Back in 2007 Karen and I were in Bolivia for a few weeks and met Jessica, a good friend of hers who, during the evening, gave us a miniature passport and money – euros, and dollars – that, she said, would bring us luck and become a reality. ‘Who knows’, she said, ‘you might even be able to use your passport to come back to Bolivia’.
Two months later Karen was applying for a job in Bolivia that she eventually got. So this is how I became interested in ekeko, alasitas and illa. The first is a little person who, it is said, during the Inca empire, acted as some form of adviser whom people would ask for help. With the arrival of the Spanish empire, the real figure disappeared but small figurines of ekeko became common and people would revere these.
Alasitas, (to buy, in Aymara) is now the name given to the festival that every year begins on 24th January. In it, people buy miniature models of all those objects of desire – a house, a car, money, food, certificates of good health and so on. So last Saturday Karen and I went to buy all those things that we think we need and that we want to wish on friends such as a black cockerel for those looking for a lover and a little frog for those who need better luck. The idea is that you get those object blessed through a traditional ch’alla - just like the ch’alla we had for the flat back in July - and then give them to your friends at midday.
Te idea is that the ‘illa’ or spirit of the object of desire represented in the miniature will become a reality during the year for the person who receives it. Not bad eh? Now, what did we get this year???
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Revolution in democracy: Bolivia says yes to new constitution
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The approval through referendum of Bolivia’s new constitutional text marks a new era in Latin American politics and in Bolivia’s history towards a more just future. However, the battle for people’s control of their destiny is not over yet.
Kepa Artaraz
Today, 25th January 2009, the people of Bolivia went to the polls for the third time in three years. The first delivered a historic victory for Evo Morales – the first president of indigenous origin heading the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) – in December 2005. This demand of the Bolivian people for change was followed by the only and most consistent show of support for a president in the republican history of the country when he received a 67 per cent endorsement in a recall referendum celebrated in August 2008. Today’s vote was to approve or reject a new constitutional text that has been heralded as the basis on which to re-found Bolivia and ‘decolonise’ a country victim of five centuries of oppression.
As expected, at the time of writing, exit polls suggest that the constitution received the broad support of the people with more than 60 per cent of the votes. Now Bolivia begins a process of implementation of the new constitutional text that includes, amongst other things, proposals to end centuries of oppression and exclusion suffered by the indigenous majority. Indeed, today’s referendum can be seen as the end of a process of political mobilisation began by lowland indigenous Bolivians as far back as 1990 to demand their recognition and inclusion in a society traditionally led by urbanites of European extraction.
But the path to recognition of this forgotten majority has not been easy. Firstly, it required their political participation en mass, followed by their takeover of the institutions of government – MAS has a comfortable majority in congress – to deliver the 2005 presidential seat to one of their own. Secondly, it required a strong dose of patience and sang froid during the myriad violent attempts to destabilise the country led by a reactionary opposition and supported by the US embassy. Along the way lie scattered the obstacles placed in the path of this new constitution, including the ingenuity of those who three years ago thought this process would be easy, the lost support of key social groups, especially in the lowlands of Bolivia, and the bodies of dozens of dead supporters of Evo Morales.
A democratic process
If the new politics inaugurated in January 2006 with the swearing in of president Morales was the result of social movement demands mobilised to take control of state institutions that had repeatedly failed the country throughout its history, the biggest challenge that lay ahead at that point was to rewrite the basic societal rules for the re-foundation of a country with chronic problems: weak institutions mired in political corruption; the political and economic domination of a small oligarchic groups; and an excluded and poor indigenous majority.
The response from the new government was to deepen the process began to empower a traditionally disempowered majority and help it take ownership of the major national debates, building democracy through participation in order to deliver sorely needed structural changes rather than cosmetic ones.
Thus the process of writing this constitution has included far reaching participation levels and the provision of deliberative spaces for every section of society, making it a profoundly democratic exercise. It couldn’t be otherwise for, if the ultimate aim was to achieve a democratic society, the means to achieve this goal had to be as democratic as possible.
For this, members of every sector of society were elected through universal suffrage to represent their social movements, communities and parties. The result was that 255 elected members gathered in Sucre between August 2006 and December 2007 to put into practice the best example yet of deliberative democracy and to reach a consensus on the vision of society they dreamed of. This included men and women, city dwellers and peasants, poor and middle classes, professionals and workers, whites and representatives of the indigenous majority. The result of their discussions was, in spite of a small intransigent right’s every attempt to boycott and derail the process, a collective vision of the future Bolivia that includes everyone.
A revolutionary content?
It seems strange, after considering the new constitutional text, that the Morales administration is almost universally derided in the mass media as ‘revolutionary’ and ‘socialist’. The constitution certainly does not include the nationalisation of all private property or the authoritarian imposition of single party rule, as the recalcitrant right and sectors of the Catholic Church would make us believe. In many respects, the new text is rather moderate, nuanced, respectful of the country’s diversity, and based on the consensual discussion and deliberation described above. Three main features characterise the new Bolivian constitution.
The first is the recognition of the country’s diversity and its description as plurinational. What this means is that at last, the country’s indigenous majority is recognised in this constitution in its entire diversity. With this, the country sheds both the openly excluding nature of its foundation in 1825 and the closet racism that fed the 1952 revolution. According to the latter, all Bolivians were the same in theory, although the practice of this official view remained of course the exclusion, poverty and marginalisation of the indigenous peoples.
The new constitution enshrines at last the principle of equality in diversity. This means equality of rights and duties to the country but also the acknowledgement and acceptance that, within Bolivia, a diversity of languages, cultures, belief systems and customs coexist.
The second feature of the new constitution is the creation of new institutions, powers and form of the state. The three main powers that characterise the state now – the executive, legislative and judiciary – remain although the latter is expected to undergo serious reform. However, the new constitution declares the existence of a fourth power, constituted by ‘the people’, who are ultimately sovereign, and the creation of institutional mechanisms so that ‘the people’ can exercise control of the previous three powers.
In addition to this, the traditionally centralised nature of the Bolivian state will no longer be apparent. The new constitution provides for a profound decentralisation of the state into autonomous regions and municipalities. It also permits the autonomic government of indigenous communities with control of their territories and the possibility to practice their customs, laws and forms of justice.
The third main feature is the universalisation of basic rights for all. For the first time in the history of a country infamous for the brutality of the socioeconomic divisions that coexist within it, the state undertakes the responsibility to provide basic health care and education for all, a dignified retirement through the implementation of a universal pension, and guarantees the access of all Bolivians to safe water, described for the first time as a basic human right. The provision of basic health care to all might sound heretical to audiences in certain parts of the world but many of these achievements are the basis on which European countries were rebuilt after WWII and are basic to their welfare states.
The challenges ahead
Many are the challenges that lie ahead in order to bring to fruition the aspirations of social justice and wellbeing – literally translated as ‘living well’ in Bolivian political parlance – that underpin the new constitution.
For the last two years opposition sectors have tried everything possible to prevent the celebration of this referendum, boycotting the constitutional assembly, resorting to violence at various points, and claiming fraudulent practices on the part of the government.
This minority opposition in parliament, backed by important agro-industrial interests in the east and south of the country, will continue to place obstacles on the path of the post-referendum process that has to create the legislative framework that accompanies the new constitution. Their tactics in the short term might reflect whether the final results show a percentage of approval for the constitution that is above or below the president’s ratification figure of 67 % last August.
Final results showing landslide support for the new text might be very hard to argue against. However, any result below the 67 per cent figure might encourage the opposition to take a hard line against the legislative process forcing the celebration of earlier elections than those anticipated for December 2009. Worse still, a return to violence and greater national fragmentation can never be entirely dismissed as a real possibility in the weeks and months to come.
Preventing this is something that the international community can and must work hard to avoid – just like UNASUR did in September – supporting the democratic process that has brought the country to this point, a point of no return in the path of further equality and social justice for all Bolivians.
Friday, 23 January 2009
Gobierno boliviano nacionaliza la petrolera Chaco
Source: Agencia boliviana de informacion;
http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090123132501&l=200705030092_Una_planta_gas%EDfera_._(archivo).
Carrasco (Cochabamba), 23 ene (ABI).- El Gobierno de Evo Morales recuperó este viernes el 100 por ciento de las acciones de la petrolera Chaco, filial de la firma británica British Petroleum (BP), luego de un fracasado proceso de negociaciones para adquirir 167.271 acciones de la estadounidense Pan American Energy (PAE).
Acompañado del máximo ejecutivo de la Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), Pedro Montes; el comandante de las Fuerzas Armadas, vicealmirante José Luis Cabas, ministros de Estado, dirigentes de los movimientos sociales, el Jefe de Estado dijo que cumple el Decreto Supremo 28701 Héroes del Chaco, por el cual se deben recuperar todas las empresas del sector hidrocarburos.
"Pido a los trabajadores y técnicos a colaborar con la recuperación de las empresas estatales (…) Nuestras empresas recuperadas no pueden ser botín político de ningún partido ni Gobierno", afirmó al momento de suscribir el Decreto Supremo 29888 a las 10.55 que daba por recuperado la que perteneció al Estado boliviano.
A las 09.45, el presidente de la República, Evo Morales Ayma, junto a sus ministros y dirigentes de movimientos sociales llegaron a la planta de Carrasco, en la localidad Entre Ríos (Cochabamba), para iniciar una inspección y reunirse con los trabajadores.
La recuperación de las acciones de la empresa Chaco está establecida en el Decreto Supremo 28701 Héroes del Chaco, por el cual se deben recuperar todas las empresas del sector hidrocarburos.
Con al recuperación de esas acciones, YPFB totalizará 8.049.661 acciones que corresponden al 50 por ciento más una acción, que es la mínima participación que instruye el Decreto Supremo 28701, tomando en cuenta que la estatal petrolera en la actualidad tiene 7.882.390 acciones.
La empresa petrolera Chaco es una de las principales productoras de Gas Licuado de Petróleo (GLP), y es también una de las principales abastecedoras de gasolinas y diesel.
CONTINUARÁ NACIONALIZACIÓN
El Mandatario dijo que con la recuperación de esta empresa, el Ejecutivo está consolidando el proceso de la recuperación de las empresas estatales, las mismas que fueron entregadas con política denominada de Capitalización y privatización de los gobierno de Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, Jaime Paz Zamora, Hugo Banzer y Jorge Tuto Quiroga.
Morales, en su discurso, anunció que su gestión continuará con el proceso de recuperación de empresas estatales y recursos naturales para el pueblo boliviano.
Agradeció el apoyo de la COB, FFAA, indígenas, petroleros, trabajadores para seguir recuperando las empresas que pertenecieron al Estado boliviano.
SECTORES SOCIALES
A su turno el ejecutivo del a COB, Pedro Montes, reconoció el esfuerzo y compromiso del Mandatario por recuperar de las transnacionales los que perteneció al pueblo.
"El mejor homenaje para el país y para los que entregaron su vida en las luchas sociales es esta recuperación de lo que nos pertenece (…) Evo Morales no está solo porque estamos acompañando todos los trabajadores", aseveró.
A su turno el ejecutivo de los petroleros, José Domingo Vásquez, se comprometió a respaldar el proceso de nacionalización de los hidrocarburos. "Seguiremos acompañando al gobierno y haremos de la Patria digna".
Por su lado de la Central Indígenas de oriente Boliviano (CIDOB), Adolfo Chávez, dijo que estas acciones debieron realizar otros gobiernos, como lo hace el de Evo Morales.
Rq ABI
Tags: Energy | World | petroleum | British | American | Morales | patria | gobierno | digna | petrolera | Chaco | sociales | estadounidense | movimientos | recuperar | hidrocarburos
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
"No seas complice del pecado": La derecha y sus ataques a la nueva constitucion boliviana
Resulta que Dios ha tomado cartas en el asunto de la nueva constitución boliviana y por tanto ha decidido (o eso nos dicen) apoyar a los ricos fariseos racistas que se pasan la vida rezando en misa mientras roban del estado, matan a indígenas y boicotean todo intento de construir una sociedad un poquito más justa.
La clara división que existe entre las dos posiciones en relación a la nueva constitución se puede observar en los anuncios de televisión y radio que nos están haciendo sufrir a diario.
Por una parte, tenemos anuncios ‘oficialistas’ que están dominados por intentos pedagógicos de explicar el contenido del nuevo texto constitucional. Podemos seguir mandando a nuestros hijos a la escuela privada? Si, por supuesto. Está garantizada la propiedad privada? Si, por su puesto. Está garantizada la libertad de culto? Si, por supuesto.
Escucha
http://www.box.net/shared/sqzemsgcev
Todas estas preguntas emergen por la oleada de rumores, mentiras y calumnias que la derecha dispersa diariamente y ha estado dispersando en las ultimas semanas sobre ministros del MAS en general (acusados de asesinato y contrabando casi a diario) y sobre el nuevo texto constitucional en particular.
Siempre es fácil sembrar la duda y crear una visión negativa del contrincante como vimos durante la campaña presidencial en Estados Unidos, donde se intentó acusar al actual presidente de ser terrorista (por alusión) porque el apellido Obama suena un poquito como Osama (Bin Laden).
Bueno, pues aquí en Bolivia las calumnias dicen que esta nueva constitución es:
Una constitución escrita por Hugo Chávez
Impuesta por un MAS autoritario
De ideología comunista (lo cual yo no consideraría calumnia pero lo cierto es que no es verdad)
Pero las calumnias más grandes han venido de aquella oleada de anuncios televisivos que acusan al nuevo texto de ser anti-Dios porque legaliza el aborto y el matrimonio entre homosexuales (no lo hace por cierto).
NO SEAS COMPLICE DEL PECADO...ELIGE A DIOS...VOTA NO, dicen los muy descarados.
Escucha
http://www.box.net/shared/8vsre69r2k
Suficiente como para votar si, verdad?
La clara división que existe entre las dos posiciones en relación a la nueva constitución se puede observar en los anuncios de televisión y radio que nos están haciendo sufrir a diario.
Por una parte, tenemos anuncios ‘oficialistas’ que están dominados por intentos pedagógicos de explicar el contenido del nuevo texto constitucional. Podemos seguir mandando a nuestros hijos a la escuela privada? Si, por supuesto. Está garantizada la propiedad privada? Si, por su puesto. Está garantizada la libertad de culto? Si, por supuesto.
Escucha
http://www.box.net/shared/sqzemsgcev
Todas estas preguntas emergen por la oleada de rumores, mentiras y calumnias que la derecha dispersa diariamente y ha estado dispersando en las ultimas semanas sobre ministros del MAS en general (acusados de asesinato y contrabando casi a diario) y sobre el nuevo texto constitucional en particular.
Siempre es fácil sembrar la duda y crear una visión negativa del contrincante como vimos durante la campaña presidencial en Estados Unidos, donde se intentó acusar al actual presidente de ser terrorista (por alusión) porque el apellido Obama suena un poquito como Osama (Bin Laden).
Bueno, pues aquí en Bolivia las calumnias dicen que esta nueva constitución es:
Una constitución escrita por Hugo Chávez
Impuesta por un MAS autoritario
De ideología comunista (lo cual yo no consideraría calumnia pero lo cierto es que no es verdad)
Pero las calumnias más grandes han venido de aquella oleada de anuncios televisivos que acusan al nuevo texto de ser anti-Dios porque legaliza el aborto y el matrimonio entre homosexuales (no lo hace por cierto).
NO SEAS COMPLICE DEL PECADO...ELIGE A DIOS...VOTA NO, dicen los muy descarados.
Escucha
http://www.box.net/shared/8vsre69r2k
Suficiente como para votar si, verdad?
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
A new dawn for US-Latin American relations
When later on today Barack Obama is sworn in, a new era of hope will be starting for relations between the two giants of the Americas.
Kepa Artaraz
It is difficult to feel sorry for George W. Bush. He leaves the White House with the lowest approval ratings of any president in the US after eight disastrous years of illegal wars, illegal detention camps, illegal interrogation techniques and the biggest economic crisis in 70 years.
It is difficult too to avoid thinking ‘I told you so’ like millions of people did when Bush was, after much debate and voting irregularities in his brother’s state, appointed by his father’s friends in an election he did not win. One wonders how different the world would be had Al Gore been sworn in as president of the United States in January 2001.
Then again, perhaps a second Bush was what was needed for Americans to wake up to the importance of electing a good leader. Could anyone imagine McCain and Palin on their way to the White House today? Please God no…
One of the things, perhaps not their biggest or most important in the president’s in tray will be the country’s relations with Latin America. They have suffered enormously under a Bush administration more interested in the Middle East and on the need to find allies for the ‘war on terror’.
The result has been a Latin America that, with the exception of Colombia and Peru, is seeking to create a more united front and one that is less dependent on its northern neighbour’s demands. Within it, a number of countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia are openly challenging US foreign policy.
So it is important that the new American administration works at normalising relations as soon as possible. Here, the first salvo has already been fired by Lula, senior member of the Latin American club of countries, asking the US to lift its illegal embargo to Cuba as a first step in this process.
Although Hilary Clinton has already said that the new administration will reverse some of the penalties imposed by Bush on travel to the island for Cuban Americans, nobody expects relations to be normalised straight away.
For Bolivia, relations with the US couldn’t be worse. Not only was the US Ambassador Philip Goldberg expelled in September for fomenting the violent uprising of opposition prefects, Bolivia also expelled the DEA from the country. In turn, the US expelled the Bolivian ambassador in Washington and has recently cancelled, for Bolivia only, the preferential trade status it maintains with the Andean nations.
This week Bolivia has announced that the country is prepared to normalise relations with the US in a framework of mutual respect. Will Hillary Clinton be up to it? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Tags: Bush | president | World | illegal | House | September | Latin America | Crisis | Relations | Embargo | Obama | DETENTION | white | lift | CAMPS | WARS | ECONOMIC | cuban | philip | AMBASSADOR | bolivian | EXPELLED | goldberg | Andean | Barack | ATPDEA | Obama Inauguration | Latin Amerca-US
The beginning of hope: A new dawn for US-Latin American relations
When later on today Barack Obama is sworn in, a new era of hope will be starting for relations between the two giants of the Americas.
Kepa Artaraz
It is difficult to feel sorry for George W. Bush. He leaves the White House with the lowest approval ratings of any president in the US after eight disastrous years of illegal wars, illegal detention camps, illegal interrogation techniques and the biggest economic crisis in 70 years.
It is difficult too to avoid thinking ‘I told you so’ like millions of people did when Bush was, after much debate and voting irregularities in his brother’s state, appointed by his father’s friends in an election he did not win. One wonders how different the world would be had Al Gore been sworn in as president of the United States in January 2001.
Then again, perhaps a second Bush was what was needed for Americans to wake up to the importance of electing a good leader. Could anyone imagine McCain and Palin on their way to the White House today? Please God no…
One of the things, perhaps not their biggest or most important in the president’s in tray will be the country’s relations with Latin America. They have suffered enormously under a Bush administration more interested in the Middle East and on the need to find allies for the ‘war on terror’.
The result has been a Latin America that, with the exception of Colombia and Peru, is seeking to create a more united front and one that is less dependent on its northern neighbour’s demands. Within it, a number of countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia are openly challenging US foreign policy.
So it is important that the new American administration works at normalising relations as soon as possible. Here, the first salvo has already been fired by Lula, senior member of the Latin American club of countries, asking the US to lift its illegal embargo to Cuba as a first step in this process.
Although Hilary Clinton has already said that the new administration will reverse some of the penalties imposed by Bush on travel to the island for Cuban Americans, nobody expects relations to be normalised straight away.
For Bolivia, relations with the US couldn’t be worse. Not only was the US Ambassador Philip Goldberg expelled in September for fomenting the violent uprising of opposition prefects, Bolivia also expelled the DEA from the country. In turn, the US expelled the Bolivian ambassador in Washington and has recently cancelled, for Bolivia only, the preferential trade status it maintains with the Andean nations.
This week Bolivia has announced that the country is prepared to normalise relations with the US in a framework of mutual respect. Will Hillary Clinton be up to it? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Kepa Artaraz
It is difficult to feel sorry for George W. Bush. He leaves the White House with the lowest approval ratings of any president in the US after eight disastrous years of illegal wars, illegal detention camps, illegal interrogation techniques and the biggest economic crisis in 70 years.
It is difficult too to avoid thinking ‘I told you so’ like millions of people did when Bush was, after much debate and voting irregularities in his brother’s state, appointed by his father’s friends in an election he did not win. One wonders how different the world would be had Al Gore been sworn in as president of the United States in January 2001.
Then again, perhaps a second Bush was what was needed for Americans to wake up to the importance of electing a good leader. Could anyone imagine McCain and Palin on their way to the White House today? Please God no…
One of the things, perhaps not their biggest or most important in the president’s in tray will be the country’s relations with Latin America. They have suffered enormously under a Bush administration more interested in the Middle East and on the need to find allies for the ‘war on terror’.
The result has been a Latin America that, with the exception of Colombia and Peru, is seeking to create a more united front and one that is less dependent on its northern neighbour’s demands. Within it, a number of countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia are openly challenging US foreign policy.
So it is important that the new American administration works at normalising relations as soon as possible. Here, the first salvo has already been fired by Lula, senior member of the Latin American club of countries, asking the US to lift its illegal embargo to Cuba as a first step in this process.
Although Hilary Clinton has already said that the new administration will reverse some of the penalties imposed by Bush on travel to the island for Cuban Americans, nobody expects relations to be normalised straight away.
For Bolivia, relations with the US couldn’t be worse. Not only was the US Ambassador Philip Goldberg expelled in September for fomenting the violent uprising of opposition prefects, Bolivia also expelled the DEA from the country. In turn, the US expelled the Bolivian ambassador in Washington and has recently cancelled, for Bolivia only, the preferential trade status it maintains with the Andean nations.
This week Bolivia has announced that the country is prepared to normalise relations with the US in a framework of mutual respect. Will Hillary Clinton be up to it? I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Sunday, 18 January 2009
La oposición apela a las mentiras en campaña por el No a la nueva CPE
Agencia Boliviana de Informacion: http://abi.bo/
La Paz, 17 ene (ABI).- Una serie de mentiras usan los partidos, los comités cívicos y los prefectos de la oposición agrupados en el Consejo Nacional Democrático (Conalde), para hacer campaña por el No a la nueva Constitución Política del Estado (CPE) que será sometida a referendo el 25 de enero.
Con diferentes afiches y spots pretenden llamar la atención de la ciudadanía con frases en las que afirman que el nuevo texto constitucional atenta contra los principios cristianos y desafía a Dios o que en algún momento el Estado se adueñará de la propiedad privada.
El presidente Evo Morales denunció todas estas mentiras a las que llamó “calumnias” para ganar militantes con la intención de que la ciudadanía rechace la nueva carta constitucional.
En el asunto referido a Dios por ejemplo, el vicepresidente Álvaro García Linera explicó que en la nueva Constitución toda fe religiosa tiene igual rango, respeto y protección por parte del Estado.
"No hay una fe mejor que la otra, toda la fe religiosa tienen igual rango, igual reconocimiento, igual protección", dijo García Linera.
El artículo 4 del nuevo texto establece que “el Estado respeta y garantiza la libertad de religión y de creencias espirituales de acuerdo con sus cosmovisiones. El Estado es independiente de la religión”.
Esto quiere decir que este nuevo texto reconoce absolutamente todas las creencias y no se prohíbe ninguna religión ni se reconoce jerarquías entre ellas, por eso los católicos y los cristianos continuarán profesando su religión si votan por el SÍ este 25 de enero.
La actual Constitución sustenta a la Iglesia Católica, esto quiere decir que ésta goza de privilegios que otros grupos religiosos no los tienen.
Según el investigador jesuita, Javier Albó, la primera Constitución para Bolivia escrita por el libertador Simón Bolívar, apelaba a un estado laico es decir, no sustentaba ni hacía oficial a ninguna iglesia ni religión.
Fueron entonces los asambleístas alto peruanos quienes cambiaron ese texto y adoptaron a la Católica como la religión oficial del país, con lo cual inclusive el propio mariscal Antonio José de Sucre no estaba de acuerdo.
Otra mentira, sustentada por la oposición es que el nuevo texto constitucional supuestamente le dice sí al aborto. En ningún lugar del legajo se habla de atentar contra la vida, según el jefe de bancada del MAS en Diputados, César Navarro.
ARTICULOS DE LA NUEVA CPE
El artículo 15 señala: “Toda persona tiene derecho a la vida y a la integridad física, psicológica y sexual. Nadie será torturado, ni sufrirá tratos crueles, inhumanos, degradantes o humillantes. No existe la pena de muerte”.
El parágrafo II de este mismo artículo señala: “Todas las personas, en particular las mujeres tienen derecho a no sufrir violencia física, sexual o psicológica, tanto en la familia como en la sociedad”. ¿Dónde se menciona el aborto?
Otra gran mentira es que supuestamente la nueva Constitución hace que los hijos de cualquier persona pasen a depender del Estado. Nada más falso.
El artículo 59 en su parágrafo II señala que “toda niña, niño y adolescente tiene derecho a vivir y a crecer en el seno de su familia de origen o adoptiva. Cuando ello no sea posible, o sea contrario a su interés superior tendrá derecho a una familia sustituta de conformidad con la ley”.
El artículo 60, además, establece: “Es deber del Estado, la sociedad y la familia garantizar la prioridad del interés superior de la niña, niño y adolescente que comprende la preeminencia de sus derechos, la primacía en recibir protección y socorro en cualquier circunstancia…”.
El nuevo texto también “prohíbe y sanciona toda forma de violencia contra las niñas, niños y adolescentes, tanto en la familia como en la sociedad”. Con todo esto ¿dónde está lo que la oposición afirma sobre los hijos? ¿En qué lugar se afirma que éstos son del Estado?
En cuanto a la propiedad privada, el artículo 56, parágrafo I señala que “toda persona tiene derecho a la propiedad privada, individual o colectiva siempre que esta cumpla una función social”.
El parágrafo II de este mismo artículo dice: “Se garantiza la propiedad privada siempre que el uso que se haga de ella no sea perjudicial al interés colectivo”. Inmediatamente el parágrafo III señala: “se garantiza el derecho a la sucesión hereditaria”.
Jbr/Rq ABI
La Paz, 17 ene (ABI).- Una serie de mentiras usan los partidos, los comités cívicos y los prefectos de la oposición agrupados en el Consejo Nacional Democrático (Conalde), para hacer campaña por el No a la nueva Constitución Política del Estado (CPE) que será sometida a referendo el 25 de enero.
Con diferentes afiches y spots pretenden llamar la atención de la ciudadanía con frases en las que afirman que el nuevo texto constitucional atenta contra los principios cristianos y desafía a Dios o que en algún momento el Estado se adueñará de la propiedad privada.
El presidente Evo Morales denunció todas estas mentiras a las que llamó “calumnias” para ganar militantes con la intención de que la ciudadanía rechace la nueva carta constitucional.
En el asunto referido a Dios por ejemplo, el vicepresidente Álvaro García Linera explicó que en la nueva Constitución toda fe religiosa tiene igual rango, respeto y protección por parte del Estado.
"No hay una fe mejor que la otra, toda la fe religiosa tienen igual rango, igual reconocimiento, igual protección", dijo García Linera.
El artículo 4 del nuevo texto establece que “el Estado respeta y garantiza la libertad de religión y de creencias espirituales de acuerdo con sus cosmovisiones. El Estado es independiente de la religión”.
Esto quiere decir que este nuevo texto reconoce absolutamente todas las creencias y no se prohíbe ninguna religión ni se reconoce jerarquías entre ellas, por eso los católicos y los cristianos continuarán profesando su religión si votan por el SÍ este 25 de enero.
La actual Constitución sustenta a la Iglesia Católica, esto quiere decir que ésta goza de privilegios que otros grupos religiosos no los tienen.
Según el investigador jesuita, Javier Albó, la primera Constitución para Bolivia escrita por el libertador Simón Bolívar, apelaba a un estado laico es decir, no sustentaba ni hacía oficial a ninguna iglesia ni religión.
Fueron entonces los asambleístas alto peruanos quienes cambiaron ese texto y adoptaron a la Católica como la religión oficial del país, con lo cual inclusive el propio mariscal Antonio José de Sucre no estaba de acuerdo.
Otra mentira, sustentada por la oposición es que el nuevo texto constitucional supuestamente le dice sí al aborto. En ningún lugar del legajo se habla de atentar contra la vida, según el jefe de bancada del MAS en Diputados, César Navarro.
ARTICULOS DE LA NUEVA CPE
El artículo 15 señala: “Toda persona tiene derecho a la vida y a la integridad física, psicológica y sexual. Nadie será torturado, ni sufrirá tratos crueles, inhumanos, degradantes o humillantes. No existe la pena de muerte”.
El parágrafo II de este mismo artículo señala: “Todas las personas, en particular las mujeres tienen derecho a no sufrir violencia física, sexual o psicológica, tanto en la familia como en la sociedad”. ¿Dónde se menciona el aborto?
Otra gran mentira es que supuestamente la nueva Constitución hace que los hijos de cualquier persona pasen a depender del Estado. Nada más falso.
El artículo 59 en su parágrafo II señala que “toda niña, niño y adolescente tiene derecho a vivir y a crecer en el seno de su familia de origen o adoptiva. Cuando ello no sea posible, o sea contrario a su interés superior tendrá derecho a una familia sustituta de conformidad con la ley”.
El artículo 60, además, establece: “Es deber del Estado, la sociedad y la familia garantizar la prioridad del interés superior de la niña, niño y adolescente que comprende la preeminencia de sus derechos, la primacía en recibir protección y socorro en cualquier circunstancia…”.
El nuevo texto también “prohíbe y sanciona toda forma de violencia contra las niñas, niños y adolescentes, tanto en la familia como en la sociedad”. Con todo esto ¿dónde está lo que la oposición afirma sobre los hijos? ¿En qué lugar se afirma que éstos son del Estado?
En cuanto a la propiedad privada, el artículo 56, parágrafo I señala que “toda persona tiene derecho a la propiedad privada, individual o colectiva siempre que esta cumpla una función social”.
El parágrafo II de este mismo artículo dice: “Se garantiza la propiedad privada siempre que el uso que se haga de ella no sea perjudicial al interés colectivo”. Inmediatamente el parágrafo III señala: “se garantiza el derecho a la sucesión hereditaria”.
Jbr/Rq ABI
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Breaking news: Bolivia breaks diplomatic relations with Israel
Wednesday 14th January, 12:15 pm
After two weeks of official silence, the government of Bolivia has, today, announced the break-up of diplomatic relations with Israel for what it qualifies as genocide against the captive population of Gaza. In this way, it becomes the second country in Latin America, after Venezuela, to denounce Israel’s military actions in Gaza and take diplomatic measures.
You can read more on this on:
http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090114115015&l=200901080043_Los_ni%F1os_en_Gaza_las_v%EDctimas_inocentes_de_los_ataques_de_Israel._(archivo).
Anti corruption law halted by Bolivian senate
They say that Bolivia is one of the most corrupt nations in the world and that corruption permeates every aspect of society, including significantly every layer of state institutions.
Listening to Rafael Puente, former prefect of Cochabamba, speak on TV last night about the judiciary, he repeated an often quoted saying in Bolivia with more than a grain of truth that goes like this: ‘Why bother hiring a good team of lawyers when it is just as easy to buy the judge?’
On almost every aspect of the bureaucratic machinery one is expected to pay ‘facilitation fees’ that ensure that a complex and lengthy bureaucratic procedure is expeditiously and favourably dealt with. I know because my wife’s residency application also included a couple of notes between the pages of her passport.
Bolivians laugh at the state of their country. Unfortunately the issue is no laughing matter and the current MAS government has done more than most to eradicate these deeply entrenched practices. According to Transparency International, although Bolivia has made improvements in the last few years, it still occupies position 105 out the 180 countries included in the organisation’s regular survey.
The introduction of the vice-ministry for transparency and the fight against corruption by the current government has given some results without sparing MAS supporters and officials who were investigated and fired after a job-selling scandal.
But corruption in Bolivia goes much further than just the abuse of public office for individual private gain. As the case of former prefect of Pando Leopoldo Fernandez showed, he reigned over a corrupt system that controlled every economic and political aspect of Pando. So for years he benefited from the rampant contraband towards Brazil, illegally sold and appropriated land in the region, and misused the resources of the state to enrich himself and to provide jobs and buy political support from family and friends. And when the local rural community started to challenge this state of affairs, he used those same resources to massacre them.
Things don’t end here. As this case shows, those who have come out in defence of Leopoldo Fernandez are the judiciary, including members of the supreme court, oppositions politicians, and private TV channels employing family members who were in some cases being paid by resources from the prefecture.
It seems therefore that corruption not only leads to private gain but that in order to maintain it, it requires the creation and maintenance of networks of power and influence that extend far and wide and include buying up political and police support, favourable press coverage and, when everything else fails, the support of corrupt judges. So corruption not only makes you rich but gives you public status, a twisted sense of your own importance and, in Bolivia at least, impunity.
Dealing with this tangle of influences goes much further than just removing a few ‘bad apples’ in the system. The clean-up will require a branch and root level reform of sectors like the judiciary, for example, that has become the biggest ally of the rich landowning, and often corrupt, elite that dominates regional politics in the opposition strongholds of the lowlands, an area which, like Santa Cruz, is increasingly being seen as the country’s money laundering, fraud and mafia centre.
This is why yesterday’s manoeuvring of opposition senators to scupper the approbation of a law permitting the investigation of illicit fortunes was so desperate. Their boycotting tactic was to refuse the debate, simply walking out of the chamber to ensure there was no quorum and that no vote could take place. The obvious conclusion from this is that they themselves have something to hide and know they are part of wider networks of corruption.
It is important that a revolution takes place in the political culture of this country that includes the removal from high office of an entire layer of scum. That is why the stakes are high and the approval of a new constitution this month is so important. In the case of the senate, new rules ensure that the election of members to this chamber is much more representative than is now the case and will not act as a refuge to an old guard that continues to obstruct by whichever means possible, the process of change in this country.
You might say that once the opposition is decimated at the ballot box, the new asamplea plurinacional will be populated by a new generation of public servants just as subject to the temptations of power. It might be, but what the new constitution clearly states is that, from now on, members of parliament will be subject to no form of immunity from investigation and prosecution from a judiciary that is to be entirely reformed and that will introduce a system of appointment by public vote instead of appointment from political friends.
So with the new constitution, the corrupt might try but won’t be able to hide.
Listening to Rafael Puente, former prefect of Cochabamba, speak on TV last night about the judiciary, he repeated an often quoted saying in Bolivia with more than a grain of truth that goes like this: ‘Why bother hiring a good team of lawyers when it is just as easy to buy the judge?’
On almost every aspect of the bureaucratic machinery one is expected to pay ‘facilitation fees’ that ensure that a complex and lengthy bureaucratic procedure is expeditiously and favourably dealt with. I know because my wife’s residency application also included a couple of notes between the pages of her passport.
Bolivians laugh at the state of their country. Unfortunately the issue is no laughing matter and the current MAS government has done more than most to eradicate these deeply entrenched practices. According to Transparency International, although Bolivia has made improvements in the last few years, it still occupies position 105 out the 180 countries included in the organisation’s regular survey.
The introduction of the vice-ministry for transparency and the fight against corruption by the current government has given some results without sparing MAS supporters and officials who were investigated and fired after a job-selling scandal.
But corruption in Bolivia goes much further than just the abuse of public office for individual private gain. As the case of former prefect of Pando Leopoldo Fernandez showed, he reigned over a corrupt system that controlled every economic and political aspect of Pando. So for years he benefited from the rampant contraband towards Brazil, illegally sold and appropriated land in the region, and misused the resources of the state to enrich himself and to provide jobs and buy political support from family and friends. And when the local rural community started to challenge this state of affairs, he used those same resources to massacre them.
Things don’t end here. As this case shows, those who have come out in defence of Leopoldo Fernandez are the judiciary, including members of the supreme court, oppositions politicians, and private TV channels employing family members who were in some cases being paid by resources from the prefecture.
It seems therefore that corruption not only leads to private gain but that in order to maintain it, it requires the creation and maintenance of networks of power and influence that extend far and wide and include buying up political and police support, favourable press coverage and, when everything else fails, the support of corrupt judges. So corruption not only makes you rich but gives you public status, a twisted sense of your own importance and, in Bolivia at least, impunity.
Dealing with this tangle of influences goes much further than just removing a few ‘bad apples’ in the system. The clean-up will require a branch and root level reform of sectors like the judiciary, for example, that has become the biggest ally of the rich landowning, and often corrupt, elite that dominates regional politics in the opposition strongholds of the lowlands, an area which, like Santa Cruz, is increasingly being seen as the country’s money laundering, fraud and mafia centre.
This is why yesterday’s manoeuvring of opposition senators to scupper the approbation of a law permitting the investigation of illicit fortunes was so desperate. Their boycotting tactic was to refuse the debate, simply walking out of the chamber to ensure there was no quorum and that no vote could take place. The obvious conclusion from this is that they themselves have something to hide and know they are part of wider networks of corruption.
It is important that a revolution takes place in the political culture of this country that includes the removal from high office of an entire layer of scum. That is why the stakes are high and the approval of a new constitution this month is so important. In the case of the senate, new rules ensure that the election of members to this chamber is much more representative than is now the case and will not act as a refuge to an old guard that continues to obstruct by whichever means possible, the process of change in this country.
You might say that once the opposition is decimated at the ballot box, the new asamplea plurinacional will be populated by a new generation of public servants just as subject to the temptations of power. It might be, but what the new constitution clearly states is that, from now on, members of parliament will be subject to no form of immunity from investigation and prosecution from a judiciary that is to be entirely reformed and that will introduce a system of appointment by public vote instead of appointment from political friends.
So with the new constitution, the corrupt might try but won’t be able to hide.
Monday, 12 January 2009
Now even God takes sides on the constitutional referendum
You might have noticed from my previous post that I have a real problem with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church and its position with regard to the new Bolivian constitution that will be approved on 25th January. Not only has Cardinal Julio Terrazas openly confirmed himself in his opposition to this government by keeping a strict silence on the massacre perpetrated in Pando last September and by openly criticising the government on a numerous occasions.
This week, the frenetic campaign as we near the referendum on the new constitution on Sunday 25th January took a dramatic increase in its demagoguery and in the number of blatant lies and accusations that the opposition are prepared to throw in a desperate last minute attempt to derail the process of change.
The blatant lies from the extreme racist right wing are numerous. Among them we can find the following, from the most outrageous, to the ridiculous:
a)This is a constitution written by Hugo Chavez and other ‘communists’ in the government
b)The new constitution will close all private schools, forbid inheritance rights and take all land away from private ownership to put it in the hands of the state
c)The new constitution will impose indigenous forms of justice on all Bolivians
d)The new constitution is centralising and denies autonomic status to the regions
Lies, lies and more lies. Some of these appear in the spot below:
But what we have seen on Bolivian TV screens this week is a barrage of adverts from the opposition asking for a NO vote to the constitution that appeal to the divine authority of God and claim, among other things, that this constitution attempts against God, and that it makes those who approve of it accomplices of sin.
So, it appears that God has taken sides on the debate. Or, will it not be that the opposition has, in the words of MAS MP Gustavo Torrico, transformed itself from neo-fascist to neo-pharisee?
This week, the frenetic campaign as we near the referendum on the new constitution on Sunday 25th January took a dramatic increase in its demagoguery and in the number of blatant lies and accusations that the opposition are prepared to throw in a desperate last minute attempt to derail the process of change.
The blatant lies from the extreme racist right wing are numerous. Among them we can find the following, from the most outrageous, to the ridiculous:
a)This is a constitution written by Hugo Chavez and other ‘communists’ in the government
b)The new constitution will close all private schools, forbid inheritance rights and take all land away from private ownership to put it in the hands of the state
c)The new constitution will impose indigenous forms of justice on all Bolivians
d)The new constitution is centralising and denies autonomic status to the regions
Lies, lies and more lies. Some of these appear in the spot below:
But what we have seen on Bolivian TV screens this week is a barrage of adverts from the opposition asking for a NO vote to the constitution that appeal to the divine authority of God and claim, among other things, that this constitution attempts against God, and that it makes those who approve of it accomplices of sin.
So, it appears that God has taken sides on the debate. Or, will it not be that the opposition has, in the words of MAS MP Gustavo Torrico, transformed itself from neo-fascist to neo-pharisee?
Wednesday, 7 January 2009
The Bolivian Catholic church takes sides on the constitutional referendum
It is interesting to see how in Latin America, the right have traditionally accused the catholic church of ‘meddling in politics’, whenever the church has taken the ‘option for the poor’ that was popularised by those who became part of liberation theology in the late 1960s.
Of course, maintaining silence in the face of the most structurally unequal and socially unjust societies, or even in the face of some of the worst human rights abuses anywhere is seen by detractors as maintaining the status quo and tantamount with collaboration in crimes against society. So I have always felt slightly sickened by the sight of the church sanctioning and blessing the actions of murdering dictators in Argentina, or Pinochet in Chile. Not that the church’s hierarchy acted any more consequently with its own supposed beliefs during forty years of franquismo in Spain.
So we come to Bolivia and the role, political yes, that the Catholic church is playing now that the stakes are high and the new constitution is set to be approved by referendum on 25th January. We already discussed on 4th December the political side that cardinal Julio Terrazas has chosen to support in this debate between a majority advocating democratic but profound change, and those wanting to perpetuate a status quo that confers small oligarchic groups total impunity under the law and enormous, fraudulently-acquired economic power. These small groups are prepared to defend those privileges with all the violence that we saw in August-September and with all the media support that their wealth can buy.
This is why it was interesting to see how yesterday, the opposition converged in Sucre to have ‘a day of prayer’ to supposedly defend their faith. The political significance of this is evident. The opposition are trying to make political capital out of the spat that took place between the government and cardinal Terrazas in December when the latter argued that narco-terrorism was taking hold of the country. This is part of a concerted effort to paint the government as ‘anti-catholic’ and is part of a campaign of lies that puts in doubt the future role of the church in education and in society in general.
In leading this day of prayer only with members of the opposition, the church was either politically naïve (which I don’t believe for one moment) or deliberately provocative. In a country where the vast majority of Bolivians claims to be catholic, openly taking sides with a minority opposition is a way of dragging believers into defending the status quo, including the privileged political and economic position of the catholic church, which by the way, is a great land owner in a country with some of the most unequal land distributions in the world.
Not meddling in politics? The church always knows how to when it comes to defend its own interests.
See Spanish version of this article in Kaos en la red:
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/iglesia-catolica-boliviana-posiciona-ante-proximo-referendum-nueva-con-2
Of course, maintaining silence in the face of the most structurally unequal and socially unjust societies, or even in the face of some of the worst human rights abuses anywhere is seen by detractors as maintaining the status quo and tantamount with collaboration in crimes against society. So I have always felt slightly sickened by the sight of the church sanctioning and blessing the actions of murdering dictators in Argentina, or Pinochet in Chile. Not that the church’s hierarchy acted any more consequently with its own supposed beliefs during forty years of franquismo in Spain.
So we come to Bolivia and the role, political yes, that the Catholic church is playing now that the stakes are high and the new constitution is set to be approved by referendum on 25th January. We already discussed on 4th December the political side that cardinal Julio Terrazas has chosen to support in this debate between a majority advocating democratic but profound change, and those wanting to perpetuate a status quo that confers small oligarchic groups total impunity under the law and enormous, fraudulently-acquired economic power. These small groups are prepared to defend those privileges with all the violence that we saw in August-September and with all the media support that their wealth can buy.
This is why it was interesting to see how yesterday, the opposition converged in Sucre to have ‘a day of prayer’ to supposedly defend their faith. The political significance of this is evident. The opposition are trying to make political capital out of the spat that took place between the government and cardinal Terrazas in December when the latter argued that narco-terrorism was taking hold of the country. This is part of a concerted effort to paint the government as ‘anti-catholic’ and is part of a campaign of lies that puts in doubt the future role of the church in education and in society in general.
In leading this day of prayer only with members of the opposition, the church was either politically naïve (which I don’t believe for one moment) or deliberately provocative. In a country where the vast majority of Bolivians claims to be catholic, openly taking sides with a minority opposition is a way of dragging believers into defending the status quo, including the privileged political and economic position of the catholic church, which by the way, is a great land owner in a country with some of the most unequal land distributions in the world.
Not meddling in politics? The church always knows how to when it comes to defend its own interests.
See Spanish version of this article in Kaos en la red:
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/iglesia-catolica-boliviana-posiciona-ante-proximo-referendum-nueva-con-2
Monday, 5 January 2009
Iquique-Sajama: A Christmas holiday with a difference
OK, so I have been going on about Bolivia for a while but for the last ten days Karen and I left the country because after 90 days – 90 days!! – in the country I had to renew my visa. So we went to northern Chile, to Iquique, a dusty town sandwiched between the driest dessert in the world and the Pacific Ocean.
Iquique really is the pits. I mean no disrespect but I guess the town has no reason for being were it not for the fact that it was well placed to export all those minerals coming from Bolivia, especially silver during the colony, and then nitrates. This was in fact the reason why today’s northern Chile is part of the territory conquered from Bolivia after the 1879 war.
Nowadays, the town continues to play this trading role as main entrance point for all those goods Bolivia imports, including the junk cars that Japan (and Chile) do not want any longer and which so much news has generated recently (in Bolivia at least because the country has closed the doors to the importation of second hand cars older than 5 years).
Other than trade – and Iquique’s tax-free zone is the biggest in South America – Iquique has also become a Mecca for surfers all over the world who come to play with waves (and with their lives) up to ten metres high. Not that we found any of those but that’s just fine by me.
So the holiday and the sea food in Iquique were lovely as was celebrating New Year’s Eve on a beach with a temperature of 30 C talking to Chileans that keep saying 'cachai..blah blah..cachai..blah blah..cachai' (mind you, I also met an Argentinian whose every other word was 'p...uuta boludo'). I was equally perplexed on both counts. But I was glad to leave the heat behind and return to the mountains where I find myself more at home.
On the way back to La Paz, we stopped at the Sajama national park, a place of stunning beauty close to the Chilean border of Tambo quemado that includes Bolivia’s highest mountains of 6000 + metres(the picture is of volcanoes Pomarapi and Parinacota). What impressed us more is the way the park is managed by the local community which, together with the rearing of llamas and sheep, make a living and thrive in a harsh environment that does not permit agricultural practice.
So if you fancy some serious climbing on the country’s highest volcanoes or, if like us, you rather just watch the scenery and take a dip in the hot water springs, Sajama is the place for you. You can find more information on www.sajama.org and on tatasajama@hotmail.com
Next week I’ll get back to writing about the upcoming national referendum on the new constitution and other issues.
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