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Continuing the weird

10:18 pm By la Macha · Bolivia| Latin America| Politics · Comments Off

1 Jul 2009

01_evo Remember how I’ve been talking about my confusion over what role the U.S. is playing in the Honduran coup?

Well, this latest from Bolivia just makes me more confused.

President Evo Morales on Wednesday accused Barack Obama of lying by pledging to change America’s historically heavy-handed relationship with Latin America and then halting $25 million in annual trade benefits for Bolivia.

The U.S. on Tuesday said it is ending the import duty waivers because world’s No. 3 cocaine-producing country is not doing enough to reduce “unconstrained” cultivation of coca.

Morales said the move contradicts Obama’s promise at the Summit of the Americas in April to be a peer rather than an overseer of countries in the region. “President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners,” he told reporters.

I think that Morales’s words (peer and overseer), really exemplifies what I’ve been struggling with in relation to Honduras. The U.S. has acted as the “overseer” of Latin America very aggressively since the 70’s–but really, even longer than that: since the time of colonization really.

So did the U.S. *really* just give up its overseer position in Honduras? Even as it continues with the whip in Bolivia?

Vargas Llosa Detained in Venezuela

28 May 2009

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa didn’t have such a good time today at Caracas International Airport, Maiquetia, upon arriving to Venezuela from Colombia. Accompanied by his wife for a conference, Vargas Llosa says he was detained for an hour and a half by police who allegedly held him because a “as a foreigner he didn’t have the right to make political statements” in Venezuela. Spain’s Estrella Digital reports:

“They said that very politely and I responded that being in the land of (…) they shouldn’t try to hinder free thinking,” said Vargas Llosa, in the middle of a press mob that surrounded him upon leaving the airport. Álvaro Vargas Llosa, son of the writer, was also arrested for several hour by airport authorities on Monday, when he arrived in Venezuela to participate in the same conference, along with intellectuals from various countries.

Vargas Llosa’s statements to press can be seen in the video above (in Spanish). Estrella Digital also reports that conference organizers said that police would accompany he and his wife to their hotel “so he wouldn’t make statements to press” and that he had already been warned about making political statements.

What’s unclear to me is what political statement he could have made getting off of a plane? It seems like if you were going to do something messed up like detain someone for speaking their mind, you’d do it after they had already done so, not before. Apparently Bolivian ex-president Jorge Quiroga also got the same warning, but wasn’t detained. But actually is already making statements, particularly saying that Evo Morales is merely a pawn of Hugo Chavez.

Via / Estrella Digital

Bolivia Evades Evo Assassination

1:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia| Latin America| Politics| World| crime · 1 Comment

16 Apr 2009

01_evo Evo Morales announced today that Bolivian security forces have apprehended 3 alleged international mercenaries who were out to kill him, as the country goes through a very difficult political moment.

Morales stated that the assassins were from Ireland, Hungary and Bolivia, and were planning to kill him and the vicepresident with “bombs and sophisticated weapons”.

Upon arrival in Venezuela for the Alternativa Bolivariana para América Latina y el Caribe (ALBA) Summit, Morales told reporters:

“I’ve been informed that there was a shootout that lasted half an hour in a hotel in the city of Santa Cruz where 3 foreigners have fallen, with two arrests [...]

Last year in Bolivia the right tried to use the vote of the people to get me out with a revocation referendum. They failed. Afterwards they tried a coup d’etat. They failed. Now they were planning to shoot us to pieces. They are failing.”

This news comes one day after a dynamite bomb exploded outside the home of the Roman Catholic cardinal of Santa Cruz, Julio Terrazas.

Via / CNN Expansión

Evo Wins

2:33 pm By la Macha · Bolivia · Comments Off

14 Apr 2009

BOLIVIA-REFERENDUM-MORALES A while back we told you about how Bolivian super president, Evo Morales, went on a hunger strike to put pressure on the Bolivian congress. Well, it seems el presidente knew what he was doing:

Morales had canceled a diplomatic visit to Cuba to maintain a vigil inside the presidential palace, where for almost a week he consumed only water and coca leaves, the raw ingredient in cocaine and a folk remedy used in Bolivia to suppress hunger. He slept on a bare mattress on the palace floor, surrounded by fasting union leaders who form part of his coalition party.

“The Bolivian people will never forget this revolutionary process,” Morales, 49, said today in the presidential palace, moments after concluding the strike. In remarks on state television, Morales said he hoped the fast would strengthen Bolivians’ support for “profound economic, social and cultural changes.”

The new bill guarantees increased representation in Congress for Bolivia’s indigenous communities, who broadly support Morales, an Aymara Indian and a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Opposition lawmakers argued that the measure would give Morales’s Movement Toward Socialism party, known as MAS, an advantage in both chambers. The bill, blocked in the opposition-controlled Senate, passed after Morales agreed to reduce the number of proposed indigenous voting districts to 7 from 14.

And we think our president is some crazy socialist. Until Obama sleeps on the floor with union leaders (hell, until *union leaders* sleep on the floor!!) to put pressure on Congress, I don’t want to hear anything about how our country is falling into an abyss of U.S.S.R communism. Please.

Tengo Hambre: Evo Morales Goes on Hunger Strike

12:18 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism| Bolivia| Latin America| Politics · 1 Comment

9 Apr 2009

BOLIVIA-REFERENDUM-MORALES It’s breakfast time on the West Coast, but way down south in Bolivia, nobody’s eating. President Evo Morales has called a hunger strike to “defend the vote of the people”. What’s he talking about? Morales and supporters want to put pressure on the Bolivian congress to approve a bill which would set a date for general elections — elections in which Morales is poised to win re-election. AP reports:

Bolivia’s opposition-led Senate has failed to approve a law to handle the elections, which are mandated by a Morales-backed constitutional reform approved by voters in January.

The socialist president, who took office in 2006, has suggested opposition leaders are trying to block the planned December elections with delaying tactics.

While they won’t be eating, AP reports that the President and his supporters will be drinking water and chewing coca leaves.

For continuing updates, follow Ahora Bolivia on Twitter. They will be following the situation closely.

Via / AP

Bolivia Gives U.S. Diplomat the Bota

7:28 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Bolivia| Politics · Comments Off

10 Mar 2009

gholami20081222093329406 Hopes for improved relationships between Latin America and the United States seem to be fading fast as Bolivia kicked out a senior U.S. diplomat on grounds that the diplomat is part of a conspiracy against the Evo Morales government.

Francisco Martinez, the second secretary of the U.S. Embassy in La Paz, was “persona non grata,” Morales said in a public address at his official palace.

Martinez, he said, “was in permanent contact with opposition groups during the entire period of the conspiracy,” which he said caused anti-government unrest that rocked much of the country in September 2008.

Via / The Latin Americanist

Bolivia’s New Constitution Passes

7:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Bolivia| Politics · Comments Off

26 Jan 2009

Most sources are saying that a referendum in Bolivia on a new constitution has passed. The new constitution would allow President Evo Morales to run for re-election and give greater power to the indigenous majority. Voters also decided on whether there should be a cap on future land ownership.
The count as of last night has the new constitution passing by anywhere from 57% to 62%.

Some voters opposing the measure are crying fraud and not surprisingly bringing up Venezuela. From Inca Kola News:

Branco Marinkovic: “(Bolivians have voted) without the guarantee of a transparent electoral process in the midst of a panorama of fraud; double carnetization and double registration of voters by this government with the financial help of Venezuela means nothing less than that. Be careful with your vote because there will be fraud, and ask eveeryone to be on the alert, as the audit of the lamentable OAS (Organization of American States, official overseers of the vote) is just a show and doesn’t mean anything.”

Via / France 24, Al Jazeera,

Evo Morales and Oliver Stone Share Some Coca

10:35 am By Maegan La Mala · Bolivia| Movies| Venezuela · Comments Off

14 Jan 2009

Why was Bolivia’s President Evo Morales doing chewing coca leaves and kicking a futbol around with U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone? Talking about their bff Hugo Chavez.

Stone is working on a film about the Venezuelan president and was interviewing Morales.

Also, it just came through the Twittersphere that Morales is cutting diplomatic relations with Israel over what is happening in Gaza. More details as they come in.

Via / The Huffington Post

Bolivia and Venezuela : Get out Yanqui. Yanqui: No You Get Out!

9:06 am By Maegan La Mala · Bolivia| Politics| Venezuela · Comments Off

12 Sep 2008

Let the dick waving of imperial vs. Latin American politicos begin! Yesterday both Venezuela and Bolivia ordered the U.S. Ambassadors in their countries “fuera”.

Hugo Chavez accused the U.S. diplomat of conspiring against his government and saying he would also withdraw his own envoy from Washington immediately.

Chavez had been threatening to kick out U.S. diplomats for some time. Seems the straw that broke Hugito’s back was Bolivia’s expulsion of the U.S. Ambassador, accusing him of aiding violent protests that as of last night have claimed eight lives.

Via / The Latin Americanist, personal email

Evo Morales’s Position in Bolivia is Safe (for Now)

7:00 am By Maegan La Mala · Bolivia| Politics · 1 Comment

11 Aug 2008

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales gets to keep being president after a referendum today.

Unofficial results and exit polls on Sunday indicated Evo Morales had secured more than 60 per cent of support with 80 per cent of the ballots counted.

Morales called for the referendum after the governors of various states voiced opposition to wealth distribution measures and the declaration of an autonomous state by one.

Via / Al Jazeera

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