Over 3,000 Bolivian and Peruvian indigenous activists recently marched in El Alto in commemoration of the March 13th, 1781 siege of La Paz, Bolivia launched from El Alto by indigenous rebels Tupac Katari and Bartolina Sisa. The siege was against Spanish rule and for indigenous liberation in the Andes. At a gathering the night before the recent anniversary mobilization, Eugene Rojas, the mayor of Achacachi, said, "We, the indigenous, organized a siege of La Paz in the past, and we will do it again if we need to." Rojas alluded to the long-postponed decolonization that Katari and Sisa dreamed of over two centuries ago. Today, those dreams of liberation are at once alive and in jeopardy.
After the nationalist confetti of the January 25th constitutional referendum blew away, and the busted water balloons and foam of Carnival washed down the streets with the rain, political scandals filled the Bolivian airwaves. Besides the challenges of applying the changes in the new constitution, recent cases of government corruption, shaky relations with Washington and political unrest show that the road to the December general elections is likely to be a rocky one.
Scandalul Corupției
La sfârșitul lunii ianuarie, Santos Ramirez, un arhitect cheie și membru al partidului Mișcarea către Socialism, (MAS, partidul politic al președintelui indigen Evo Morales) și director al YPFB – compania de stat de petrol și gaze – a fost transportat la închisoare pe acuzații de corupție. Investigațiile au arătat că Ramirez a cerut mită pentru a oferi un contract de 86 de milioane de dolari companiei argentino-boliviane Catler Uniservice pentru o uzină de gaze naturale. Investigațiile au început când un manager de la Catler a fost ucis și jefuit de 450,000 de dolari - bani care se pare că mergeau către consilierul lui Ramirez, potrivit Reuters. Ramirez is now in San Pedro jail in La Paz, the same place former Pando governor Leopoldo Fernandez is currently held after being implicated in a massacre of MAS supporters in Pando in September 2008.
Arestarea lui Ramirez a dat o lovitură dură pentru administrația MAS, care s-a angajat întotdeauna să pună capăt moștenirii corupției a țării. Diferența de data aceasta însă, în comparație cu ceea ce era norma în administrațiile anterioare, este că Ramirez a fost de fapt trimis la închisoare; sub guvernele trecute, unii dintre cei mai corupți politicieni au rămas liberi.
After the Ramirez scandal blew up, Morales said, "It’s been totally proven that foreign agents, CIA agents, were infiltrated (in YPFB) … Maybe that’s the way the (S.U.A.) empire has to conspire against the policies that we’re pushing forward."
Alfredo Rada, ministrul guvernului, l-a acuzat pe Francisco Martinez, A US diplomat, of being a CIA agent and helping to infiltrate the YPFB. Morales acuzat Martinez of "coordinating contacts" with a Bolivian police officer that the government says infiltrated the YPFB, following orders from the CIA. Morales a explicat că "deep investigations" had proved Martinez was also "in permanent contact with opposition groups" in Bolivia. The Bolivian president then kicked Martinez out of the country. The expulsion of Martinez follows that of former US ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg in September of 2008. Goldberg was also accused of collaborating with the right wing opposition to undermine the Morales administration. (See Subminând Bolivia pentru mai mult.)
"There is clearly a connection in the activities that the former ambassador Philip Goldberg, USAID, the DEA and now Martinez have been doing here in Bolivia," an anonymous official in Bolivia‘s Government Ministry said to Josh Partlow de la Washington Post. „Sunt acte suspecte care nu au nimic de-a face cu diplomația sau cu ajutorul străin... Acest comportament de ingerință, și nu poate fi numit altfel, nu mai este tolerat aici”.
"We reject the allegations," the US state department said in a statement regarding the events. "We can’t understand how the president can assure us that he wants better relations with the United States and at the same time continue to make false accusations,” spuse Denise Urs, o purtătoare de cuvânt a ambasadei SUA.
Într-o conferinţă de presă on March 13, Tom Shannon, the US assistant state secretary for Latin American Affairs, commented on the expulsion of the US diplomat from Bolivia. "We need a full diplomatic dialogue and a high-quality dialogue… And regrettably, up to this point, as we have sought to engage the Bolivians around the issues that have provoked their own actions, we have yet to receive what we would consider to be a coherent or a consistent response."
Între timp, cazul de corupție Santos Ramirez este departe de a fi închis. Pe 13 martie, Ramirez a cerut să fie eliberat din închisoare, deoarece spune că nu au fost prezentate dovezi care să demonstreze că a prejudiciat guvernul bolivian prin acțiunile sale, deoarece presupusul contract neregulat cu Catler nu a fost încă reziliat.
Casa lui Cárdenas ocupată
On March 7, 350 people took over and occupied the country home of Victor Hugo Cárdenas. Cárdenas was vice president in the Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada administration of 1993-1997 and a harsh critic of Bolivia‘s new constitution. The group of angry locals forced Cárdenas’ wife and three children to leave the house, while reportedly beating them.
Mario Huaypa, un reprezentant al grupului care a ocupat casa, a spus Agenția Bolivian de Informație că s-a ținut o adunare generală în cadrul comunității în care s-a decis ca casa să fie expropriată deoarece terenul pe care a fost construită a fost dobândit ilegal de către Cárdenas. Grupul a spus că va continua ocupația până când sistemul oficial de justiție din Bolivia va analiza cazul. Oamenii care au ocupat locuința l-au prezentat pe presupusul opt proprietari legitimi a terenului, care a spus că terenul și casa ar trebui preluate și transformate în azil de bătrâni pentru bătrâni din zonă.
Cárdenas, un intelectual aymara, a guvernat în anii 1990, cu Sanchez de Lozada vorbind în numele populației indigene și al drepturilor lor, în același timp promovând politici represive și neoliberale care au dus la depresie economică și violență de stat împotriva populației indigene. Până astăzi, aparițiile publice ale lui Cárdenas sunt întâmpinate în mod regulat cu proteste. Localnicii care i-au ocupat casa au protestat și împotriva faptului că Cárdenas a făcut campanie împotriva noii constituții. Se zvonește că Cárdenas va candida ca posibil candidat la președinție la alegerile generale din decembrie.
The occupation of Cárdenas’ home has rightly been condemned throughout Bolivia, as the act only worsens the polarization in the country and pushes aside much-needed peaceful dialogue between opposing political factions. Unfortunately, violence has been even more extensively used by the Bolivian right wing since Morales took office in 2006. A right wing youth group in Santa Cruz has regularly attacked indigenous people in that city (see Partea întunecată a jumătății lunii din Bolivia.) In 2007 alone, there were approximately eight political bombings in Bolivia, most of which were against leftist unions or MAS party officials (see Șirul de atacuri cu bombă provoacă foamea de adevăr.) În 2008, bandiți de dreapta au distrus diferite birouri guvernamentale și pentru drepturile omului din întreaga țară și au ucis aproximativ 20 de fermieri pro-MAS în Pando, rănind zeci de alți (vezi Mitralieră și Masa de întâlnire). While the violence against Cárdenas’ family members and the house occupation should be condemned, so should the widespread violence unleashed by Bolivia’s right wing against indigenous and pro-MAS citizens.
Dezinformare și decolonizare
În altă ordine de idei, Departamentul de Stat al SUA a lansat recent un raport privind drepturile omului on Bolivia which did not even mention the Santa Cruz Youth Group and similarly violent right wing groups, or the repression they have let loose on Bolivia’s indigenous majority. The report does mention the charges against former Bolivian president Sanchez de Lozada, but does not mention that the country in which this criminal is currently enjoying refuge is the same one that issued the human rights report. The report explains, "On October 17, the attorney general’s office formally indicted former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and former defense minister Sanchez Berzain on criminal charges in connection with the deaths of up to 60 persons in October 2003. In November the government submitted a request for Sanchez de Lozada’s extradition from the country to which he fled." (For more on the irony of the US issuing such human rights reports, see the recent article, Cine este America să judece?)
On the media front, Bolivia has recently witnessed the all too common bias and misinformation from various US press outlets. A piesa recenta in The Atlantic Monthly by Eliza Barclay was particularly egregious. The title itself – "The Mugabe of the Andes?" – alludes to the article’s suggestions that most political violence in Bolivia comes from Morales and his supporters – not a racist right wing. In the article, Barclay fails to quote a single MAS supporter, or anyone offering a more nuanced view of the country’s political landscape. She focuses on how Morales’ "rhetoric studded with racial references aimed at his opposition" has created divisions in the country, and then goes on to mention the September 2008 violence in Pando without saying that right wing governor Leopoldo Fernandez, not Morales, was behind the massacre. She mentions that US ambassador Goldberg was expelled, but doesn’t say why. Barclay also writes that Bolivia’s "highland regions remain stuck in a poverty trap that Morales has shown little flair for unlocking" but fails to mention that, as the website Rămâne în Bolivia a subliniat, guvernul bolivian este „rulează un surplus și extinzându-se masiv bugetul și cheltuielile sale cu infrastructura.”
Though the MAS has made plenty of mistakes and Morales is far from a perfect president, Barclay’s article leads the reader to believe that the country is brimming with people who hate the MAS government. The fact is that Morales, in his 2005 election, August 2008 recall referendum and recent constitutional vote, received significantly more support from the population than Barack Obama did in the 2008 US elections. Luckily, photographer Evan Abramson offered a much more accurate view of Bolivia in acest excelent eseu foto narat, which was posted on the Oceanul Atlantic’s website to accompany the article. (For more media analysis on coverage of Bolivia vedea Borev.net și Rămâne în Bolivia.)
Un exemplu de politici pozitive ale guvernului MAS a fost demonstrat pe 14 martie, când Moralul a fost redistribuit some 94,000 acres in the eastern part of the country to small farmers. The teren of fermierul american Ron Larsen was among the acres redistributed. Bolivia’s new constitution, which limits new land purchase at 12,400 acres, has empowered the MAS government’s plans for land reform. "Private property will always be respected but we want people who are not interested in equality to change their thinking and focus more on country than currency," spuse Morales, la redistribuirea oficială a terenului. Mulți dintre fermierii guarani din zonă care au primit pământul, inclusiv diverși familiile din ferma Larsen, trăise în condiții de sclavie. Morales a explicat că „A deține pământ înseamnă a avea libertate, iar dacă există pământ și libertate, există dreptate”.
În timp ce Atlantic Monthly și-a indus în eroare cititorii, pe 14 martie, NY Times a publicat un comentariu al lui Evo Morales cu privire la cererea sa de dezincriminare a cocai, un frunză folosită pe scară largă pe tot parcursul Andes for medicinal and cultural purposes. At a recent UN meeting in Viena, Morales called for the legalization of the coca leaf, and even chewed coca at the meeting. Some 48 years ago the UN incorrectly classified the coca leaf as a narcotic. In his piesa NY Times, Morales writes, "Why is Bolivia so concerned with the coca leaf? Because it is an important symbol of the history and identity of the indigenous cultures of the Andes."
Indeed, symbolism, history and identity have taken center stage in today’s Bolivia. Just recently it was announced that a statue of Che Guevara situated at the entrance to the city of El Alto will, after outcries and protests from numerous residents, be replaced instead with statues of Tupac Katari and Bartolina Sisa, as these two heroes more accurately represent the city’s legacy of anti-colonial, indigenous rebellion. As Bolivia continues on its rocky road to the December general elections, the process of decolonization, so often lauded by MAS government officials, takes on many forms in this country in the midst of historic transitions.
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Benjamin Dangl are sediul în prezent în Bolivia, iar ediția în spaniolă a cărții sale „Prețul focului: războaiele resurselor și mișcările sociale în Bolivia," including a new epilogue on current events, will be published shortly in Bolivia by Plural Editores. Dangl is also the editor of UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America, and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. Email: Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.
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