Exotic assassination methods worry foreign leaders by Wayne Madsen

Exotic assassination methods worry foreign leaders by Wayne Madsen

It is one thing for the National Security Agency and its foreign partners to eavesdrop on the phone calls and email exchanges of various world leaders. However, publicly-disclosed classified NSA material on how the agency and its partners are increasingly intercepting on-line medical data and even the shipments of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to bring about political assassinations from seemingly "natural causes" has piqued the concerns of many security services around the world.

NSA's collection of medical intelligence or "MEDINT" on targeted individuals, data that includes medications and their dosages, medical test results, DNA prints, medical equipment such as dialysis machines, and wireless tele-medicine components, coupled with the use of pharmaceutical "honey pots" relied on to deliver fatal dosages of drugs to victims means that the NSA is no longer merely in the surveillance business but also "wet affairs," that is political assassinations.

Because of NSA's involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency in exotic means of assassinating political leaders by medical means, Russian President Vladimir Putin employed food tasters to test his food prepared for him by the Brisbane Hilton Hotel during the G20 summit in that city last November.  Putin and his security entourage feared that the U.S. and the Tony Abbott government in Australia may have tried to poison Putin's food during his abbreviated two-day stay at the G20 conclave.


TOP SECRET slide describes NSA's medical intelligence program and the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) agents and pharmaceutical "honey pots." Such cloak and dagger terms would not be used if the purpose of the program was benign. However, it is clear that NSA and the CIA are using such tradecraft to deliver fatal doses of prescription medication, as well as lethal poisons, to targeted political leaders.

After the March 2013 death of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the age of 58 from fast-acting pelvic cancer, Venezuela's new president, Nicolas Maduro, charged that Chavez was assassinated through the use of a cancer weapon developed by the United States. General José Ornella, the head of the Venezuelan presidential guard, said, "I think it will be 50 years before they declassify a document  . . . I think [will show] the hand of the enemy is involved." Ornella did not have to wait 50 years since the technology and strategy employed by the CIA and NSA in carrying out medical assassinations is described in a set of highly-classified PowerPoint slides prepared for NSA's Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) Development Conference in June 2010, a full year before Chavez announced to the world that he was being treated for cancer.

The CIA had long been involved in researching exotic methods to assassinate political leaders. The agency's Technical Services Division, headed by Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, tried to use poison, including a cancer-inducing drug, and highly radioactive substances to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro and an ampule containing a deadly pathogen to be used on Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. Castro survived scores of CIA assassination attempts while Lumumba was assassinated in 1961 by bayonet stabs followed by a volley of bullets. Gottlieb's cancer weapons were developed in cooperation with Dr. Alton Oschner, the former president of the American Cancer Society.

Before he succumbed to what have been a designer cancer-inducing drug, Chavez noted how many leftist Latin American leaders were contracting cancer at the same time. Chavez said, "I find it very strange. It is hard to explain" why Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff, and the president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, all got cancer around the same time. Chavez included himself in the group of Latin American leaders who suddenly developed cancer. In August 2010, Paraguay's President Fernando Lugo was discovered to have a cancerous tumor in his lymphatic nodes. Lugo recovered but was ousted in a CIA-directed coup d'etat. In 2008, Lugo and other Paraguayan presidential candidates were the targets of a DNA collection operation carried out by the CIA station in Asuncion. Chavez said that Fidel Castro once warned him, "Chavez take care. These people have developed technology. You are very careless. Take care what you eat, what they give you to eat  . . . a little needle and they inject you with I don’t know what."

Chavez also said he was concerned about Bolivian President Evo Morales. Chavez said, "We'll have to take good care of Evo. Take care Evo!" In January 2009, Morales underwent surgery, performed by a Cuban medical team, for a cancerous tumor discovered in his nasal passage.

Putin was right to be concerned about poisoning in Brisbane last November. World leaders opposed to U.S. and neoconservative machinations may have to think seriously about the propriety of attending summits and conferences with the threat of CIA and NSA medical assassination teams looming.

The CIA's medical assassination weapons were discussed at the Senate hearings chaired by Sen. Frank Church (D-ID) in 1975:






What White House "culinary" secrets might have former presidential executive chef Walter Scheib (above) taken with him to his grave?

As more and more information is leaked about U.S. involvement in medical assassination programs, world leaders are justifiably increasing their security protection. Many of these leaders may also forgo availing themselves of the food and drink at luncheons and dinners served at the White House. If the CIA's and NSA's medical assassination teams have managed to penetrate the White House service staff only the White House executive chef may have been aware of any problems in food serving protocols and VIP security provided by the Secret Service, an agency that has experienced more than its share of security lapses. The White House executive chef who served Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Walter Scheib, was recently found dead in a river near the Yerba Canyon hiking trail near Taos, New Mexico. What "cooking secrets" of the CIA -- not the Culinary Institute of America but the Central Intelligence Agency -- could Scheib have taken with him to his grave?

August of 2010 60-year-old Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo was diagnosed with a tumor of lymphatic system - See more at: http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/05-01-2012/120158-south_america-0/#sthash.vlGohfnN.dpuf

Obama can invade any country for US energy needs

Morales: Obama can invade any country for US energy needs

Published time: September 27, 2013 17:40

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Bolivia's President Evo Morales (Reuters//David Mercado)

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In his dramatic speech in New York, Bolivian President Evo Morales called for the UN to be moved out of the US and for Barack Obama to be tried for crimes against humanity. Speaking to RT, Morales explained his controversial proposals.

In his most controversial demand, Morales said that Obama should face an international trial with human rights watchdogs among the judges. The Bolivian president accused his US counterpart of instigating conflicts in the Middle East to make the region more volatile and to increase the US’s grip on the natural resources it abounds in. He gave Libya as an example of a country where “they arranged for the president to be killed, and they usurped Libya’s oil.” 

“Now they are funding the rebels that fight against presidents who don’t support capitalism or imperialism,” Morales told Eva Golinger of RT’s Spanish sister channel, Actualidad. “And where a coup d’état is impossible, they seek to divide the people in order to weaken the nation – a provocation designed to trigger an intervention by peacekeeping forces, NATO, the UN Security Council. But the intervention itself is meant to get hold of oil resources and gain geopolitical control, rather than enforce respect for human rights.”

The US also operates in the same imperialist way outside the Middle East, Morales argued. At the General Assembly Obama said that the US “is prepared to use all elements of our power, including military force, to secure these core interests” in the Middle East. Among the core interests, he mentioned “the free flow of energy from the region to the world.” Morales said that Obama’s statement should make any country possessing natural resources worried. 

“I think that statement poses a threat to all countries that have energy sources, especially gas and oil,”Morales said. “But mostly those countries that sell gas and oil to the US. It is a direct threat. I am planning to meet with President Maduro and analyze the issue. I understand that this is a direct threat to Venezuela, because in order to secure his country’s energy needs, Obama can invade any country.”

Washington’s relations with Latin America deteriorated this summer, following the grounding of Evo Morales’s plane in Vienna. President Morales was on his way home from Moscow when several EU countries closed their airspace to his jet, on the suspicion that former NSA contractor Edward Snowden – wanted in the US on espionage charges – was on board. Bolivia laid the blame for the plane’s grounding on the US. 

Relations with the US were further aggravated after Latin American countries learned they were being extensively spied upon by the NSA.  

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff devoted her UN General Assembly speech to condemning the US surveillance, calling NSA practices a “breach of international law.” 

And Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro skipped his appearance at the UN altogether, citing plans for“provocations” against him.

Maduro’s decision to break his UN General Assembly appointment came after Venezuela’s foreign minister, Elias Jaua, told the media that the US had denied a plane carrying President Maduro entrance into its airspace. The plane was on the way to China and Washington later allowed it to pass, arguing that the delay was caused by an improperly-filed overflight request from Venezuela. 

Morales said he did not believe the incident was coincidental, but was indicative of the US’s discrimination against Latin American diplomats.  

“I talked about this with the media before, after Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera was not allowed on board an American Airlines flight to the US. Other Bolivian ministers had to go through a similar ordeal; they were also asked to take off their jackets and shoes. This is what happened to ministers, the official representatives of their country. I got a US visa allowing me to stay for six to seven days, which is the short period of time absolutely necessary for me to participate in the General Assembly session. Blackmail over visas, violations of the ministers’ rights, air piracy – all of that raises security concerns.”

What could prevent all this, according to Morales, is moving the UN headquarters out from the US to a politically neutral country. Or if that is unachievable, the Bolivian president wants at least the venue for the annual meeting to rotate among various countries. 

“The venue could be different every year, in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and so on. As for European countries, the UN headquarters could be moved, for example, to Switzerland – a neutral state that can guarantee security.  I’ve visited it a number of times to attend events related to human rights and indigenous population rights. In Switzerland, the president can just go outside and take a stroll with his wife, unconcerned about security threats. I found it surprising. Another option could be Austria, also a neutral country, according to its Constitution. The UN has several offices there. Brazil and Argentina are viable options as well. I believe that if it’s impossible to move the UN headquarters to a different country, the summit should be held in a different venue every year, but not in the United States, where we don’t feel safe.”

Cochabamba: The People vs. Climate Destruction

Of coca, cola, and "collas"

Aymara women with a pile of dried coca leaves. If these women are farmers, odds are that they chew them while they work, to stave off hunger, thirst and altitude sickness.

Who knew coca was so versatile? The indigenous, or "collas", that's who. And now they're going to give Coke a run for its money--with, among other things, a new soda-pop:

In an obvious play on words, the Bolivian cocaleros have declared war on the the most popular fizzy drink in the world. Yesterday the vice-minister for coca, Jerónimo Meneses, presented Coca-Colla, a new carbonated energy drink made from the "sacred leaf" of the Andes cultivated in the Chapare region.

There, where Evo Morales launched his career as a union leader and later politician more than two decades ago, you will find the majority of the coca declared illegal under Law 1008, in place since the 1980s.

The initiative was proposed by the campesinos. In case there isn't enough in common with the syrup created in 1885 by John Pemberton, the Coca-Colla bottle will have a red label and contain a dark, almost black liquid.

Even though the Coca-Cola Company says it removed coca from the formula in 1929, the Internet is rife with denuciations that "Coca-Cola is still buying coca in Peru."

Even though minister Meneses has already shown the bottle to the press, the authorities admit that the name of the product could be changed.

"It started as a private initiative to produce a coca-based energy drink, but as a state we are interested in the industrialization of the coca," said vice-minister of rural development Víctor Hugo Vázquez. He emphasized various private initiatives already existing in Bolivia, producing teas, syrups, toothpastes, liquors, candies and even cakes made from coca. In fact, one Italian restaurant in La Paz serves coca spaghetti, made from a mixture of wheat flour and "millennial" coca-leaf flour.

The quantity of coca used legally is part of the controversy, which may be resolved by the results of the Integral Study of the Coca Leaf and the national inquiry into the legal use and consumption of the herb, launched in 2009 with the support of the European Union. Not all the cocaleros support an increased level of cultivation; the "legals" do not want the price to drop with increased availability of the herb.

With the newly-elected Congress in favor, the government proposes to increase legal coca-growing to 20,000 hectares, in order to include the campesinos of the Chapare, social base of Evo Morales, in legal cultivation.

Before the Spanish conquest, the coca was part of Andean rituals. After colonization, it became part of the mining economy; chewing permitted workers to stay on their feet in the dangerous shafts, hundreds of metres below ground, and not even the protestations of the Catholic church against the "devil's leaf" were successful in gaining prohibition of it.

Translation mine.

My compañeros have already beaten me to the story, but I thought I'd translate this piece to show a bit more context. And also to add some facts you might not have known about coca.

For one thing, it's true that there is still coca in Coca-Cola. The leaf is still used to provide an extract for flavoring the drink. There is no cocaine, however, since anti-drug legislation prohibited it. But there used to be--in varying amounts, according to Snopes.com. The soda was prepared as a fountain beverage in the early days, meaning that variable quantities of flavoring syrup went into a glass of seltzer water. You might have gotten a very slight cocaine kick from your glass of Coke, or nearly none, at that rate. It would have been indistinguishable in any case from the caffeine buzz you get from the kola nut, which is also still an ingredient to this day. It is very unlikely that anyone would have become a drug addict that way, unless they guzzled the syrup undiluted. And even then, chances are that they'd have gotten a sugary stomach-ache rather than much of a buzz.

Addicts typically injected their cocaine when Coca-Cola was new on the market; later, they rubbed it on their gums or snorted it; later still, with the advent of the CIA's coke importation and crack sales, they began smoking a particularly cheap, nasty form of it as well. There are no recorded cases of addicts ever becoming hooked through simple consumption of a Coke, however; the concentration of the drug would have been much too low.

Cocaine abuse has also taken place in classic crime literature. Back in his day, using cocaine recreationally was not yet illegal, and known cases of cocaine dependence were few, but Sir Arthur Conan Doyle apparently foresaw the dangers of addiction (probably as a result of reading Sigmund Freud, if not from using it himself, as Freud also did). There is even a passage in which Dr. Watson warns his friend against the dangers of using drugs to "improve" his mental acuity.

And yes, cocaine is legal for medical use to this day. There are international conventions in place to prevent cocaine produced for medical usage from being diverted onto the streets. Obviously, thanks to stringent quality controls, it's not produced with as much pollution or toxic crap as the illegal kind, which really befouls the jungles where it's made. It is a good topical anesthetic, and as it is a vasoconstrictor, it also impedes excess bleeding. If you've ever had stitches and the nurse swabbed you with a clear liquid to numb the skin before the doctor took needle and thread to you, you may have been dosed with a small amount of cocaine. It would not be enough to give a buzz or "hook" you, but it's definitely enough to make the procedure quite painless. Cocaine solution is also used to soak cotton pads and swabs for nose, mouth and throat surgeries, again to prevent excess bleeding (which can cause choking) and to ease pain.

Novocaine, a chemical relative, is still widely used by dentists for "freezing". And cocaine's other chemical cousins are found in over-the-counter topical creams and sprays, usually to calm itchy bug bites and nasty rashes. If the active ingredient ends in -caine, you've been exposed to one of coke's relatives. The difference, though, is that benzocaine and lidocaine sold in those strengths are not "buzzy". They are felt merely as "soothing". So don't bother trying to get high inhaling the contents of an aerosol can of benzocaine spray, 'kay?

Coca in its natural state is not enough to give a mosquito a buzz, either. There is so little alkaloid in fresh or dried unprocessed coca that tonnes of it are needed to make just a kilo of cocaine. And believe me, you don't want to know just how much, and how many, polluting nasty chemicals go into the making of that stuff. (How about a snootful of chlorine, acid and kerosene--sounds appealing, eh?)

The sacred leaf is, however, an effective suppressant of hunger, thirst and exhaustion. And whether chewed plain, or with a small pinch of powdered lime made from burnt, crushed seashells, or brewed as tea, it's the only remedy that really works for high-altitude sickness. You can see why the indigenous peoples of the Andes, from Colombia right down to Chile, have used it for as far back as any of their histories go. It makes farming at higher altitudes possible--something it would not have been if not for coca. Use of lime makes coca work better, which may be one reason why the indigenous peoples of Bolivia remain hopeful that one day, their country will again have access to the sea--a ready source of that helpful coca-boosting mineral.

But again, this is not about being stoned all the time. At altitude, coca leaf enables people to live and work normally. Without it, they'd all have whanging headaches and be in a constant state of exhaustion. Is that much human suffering really worth the approval of the ignorant moralists of the northern global elite?

Medical studies have found coca-chewing to be harmless and even nutritionally beneficial, as coca is a good source of many vitamins and minerals--a boon, in other words, to impoverished natives, who are at risk of malnutrition if deprived of access to it. Some studies even suggest, ironically, that coca tea can help wean addicts off not only cocaine, but many other drugs!

I would really like to see more medical studies done to determine if coca also elevates oxygenation of the blood at altitude; I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it did, as this study suggests. What I do know is that it makes symptoms of altitude sickness go away. And seeing as even Pope John Paul II was not averse to drinking several cups of coca tea for that purpose on his trips to Bolivia, the question of whether this medicinal use is moral should now be considered settled, once and for all, in favor of coca.

I have yet to find a picture of the bottle for Coca-Colla (the Bolivian drink) on the ABI site, and I suspect it will undergo a name/packaging change before it hits store shelves, so as to avoid lawsuits from the Coca-Cola Co. I suspect that the main risk associated with it will be the same that troubles Coca-Cola, however--too much sugar and caffeine.

But I wouldn't worry about cocaine in the bottles--and in fact, I'd be relieved that this industrial use, like the coca-flour pastries and spaghetti, puts the leaf to safe and healthy use, preventing its being processed by the tonne into that nasty white gringo nose-powder or those ghetto-wrecking crack rocks that we all know only too well.

Or, as the "collas" like to say, Coca no es cocaina.

Bolivia terror plot: The Argentine connection, revisited and confirmed

This is what they fear, kiddies...indigenous Bolivians fighting back against fascism.

Via ABI, I came across this report in Argentina's Página/12. It's shocking, explosive, highly relevant to what I've written about in here previously--and worth translating in its entirety, which I did:

"I was present in Beni (northern Bolivia) with an Argentine cell of eleven ex-carapintadas ("painted faces", notorious paramilitaries), along with ex-militaries who had been on missions in the Balkans. The above-mentioned 'Argentine cell' maintained contacts with sectors of the 'far right', opposed to the current Bolivian government, in Santa Cruz and Cobija, department of Pando."

The information, dated May 4, received by the Argentine Chancellery from the embassy in Bolivia and which was received by Página/12, indicated that "business owners and landowners of Santa Cruz de la Sierra requested the presence of the ex-militaries with the objective of training them in self-defence in case of their eventual imprisonment by the Bolivian authorities."

The pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place following an investigation into a group of suspected terrorists, led by Eduardo Rózsa Flores, "Hero of the Balkan War", which was dismantled by the Bolivian National Police last April 16. President Evo Morales denounced the group for planning his assassination.

Last April 21, we reported that the vice-president of Bolivia, Alvaro García Linera, had communicated with the Argentine ambassador in La Paz, Horacio Macedo, to ask him to collaborate in the control of the border regions "due to the presence of Argentine activists in certain regions of Bolivia". At that time, there was mention of the travels to Bolivia of retired major Jorge Mones Ruiz, one of the "carapintadas" who between 1987 and 1991 took part in armed uprisings to demand impunity for repressors [active during the time of the Argentine military junta, 1976-83].

The new report states that "Mones Ruiz had been in contact with the late suspected terrorist/mercenary Rózsa Flores and with [Luis Enrique] Baraldini", another comrade-in-arms and fugitive-from-justice for his actions during the illegal repressions in La Pampa, and currently based in Santa Cruz under a false name. Mones Ruiz was assigned to Bolivia as an intelligence official of the Argentine army during the last dictatorship, and liked to boast of the recognition of his Bolivian comrades.

The ex-carapintada was seduced by his links to the ultra-right in Latin America. In '87, the Military Circle published his book, in which he outlined his expertise on the formation of commando groups against the revolutionary processes in Central America. This year, Mones Ruiz found anchorage in the so-called UnAmérica, an NGO claiming to be a counterweight to Unasur, the organization to which all the South American heads of state belong. Leftist governments, particularly those of Bolivia and Venezuela, were the focus of the efforts of the committee, led by the anti-Chavista Venezuelan, Alejandro Peña Esclusa.

Mones Ruiz showed his notions in various formats, but with the same obsession. With another of his carapintada comrades, Breide Obeid, he formed the "Conjunto Patria" (Homeland Alliance) and began to sing his own lyrics in all kinds of encounters. More academically, he published various books, among them "Argentina--without a future?". He studied the "new dangers" and broadcast himself on Web pages on subjects such as "misrule and institutional bankruptcy, attacks on businessses, price controls, energy crises, the 'Papeleros' case, citizen insecurity, corruption, 'twisted' justice, widening of the gap between rich and poor, 'crooked' legislators, social violence, forgotten military commanders, police forces with fewer rights than delinquents, etc., which are generating the conditions for structural changes that society demands." A hyperactive man, last year he began to show up during rural meetings and stir up conflict.

The violent entry of the police into the fourth floor of the Hotel Las Américas, which ended in the deaths of Rózsa Flores (Bolivian-Hungarian-Croatian), Arpád Magyarosi (Romanian of Hungarian origins) and Michael Dwyer (Irish), and the arrests of Mario Francisco Tadic Astorga (Bolivian with Croatian passport) and Elöd Tóásó (Romanian-Hungarian) exacerbated the virulence of the Bolivian opposition. President Evo Morales is looking for re-election next December 6, and read the actions of these transnational commandos as proof of a cabal with plans to assassinate him. Throughout this minefield, there are footprints of the same personages.

Five days after the sting in the hotel, the Hungarian Television Network broadcast an interview by journalist Andras Kepes on September 8, 2008, in which Rózsa confirmed that he was bound for Santa Cruz de la Sierra at the request of persons who asked him to form a "self-defence group" in the region and that if there was no peaceful coexistence with the rest of the country, they would seek independence. The newspaper El Deber, of Santa Cruz, stated that "the 49-year-old assured that his mission 'had legal backing' because the decision to organize his militia had the authorization of the Council of Santa Cruz. The president of the Departmental Assembly, Juan Carlos Parada, assured that he knew nothing about it and that he did not know which of the councils or assemblies of Santa Cruz had sought permission. According to Rózsa, a group of political opposition members contacted him about a year and a half earlier, from Santa Cruz. His principal mission was to defend the region against supposed armed indigenous groups and militias. "We were convinced after a few months that there was no peaceful coexistence and, in the name of autonomy, decided to proclaim the independence of Santa Cruz and create a new country," said Rózsa.

Rózsa recorded the interview as a kind of last will and testament, to be distributed only in the event of his death. The strange personage who had been a militant of Opus Dei, converted to Islam and was hailed as a "Hero of the Balkan War", ended up recruiting mercenaries to defend the Bolivian ultra-right. His participation in the Croatian war established ties with Latin American soldiers who found in these militias a sought-after niche in which to develop their competence as armed commandos.

The detailed report before the Argentine chancellery tells that businessmen and landowners in Santa Cruz de la Sierra appealed to the ex-militaries "with the objective of being instructed in self-defence in case of possible imprisonment by official organisms and various affiliates, including the taking of private lands by social entities such as the MAS"--alluding to the Movement Toward Socialism party led by President Evo Morales.

The "model" of Brazilian landlords who installed virtual death squads to counteract the landless peasant movements demonstrates what the reactionary secessionists of the rich regions of Bolivia had in mind. The "Human Rights Foundation of Bolivia", under the offices of Victor Hugo Achá, was a school in the strategies and objectives of UnAmérica, according to the report.

On April 30, prosecutor Marcelo Sosa announced that Achá would be called upon to testify, in order to corroborate the testimonies of various detainees in the case. The president of the HRF had gone to the United States one week earlier and announced that he would no return until he received legal guarantees that he would be able to defend himself against the accusations. However, in a telephone conversation with a local channel, he admitted that he had conversed on more than three occasions with Rózsa but, obviously, denied any ties with the militia organized by the Bolivian-Hungarian-Croat.

According to the daily La Prensa, of La Paz, Juan Carlos Gueder, recently arrested, declared: "There was another person with ties to the political field, to be assassinated in Bolivia, but I don't know his name either, because there are other people who should be coming forward here. Mr. Hugo Achá should show his face." Gueder assured that he HRF director had met with the suspected terrorist group. Gueder was given house arrest in exchange for collaborating with the judicial authorities.

On May 1, the Bolivian president said that if the organization had not clarified its links with "the terrorists, it would be expelled from Bolivia, as had already occurred in Venezuela. The Comité Pro Santa Cruz, a leading light in the opposition which repeatedly tried to destabilize the Morales administration, called an assembly to decide what to do against the advances of the investigation into ties between its businessmen and the suspected terrorists killed in the Hotel Las Américas.

This is how the sectors of UnAmérica act--an organization in which the Argentine paramilitary Mones Ruiz preens himself as secretary, and which says it will present a denunciation before the Inter-American Human Rights Court, accusing the Morales government of being responsible for the massacre of Pando. The objective is to counteract the report approved by Unasur which landed in prison, among others, the prefect of Pando, for racial persecution and racist murders committed by the ultra-right.

Links added.

So, another piece of the puzzle is indeed falling into place, and it's a large one. This Argentine fascist, a self-styled defender and apologist of repressors from the junta, is not surprisingly a big wheel in the fascist plot against Evo. He has ample experience in fascism in Bolivia, too, as he was a liaison between the Argentine junta and its counterpart, the Bolivian military dictatorship of the era. (Recall that Bolivia was the victim of several military coups beginning in 1964, and did not regain democracy until 1982, one year before the Argentine junta fell.) It seems natural that Mones Ruiz would therefore have abiding sympathies for fascists in Bolivia, and possibly even ties stretching back to his time in country the first time around. It would not be at all hard for him--whom Página/12 also characterizes as being "nostalgic for other times" and "frankly putschist"--to cheerfully become part of an antidemocratic plot to pull Santa Cruz out of Bolivia and install an authoritarian para-government, however illegally. To him, it would be just like the "good old days" of impunity and repression both there and in Argentina!

The name of Luis Enrique Baraldini has also come up here before. According to this report, Baraldini is currently in Bolivia. (He's also wanted by Interpol for human rights violations in Argentina, so if you've seen him, you know who to call.) Baraldini is of the Santa Cruz horsey set; he's a judge in equestrian events, and also currently runs a "school of equine therapy", presumably catering to disabled children, which may well be a front for something less pleasant--or at the very least, a way of covering his multitudinous sins. He may be using his mother's surname, Pellegri, as an alias (how macho, hiding behind Mama's skirts). He also was decorated by the Bolivian military for his "services"--a major WTF? until you consider that he, too, was operative during the days of military dictatorship, and undoubtedly, like Mones Ruiz, was sent by the higher-ups in Buenos Aires to "help" the poor, beleaguered unpopular generals maintain their death grip on that impoverished but still fractious country! Alas, it was an epic fail. Bolivia is now democratic and ruled by an uppity Injun. How lucky for him, then, that there has been mostly impunity for Argentine repressors since the return of democracy to Bolivia in '82 and Argentina in '83, otherwise he'd be in a world of hurt. (Well, it's still not too late to call Interpol if you've seen him. Or the Bolivian federal authorities, who I'm sure are more than a little interested in him again, though in a markedly different light, by now.)

And of course, there's that weaselly little UnAmérica thing again, too. Too bad it's totally illegitimate, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights is likely to throw out its charges with a loud belly-laugh. Unasur, not UnAmérica, holds the legal cards. The declarations of this right-wing astroturf group are therefore no more legitimate than the "autonomy" declarations of the Media Lunatics (which were so preposterous that no respectable international observer wanted to be caught dead at their illegal referendum, much less dignify it with the stamp of approval.) I don't imagine that the smarmy Twat From Caracas and his little astroturf-roll will fare any better either; no one's about to grant them immunity from prosecution in exchange for testimony since they're clearly in this plot up to their collective, beady eyeballs.

I've lost count of how many points this makes for Evo's side, but I know for sure that the oppo count is still 0. Apologists for fascism, the ball's in your court now...but I doubt you can return THIS serve convincingly. You haven't done all that well with any of the previous ones.

May Day! May Day!

May Day! May Day!

It's International Workers' Day. Do you know where YOUR socialist leaders are?

WHAT? You don't have any? Well, better do something about that next election day.

In the meantime, enjoy these shots of Evo, who made TIME's top-ten most influential people of the year, signing six decrees that will make Bolivian workers' lives considerably better:

It was clearly a gorgeous day in La Paz. Perfect for giving speeches to a standing-room-only crowd:

...full of colorful personages, including a guy in a condor suit:

Oh yeah, and don't forget Chavecito. He gave another of his long, inexhaustible speeches today:

Get A Room Ya Big Lugs

How adorable. Captions anyone? Blingees? Seriously send me a Blingee of this and I'll post it after the jump, promise. Know what we got after the jump? Evo!

Toldja:

I think I like this below one best. Smiles are a little weaker, lips are pursed. They maybe screwed up the handshake? Chavez went for the fist jab possibly? That would've been awesome...

Ok, now your Blingees below. Click here to get started. Seriously it's a weekend. What else you got going on? Hop to it.Email 'em to borevnet (at) gmail (dot) com.

Ok this one was me, but really I did this in like 3 minutes. It's easy! Now yours...

Awww....look who loves Evo. Thanks, Bina:

Oh wow thanks, Jason, because really, a Blingee isn't complete until somebody has a stroke, awesome:

This next one's only missing the unicorn. Thanks, Santos!

It's Sunday in the Park with Barack. Nice one, CC:

Tags:

• Barack Obama
• Blingees
• Hugo Chavez

Breaking news: Assassination plot to kill the President & Vice President of Bolivia has been foiled. 3 mercenaries killed & 2 captured.

Bolivia probes financing behind international group that plotted to kill president

CARLOS VALDEZ |Associated Press Writer

2:21 PM CDT, April 17, 2009

A Bolivian police officer displays seized guns taken in the city of Santa Cruz from an armed group at a police station in La Paz, Thursday, April 16, 2009. Bolivian police said they broke an armed international group on Thursday that was plotting to assassinate President Evo Morales and the vice president.Three suspects were killed and two were arrested in a half-hour long shootout with officers in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, police said. The area is the center of political opposition to Morales.(AP Photo/Juan Karita) (Juan Karita, AP / April 16, 2009)

Here’s a little bit of history kiddies: During the second world war the Serbs fought AGAINST the Nazi invaders, while the Croats JOINED THE NAZIS and were infamous for their brutality towards their prisoners that evened sickened their Nazi allies.Fast forward to the end of WWII and many Nazis (and their allies) fled to South America - including those the CIA relocated after “Operation Paperclip”. The U.S. backed dictatorship in Bolivia gave the Croatian refugees(?) land in the media-luna region. Fast forward to the independence of apartheid Rhodesia, which became the independent nation of Zimbabwe in April 1980. The at-the-time U.S. supported dictator of Bolivia also gave the racist Rhodesian immigrants land in the media-luna region to populate, farm, and “whiten the country”. Fast forward to now. Many of the leaders of the opposition to Evo Morales are Croatian and Rhodesian Bolivians. Hmmm? Three mercenaries were killed: one Irish, one Rumanian, and a Bolivian of Croatian descent. Two mercenaries were captured, one a Bolivian ex-military who was living in Croatia, and a Hungarian naturalized Croatian. See where I’m going?

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivian officials were investigating Friday who financed a plot to assassinate President Evo Morales and what an international group of alleged mercenaries — including two fighters from the Balkan wars — were doing in Bolivia.

Among three men killed and two arrested in a dramatic police shootout in the opposition bastion of Santa Cruz, at least two suspects fought for Croatian independence, according to government officials.

Bolivian police closed in on the group Thursday in the eastern city, sparking a dramatic gun battle as the suspects fled to a downtown hotel and blew out its windows with a grenade.

Police commander General Victor Hugo Escobar identified the dead ringleader of the band as 49-year-old Eduardo Rosza Flores, son of a Hungarian father and Bolivian mother.

Rosza commanded a brigade in the Balkans after arriving there as a war correspondent in 1991, according this his personal Web blog.

The firefight with police also killed Magyarosi Arpak, a Romanian sniper, and Michel Martin Dwyer, an Irish expert in martial arts and weapons, the police commander said.

Police arrested Mario Francisco Tadik Astorga, 58, a Bolivian-Croatian who also fought in the Balkans, and Elot Toazo, a Hungarian computer science expert.

They have yet to be assigned lawyers. Prosecutor Jorge Gutierrez said the suspects were presented before prosecutors.

The group was monitored for some time until it launched a dynamite attack at the house of Cardinal Julio Terrazas in Santa Cruz on Wednesday that caused no fatalities, Deputy Government Marcos Farfan Erbol said Friday.

Police seized an arsenal, personal computers containing city plans of Santa Cruz and La Paz, the capital, and a list of possible targets, Escobar said.

The government said the group planned to attack the president, vice president and other authorities and personalities, including Santa Cruz Gov. Ruben Costas, a leader of political opposition to Morales.

It was unclear why a group of alleged anti-Morales assassins would attack Costas or Terrazas, who also is known to support the president's opponents controlling much of Bolivia's farm and natural gas wealth in the lowland east around Santa Cruz.

But Costas questioned the government's information, saying it was "mounting a show" to discredit the opposition.

Santa Cruz and three other states have adopted measures seeking greater autonomy from Morales' central government.

Morales has accused Costas of fomenting anti-government violence after rioters in September seized state buildings to block a vote on a new constitution. Eleven people died in the skirmishes, and a U.N. report found the president's political opponents responsible.

Morales ejected the U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration officials over accusations that American diplomats had supported the opposition. He also claimed that the U.S. organized groups to assassinate him. Washington denies those charges.

http://www.laprensa.com.bo/noticias/17-04-09/17_04_09_segu1.php

http://www.la-razon.com/versiones/20090417_006700/nota_249_796202.htm

http://www.la-razon.com/ultima.asp?id=796363

Oligarquia aposta na desestabilização institucional na Bolívia

ESCRITO POR MAX ALTMAN
17-DEZ-2007

O presidente Lula estava coberto de razão quando exclamou em Buenos Aires, em uma das cerimônias da posse de Cristina Kirchner, que Evo Morales “foi a coisa mais extraordinária que aconteceu recentemente na América do Sul”. Poderíamos acrescentar que para a Bolívia foi a coisa mais extraordinária que aconteceu em seus cinco séculos de existência.

Uma história de espoliação

A Bolívia tinha muita prata nas minas das montanhas de Potosi. Na época colonial, a prata de Potosi foi, durante mais de dois séculos, a principal alavanca do desenvolvimento capitalista da Europa. "Vale um Potosi", dizia-se, para elogiar o que não tinha preço. Em meados do século dezesseis, a cidade mais povoada, mais cara e que mais esbanjava no mundo brotou e cresceu ao pé da montanha que manava prata. Essa montanha, o chamado Cerro Rico, devorava índios. As comunidades se esvaziavam de homens, que de todas as partes marchavam prisioneiros, rumo à boca que conduzia aos buracos escavados. Do lado de fora, temperaturas de gelo. Do lado de dentro, o inferno. De cada dez que entravam, somente três saíam vivos. Mas os condenados à mina, que pouco duravam, geravam a fortuna dos banqueiros flamengos, genoveses e alemães, credores da coroa espanhola, e eram esses índios que faziam possível a acumulação de capitais que converteu a Europa no que a Europa é. O que ficou na Bolívia, de tudo isso? Uma montanha oca, cheia de buracos, uma incontável quantidade de índios assassinados por extenuação e uns quantos palácios habitados por fantasmas.

No século dezenove, quando a Bolívia foi derrotada na chamada Guerra do Pacífico, não só perdeu sua saída ao mar e ficou encurralada no coração da América do Sul. Também perdeu seu salitre. A história oficial, que é história militar, conta que o Chile ganhou essa guerra; mas a história real comprova que o vencedor foi o empresário britânico John Thomas North, Sem disparar um tiro nem gastar um centavo, North conquistou territórios que haviam sido da Bolívia e do Peru e se converteu em um dos homens mais ricos do mundo, no “rey del salitre”, que era então o fertilizante imprescindível para alimentar as cansadas terras da Europa. Saiu todo o salitre da província de Antofogasta, então pertencente à Bolívia, ficaram os buracos, e os salitreiros na miséria.

No século vinte, a Bolívia foi o principal abastecedor de estanho no mercado internacional.

Na profundidade dos buracos escavados nas montanhas de Huanuni, Oruro, o implacável pó de salitre matava por asfixia. Os pulmões dos trabalhadores apodreciam para que o mundo pudesse consumir estanho barato. Durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial, a Bolívia contribuiu à causa aliada vendendo seu mineral a um preço dez vezes mais baixo que o preço de sempre. Os salários dos trabalhadores se reduziram a nada, houve greve, as metralhadoras dispararam fogo. Simón Patiño, dono do negócio e amo do país, não teve que pagar indenizações, porque a matança por metralha não é acidente de trabalho. Don Simón pagava cinqüenta dólares anuais de imposto de renda, mas pagava muito mais ao presidente da nação e a todo o seu gabinete. Vivia entre Paris e Londres onde se refinava o estanho. Suas netas e netos ingressaram na nobreza européia. Casaram-se com condes, marqueses e parentes de reis. Quando a revolução de 1952 destronou Patiño e nacionalizou o estanho, era pouco o mineral que restava. Ficaram os buracos, e os mineiros imersos na secular miséria (1).

A Bolívia está cheia de gás e petróleo. Seu povo, cansado de séculos de exploração, miséria e racismo, contudo, escaldado dos buracos deixados pela predatória exploração de suas riquezas naturais, resolveu eleger o índio aimara, Evo Morales. E o fez com a expressiva votação de 53,74%, porque Evo prometeu e cumpriu anterior plebiscito, nacionalizando o gás e o petróleo. Hoje, passado ano e meio, só com esta medida a receita fiscal passou de 300 milhões para 2 bilhões de dólares anuais. E mais, porque Evo prometeu que uma nova constituição iria refundar a Bolívia, pacífica e democraticamente, garantindo os direitos das populações indígenas, majoritárias no país, dos mineiros, dos trabalhadores e do povo em geral, modernizando o Estado. Aprovada em referendo a Constituinte, convocaram-se eleições gerais para a Assembléia Constituinte e novamente os apoiadores de Evo Morales, o partido Movimento ao Socialismo (MAS) e partidos menores aliados, alcançaram a maioria, 164 de 255 deputados constituintes. Estabeleceu-se um prazo para que os trabalhos constituintes se completassem e a nova Constituição fosse levada a referendo popular.

Mas as oligarquias brancas da Bolívia não toleram que um índio os governe e governe a nação. Não engoliram a nacionalização do gás e do petróleo, porque isso implicou em barrar os muitos negócios escusos que se faziam com as grandes corporações. Não admitem uma carta magna em que nações indígenas sejam reconhecidas e tenham sua própria autonomia. As oligarquias não querem perder os seus seculares privilégios e vão até as últimas conseqüências, a força bruta inclusive, para mantê-los.

Os boicotes à Constituinte

As classes exploradoras costumam alardear a defesa da liberdade e da democracia, porém, quando os seus interesses são atingidos, mandam às favas a democracia, sem a menor cerimônia. Dizem que democracia não é só o voto, que um de seus pilares é o respeito às minorias. Todavia, a minoria deve também respeitar a maioria e é esta quem governa.

A oposição, baseada nos governadores eleitos – antes eram nomeados pelo poder central - para 5 das 9 províncias do país, e no partido de direita Podemos, largamente derrotado nas últimas eleições presidenciais, começou por boicotar os trabalhos da Constituinte alegando inúmeros pretextos: a questão da maioria qualificada para aprovar artigo por artigo da Constituição – pelo regulamento aprovado, são necessários dois terços dos constituintes para aprová-los e o MAS mais os partidos aliados não atingiam essa cifra; a disputa pela capital do país entre Sucre e La Paz, uma divergência histórica. Passou-se mais de ano e os trabalhos constituintes não saíam do impasse.

Aproximando-se do prazo fatal de sua promulgação, os constituintes foram convocados a se reunir em Sucre na Assembléia local para dar continuidade aos trabalhos. Uma violenta manifestação organizada pelos comitês cívicos, compostos, liderados e apoiados pela oligarquia, ameaçou fisicamente os constituintes e, nos embates de rua, resultaram três mortos, fato ainda a ser esclarecido. Diante da grave ameaça à incolumidade física dos constituintes, a Assembléia se transferiu a um quartel onde o texto geral foi aprovado por 138 dos 255 constituintes. A oposição radical, liderada pelo ex-presidente Quiroga, líder do partido Podemos, boicotou a sessão. Foi designada nova sessão para 8 de dezembro – o prazo fatal das conclusões dos trabalhos era 14 de dezembro –a fim de se discutir artigo por artigo na Universidade de Oruro. A oposição mais radical de novo a boicotou, embora alguns poucos de seus membros resolvessem comparecer: 164 foram os presentes nessa nova sessão. Eram 64,3% da composição total e faltavam 2,3%.

Diante da postura antidemocrática, chantagista e provocadora da oposição, os constituintes presentes resolveram que aos artigos passassem a ser aprovados por dois terços dos presentes. Legítima e democrática reação. A voz do povo clamada reiteradamente em praça pública e nas urnas tinha de ser ouvida. A campanha vitoriosa à presidência de Evo pregou exaustivamente a convocação de uma Constituinte. Em referendo específico o povo a confirmou. Foram convocadas eleições constituintes para que os deputados eleitos escrevessem uma nova constituição. Era uma ordem do povo de quem emana, numa democracia, todo o poder. E foi aprovada a Constituição que será levada a referendo confirmatório, com uma única questão, a das terras, a ser dirimida no mesmo pleito.

O fundamentalismo reacionário da direita

Nesse momento, desencadeou-se o fundamentalismo reacionário e o radicalismo da direita e da oligarquia boliviana: a chantagem da secessão dos estados de Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, Tarija e Cochabamba, cujos governantes se opõem raivosamente a Evo, tendo um deles, Rubem Costas, governador de Santa Cruz, dito que “aquela constituição, aprovada sob a mira de fuzis, não passa de um papel higiênico usado, e bem usado”; a greve de fome iniciada por alguns dos oposicionistas tentando sensibilizar a população; grupos juvenis fascistas armados de Santa Cruz de la Sierra que agridem comerciantes e populares que não compactuam de suas idéias e ordens; listas de nomes são coladas às paredes e postes denunciando a “traição” dos parlamentares que compareceram às discussões na constituinte.

Os opositores são cada vez em número menor, mas cada vez mais violentos. Contam em sua ação com o apoio político e logístico da embaixada norte-americana em La Paz. Não são as regiões que querem autonomia e sim alguns dirigentes dessas regiões. O povo quer a unidade nacional, também já expressa em voto.

Desesperada, a oligarquia aposta na desestabilização, no caos institucional e na derrubada do governo. Seus representantes foram bater às portas do quartel. Receberam uma resposta pública, tendo o Comandante Geral das Forças Armadas, general Wilfredo Vargas, ratificado seu respaldo ao presidente legítimo da nação boliviana: “As Forças Armadas não cederão diante das insinuações golpistas daqueles que promovem a violência, a partir de seus feudos”. Do exterior, pela voz dos presidentes, transcrita na Declaração de Buenos Aires, a Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colômbia, Equador, Honduras, Paraguai, Uruguai e Venezuela também saíram em defesa de Evo, expressando solidariedade com o povo e o governo, manifestando confiança na capacidade das forças políticas bolivianas para manter um clima de diálogo e entendimento, rejeitando tentativas de enfraquecer a estabilidade das instituições e do governo eleito democraticamente.

Evo vem insistindo publicamente no diálogo, tendo proposto inclusive uma trégua natalina. Porém, se a oposição desprezar o diálogo e, apoiada na mídia ativamente a seu favor, insistir no plano golpista da sedição, do desabastecimento, do separatismo, do caos e da derrubada do governo, o governo Evo Morales, com base em sua legitimidade e apoiado pelos mineiros, camponeses, trabalhadores urbanos, pelos sindicatos e forças populares organizadas, tem o dever e o direito constitucional, valendo-se, se preciso, do uso da força, de impedir a sedição, o separatismo e o golpe de Estado, garantindo a unidade nacional, a democracia, as liberdades e a ordem pública.


(1) Eduardo Galeano in O país que quer existir (artigo de 1993)


Max Altman é advogado e militante petista.

"In order to live better sometimes you have to exploit, steal, discriminate, and plunder, but to live the good life is to live communally"

Central speech by the President of the Republic of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, at the 62nd Session of the United Nations (UN), addressing the environment. United Nations, 26 September, 2007

I would like to take this opportunity to express my extreme satisfaction over the election of the new General Secretary of the United Nations who will be leading this international organization for the good of humanity, and above all for the good of the abandoned and dispossessed.

That is why I wish to briefly comment about my country. For the first time in Bolivia’s history the most abandoned sectors, the most despised, scorned, and vilified in Bolivian history, the indigenous people, have assumed leadership of the country in order to transform our beloved Bolivia.

Political changes, economic changes and a commitment to recreate our country. We seek unity, respect for our diversity, and respect for our identity so that together we can solve our economic and social problems.

In this short time I have found that it will be difficult and we will have to struggle for equality and justice for all those living in the country.

But at the same time when the popular movement, the indigenous movement, intellectuals, even businessmen and professionals commit themselves with a great deal of effort to the earth and to their people, one is encouraged to continue working and transforming, democratically and peacefully to guarantee a cultural revolution in my country.

But recovering our natural resources has been the most important step. It pains me to say that in my country during the neo-liberal governments, natural resources and state companies were privatized. Under the pretext of capitalization they de-capitalized the country. They claimed that privatization was the solution for unemployment and corruption, but instead we have seen unemployment and corruption increase.

Just a few years ago Bolivia was considered the world’s champion of corruption, and now I am very pleased that international organizations have noted that corruption in Bolivia has dropped significantly. We would like to eradicate it.

I want you all to know that in 2005, before I became president of the Republic and the hydrocarbons, petroleum, and natural gas were in the hands of trans-nationals, Bolivia only received $300 million from hydrocarbons.

After modifying the hydrocarbon law, after recovering and nationalizing this extremely important natural resource, Bolivia received more than $2,000 million this year.

Therefore I would like to say from experience, to all presidents or nations where the natural resources have been privatized, it is important to recover these natural resources with the support of the people, for the benefit of the people and the nation.

I understand perfectly that the companies have the right to recover their investments and they have the right to profit. But not so much like before which amounted to the outright plunder of our natural resources.

What is most important about this short period is that we have begun to de-colonize Bolivia internally and externally. I say internally because in the past masters ruled our country. If we review our history we find that viceroy masters, religious groups, and the oligarchy have ruled. The people have never had any power.

Now we are establishing the people’s power, so that sovereignty belongs to the people instead of to a group of families and so that the people have the right to decide their own destiny. That is the best democracy we can implement.

It is not just a matter of simply opting for certain policies. When I say that we have begun to de-colonize externally I am not only talking about being subjugated to landlords o bosses in my country. I want you all to know right now that no ambassadors will change our ministers or name ministers in my country.

Regrettably in the past, the U.S. ambassadors changed and named our ministers. That is over. That is why we have begun to de-colonize our country.

In the past the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund imposed policies. That has also ended. I remember perfectly and I want you all to know a little bit of my country’s history.

In 2003, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund told the president of that time that either a spike in gas prices or a high tax had to be imposed in order to avoid a fiscal deficit. The government chose the tax. They taxed workers wages and in two days there were more than 15 Bolivians dead from internal clashes.

I want to inform you all that Bolivia enjoyed a fiscal surplus this year without taxes and without gasoline price spikes thanks to the recovery of our hydrocarbons, which are so important to my country. I want you all to know that we have already begun the external de-colonization.

Because we are interested in how to better gather the proposals and initiatives of our people, of organized people. These social forces, be they civic or labor, especially those with serious economic problems, they have the wisdom to propose initiatives and solutions from their communities, from their trade unions. That is my experience.

So I think it is important to develop the power of the people, thus giving social forces the power to make the decisions. I, as president, only rule in compliance with the people. In this way we will be able to solve our problems.

Yesterday, over the past few days and hours I have heard some very encouraging speeches, but also others that really disappointed me. For example global warming and climate change were addressed. I feel that many of our countries are victims of these phenomenon.

I still cannot understand why there are so many lives lost in floods, invasions, or wars. So many lives lost to hunger. I feel that there are economic models that cannot solve the problems of humanity. After having heard many of the statements made here and the experiences expressed by other presidents, I am even more convinced that the concentration of capital in a few hands is not the solution for humanity. Models that accumulate wealth in a few hands are not the solution for humankind, for life, and even less for the poor that inhabit this planet earth.

Global warming and melting icecaps were addressed but without mention of their cause. I am convinced that the cause is what is wrongly termed globalization, or selective globalization, a globalization that does not respect plurality or differences.

When talking about globalization we must first globalize the human being. Well, I don’t know how you all managed to make it to New York, United States, but my delegation had difficulties getting visas. Our parliamentarians, our congresspersons could not obtain visas to come to the U.S.

When I arrived here, my ministers, indigenous brothers, were held up in the airport and subjected to hours and hours of processing. Some from other countries arrived here only to be threatened by the head of the house, President Bush. If it is like that, if it is going to continue to be like that, I think we presidents, we nations, should think about changing the headquarters of the United Nations. I personally do not agree with being subjected to such investigations when coming here.

I feel that it is also time to de-colonize the United Nations. We should all be respected whether we are small or large, with problems or without.

The speeches I heard about polar melting did not reflect on the cause of this melting, this global warming. It is capitalism and the exaggerated and unlimited industrialization of some countries that generates these problems on the continent and around the globe.

But when we align ourselves with social movements in order to protest, to condemn these unsustainable policies, these economic models that do not solve our economic problems, then comes the interventions, military bases, and wars, the demonizing and accusations of terrorism, as if the people have no right to appeal for their needs, to claim their rights and to demand new approaches to rescuing life and humankind.

Therefore I believe it is important that we as presidents, as nations, as delegates sincerely speak the truth about these economic problems that are being faced not only by Bolivia, America, or South America. But when democratic changes take place in South America, liberating democracies not democracies subjugated to the empire, we hear more accusations and distortions, charges of cruelty and of dictators like those I heard President Bush directing towards the president and commander Cuba yesterday.

A salute to all revolutionaries. Especially to President Fidel for whom I have much respect, because Fidel has also sent troops to many countries. But these troops save lives, unlike those deployed by the U.S. president to take lives.

Therefore here, as presidents we should think of life, of humanity, about how to save the planet earth. The issue of global climate change is an ongoing debate.

Esteemed members, I am convinced that is not possible for basic services to continue being in the hands of private business. Fortunately, thanks to the foreign ministers of the Americas, water has been recognized as a human right. If water is a human right then it's now important that it become a public service and not a private business.

Is vital now, right here, to recognize energy as a human right also. Hopefully we can all agree that energy is a human right; and if it is a human right it should never be controlled by private business. Instead it must be a public service in order to meet the needs of the people.

I cannot understand their pretext of hegemony or the accumulation of capital in a few hands, which will only continue harming humanity, affecting the poor, marginalizing the needy.

I believe that that we are talking in order to change these economic policies that have caused and go on causing so much damage. These economic policies have caused genocide; and the genocide continues. I cannot understand why there are still countries involved in an arms race, I don’t agree with war. We are exploring how a large social, political movement, via a new constitution, can reject war.

I'm convinced that war is the industry of death, thus the arms race is just another industry that complements the industry and death. In this new millennium, how can countries and presidents still go on dealing with the interventions, arrogance, and authoritarianism of some countries towards other countries, without even considering humanity.

Esteemed presidents, I believe, that together we can work toward rescuing planet earth, which is the most important issue at the moment if we want to save life and humanity.

But yesterday I heard some speeches about Biofuel. I tried to understand what biofuel, or agrofuel is. I don't understand how we can give up our food to automobiles; I can't understand how the land can be given over to heaps of metal.

I think that food should be for human beings, the land for life. Because we lack gasoline, because we lack diesel we're going to divert land and food to automobiles?

For this reason I said two days ago that if we are really interested in life we would abandon luxury. It's imperative to abandon luxury. We cannot continue accumulating garbage, we cannot continue thinking only about a few families instead of thinking about humanity. I think that we have profound differences if we talk about these issues of life, especially the lives of our national majorities.

I wish to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank you all for your support, with the exception of four governments, their presidents and their delegates, in approving the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the world. I'm very satisfied. The people of America have waited more than 500 years for their rights to be recognized. We are the culture of patience.

And I want to make clear that just because we have a declaration now doesn’t mean that the indigenous movement is going to become vengeful towards other sectors. The indigenous people do not have a vengeful character. The indigenous people are a culture of dialogue and we are fundamentally a culture of life.

I ask the United Nations to convene a world indigenous forum soon so that we can share our experiences. In Bolivia we are gathering and drawing from our experiences with a program called the good life. In order to live better sometimes you have to exploit, to live better sometimes you have to steal, to live better sometimes you have to discriminate, to live better sometimes you have to plunder, but to live the good life is to live communally, to live collectively.

And not only among human beings, but also to live the good life in harmony with mother earth. The earth for the indigenous movement is sacred; mother earth is our life. The Pachamama, as we say in our language, cannot be converted into merchandise. If we're talking about and protesting against global warming, well, first we must understand what mother earth is. If the earth gives us life we are obligated to change our policies and to also recognize the indigenous movement.

We have lived collectively, communally; those with experience are here debating. We argue for collectivity, communitarianism and against capitalism. Let us draw from those experiences in order to defend life and rescue humankind.

I also want to quickly take this moment to say that this new millennium must be the millennium of life, the millennium of equality, of justice that respects our identity and is committed to human dignity.

Therefore we're talking about changing the economic models that harm humanity. But if we want to change things from here, we must first change ourselves. We mustn’t be egoistic, individualistic, greedy, ambitious, or sectarian. We mustn’t place the interests of a few families above those of the great family of planet earth.

So, we're talking here about first changing ourselves as presidents, as representatives of our respective nations in order to change economic models and seek equality and justice.

And I tell you that in these past 20 months as president working with the people, listening to their needs, I have found that there are still some groups that don’t want to lose their privileges, ill-gotten privileges. Above all they are accustom to the State doing business for the benefit of just a few families instead of for the [Bolivian] family.

I learned in these 20 months as president how beautiful it is to work for the homeland and not for money, how wonderful it is to work for these abandoned people, and how much better it has been to work together with some people who are economically well off but who also love their homeland and are committed to solidarity.

I would like to mention, you all know that we have a historical problem with the sister Republic of Chile: the issue of the ocean. I want to say that so far we have felt a real sense of amity, people to people amity, government to government amity, president to president amity, under the diplomacy of the people.

And we want to pledge to resolve the historic issue but within the framework of complementarity. Because neighboring countries, Latin American countries, countries of the world need to complement one another if we want to solve the problems of our people and the problems of our nations.

The concept of complimentarity is so important and we continue working towards this for humankind. In closing I'd like to say (...sometimes the red light makes one nervous, but never mind...) I would like to say that these kinds of participatory event where we all learn and continue learning, are the best universities available. But we must speak with clarity, with sincerity and not falsify the truth by only speaking of the effects and not the causes or of humanity’s problems.

In this case I wish to tell you all that I believe it is vital to change those economic models and eradicate capitalism.

Thank you very much.

Translated from ABI by Dawn Gable


Posted by Bolivia Rising on Thursday, October 04, 2007


"IN TIMES OF UNIVERSAL DECEIT, TELLING THE TRUTH WILL BE A REVOLUTIONARY ACT." - George Orwell

“If the world is upside down the way it is now, wouldn’t we have to turn it over to get it to stand up straight?” - Eduardo Galeano