Latin American roundup
By
Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Mar 16, 2005 3:11 PM
BOLIVIA
Historic unity of social movements
In October 2003,
Bolivian President Gonzalo “Goni” Sánchez de Lozada was
forced out of office by massive demonstrations of the poor and Indigenous
population. The people firmly and militantly opposed his neoliberal measures,
particularly the privatization and takeover by transnational corporations of the
country’s water, gas and other natural resources.
Carlos Mesa, who
took Sánchez de Lozada’s place on a program against neoliberalism,
has clearly aligned himself with the wealthy and the transnational corporations.
At the same time President Mesa vowed to penalize the massive social movement
that helped put him in office.
On March 6 Mesa announced he was resigning.
He said the country was ungovernable due to massive protests in the form of
widespread militant roadblocks. His resignation had to be approved by Congress.
Many suspected it was a ploy to mobilize support for himself. Three days later
the Congress made it known that it would refuse his resignation.
In a
theatrical pronunciation, Mesa then summoned his wealthy allies to stage
demonstrations against the roadblocks. This reminded many of the tactics of the
Venezuelan opposition.
The rich mobilized the middle classes to follow
Mesa’s orders. They poured into the streets waving white handkerchiefs,
shouting viciously racist slogans against the Indigenous leaders of the social
movement, particularly Evo Morales, who is Aymara.
The result has been a
profound polarization of Bolivian society.
This crisis has produced an
historic unity among the social movements that had been divided until now. The
Bolivian Workers Central of mine worker Jaime Solares, Felipe Quispe’s
Bolivian Workers Confederation, the coca growers federations and Movement
Towards Socialism (MAS) led by Evo Morales, Coordination for the Defense of Gas,
Federation of Neighborhood Boards of El Alto, and many other organizations of
peasants, the landless, students, teachers, unemployed and small businesses
joined to sign a “Revolutionary Pact of Unity.”
The new front
will meet to deepen the struggle for dignity and sovereignty that they had been
carrying on as independent entities.
URUGUAY
Victory of left-center
front
On March 1 Uruguay inaugurated a new president, Dr. Tabaré
Vázquez, an oncologist from a poor family, born in the working-class
barrio of La Teja.
Vázquez is the first Uruguayan president from
the left. He won the elections through a Broad Front representing the various
progressive forces, from the Tupamaro guerrillas to some of the left-center
parties.
His victory put an end to a succession of administrations of the
conservative par ties of Blancos (Whites) and Colorados (Reds).
Coming in
the wake of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Vázquez’s election has
created high expectations. On March 1 people greeted each other with salutations
of “Happy New Year.” They are looking forward to the possibility of
a Uruguay whose youth, long forced to emigrate in search of jobs, might now have
reason to come back and help create a new country.
Tabaré and
Uruguay face a very difficult road ahead, with high poverty, unemployment and a
dwindling economy. Extra ordinary measures are needed to raise up the masses and
the country without betraying the population who put their trust in a
progressive candidate. At the same time, the constant threat of imperialist
intervention must be kept at bay.
COLOMBIA
Regime extradites
revolutionaries to U.S.
The government of President Álvaro
Uribe Vélez has complied with Wash ington’s demands that it
extradite revolutionaries from Colombia to be tried in U.S. courts. This tactic
sets a dangerous precedent that goes against the international standard of
respect for national sovereignty.
Last December, Colombia extradited
revolutionary Ricardo Palmera, alias Simón Trinidad, an international
representative of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army
(FARC-EP), to the U.S.
Now Uribe plans to extradite another high-ranking
member of the same revolutionary group. This time it is a woman, known as Sonia,
who Washington wants to use as a witness against Palmera.
Sonia was taken
from El Buen Pastor women’s prison in Bogotá under heavy security
and is being kept under strict surveillance in the north of the country,
awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Both the FARC-EP and the National
Liberation Army (ELN) are popular revolutionary guerrilla organizations arising
from the extreme poverty caused by imperialism’s plunder of Colombia.
Peace- and justice-loving people all over the world should oppose this
dangerous move by the Bush administration and the Colombian regime. The FARC and
the ELN have the right to fight for the construction of a new and just
Colombia.
VENEZUELA
Coup plotters can be retried
A landmark
pronouncement by the Venezuelan Supreme Tribunal of Justice on March 11 will
allow four former military officers aligned with the organizers of the infamous
April 2002 coup against President Hugo Chávez to be retried for military
rebellion.
The pronouncement invalidated an earlier decision on Aug. 14,
2002, setting the four officers free. At that time the charges against Army Gen.
Efrain Vasquez Velasco, Air Force Gen. Pedro Pereira, Vice-Admiral Hector
Ramirez Perez and Rear Admiral Daniel Comisso Urdaneta were dismissed, prompting
continued protests from the pro-Chávez population.
The
Chávez administration viewed the earlier ruling as another assault by the
ruling-class-backed opposition. Vice President José Vicente Rangel called
it a “true assault on democratic legality, committed by a group of judges
who proceeded to embarrassingly serve interests that were contrary to
justice.”
One of the major problems affecting the Bolivarian
Revolution has been the legal impunity of the opposition. When they were
apprehended and charged for their crimes against the population and the
Bolivarian process, they were quickly acquitted, since most judges were aligned
with the anti-Chávez forces.
During 2002, half of the 22 judges on
the Supreme Tribunal of Justice were from the opposition. Two pro-Chávez
judges were inappropriately recused or removed from that decision, leading to a
vote of 11-9 in favor of dismissal of the charges against the coup plotters.
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