in a remote eastern Amazon region of Bolivia called Pando on Thursday, and an employee of the opposition-led regional government employee was also killed, a government official told Reuters.

The violence is rooted in an ongoing stand-off between President Evo Morales' leftist government and opposition governors who control four of the country's nine regions - some of which hold the country's valuable natural gas reserves.

The governors are demanding more energy revenue and opposing Morales plan to distribute land to the poor and rewrite the constitution.
PBS also reports on developments in Venezuela:

In a show of support for ally and fellow-leftist Morales, Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez also expelled the U.S. ambassador from Caracas on Thursday and shouted insults at the United States at a political rally.

"Go to hell...Yankees, we are a dignified people, go to hell a hundred times," Chavez said, reported Reuters.

"The yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia," Chavez said.

Chavez accused the U.S. of being behind a plot to oust him and of planning to bomb Venezuela.

"If there was an aggression against Venezuela there would be no oil for the people or for the government of the United States," he said, according to the AP. [my emphasis]
PBS provided an earlier report on earlier actions by Morales' government that antagonized the petroleum oligarcy there, Bolivia Moves to Nationalize Oil and Gas Industries 05/02/06.

A new disturbing development Califican de injerencia al anuncio de intervención El Diario [Bolivia] 12.09.2008; Trigo a Chávez: No se permitirá ninguna intervención militar El Mundo [Bolivia]) is that both the opposition and the Bolivian military itself are making an issue out of Hugo Chávez' offer of Venezuelan military support to the Morales government.

General Luis Trigo, who in the Bolivian system is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces (not President Morales), declared on Thursday in a public announcement carried on radion and TV:

Al señor presidente de Venezuela, señor Hugo Chávez, y a la comunidad internacional le decimos que las Fuerzas Armadas (de Bolivia) rechazan enfáticamente intromisiones externas de cualquier índole, venga de donde venga, y no permitirán que ningún militar o hueste extranjera pise el territorio nacional.

[To the President of Venezuela, Señor Hugo Chávez, and to the international commenunity, we say that the Armed Forces [of Bolivia] emphatically reject external interference of any nature, from wherever it may come, and we will not permit any foreign military or army to enter the national territory.]
Since Trigo is formally the head of the Bolivian military, it's not clear to me just how far his statement goes in being a threat to the Bolivian government. Trigo did state his intention to support the democratic government of Morales in the current crisis.

Chávez, speaking in his own capacity as commander-in-chief of the Venezuelan armed forces, responded to Trigo directly. (Chávez pide al Ejército boliviano que apoye a Morales El País [Spain] 14.09.2008)

Chilean President MIchelle Bachelet has called a meeting of the Unión de Naciones Sudamericanas (UNASUR) for Monday to discuss the Bolivian crisis. (Bachelet convoca a presidentes de UNASUR a reunión de emergencia por Bolivia Los Tiempos [Bolivia] 13.09.2008)

In Central America, Honduras joined in the diplomatic defense of Bolivia by refusing to accept the credentials of the new US Ambassador to their country (Honduras se niega a recibir las credenciales del nuevo embajador estadounidense El País [Spain]/EFE 13.09.2008)

Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said that Honduras would remain allied with the US, but made clear that the act was an expression of solidarity with Bolivia, in the face of what Bolivia claims is US intervention in fomenting the oligarchs' separatist rebellion.

Honduras is a member of the Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas (ALBA), along with Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia. The tiny Carribean island nation of Dominica (population circa 70,000) is also a member. (Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia are three of the poorest countries in Latin America.)

El País [Spain] reports in Evo Morales anuncia que detendrá al Gobernador opositor de Pando por desacato 14.09.2008:

Santa Cruz es el principal foco de oposición al Gobierno de Evo Morales y lidera un proceso autonomista, que el Ejecutivo considera ilegal, secundado también por las regiones de Beni, Pando, Tarija y Chuquisaca. Los sucesivos desencuentros políticos entre el Gobierno de La Paz y los prefectos autonomistas, agrupados en el Consejo Nacional Democrático (CONALDE) se han agravado en los últimos días con varios episodios de violencia en los departamentos de Tarija (sur), Santa Cruz (este) y Pando (norte).

[Santa Cruz is the principal focus of opposition to the government of Evo Marales and is leading a process of autonomy which the Executive [Morales] considers illegal, seconded also by the regions of Beni, Pando, Tarija and Chuquisaca. The successive political clashes between the government in La Paz and the autonomist prefects grouped in the Consejo Nacional Democrático (CONALDE) have been aggravated in recent days by episodes of violence in the provinces of Tarija (south), Santa Cruz (east) and Pando (north).]
The rebel provinces are referred to as the Media Luna (Crescent Moon), because of their contiguous shape in the easter part of Bolivia.

For more background on the situation in Bolivia in English, see:

Bolivia: Can the Majority of People Vote for Change and Actually Get It? by Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet 08/27/08

Bolivia: Rescuing the New Constitution and Democratic Stability International Crisis Group 06/19/08

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