Bolivia Smells of Insurrection - "Que Se Vayan Todos!"

Imc UK - in cooperation with other IMCs, 14.10.2003 12:04

Live Radio Stream from Bolivia
[For those who need the url: http://radio.uk1.indymedia.org/bolivia.pls or http://etherkiller.de/listen.pls ]

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Updates 17.10.03: NEWSFLASH - President Resigns!

• President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada fleds to Miami. IMC-Bolivia reports (esp)
• Crowds are gathered around Bolivia's Congress awaiting the official resignation speech of the President as parliamentarians attempt to mantain formal "democracy".
• As of Friday, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada has resigned in a letter sent to the Bolivian Congress.[Reuters / Associated Press]
• A giant multitude have sieged the Presidential Palace throughout Thursday demanding Bolivia's President resignation as around a million people from all walks of life have joined on a national hunger strike until Sanchez de Lozada steps down. [Report]

Further Updates

See Updates and Recent Reports in the main feature.

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Pictures:

• Indymedia: [ 1, 2, 3, 4]
• Reuters / AP / TV [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ]
• Map of Bolivia

Other sources:

• Zmag: Bolivias gas war
• ZNet Bolivia watch
• Indymedia global [recent feature, past feature]
• Resource Centre of the Americas: [Roadblock continue, Five die in Altiplano protest]
• Archive on Nadir about Bolivia: [September, October]

More information [in Spanish]:

• IMC Bolivia
• IMC Argentina
• IMC Peru

Updates 15.10.03:

• Reports of conscript soldiers tortured and 15 of them executed for refusing to shoot on civilians. Report in Spanish.
• Almost all Bolivian social and political organisations are against the government and calling for strikes, blockades and mobilisations. The National Council of "Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyo" indigenous organisation has also called for a march on La Paz to lay siege to institutions to protest against the killings of indigenous people. They demand no less than the resignation of the President: Sanchez de Losada. Thousands of peasants and indigenous people are following this and other calls for action, circling the capital and blocking roads, mainly the main motorway between La Paz and El Alto.
• Cochabamba: fires in Prefectura (main police station) and some businesses.
• A journalist from Eriol Radio was shot in the back by the army this morning, he is still alive but in a critical condition. At the same time mass funerals are taking place in El Alto, of some of the 71 confirmed killed by security forces during the past few days.
• Reports of a general strike in La Paz, and the city being almost empty, whilst food shortages are beginning. The two only government buildings still operating are those of the Defense and Interior Ministries.
• Two more miners have been confirmed dead today and many injured during the violent clashes in Patacamaya.
• The co-ordination of Community Juntas are burying 15 people today in El Alto. A day of mourning without confrontations, as conflict moves to La Paz. There have been more than 60 people killed during the disturbances of the last few days. The Government has been accused of having already put aside money for compensation for deaths and injuries resulting from protests, before the beginning of mobilisations.
• The radio stream reports live as miners throw dynamite at police and army during violent clashes in Patacamaya (150 Km from La Paz) on the road from Oruro.

Updates 14.10.03:

• Latest update from IMC-Argentina.
• 3,000 are demonstrating in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in solidarity with the people in Bolivia.
• Miners announce the occupation of mining companies in the regions Oruro, which are owned by the president (source: ORF.at).
• Three ministers and the vice-president have withdrawn their support for president Goni.
• Thousands of people from Oruro march towards La Paz.
• After the massacre on Sunday in El Alto the main focus of the fights moved to La Paz, where the government is situated. Here again at least 20 deaths of the civilian population occurred. The whole country is revolting at the moment, and the government was forced to order further troops to La Paz.
• Already in the evening new units with 8 tanks and about 10 troop transporters have entered the city. At the same time tens of thousand of protesters started to march from Oruro and Achacachi to support the rioters in La Paz.

Recent reports:

• summary of Monday events
• Thousands of people force police retreat
• Smells like Insurrection
• Short improvised translation of the live radio stream
• No way to La Paz
• Sunday, 12th of October: 30 deaths in Bolivia according to Indymedia
• 25 killed in "War for Gas" on Sunday 13th of October, Bolivia
• map of the battle in El Alto
• translation of previous feature

more fotolinks to events last weeks

15.10.2003 18:57

 http://italy.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/394202.php

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Action Call against the Bolivian government

16.10.2003 16:45

From Chakuwi, 16.10.2003 16:13
 
We must support the Bolivian uprising in the same way as was done with the Zapatistas in 1994!
Massive internet campaigns and pressure on the Bolivian government and our own to stop the human rights abuses!!
Write to your governments, the Bolivian embassy, organise demonstrations and DIRECT ACTIONS etc.. whatever people feel is possible.
 
We must support the Bolivian uprising in the same way as was done with the Zapatistas in 1994!
 
Massive internet campaigns and pressure on the Bolivian government and our own to stop the human rights abuses!!
 
Write to your governments, the Bolivian embassy, organise demonstrations and DIRECT ACTIONS etc.. whatever people feel is possible.
 
We should also be making it very clear that any US involvement will be loudly opposed!
 
If we want a better world we have to work hard to make it.
 
These are the details of the Bolivian embassy in London, for letter-writing purposes etc.
I would be very much in favour of a solidarity demo too, although I have no time
personally to organise one. :(
 
Bolivian Embassy in London
106 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AD.
Tel: (020) 7235 4248/2257
Fax: (020) 7235 1286
General email:  info@embassyofbolivia.co.uk
Ambassador's email:  lvasquezv@embolivia.co.uk
 
Can someone in the know give out details of officials in Bolivia itself?

Cosmo

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Reuters News Photo Gallery

16.10.2003 17:13

"The sign reads, "Bolivia is ours, damn it." "
 http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-10-15T211121Z_01_CBB04D_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-PROTESTS.jpg
 http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoPresentation.jhtml?type=topNews&imageID=1000767087
 
"Bolivian riot police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at rioting students after an anti-government demonstration turned violent, in the center of Cochabamba, October 15, 2003."
 http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-10-15T214737Z_01_CBB05_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-PROTESTS.jpg
 http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoPresentation.jhtml?type=topNews&imageID=1000767181
 
"A Bolivian student tries to burn a truck tire to block a street as riot police responded with tear gas after an anti-government demonstration turned violent, in the center of Cochabamba, October 15, 2003."
 http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-10-15T204247Z_01_CBB02D_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-PROTESTS.jpg
 http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoPresentation.jhtml?type=topNews&imageID=1000767013
 
"Hundreds of Bolivians stand in line to buy bottled gas for cooking in front of Army barracks in La Paz, October 15, 2003. Bolivia's army fought to stop protesters from streaming into the paralyzed city, leaving two miners dead, as a popular uprising against the president spread."
 
 http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-10-15T180103Z_01_LPZ110D_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-PROTESTS.jpg
 http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoPresentation.jhtml?type=topNews&imageID=1000766666
 
"Cargo train wagons lie after being blown with dynamite off a railroad bridge on the main highway into La Paz, October 15, 2003."
 http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/2003-10-15T161714Z_01_LPZ107D_RTRIDSP_2_BOLIVIA-PROTESTS.jpg
 http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoPresentation.jhtml?type=topNews&imageID=1000766537

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Radio Netherlands Thursday, 16 October, 2003

16.10.2003 18:56

Showdown in Bolivia
- listen to an interview with Dutch anthropologist Willem Assis, 3'14
 http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/rnw/hotspots/bol031016.rm

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Radio Netherlands Bolivia article link

16.10.2003 18:59

 http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/bol031016.html

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Democracy Now! Thursday, October 16th, 2003

16.10.2003 19:09

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Not another revolution please

17.10.2003 21:02

We've already seen what revolutions are capable of - from the Terror of the French Revolution, to the millions upon millions killed in the Russian and Chinese revolutions and their aftermaths. I think it is safe to say that the verdict is in: revolutions generally result in murder. Amid the usual leftist cheering of chaos and disorder, we can already see the deaths rolling in in Bolivia. Scraps of sentences, "60 dead in disturbances", "20 killed in upsets", etc. The deathtoll of radicalism is mounting up again.
 
Why do revolutions cause death? Because there exists a "bank of reason" in our culture, traditions, and ancient laws, that has been built upon by many generations and which we will add to ourselves. A distilled best practise of humanity.
 
IMC leftists have the affrontery to think that the small store of reason that exists in their heads is an adequate substitute for the bank of reason that has been built up over centuries by a whole society. It is not surprising that, when implemented on a revolutionary platform and thrust by main force upon the majority, these small stocks of reason are proven inadequate and lacking to the task of keeping a society stable and prosperous time and time again. The erasing of the bank of reason and the atheist attempt to build a new society, a "heaven on earth" invariably results in a great collapse of civilised values. Before you know it, you're being sent to the gulags or the reeducation camps or the concentration camps or whatnot, for the crime of not supporting the revolution. Its happened time and time again despite the "principles" of the left, and, as long as leftivism is allowed any space among the disadvantaged of the world, it will grow and prosper there and bring greater privations and mass murder than than we have yet seen. The ability of the left to prosper among the downtrodden is similar to the ability of the fascists to do the same; both depend on the support of the desperate, both depend on the idea of destroying civilised values and taking, by wholescale force and often slaughter, that which does not belong to you. Both depend on the demonisation of some small group responsible for all the ills of society. Indeed, if you substitute "jews" in the ravings of much fascist propaganda, for the word "capitalists", you end up with socialist propaganda. The actual policies have minimal difference; its who's to blame that counts. Bourgeoise for one, Jews for the other, and not one iota of proof or reason between them.
 
In the end, the problems that Bolivians have cannot and will not be solved by silly insurrections and revolutions. Those problems can only be solved by trying to stabilise the country and add to their bank of reason as much as possible. It is only through respecting the rights of others, enacting sound property laws. free speech, and tort and criminal law, with a limited and sovereign government, that Bolivia's problems can begin to be addressed. Insurrections, revolutions, and chaos only result in death, destruction, and a step in the direction of Stalin, Mao and Hitler. That is a path that I would hope to see you all avoid - but we can't expect the left to elarn from history, or else they would not be leftists, for they would feel too guilty.

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