Bolivian Unrest Claims 18 Lives

President Has Declared Martial Law; Chile Calls Emergency Meeting Of South American Leaders

(AP)  President Evo Morales on Saturday accused an opposition governor of using foreign thugs against government supporters in violence that has claimed at least 18 lives and prompted him to declare martial law in a breakaway province.

In a bid to defuse the bitter dispute over a new constitution and land reform that threatens to tear apart the poor Andean nation, Chile called for an emergency meeting of South American leaders on Monday.

"A larger tragedy has to be avoided," said Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a strong ally of Bolivia's leftist president, confirming he would attend the meeting.

Morales described as an ambush a gunbattle in the eastern province of Pando on Thursday that led him to impose martial law the next day. "These people were massacred," he told a news conference on Saturday.

Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said 16 people were killed in the clash - the majority of them peasants who back Morales - and authorities said another two people died Friday at Pando's main airfield as government troops took control, opening fire to disperse protesters.

Bolivia's first indigenous president said he would not hesitate to extend the state of siege if necessary to the other three pro-autonomy provinces in eastern Bolivia where separatists seized government offices and natural gas fields last week in the gravest crisis of his nearly 3-year-old presidency.

Government opponents are demanding Morales cancel a Dec. 7 referendum on a new constitution that would help him centralize power, run for a second consecutive term and transfer fallow terrain to landless peasants.

The emergency summit in Chile comes after both Morales and Chavez expelled the U.S. ambassadors in their countries to protest what they say is Washington's inciting of anti-government protesters in Bolivia.

U.S. officials call the accusations baseless.

At Saturday's news conference, Morales said "Brazilian and Peruvian assassins under the command of the governor of Pando" took part in what he said was an ambush of government supporters.

Pando Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez denied having anything to do with the violence, saying it was not an ambush but rather an armed clash between rival groups.

"The government has a great ability to distort things, and its arguments are always the same, accuse without reason," Fernandez told Radio Fides.

Peasant leader Antonio Moreno told The Associated Press in a phone interview that the violence began when he and several truckloads of companions came upon an opposition blockade on a jungle highway. He said there was some fighting, then suddenly a man exited a vehicle and fired on the farmers with a submachine gun.

"The campesinos fled to the mountain, while others jumped into the river," Moreno said.

National Health Minister Ramiro Tapia told Erbol radio that isolated shooting incidents involving opposition protesters Saturday were making it difficult for the military to enforce martial law in Pando's capital, Cobija, on the border with Brazil.

Interior Ministry officials told the AP that they expected more bodies to turn up from Thursday's violence, which occurred 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the provincial capital of Cobija.

The state of siege prohibits people from gathering or carrying weapons. It was declared hours after Morales and opposition governors from the four eastern provinces agreed to hold talks aimed at ending the crisis.

"We all agree that we have to look for a point of compromise," said Carlos Dabdoub, autonomy secretary in Santa Cruz - Bolivia's richest province and the center of anti-Morales opposition.

The protests temporarily disrupted natural gas exports to Brazil, Bolivia's No. 1 customer.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who said Saturday he would attend the regional meeting in Chile if Bolivia asked him to, urged both sides to negotiate.

He also appealed for gas supplies to continue, saying, "We have accords and contracts that must be respected."

[samsel3]

In August of 2007, Bolivia & Venezuela formed a bi-national oil & gas business venture. The Bolivian state oil company YPFB partnered with Venezuelas PDVSA . The Bush administration wants regime change both countries are protecting their interests against a Nazi-like aggressor.

Venezuela, has struck oil and natural gas deals with Iran & Malaysia , as well as China and Russia .

China & Russia. will aid and protect Venezueala if needed .
It s all about BIG OIL. The administration wants regime change in Iran & Venezuela. Conoco-Phillips, Exxon Mobil & Chevron would not accept new conditions for their oil leases. They wanted significant control in new areas of the gulf of Venezuela, but the Venezuelan s are looking after their own interests and offered a diminished role in developing oil reserves or nothing. As a result all three companies were terminated. The owners of these companies are Richard Cheney s friends and now look for the administrations strong arm tactics.

In 2006 & 2007 Iran & Venezuela vested oil deals and partnered to develop tracts in Venezuelas Orinoco Reserve. One tract Iran will help develop contains approximately 30 billion barrels of oil.
Venezuela s total oil reserves are estimated at 265 billion barrels which could top the Saudi s Reserves.

[bob5ford]

What we need to start doing is worrying about South America. Bolivia and Venezuela both have socialist governments that are popular at the moment. As soon as they start to have problems they will blame the US. Venezuela has already invited the Russians to base military aircraft there. The next real threat we face will not be far away across an ocean but in our own back yard. And it won%u2019t play out on the evening news, it will play out in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California and possibly Florida if Cuba becomes involved with a real shooting war. With our military tied up overseas where they don%u2019t belong it will be up to the militia to fight this war. Sound surreal? It may be real, sooner then you think!! Venezuela%u2019s government took over the cement plants owned by Mexico there recently. They say the banks are next. It%u2019s getting closer. Much closer.

[lloydbest1]

"The regaining of the Campesinos'' rightful land would obviously motivate the right wing to commit such acts, and the fact that Bush itself bought half a gazillion acres of land there that probably didn''t belong to the seller, does indeed suggest the US might have a hand in it." Posted by brianbwb at 03:11 AM : Sep 14, 2008

Possible; even likely. But I''m going to do a most un-Lloyd like thing and give Bush the benefit of the doubt.
Why?
Because it really makes no difference...Even if Bush and his corporate Mafia allies had nothing to do with the anti-Morales uprising he is STILL morally and ethically bankrupt by not activly supporting the landless and Morales'' efforts to rectify the enormous inequities in the distribution of wealth and power in Bolivia.
Nor is it just landless farmers; there is also an unconscionable number of Andean tin miners who are laboring under conditions that would make a Ante-bellum plantation owner sick with disgust.
Bottom line: Whether or not GWB is covertly inciting the unrest in Bolivia is irrelevant. He is failing the international community, Latin America and our own comparatively progressive traditions by not standing solidly behind Morales (twit though he may be) in his efforts to bring a semblence of justice to those in Bolivia that have the least ability to obtain it.

[agt-r]

Evo Morales is just a social misfit unable to see the big picture. Like many other regular people (also living in the USA...) he doesn''t realize that he needs both the rich and the working class. the rich invest to multiply their riches, providing for more jobs, and the working class generates more revenues that provide more taxes and income for the government to reinvest in the country. Evo Morales feels his mission is to take "revenge" over those he always hated (envied really) who had more than he did. I just an uneducated thug.

[zhynaryll]

Morales is no more a Nationalist leader than any other Marxist. He''s using his heritage to hijack the Bolivian people, and will ally himself with the wrong side in this hemispherical conflict. No matter how much you hate Bush, remember that he''ll be gone in 4 months, and then what will you do? Find another Yanqui to hate? Is this the extent of your ''reforms'' down there? Sounds an awful lot like certain Islamist fundamentalists (terrorists) who deserve no less attention than you might find. Wake up!!

[aggieband]

Sky Five, there is very little coffee grown in Bolivia; Brazil and Colombia growe the majority of coffee in this part of the world.

People seem to be forgetting that Morales is NOT a true national leader; he was a coca grower prior to becoming President and still controls large scale coca operations.

[samsel3]

In August of 2007, Bolivia & Venezuela formed a bi-national oil & gas business venture. The Bolivian state oil company YPFB partnered with Venezuelas PDVSA . The Bush administration wants regime change both countries are protecting their interests against a Nazi-like aggressor.

Venezuela, has struck oil and natural gas deals with Iran & Malaysia , as well as China and Russia .

China & Russia. will aid and protect Venezueala if needed .
It s all about BIG OIL. The administration wants regime change in Iran & Venezuela. Conoco-Phillips, Exxon Mobil & Chevron would not accept new conditions for their oil leases. They wanted significant control in new areas of the gulf of Venezuela, but the Venezuelan s are looking after their own interests and offered a diminished role in developing oil reserves or nothing. As a result all three companies were terminated. The owners of these companies are Richard Cheney s friends and now look for the administrations strong arm tactics.

In 2006 & 2007 Iran & Venezuela vested oil deals and partnered to develop tracts in Venezuelas Orinoco Reserve. One tract Iran will help develop contains approximately 30 billion barrels of oil.
Venezuela s total oil reserves are estimated at 265 billion barrels which could top the Saudi s Reserves.

[summarex]

It''s high time Morales started behaving like national leader instead of a peasent activist. He should use as much force as he has to in order to crush this foreign incited uprising and he shouldn''t be afraid of executing a few of the scoundrels who started it, if that''s what it takes to restore order and Bolivian soverignty to the rebel region.

[brianbwb-2009]

The regaining of the Campesinos'' rightful land would obviously motivate the right wing to commit such acts, and the fact that Bush itself bought half a gazillion acres of land there that probably didn''t belong to the seller, does indeed suggest the US might have a hand in it.