Professor James Petras on the November 23rd Venezuelan Election

“The pro-Chavez United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) won 72% of the governorships in the November 23, 2008 elections and 58% of the popular vote, dumbfounding the predictions of most of the pro-capitalist pollsters and the vast majority of the mass media who favored the opposition. PSUV candidates defeated incumbent opposition governors in three states (Guaro, Sucre, Aragua) and lost two states (Miranda and Tachira). The opposition retained the governorship in a tourist center (Nueva Esparta) and won in Tachira, a state bordering Colombia, Carabobo and the oil state of Zulia, as well as scoring an upset victory in the populous state of Miranda and taking the mayoralty district of the capital, Caracas. The socialist victory was especially significant because the voter turnout of 65% exceeded all previous non-presidential elections. The prediction by the propaganda pollsters that a high turnout would favor the opposition also reflected wishful thinking.” To Read the Article in full: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11144

Massacre in Bolivia – Morales Declares State of Emergency

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has ordered emergency measures in the northeastern state of Pando after youths in the territory ransacked government offices, and following the deaths there of eight pro-government demonstrators, however, only later was the full scale of the massacre revealed, with the death toll currently at thirty, with many more still missing.

Defense Minister Walker San Miguel announced the order, saying bars would close early, the carrying of firearms or explosives was prohibited, and demonstrations were outlawed without police permission. He added that several Peruvians were suspected to be among those who opened fire on some of the eight victims from Thursday. The decree heightened tensions in Bolivia, which has been wracked by four days of violent clashes between pro- and anti-government militants.

On September 10th President Evo Morales of Bolivia declared the US ambassador persona non grata. On September 11th (the 35th anniversary of the military overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile) the president of Venezuela asked the US ambassador there to leave the country. President Hugo Chávez believed he was facing the possibility of an imminent coup d’etat in which he said the US administration were involved. President Morales believed that his government was facing serious destabilisation which was also being fomented by the US. A third country, Paraguay, announced 10 days previously that it had detected a conspiracy involving military officers and opposition politicians.

A challenge by “rebel” governors in five of Bolivia’s nine states — Pando, Beni, Tarija, Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz — to Morales’s bid to impose a new constitution and to redefine land ownership in the country is fuelling the confrontations.

The country has become polarized between the western Andean half where the indigenous majority mostly live, and the more prosperous eastern lowlands, where an elite of European and mixed descent is pushing for autonomy and greater control over lucrative gas fields there.

The stakes have risen even higher by Morales’s decision to expel the US ambassador, a move which triggered ’solidarity’ moves by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who did the same to the US envoy in his country, and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya who refused to accept the credentials of the new US ambassador. The United States retaliated by ordering Bolivia’s and Venezuela’s ambassadors out of the country.

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the decisions by Morales and Chavez “reflects the weakness and desperation of these leaders as they face internal challenges.”

Morales’s claim that the US ambassador was encouraging division in Bolivia by supporting opposition groups, and Chavez’s allegation the US envoy in his country was implicated in an alleged coup plot against him by Venezuelan military officers, were “false, and the leaders of those countries know it,” McCormack said.

Chavez’s hosting of two Russian TU-160 strategic bombers in Bolivia something the Venezuelan leader called a “warning” to the United States is unsettling to Washington, given the increasingly US-Russian antagonism triggered by Russia’s recent military actions in the former Soviet state of Georgia.

McCormack declined to draw any link between the bombers’ deployment and the presence of US warships off Georgian waters neighboring Russia.

Hugo Chávez, denounced the inaction of the Commander in Chief of the Bolivian Armed Forces, General Luis Trigo, in retaking the Department (Province) of Pando, whose state of siege was declared last Friday, after a massacre took place on Thursday in which until now, some 30 dead and 106 missing have been reported. Chávez supported Morales’s decision to declare a state of siege. Chávez recalled the parallels with what took place in Venezuela during the coup d’etat of April, 2002. He also indicated that Trigo had discharged Bolivian soldiers who had traveled to Venezuela. 

According to some, Latin America faces its most serious crisis since the reintroduction of democracy at the end of the 20th century. The plot against democracy in Venezuela centred on a conspiracy to overthrow the democratically elected head of state. In Bolivia, the ’separatist prefects of the five eastern and southern departments have begun a campaign of violence and economic sabotage designed to destabilise the democratic regime.’

 

Sources:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10230

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=10286

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5juLMxo5BVAP4TeNU7QN9xFv9dfRg

http://advant.blogspot.com/2008/09/peasants-massacred-in-pando-bolivian.html

Virtual Declaration of War: New U.S. fleet to threaten Latin American Sovereignty by Berta Joubert-Ceci in Global Research

” The U.S. Navy on April 24 announced the return of the Fourth Fleet to the Caribbean, Central America and South America, covering 30 countries in the region. The fleet had operated in those waters beginning in 1943, monitoring German submarines during World War II, and was dismantled in 1950.

In a press release entitled “Navy Re-Establishes U.S. Fourth Fleet” (defenselink.mil), the Pentagon tried to soften the appearance of this aggressive move, saying that “these assets will conduct varying missions including a range of contingency operations, counter narcoterrorism, and theater security cooperation (TSC) activities.TSC includes military-to-military interaction and bilateral training opportunities as well as humanitarian assistance and in-country partnerships.”

The fleet will be the Navy component of the Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM) and will be based in Florida. The new operations are scheduled to begin on July 1. “

To See the rest of this Article:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9249

Stephen Lendmann’s Article on “Plan Mexico” in Global Research

“It’s called “Plan Mexico,” or more formally the “Merida Initiative,” and here’s the scheme. It’s to do for Mexicans what Plan Colombia has done to that nation since 1999, and, in fact, much earlier. Since then, billions have gone for the following:

– to establish a US military foothold in the country;

– mostly to fund US weapons, chemical and other corporate profiteers; it’s a long-standing practice; in fact, a 1997 Pentagon document affirms that America’s military will “protect US interests and investments;” in Colombia, it’s to control its valuable resources; most importantly oil and natural gas but also coal, iron ore, nickel, gold, silver, emeralds, copper and more; it’s also to crush worker resistance, eliminate unions, target human rights and peasant opposition groups, and make the country a “free market” paradise inhospitable to people;

– it funds a brutish military as well; already, over 10,000 of its soldiers have been trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) – aka the School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, Georgia; its graduates are infamous as human rights abusers, drugs traffickers, and death squad practitioners; they were well schooled in their “arts” by the nation most skilled in them;

– it lets Colombia arm and support paramilitary death squads; they’re known as the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC); for more than a decade, they’ve terrorized Colombians and are responsible for most killings and massacres in support of powerful western and local business interests;

– it funds drug eradication efforts, but only in FARC-EP and ELN areas; government-controlled ones are exempt; trafficking is big business; laundering drugs money reaps huge profits for major US and regional banks; the CIA has also been linked to the trade for decades, especially since the 1980s; after Afghanistan’s invasion and occupation, opium harvests set records – mostly from areas controlled by US-allied “warlords;” the Taliban’s drug eradication program was one reason it was targeted; Colombia’s drug eradication is horrific; it causes ecological devastation; crop and forest destruction; lives and livelihoods lost; large areas chemically contaminated; bottom line of the program – record amounts of Colombian cocaine reach US and world markets; trafficking is more profitable than ever; so is big business thanks to paramilitary terror;

– it’s to topple the FARC-EP and ELN resistance groups; Latin American expert James Petras calls the former the “longest standing (since 1964), largest peasant-based guerrilla (resistance) movement in the world;” it’s also to weaken Hugo Chavez, other regional populist leaders and groups, and destabilize their countries; and

– it supports the “Uribe doctrine;” it’s in lockstep with Washington; its policies are hard right, corporate-friendly and militarized for enforcement.”

To see the rest of this Article:

“Plan Mexico – Plan Columbia Heads for Mexico,”

By Stephen Lendman, Global Research, May 27th, 2008.

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9084

In Mexico, State Oil Corporation privatisation measure is halted due to mass protests

In April 2008, a mass demonstration at the Mexican Senate, protested a petroleum privatisation measure which President Felipe Calderon sent onto the Senate for fast-track ratification at the tag end of the session this April.

With More Details:

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/749/38727

Partition Threatens the Bolivarian Revolution

According to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, “Bolivia is on the verge of exploding”,

At a summit of the Bolivarian Alternative of the Americas held on April 21st, 2008, (ALBA – is the alliance made of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Dominica) partly called to discuss the ongoing crisis in Bolivia, Chavez went on to state that: “today the cause of Bolivia is the cause of the dignified people of Latin America who fight for unity and liberty.”

The illegal referendum which was held on May 4th is a attempt to declare autonomy in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s richest province, and was backed by the Bush administration in an attempt to halt the leftward drift of South America. While the US embassy in La Paz declares its support for “unity and democracy” in Bolivia, the government’s Interior Minister Alfredo Raba states what is widely known, that the United States “has an agenda more political than diplomatic in Bolivia, and this agenda is linked to opponents of the current government.” Along with President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, who is closing down the largest US military base on the continent, the three presidents constitute what could called a radical axis in South America.
These nations have convened constituent assemblies to draft new constitutions and to “refound” their nations.

Bolivia’s new constitution that is to be voted on in a national referendum that has provoked the opposition of the Santa Cruz europeanised and landed elite. The new constitution will grant autonomy rights to Bolivia’s majority indigenous population, places the country’s abundant mineral, gas and petroleum resources under greater national control, and sets limits on the size of the large landed estates (largely concentrated in Santa Cruz).
As the Morales government has continued to take steps forward in his self-proclaimed “democratic and cultural revolution” – through the nationalisation of gas, the implementation of important social programs aimed at tackling poverty and centuries of oppression – the elite have stepped up their campaign of destablisation.

In particular, the government’s land reform program, which has redistributed hundreds of thousands of hectares of land owned either by the state or large landowners to poor campesinos (peasants), has initiated forceful opposition from these elements. Certain key leaders of the push for “autonomy” in Santa Cruz are themselves large landowners. Behind the calls for autonomy are economic interests hoping to give greater power to the opposition-controlled department governments on questions of control over natural resources and productive land, the majority of which is located in eastern Bolivia. The country itself possesses the second largest gas reserves in South America, after Venezuela.

The Podemos (We Are Able) Party, largely based in the eastern department of Santa Cruz (a stronghold of Bolivia’s landed oligarchy), at first tried to use its control of just over one third of the votes in the constituent assembly to block its actions by insisting that a majority vote was not sufficient to approve statutes to the new constitution. When that failed, it resorted to helping stir up violence against assembly members, targeting the indigenous deputies and the assembly president, Silvia Lazarte Flores. At the start of the year, Morales, supported by popular mobilizations in the streets of La Paz, compelled the sitting Congress to approve the call for a national referendum to vote on the new constitution.

At that point, the Santa Cruz elite launched its referendum for autonomy, which the country’s National Electoral Court declared unconstitutional. The provincial government are seeking the power to tax and collect revenues, to set up its own police force and to block any efforts by the national government to initiate agrarian reform. Many Bolivians fear the autonomy proposals are aimed at partitioning the country.

Bolivia’s immediate neighbors are strongly opposed to the separatist movement and its destabilizing impact on the region. Brazil and Argentina are both dependent on natural gas from Bolivia and fear that an internal conflict would interrupt their supplies. Argentinean David Caputo came to Bolivia as head of a mission of the Organization of American States (OAS), to initiate a dialogue between the government and the opposition. He found the government willing to engage in discussions, but the opposition vehemently opposed. The United States has provided no support to these regional diplomatic efforts to avoid civil strife in Bolivia.

The president of the Chamber of Exporters of the East, Ramiro Monje, threatened that “after May 4, another economic model will begin to function.” Various elements of large agribusiness have acted openly against La Paz following government moves to restrict exports of certain food products – in order to tackle food shortages provoked by these large food producers. While loosening some of the restrictions, Morales threatened to nationalise companies that “are provoking a bosses lockout” by enforcing a holiday on May 4th.
 On April 24th an ABI news service article reported that the commander of the Bolivian Naval Force, Vice Admiral Jose Luis Cavas Villegas, said that “we are the people in arms, in order to defend the internal security of our population, the Armed Forces are with the people behind the [national flag], we will defend unity all our lives”.

The Kosovo Option: With this open push for autonomy, the Santa Cruz elite hopes to fragment the Morales government. However, their campaign is also part of laying the groundwork for a plan B – the break up of Bolivia through the creation of an independent state in the east, taking with them the majority of Bolivia’s natural resources. They have also sought to unite large sections of the predominately white population of the east against the central government. Tapping into a long held sentiment for autonomy, and whipping up racism and fears of an “indigenous revenge”, they have been able to mobilise large numbers in the east around the “autonomy” demand.

A recent poll by Equipos Mora showed that in Santa Cruz, 84% of the population say they will vote in the referendum, with 76% in favour of the autonomy statutes. The US ambassador, Philip Goldberg, who was appointed by the Bush administration in September 2006, has reportedly been maneuvering behind the scenes to support the political forces opposed to Morales and his governing party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS). It is notable that Goldberg came to Bolivia from Pristina, Kosovo, where as the US Chief of Mission, he played a central role in orchestrating Kosovo’s independence from Serbia. Since Morales took office over two years ago, more than $4 million has been provided by the US Agency for International Development to the political opposition.

During the April ALBA summit, Chavez proposed the creation of a defence council and military force of the ALBA countries, “because our enemy is the same, the empire.” The declaration states that the nations in ALBA “reject the destabilisation plans that aim to attack the peace and unity of Bolivia”. It stated ALBA nations would not recognise “any juridical figure that aims to break away from the Bolivian national state and violates the territorial integrity of Bolivia”.
 
After the May 4th vote in Santa Cruz, local exit polls showed 85 percent of voters favoring autonomy, Morales claimed that as many as half the ballots were invalid, quoting some media reports, few international observers were present to monitor the result.
There was a high rate of abstention in various provinces in Santa Cruz such as Camiri (42%), Puerto Suárez (31%), Montero (62%), Portachuelo (19%), San Ignacio de Velasco (17.8 %), Charagua (40%) and Saipina (60%), indicate an overall abstention rate of between 40-45%, according to the Bolivian Information Agency.

This does not take into account the information from the towns of Yapacaní, San Germán, Cuatro Cañadas, San Julián, and San Pedro, among others, which are bastions of Morales’s party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and the social movements the report continued. According to the president of the Popular Committee of de San Julián and Cuatro Cañadas, Félix Martínez, the abstention rate was 100% in these towns as residents refused to participate in the referendum.

“The imperialist project”, Morales has stated; “is to try and carve up Bolivia and with that carve up South America, because it has converted itself into the epicentre of the great changes that are advancing on the world scale”.

 
Sources:

http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17476

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/748/38682
 
http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/17563
 
http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0748671220080507?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0

http://ww.venezuelanalysis.com/news/3412

http://origin.foxnews.com/wires/2008May04/0,4670,BoliviaAutonomy,00.html

Casement Project Blog Objectives

The Casement Project seeks to advance and promote the ideas and objectives of Roger Casement with regard to indigenous peoples throughout the world. Casement was, above all, a humanitarian whose work brought exploitation and inhumanity in the Putumayo and the Congo to world attention. The articles in this blog will attempt to honour this legacy by focusing on similar issues in the contemporary world.

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