A few weeks ago I had made the decision to go to Bolivia for my next adventure. I didn’t really expect it would be an easy journey because with Mali transportation may prove difficult, but I felt it was an important next step. After everything kind of collapsed regarding the book and documentary, I felt a bit lost and thought perhaps seeing the final resting place of my father would help bring back some balance.
But it is not to be at least for now – Bolivia has become quite unstable with the change of presidency. After listening to an interview with him, it is not difficult to see why they wanted Evo Morales out of the way, he was determined to have independence from the USA, be self sufficient as a country. Is he corrupt? Truthfully, how would we know for sure? That Brazil and the US were the first to show support for Anez, who claimed Presidency after Morales fled Bolivia is not a good sign. Brazil President Bolsonaro has strikingly similar views as Anez, regarding the indigenous showing an incredible lack of respect for their way of life. When you read comments such as the one in the next paragraph, the mind stirs to the possibility how much easier it would be for governments to do as they please if all the annoying environmentalists weren’t lurking at every turn, willing to fight for the rights of the people and the earth. Would an environmental flag be needed if there was no harm being done? Everything always looks good “on paper” until suddenly it isn’t. It was just February this year when Brazil faced the consequences of a huge mining disaster. I wonder if more people began to wish they had waved the environmental flag before it was too late…….how quickly we forget the last disaster when money is on the table! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumadinho_dam_disaster
The Second President called on community and political leaders to support the management of legal mining and not use the “environmental flag” as a pretext to oppose this activity.
Excerpt from the above article: In Fruta del Norte a total investment of USD 2,700 million is projected and it is expected to generate 7,887 million in exports until 2034.
The State will receive USD 1,961 million for taxes, payment of patents, profits and royalties. This is the second large-scale mining project that begins to produce.
The first was Mirador, which is made of copper and is in charge of Ecuacorriente. The first 392 tons of copper concentrate from this mine were transported between Tuesday and Wednesday of this week to the port of Guayaquil.
In total, the first export will be 19 384 tons, which will take place in the coming days and will be destined for China. According to the Vice President of the Republic, the operation of the Fruta del Norte and Mirador projects represents 1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Ecuador.
A Bolivian official said a United Nations envoy is urging the government of the Andean country’s interim president and supporters of self-exiled leader Evo Morales to begin talks on resolving a crisis that has already claimed 23 lives and is causing food shortages.
The official said on Sunday that negotiations proposed by Jean Arnault would involve legislators from Morales’ party, mobilised groups and representatives of interim leader Jeanine Anez and be mediated by the UN and Roman Catholic Church.
More:
- Bolivia’s Morales calls for new elections after OAS audit
- Bolivia’s Morales ‘ready to return’, as US backs his rival Anez
- Bolivia’s Evo Morales resigns: What prompted it and what’s next?
Bolivia remains in limbo one week after Morales, a charismatic left-wing and former coca farmer, resigned over allegations of vote tampering. legislators have yet to agree on a date for new elections.
Morales fled to Mexico on Tuesday, but his supporters from largely coca-farming regions of the Andean nation have since taken to the streets, sometimes armed with homemade bazookas, handguns and grenades, barricading roads and skirmishing with security forces.
| Thousands of Bolivians march over disputed election |
Some have demanded the resignation of Anez, a former conservative lawmaker, who has already begun to revise Morales-era policies even as she says she wants to negotiate with the opposition.
Morales’ supporters have given her a deadline of midnight on Monday to step down and have called for elections in 90 days.
Peter Siavelis, the chair of political science at Wake Forest University in the United States, told Al Jazeera that Anez’s actions had only worsened the country’s already deep divisions.
“Anez has come to power at a moment when what Bolivia needs is reconciliation, negotiation and work between the two sides,” Siavelis told Al Jazeera from New York. “But what she’s done is make a series of symbolic actions that have irritated the rift, made divisions deeper and put people hard and fast into their positions.”
A woman mourns by the coffin of a supporter of Bolivian ex-President Evo Morales killed during clashes with the police in Sacaba, Cochabamba [AFP]
Long queues
Bolivians waited in long queues on the streets of La Paz on Sunday for chicken, eggs and cooking fuel as the highway blockades isolated cities from lowland farms.
Presidency minister Jerjes Justiniano told reporters the Anez government had established an “air bridge” to supply La Paz, using planes to bypass the barricades. He said officials hoped to do the same with other cities cut off from supplies.
Because of the roadblocks, fuel has become scarce and many in the poorer neighbourhoods of La Paz have been forced to cook with firewood.
“I hope things calm down,” said Josue Pillco, a construction worker from a working-class district of the capital. “We’re not getting any food or gasoline.”
| TALK TO AL JAZEERA – Evo Morales: A Bolivian idol (25:01) |
Community leaders aligned with Morales in El Alto on Sunday were calling for a general strike on Monday raising the spectre of further supply shortfalls in the nearby capital.
Anez has agreed to new elections but also moved quickly to implement changes in policy at home and abroad.
On Friday, Bolivia asked Venezuelan officials under the country’s left-wing leader Nicolas Maduro to leave the country. Anez’s government also accused Cuba, once a close ally, of stoking unrest following Morales’ resignation.
The Anez administration on Sunday also renamed the state newspaper “Bolivia.” Morales had called it “Change.”
Violent protests on Friday around Cochabamba, a coca-growing region and stronghold of Morales’ supporters, left at least nine people dead, officials said.
The local ombudsman in the region said police used live ammunition against protesters, prompting allegations of human rights abuses by security forces under Anez.
She has blamed Morales for stoking violence from abroad and has said her government wishes to hold elections and meet the opposition to halt protests.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
Sometimes when in conversation with others regarding the mining, the US, and all the problems associated with the countries of South America (and elsewhere), I get a strange sensation. I said to a friend one day, “I wonder what would happen if you could rise above all these problems to be able to see the way they may all be connected. Like seeing invisible ink slowly becoming visible on a map as the lines join up from one country to the next. The USA seems always to be part of any conversation involving every problem, as if they are at the centre of the wheel and the lines all reach out from there. It’s kind of eerie to think perhaps everything happening today was a plan from maybe as far back as the 60’s when the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King we’re killed, in one aspect or another. We’ve just been going merrily along thinking with every change in government (anywhere in the world) that things will improve – just give it time. I believe this is a misconception; the years are just slipping by, and our quality of life with them.
It seems as though another strike is imminent in Ecuador as there continues to be no unanimously agreed upon policies put forth to replace the income which would have been gained from the removal of the gas subsidies. Things are far from settled, and I wonder where we are going. If there is another strike, I fear 10 or 12 days will only be the beginning. That we are here at all is due to a lack of respect for the people who created the road blocks the last time. As the indigenous leader Jamie Vargas said “If my people make a mistake, they must correct it. Moreno has made a mistake, therefore he must correct it”. There has been a comment they will form their own army if the President does not take them seriously, an indication of their complete frustration at not being heard. We have seen they are not afraid to stand against their government, so I feel we must be prepared for anything.
The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) is a national organization that groups the different indigenous nationalities, peoples, communities, centers and associations of Ecuador. The principal objectives of the CONAIE are:
- Fortify the indigenous peoples and nationalities in the country;
- Defend the lands, indigenous territories and natural resources;
- Strengthen intercultural and bilingual education;
- Fight against colonialism and neo-colonialism (including transnational business in indigenous territories);
- Promote community self-legislation and develop a sense of broad-scale community pride;
- Strengthen community identity and forms of social organization;
- Promote the implementation of Collective Rights by indigenous peoples and nationalities as recognized in the Ecuadorian Constitution;
- Build an intercultural society;
- Establish a participatory democracy with decentralized power and economic resources and promote solidarity and equality;
- Gain equality and justice for indigenous peoples and nationalities and in society as a whole;
- Maintain relationships among international indigenous nationalities with the objective of creating an alternative communication between indigenous communities and other social sectors that are dedicated to the cause.