UN report confirms Pando massacre

In a further blow to opposition leaders who have done their utmost to discredit the UNASUR report on the Pando massacre that took place 11 September 2008, today, Canadian Denis Racicot, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Bolivia presented his report in La Paz.
In it, he confirms previous findings that what took place in Pando was a massacre and not an armed confrontation like the Bolivian opposition have tried to argue. His report says that “…the massacre of peasants constitutes a grave violation of human rights perpetrated by employees of the prefecture, Sedcam (a road maintenance service dependent on the prefecture), and members of the civic committee of Pando”.
Not good news for a former prefect – Leopoldo Fernandez – who, from prison, has recently had an unusual degree of access to UNITEL’s news programmes (telephone interviews and all) to present himself as a martyr and political prisoner of what the opposition increasingly argue is becoming a totalitarian state.
The prosecutor’s own investigation is still pending but six months after he was arrested accused of ordering the indiscriminate killing of peasants in Porvenir, it seems that international organisations are speaking with one voice regarding the less than benign political actions of the opposition. Of those, one at least (prefect of Tarija Mario Cossio) is accused both of corruption and of incitement to criminal damage during the attempted coup that took place during the days leading up to the massacre.
We will have to see what a justice system that has always pronounced itself in favour of the rich and powerful delivers this time. Given that 2009 is an electoral year, we can only expect that these political battles will be intensely fought.

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.

A final de mes (y de año) otra de resumen

Resulta que empezamos el mes con los últimos ramalazos de aquella masacre en Porvenir, Pando, ocurrida un 11 de septiembre y que la prensa internacional ha hecho muy poco por destacar. Decía en este blog el 4 de diciembre que por fin la comisión investigadora de aquellos hechos luctuosos nominada por UNASUR y liderada por el abogado argentino Rodolfo Mattarollo le hacia entrega de su informe al presidente. En el informe se decía claramente lo que todos sabíamos y la oposición boliviana de ultraderecha se negaba a reconocer. En breve, no existió enfrentamiento entre dos grupos armados sino una cacería de campesinos indígenas por parte de grupos cívicos de Pando ligados y organizados por la prefectura liderada por Leopoldo Fernández. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/newsid_7763000/7763930.stm

Es ésta la noticia del mes y del año, pues los acontecimientos de septiembre y la violencia desatada en el oriente boliviano representan sin ninguna duda el momento más oscuro de la gestión de Evo Morales y el peor ejemplo de violencia desde el octubre negro del 2003 que se denominó como ‘la guerra del gas’. La tan rumoreada guerra civil no se llegó a producir sino que la paciencia interminable del gobierno y la intervención de UNASUR, así como la expulsión del país del embajador estadounidense Philip Goldberg que alentaba a la oposición, tuvieron como resultado una pacificación rápida de las poblaciones afectadas y un fracaso rotundo de la estrategia golpista de la ultraderecha de la que aún no se ha restablecido.

La segunda noticia de importancia este mes ha sido el trabajo de la justicia boliviana que por fin ha empezado a arrestar a aquellos que instigaron y participaron en la violencia organizada para intentar derrocar al gobierno más popular de la historia republicana del país. Por fin!! Pudo decir la población mayoritariamente apoyando a los procesos legales que tienen que acabar con la impunidad en el país. Han sido más de tres meses de aquellos hechos y la idea de que Leopoldo Fernández y sus secuaces vayan a pasar la navidad en la cárcel es algo que nadie hubiera imaginado meses atrás. Por fin, grita la población, pero no la minoría opositora que aún declara a Leopoldo como un perseguido político y mártir de su causa política y que tiene la capacidad mediática de hacer resonar sus rebuznos en la mayoría de periódicos y canales de televisión que no hacen sino repetir las mismas mentiras.

Por cierto que la sarta de calumnias que se imprimen en los periódicos todos los días contra este gobierno ha sido tema de discusión este mes, no porque se reconozcan como tal, sino porque el presidente arremetió públicamente contra un periodista del periódico La Prensa cuyo titular le acusaba directamente de ser un contrabandista. Resulta que la noticia durante más de una semana ha sido que el gobierno atenta contra la libertad de prensa y tiene instintos autoritarios. Si estuvieran en Inglaterra, ese periodista estaría en la cárcel.

Las otras noticias del mes han sido más positivas. Por una parte, el día 20 de diciembre se declaraba a Bolivia país libre de analfabetismo y por otra, este mes se reunían en Bahia, Brasil, los jefes de estado de todos los países de America Latina, reunidos por primera vez a instancia latinoamericana sin Estados Unidos que siempre ha manejado el cotarro en la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA). Las resoluciones adoptadas en esta reunión también son importantes porque marcan una mayor independencia del continente en relación al imperio del norte en cuanto a sus economías (se está hablando de una integración económica con moneda única), política (la integración política de UNASUR, con base en Cochabamba es imparable) e incluso militar. Para mostrar esta nueva confianza internacional de un nuevo bloque liderado por Brasil, se decidió invitar a Cuba a formar parte del grupo de Rio, restableciendo así su condición como país de primera en la comunidad de naciones latinoamericanas, después de aquella expulsión vergonzosa de Cuba de la OEA en 1962 a instancia de los Estados Unidos.

Dicen que Porfirio Díaz, Presidente mexicano, una vez se compadeció de su país que estaba ‘…tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Unidos’. Parece ser que por fin su país, como el resto de América Latina, está dispuesto a distanciarse un poquito de su vecino del norte.
Feliz navidad. Nos vemos en el 2009.

A fin de mes, otra de resumen

Empezamos el mes con la suspensión de Bolivia de la agencia norteamericana contra la droga. Esta es una decisión tomada por Bolivia que acusa a la DEA de ser parte de un entramado norteamericano de espionaje en el país que involucra también a agencias como USAID y el ‘Peace Corps’ (cuerpo de paz) y que ya trato de apoyar a la derecha fascista y violenta de este país a través de su embajador.

Recientemente los Estado Unidos decidieron terminar (solo con Bolivia) el tratado preferencial de comercio para los estados andinos acusándoles de no hacer lo suficiente el su ‘guerra contra la cocaína’. Cuando Bolivia ha interceptado una cantidad record de cocaína este año, unos 27 toneladas de acuerdo con las últimas noticias, es difícil pensar que esto es algo más que una decisión política para castigar a un país que ha osado expulsar a su embajador.

La guerra diplomática entre los Estados Unidos y Bolivia no es la única preocupación del gobierno. La otra es una guerra económica entre Bolivia y esos países que insisten en los ‘tratados de libre comercio’ (TLC) que sólo son libres para los poderosos. La Unión Europea es partícipe de estos abusos de poder si creemos la acusación Boliviana de que Benita Ferrero Waldner ha hecho todo lo posible para no negociar con el bloque constituido por los países andinos (Bolivia, Perú, Colombia y Ecuador) y forzar un TLC de forma bilateral con cada uno de ellos. Los gobiernos de Perú y Colombia acceden a esto gustosos, claro, aunque sus poblaciones en general no están tan entusiasmadas a juzgar por las protestas que se han dado lugar en ambos países este mes.

Y es que Bolivia rechaza muchas de las bases de estos TLCs como la privatización de necesidades humanas básicas (el agua, la electricidad, el alcantarillado y la vivienda) o la producción de patentes de especies biológicas como ciertas semillas. Y yo creo que tienen razón en resistir esta interpenetración del capital que esta forzando la Unión Europea. Por eso es que Bolivia argumenta estar más interesada en el bienestar de sus ciudadanos y es por eso que está haciendo todo lo posible para que el acceso a la educación sea verdaderamente universal con un bono para todos los niños de hasta octavo de primaria, el bono Juancito Pinto, del cual hablábamos el 10 de noviembre.

La elección de Barack Obama como presidente de los Estados Unidos ha sido otra gran noticia para el mundo este mes. Por fin, alguien inteligente y no un tarado en la casa blanca. Las esperanzas para una mejora de las relaciones entre Estados Unidos, cuyo embajador en Bolivia tradicionalmente ha sido el verdadero poder detrás de la presidencia, son grandes pero los obstáculos también; veremos lo que pasa.

Mientras tanto, Bolivia esta intentando mejorar su situación de falta de poder económico y político en la región, haciendo amigos con países ideológicamente cercanos como Venezuela, Cuba o Ecuador. Resulta que el miércoles 26 de noviembre se juntaron en Caracas todos estos presidentes y otros para discutir, entre otras cosas, la creación de una moneda común, el Sucre, como parte de un proyecto de integración económica a largo plazo que pueda resistir los embates de las crisis creadas por el capitalismo y mejorar de verdad el bienestar humano en la región. El ALBA, la Alternativa Bolivariana de las Américas promete una visión distinta a la del ‘libre’ comercio. Sin duda hacen falta alternativas en el mundo que vayan más allá de darles billones y billones de dólares de los contribuyentes a los banqueros (no eran ellos los que no querían intervención del estado en la economía?) para que todo vuelva a donde estábamos antes de que la crisis empezara. Pues estamos buenos.

Y por fin terminamos el mes con dos noticias deprimentes de la manera de hacer política de la oposición de derecha en este país. La primera era referente al aniversario de tres muertes en Sucre que se dieron después de enfrentamientos con la policía por grupos de estudiantes manipulados por un grupito de racisto-fascistas que no quieren que nada cambie en el país y que se quejan de que “estos ya no son nuestros indios”, aquellos sumisos que bajan la cabeza al pasar al lado nuestro o que no voy a permitir que entren a la plaza central de Sucre. Su demanda de capitalía plena para Sucre estaba destinada a descarrilar el trabajo de la Asamblea Constituyente precisamente para que todo siga igual. Falló como esperamos que fallen todas las alzadas violentas que se le avecinan al país el año que viene.

La otra noticia era sobre la manera cínica de la oposición de negar que una masacre de indígenas tuviera lugar en Porvenir, Pando, el 11 de Septiembre pasado. No sólo lo niegan sino que además son lo suficientemente arrogantes como para pensar que están en su derecho de actuar de esta manera en Pando, el ‘lejano oeste’ de Bolivia, porque así se han portado toda su vida y nadie les ha parado los pies.

Termino con el mismo deseo de mi último ‘posting’ de que esperemos que la impunidad por fin desaparezca del país. Es absolutamente necesario que las instituciones del estado y el estado de derecho se impongan en esta batalla. De lo contrario, el MAS se va a encontrar con una derecha armada y envalentonada que le va ha hacer la vida imposible durante el año de elecciones que se avecina.

UNASUR only listened to Evo or “UNASUR solo escucho a Evo”

This is at least the main headline used by news TV channel UNITEL last Friday 21 November to greet the unveiling of some of the main conclusions reached by a high-level special commission tasked with conducting an enquiry on the Pando massacre of indigenous people on 11 September.

You will remember that the current president of UNASUR, Michelle Bachellet appointed this group of investigators led by a human rights expert, Argentinian Rodolfo Mattarollo in the wake of the September massacre and at a time when the political situation in Bolivia looked extremely delicate.

The final UNASUR report was delivered to Michelle Bachellet on Tuesday 25 November. It is interesting to check the main conclusions of this report because they contradict every single argument presented by the opposition to deny the events ever took place, question the veracity of the accounts, even pretend that the video evidence of the events was constructed. What are its main conclusions?

First: Contrary to arguments by the opposition, there are 18 deaths that have been confirmed. Another 70 people are still unaccounted for, presumed dead. Because many of the bodies were thrown in the river, it is thought these bodies will never be recovered.

Second: Contrary to arguments by the opposition, there was no armed confrontation between two groups. Instead, there was an ambush of hundreds of unarmed indigenous people travelling to a nearby community.

Third: Contrary to arguments by the opposition, this ambush was perpetrated by an armed militia consisting of employees of the prefecture and members of the local ‘civic committee’.

Fourth: Contrary to arguments by the opposition, there is more than indicative evidence to suggest that the ambush was premeditated and executed according to a plan masterminded from the prefecture.

It is horrifying to see civilians in public positions armed with submachine guns shooting at defenceless indigenous people. It is absolutely unbelievable that elected opposition MPs like José Villavicencio should appear on the video, not trying to stop the shooting but, ‘interrogating’ one of the kidnapped survivors of the massacre to try to extract a confession on camera that incriminates a local MAS MP and ‘proves’ that the victims were armed.

And to top it all, we have that a number of news organisations were present in the town of Porvenir at the moment the massacre took place. A microphone of the TV channel ‘Pat’ is clearly visible during the ‘interrogation’ of one of the people kidnapped. It seems, some of these organisations had been warned previously of what was coming, the same organisations whose video has now been aired by the public prosecution against the accused and who deny the events ever took place or argue the video has been shot in a studio.

The videos (4 of them), are available on the following link and make chilling viewing:
http://foro.univision.com/univision/board/message?board.id=190097542&message.id=47376

The opposition, aided by a majority of TV channels, have begun a propaganda campaign against this report and the judicial measures against the main accused, ex-prefect of Pando Leopoldo Fernandez, in prison since September, and another 20 people who worked for him. These are 20 of the more than 3500 who worked for him in a department with a population of no more than 60000.

The first part of the campaign included the headline in the title, followed by interviews with two opposition MPs who denied any legitimacy to the high-level UNASUR commission, accusing them of partiality, lacking any mandate to conduct their investigation and attempting against Bolivia’s sovereignty.

The second is the interviewing of some of those responsible for the massacre who escaped to nearby Brazil, to claim their status as ‘political refugees’ persecuted by a tyrannical and authoritarian state. And thirdly, some TV ‘analysts’ have brought out their ‘experts’ to continue to claim that the video evidence of the massacre has been manipulated to justify the political persecution of the opposition.

UNASUR president Michelle Bachellet has announced that impunity cannot be left to reign in Latin America like it has done for too long. The commission’s enquiry on the events in Porvenir is part of this process. Yet, given the current events in the judicial process against Leopoldo Fernandez and his lackeys (this is for another day, I’m afraid) it is difficult to believe justice will soon arrive to Bolivia.

A fin de mes, una de resumen

Bueno, se nos acaba el mes y es hora de resumir las noticias más importantes de las cuatro últimas semanas.

En primer lugar, parecen ya distantes las noticias con las que empezábamos el mes de octubre, con esos aniversarios de muerte y masacres tanto en Pando, donde el cómputo actual es de 18 muertos, 24 desaparecidos y decenas de heridos, como en el Alto en el 2003. Si bien sólo hace unas semanas de su muerte, la televisión Boliviana parece estar más preocupada de montar una campaña para la liberación del principal imputado, el ex-prefecto de Pando Leopoldo Fernández, quien parece haberse portado más como un cacique y jefecillo paramilitar de película del oeste que como un político.

Los muertos de Octubre del 2003 fueron muchos más y no han sido olvidados pues ellos dieron el pistoletazo de salida a un proceso político de cambio que continua en el país. Esta misma semana, por fin un grupo de víctimas de aquella violencia de Estado pudo acudir a Miami y sentarse frente al ex-presidente de la república Goni y a su ministro de interior Carlos Berzaín, en un caso que determinará si procede su extradición a este país para ser juzgados por genocidio. No existen grandes esperanzas pero al menos es importante que los políticos tengan que confrontarse de vez en cuando con las consecuencias de las decisiones que toman.

En el plano político, dos hechos importantísimos han tenido lugar este mes. El primero es la aprobación por dos tercios de los votos en el congreso y el senado de la ley que lleva a referéndum la nueva Constitución Política del Estado, una Constitución que incluye todo tipo de propuestas herejes para las viejas democracias europeas como la de la participación y control social del gobierno (más allá de dejarnos votar cada pocos años), como la creación de autonomías indígenas, como la elección de un modelo de desarrollo que cuestiona el modelo capitalista neoliberal que tantos problemas ha creado en Bolivia y esta creando en el resto del mundo... El proceso de creación de la nueva Constitución ha sido denominado como de parto doloroso por Amalia Pando, el parto de un niño que recibirá su certificado de nacimiento el próximo 25 de enero.

El otro aspecto político importante es la reunión de Cochabamba que dio comienzo a la construcción de la sede de UNASUR. No es que la construcción de un gran parlamento sea tan importante como el significado simbólico de una unión latinoamericana de naciones que puede mirar al norte sin complejos. Ya demostró UNASUR tener utilidad cuando le quitó el oxígeno al golpe cívico-prefectural de septiembre que, apoyado por la embajada estadounidense, buscaba descarrilar el proyecto de cambio constitucional del país. Sin embargo, su misión más importante está por venir. En un futuro de declive imperial, América Latina se alista como otro gran bloque con poder económico, potencial humano incalculable y todas las riquezas naturales deseables.

Todo esto en un mes en el que el gran desplome del sistema financiero internacional apunta a una crisis económica mundial de la cual hasta el futuro del mismísimo capitalismo está en entredicho. Esta es la gran oportunidad de paises como Bolivia, críticos del sistema por haber sufrido sus consecuencias antes y más severamente que ningún otro, para deletrear claramente sus ideas sobre el desarrollo sostenible, el vivir bien, y la complementariedad entre los pueblos. Escucharán en el mundo?

Bruno Racua

Watching TV last night I learnt that 11 October is the anniversary of the battle of Bahia (1902-2008). As expected, 106 years after the battle all manner of civic groups in the town of Cobija, capital of Pando, were out celebrating a famous victory against Brazilian forces that had wanted to annex their territory.

Of all Bolivian heroes, no one was most celebrated than Bruno Racua, a local peasant who fought against the Brazilian forces with more heorism than most. Local history says that he distinguished himself in battle to such an extent that the national Congress, on hearing of his exploits, named him a national hero.

Watching TV last night, I was unaware that 11 October is also another anniversary. It is exactly one month of the massacre of 18 peasants by right-wing paramilitaries near the city of Cobija. Among the dead was one Bernardo Racua, great grand child of the national hero. Nobody remembered his death last night.

Another week in Bolivia

Just as ever more gruesome details of the massacre of peasants in Pando continue to emerge, the opposition media - that is to say, most of the Bolivian media - have chosen to ignore these disgraceful events and the survivors. Instead, they have been crying foul of the police’s arrest of the main accused, Leopoldo Fernández, whom we introduced in our previous posting. In addition, they have concentrated on the arrest of a police woman who is accused of having given the critical sign to shooters to start the massacre, and of two other people who have been charged with terrorist charges for blowing up a gas pipe used to export gas to Brazil last August.

These are the ‘canalladas’ (cynical lies) - as well-known journalist Amalia Pando has called them - that have been used by the opposition to refer to the events in Pando:

-The massacre was not such thing. It was a confrontation by two armed groups. The fact that only peasant men, women and children on their way to town have died has to do with the fact that the other side were bad a shooting.

-The video circulating on You Tube (see:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFvRGemlv3k) is fake. It has been doctored by government agents to put the opposition on a bad light. Would you agree??




Instead, accusations have been flying from the opposition that the government is persecuting them and their supporters (read Leopoldo Fernandez, or Mr Vaca, who has confessed his part on the gas pipe attack). Senate members of the opposition have even had the audacity to go on record to show their dissatisfaction with the UNASUR-led human rights commission investigating the events in Pando. So they have proceeded to send their own ‘investigative commission’, but only to Brazil, to visit their political supporters who fled after committing or instructing the killings.

To top it all, the opposition prefects, whose violent shenanigans that culminated in the massacre opened up a series of talks with government about those aspects of the proposed Constitution they find less palatable, have used this supposed ‘persecution’ to pull out of talks, further delaying the approval of a new draft Constitution and throwing the entire process into disarray.

Just another political week in Bolivia.

At the same time, Rafael Correa, a political outsider who two years ago surprised everyone by winning the Ecuadorean presidency, has managed to lead the process of writing a new constitution that was approved with a large majority in a national referendum that took place last Sunday 28th September. He calls it ‘a constitution that will bring 21st century socialism to Ecuador’. I bet MAS are looking north with envy right now.

Leopoldo Fernández

Leopoldo Fernández (in the middle) used to be the prefect of Pando, one of the various prefects from the east of the country who have become the official opposition to the democratically elected government of Evo Morales. Two weeks ago, the international press widely reported the situation of civil unrest in the region due to ‘confrontations between supporters of the government and opposition forces’.

It now seems clear that the so-called confrontations were in fact violent and organised assaults on government institutions and NGOs in the region by a small and armed opposition funded paramilitary groups. The worst excesses of these groups took place in Pando where 18 indigenous MAS supporters were ambushed and massacred-with more than 100 unaccounted for-resulting in the state of siege for the region.

What has occurred since those events beggars belief. Thankfully, the main accused of instigating the massacre, Fernández himself, has been arrested and is awaiting trial. There is also in situ a commission from UNASUR led by a renowned human rights lawyer who is currently investigating the events surrounding the massacre. However, supporters of the prefect feel aggrieved enough to cry they are being persecuted by the state because their leader has been arrested whereas the Supreme Court appears to be more interested in perpetuating a tradition of impunity than in bringing about charges against the main suspect. Meanwhile, ‘death lists’ are being posted in town squares against indigenous leaders, peasants and elected members who are seen to support the current process of change. A sign of how far things need to change in this country.

See below for more on the massacre:

http://machetera.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/this-is-what-a-coward-and-a-murderer-looks-like/