Bolivia Presidential Candidate: I'm U.S. Worst Nightmare
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[/B] Bolivians: Coca-Cola should drop 'coca'
By DAN KEANE, Associated Press WriterFri Mar 16, 4:52 AM ET
Always Coca-Cola? Not if Bolivia's coca growers have their way. The farmers want the word "Coca" dropped by the U.S. soft drink company, arguing that the potent shrub belongs to the cultural heritage of this Andean nation, where the coca leaf infuses everyday life and is sacred to many.
A commission of coca industry representatives advising an assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the Atlanta, Ga.-based company to take "Coca" out of its name and asking the United Nations to decriminalize the leaf.
The resolution demands that "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca (example: Coca Cola) refrain from using the name of the sacred leaf in their products."
The commission, which met for three days in Sucre, 255 miles southeast of La Paz, is part of an effort led by President Evo Morales to rehabilitate the image of plant, used in the Andes for millennia but better known internationally as the base ingredient of cocaine.
Coca-Cola released a statement Thursday saying their trademark is "the most valuable and recognized brand in the world" and was protected under Bolivian law.
The statement repeated the company's past denials that Coca-Cola has ever used cocaine as an ingredient — but was silent on whether the natural coca leaf was used to flavor their flagship soda.
"They need to understand our situation," said David Herrera, a state government supervisor for the coca-rich Chapare region. "They exported coca as a raw material for Coca-Cola, and we can't even freely sell it in Bolivia."
The Bolivian government regulates the sale of coca to prevent use by the drug trade.
In its natural state, the green leaf is only a mild stimulant. In Bolivia's white-collar offices, coca tea is served instead of coffee, and the country's farmers, miners and longhaul truckers chew the leaf to get through a long work day.
The government wants the U.N. to decriminalize trade in coca-based products to promote its exports.
Morales, a former coca grower, believes an international market for coca-derived products such as tea, flour, liquor, and even toothpaste would draw some of the country's estimated 65,500 acres of coca away from the drug trade.
But the United States, which funds a Bolivian coca-eradication program, is adamantly opposed to the policy, saying it only encourages more coca production.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bolivia_coca_cola&printer=1;_ylt=AoYf8zQhFldOIcvj52UHLgK9IxIF
By DAN KEANE, Associated Press WriterFri Mar 16, 4:52 AM ET
Always Coca-Cola? Not if Bolivia's coca growers have their way. The farmers want the word "Coca" dropped by the U.S. soft drink company, arguing that the potent shrub belongs to the cultural heritage of this Andean nation, where the coca leaf infuses everyday life and is sacred to many.
A commission of coca industry representatives advising an assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the Atlanta, Ga.-based company to take "Coca" out of its name and asking the United Nations to decriminalize the leaf.
The resolution demands that "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca (example: Coca Cola) refrain from using the name of the sacred leaf in their products."
The commission, which met for three days in Sucre, 255 miles southeast of La Paz, is part of an effort led by President Evo Morales to rehabilitate the image of plant, used in the Andes for millennia but better known internationally as the base ingredient of cocaine.
Coca-Cola released a statement Thursday saying their trademark is "the most valuable and recognized brand in the world" and was protected under Bolivian law.
The statement repeated the company's past denials that Coca-Cola has ever used cocaine as an ingredient — but was silent on whether the natural coca leaf was used to flavor their flagship soda.
"They need to understand our situation," said David Herrera, a state government supervisor for the coca-rich Chapare region. "They exported coca as a raw material for Coca-Cola, and we can't even freely sell it in Bolivia."
The Bolivian government regulates the sale of coca to prevent use by the drug trade.
In its natural state, the green leaf is only a mild stimulant. In Bolivia's white-collar offices, coca tea is served instead of coffee, and the country's farmers, miners and longhaul truckers chew the leaf to get through a long work day.
The government wants the U.N. to decriminalize trade in coca-based products to promote its exports.
Morales, a former coca grower, believes an international market for coca-derived products such as tea, flour, liquor, and even toothpaste would draw some of the country's estimated 65,500 acres of coca away from the drug trade.
But the United States, which funds a Bolivian coca-eradication program, is adamantly opposed to the policy, saying it only encourages more coca production.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bolivia_coca_cola&printer=1;_ylt=AoYf8zQhFldOIcvj52UHLgK9IxIF
Makes sense to me. Why call it coca cola if coca isn't in it. Sounds like false advertising to me. But, we all know this won't go anywhere.
Props to the Bolivians for trying to exploit the traditional uses of of the plant. Yes I think it should be decriminalized.
Props to the Bolivians for trying to exploit the traditional uses of of the plant. Yes I think it should be decriminalized.
<font size="5"><center>Two more provinces in Bolivia
approve autonomy statutes</font size></center>
By Alex Ayala and Jack Chang
McClatchy Newspapers
Sunday, June 1, 2008
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Amid scattered violence, voters in two Bolivian provinces appeared to approve controversial autonomy statutes on Sunday, challenging the leftist government of President Evo Morales, who has called the votes illegal and labled them bids to divide the country.
Yet polling data also showed that Morales possibly scored a political win, with turnout rates in Beni and Pando provinces unusually low, backing government charges that people opposed to the statutes were sitting out the vote.
The research firm Ipsos Apoyo found in a quick count of polling sites that 80.2 percent of voters in Beni and 81.8 percent of voters in Pando supported the autonomy measures, which would grant them powers equivalent to that of U.S. states. Both are rural provinces in the country's northeast.
The quick count calculated a no-show rate of 34.5 percent in Beni and 46.5 percent in Pando. Final results aren't expected until later this week, and Bolivian law automatically nullifies election results if less than half of valid voters cast ballots.
While the two provinces make up just 5 percent of Bolivia's 9.1 million people, their referendums are the latest in a wave of autonomy measures that has pitched this impoverished country into a constitutional crisis.
Voters in Bolivia's richest and second most-populous province, Santa Cruz, overwhelmingly approved a similar autonomy statute May 4, although the no-show rate there hit 35 percent. Another autonomy referendum will be held June 22 in Tarija province, home to the country's giant natural gas industry.
The referendums have driven a wedge between Bolivia's indigenous, mountainous west, where support for the president is high, and its more mixed-race, richer eastern lowlands, where many have long desired autonomy.
Morales has said only the country's congress can schedule such votes and has refused to recognize the referendum results. While refraining from sending in troops to block the votes, Morales has warned provincial leaders not to carry out their statutes and withhold tax revenue.
Morales has also accused U.S. officials of backing the referendums to weaken his socialist government and has received the support of ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders in the region.
"Some families are asking for independence," Morales said Sunday during a rally in the western Bolivian city of Oruro. "Some governors talk about new republics. But we cannot become divided."
Pro-government supporters tried to interrupt balloting Sunday by blocking roads and intercepting ballot boxes across Beni and Pando, sparking confrontations with pro-autonomy activists.
In the town of Filadelfia in Pando, Morales supporters burned ballot boxes and at one point even held several election officials hostage. Pro-government activists also attacked the mayor of the town of Yucumo in Beni province and in Trinidad, the capital of Beni, they threw rocks at a car transporting the pro-autonomy governors of Santa Cruz and Tarija.
The violence prompted Vegar Bye, an observer with the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to voice his fear Sunday of "direct confrontation, with arms."
Government officials defended the violent protests, saying they were legitimate expressions of outrage over an illegal process.
"The sectors representing the majority expressed their opposition to the statutes," Government Minister Alfredo Rada said Sunday night. "They have expressed it especially in Pando, where it appears the attempt to impose the statutes has been firmly rejected."
Autonomy supporters said they had no intention of dividing the country and were only seeking to reform Bolivia's heavily centralized system, which they argue has held back development in far-flung provinces.
The autonomy statutes let provinces form their own police, elect provincial legislatures and, in some cases, sign treaties with other countries.
Pro-autonomy activists have also resorted to violence over the past week, with anti-government activists attacking Morales supporters May 24 in the city of Sucre and preventing the president from speaking to a rally there.
"What you have decided today will be carried out completely," Beni Gov. Ernesto Suarez said to supporters Sunday. "Thank you Benianos for saying not to violence and to centralism."
Morales has tried to defuse the crisis by calling an Aug. 10 recall referendum that could end his mandate as well as that of Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and the governors of eight of the country's nine provinces. Chuquisaca province has an interim governor.
The president also hopes to usher in his own reforms in a draft constitution approved by his allies in December. That document, which emphasizes autonomy for the country's indigenous majority, must still be approved in a yet-to-be-scheduled nationwide referendum.
"We are going to guarantee autonomy," Morales said Sunday, "but a true autonomy, autonomy for the national majority, for the people and not for powerful groups."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/39280.html
approve autonomy statutes</font size></center>
By Alex Ayala and Jack Chang
McClatchy Newspapers
Sunday, June 1, 2008
LA PAZ, Bolivia — Amid scattered violence, voters in two Bolivian provinces appeared to approve controversial autonomy statutes on Sunday, challenging the leftist government of President Evo Morales, who has called the votes illegal and labled them bids to divide the country.
Yet polling data also showed that Morales possibly scored a political win, with turnout rates in Beni and Pando provinces unusually low, backing government charges that people opposed to the statutes were sitting out the vote.
The research firm Ipsos Apoyo found in a quick count of polling sites that 80.2 percent of voters in Beni and 81.8 percent of voters in Pando supported the autonomy measures, which would grant them powers equivalent to that of U.S. states. Both are rural provinces in the country's northeast.
The quick count calculated a no-show rate of 34.5 percent in Beni and 46.5 percent in Pando. Final results aren't expected until later this week, and Bolivian law automatically nullifies election results if less than half of valid voters cast ballots.
While the two provinces make up just 5 percent of Bolivia's 9.1 million people, their referendums are the latest in a wave of autonomy measures that has pitched this impoverished country into a constitutional crisis.
Voters in Bolivia's richest and second most-populous province, Santa Cruz, overwhelmingly approved a similar autonomy statute May 4, although the no-show rate there hit 35 percent. Another autonomy referendum will be held June 22 in Tarija province, home to the country's giant natural gas industry.
The referendums have driven a wedge between Bolivia's indigenous, mountainous west, where support for the president is high, and its more mixed-race, richer eastern lowlands, where many have long desired autonomy.
Morales has said only the country's congress can schedule such votes and has refused to recognize the referendum results. While refraining from sending in troops to block the votes, Morales has warned provincial leaders not to carry out their statutes and withhold tax revenue.
Morales has also accused U.S. officials of backing the referendums to weaken his socialist government and has received the support of ally Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders in the region.
"Some families are asking for independence," Morales said Sunday during a rally in the western Bolivian city of Oruro. "Some governors talk about new republics. But we cannot become divided."
Pro-government supporters tried to interrupt balloting Sunday by blocking roads and intercepting ballot boxes across Beni and Pando, sparking confrontations with pro-autonomy activists.
In the town of Filadelfia in Pando, Morales supporters burned ballot boxes and at one point even held several election officials hostage. Pro-government activists also attacked the mayor of the town of Yucumo in Beni province and in Trinidad, the capital of Beni, they threw rocks at a car transporting the pro-autonomy governors of Santa Cruz and Tarija.
The violence prompted Vegar Bye, an observer with the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, to voice his fear Sunday of "direct confrontation, with arms."
Government officials defended the violent protests, saying they were legitimate expressions of outrage over an illegal process.
"The sectors representing the majority expressed their opposition to the statutes," Government Minister Alfredo Rada said Sunday night. "They have expressed it especially in Pando, where it appears the attempt to impose the statutes has been firmly rejected."
Autonomy supporters said they had no intention of dividing the country and were only seeking to reform Bolivia's heavily centralized system, which they argue has held back development in far-flung provinces.
The autonomy statutes let provinces form their own police, elect provincial legislatures and, in some cases, sign treaties with other countries.
Pro-autonomy activists have also resorted to violence over the past week, with anti-government activists attacking Morales supporters May 24 in the city of Sucre and preventing the president from speaking to a rally there.
"What you have decided today will be carried out completely," Beni Gov. Ernesto Suarez said to supporters Sunday. "Thank you Benianos for saying not to violence and to centralism."
Morales has tried to defuse the crisis by calling an Aug. 10 recall referendum that could end his mandate as well as that of Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and the governors of eight of the country's nine provinces. Chuquisaca province has an interim governor.
The president also hopes to usher in his own reforms in a draft constitution approved by his allies in December. That document, which emphasizes autonomy for the country's indigenous majority, must still be approved in a yet-to-be-scheduled nationwide referendum.
"We are going to guarantee autonomy," Morales said Sunday, "but a true autonomy, autonomy for the national majority, for the people and not for powerful groups."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/39280.html
<font size="5"><center>
Eight killed in Bolivia clashes,
U.S. tensions rise</font size></center>
A riot policemen stands guard outside the U.S embassy in La Paz
September 11, 2008.
A member of the Santa Cruz Mayor guard stands in front of graffiti that
reads "Evo murderer" in Santa Cruz September 11, 2008. At least eight
people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on
Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions
with the United States. REUTERS/David Mercado
U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg arrives at El
Alto airport on the outskirts of La Paz, July 2, 2008.
REUTERS/David Mercado
Reuters
By Eduardo Garcia
Thu Sep 11, 2008
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions with the United States.
Opposition activists shot dead seven peasant farmers in the remote Amazon region of Pando, a government official said, describing the incident as a massacre. An employee of the opposition-led regional government was also killed.
"We're talking about a real massacre and the person responsible is the Pando governor," [/v]said Deputy Minister of Social Movements Sacha Llorenti.
President Evo Morales' leftist government blames the unrest on rightist governors who control four of the poor country's nine regions.
The opposition demands greater autonomy and energy revenue and opposes plans by Morales, a former coca farmer and Bolivia's first indigenous president, to rewrite the constitution and distribute land to the poor.
Washington ordered out the Bolivian ambassador on Thursday a day after Morales, a close ally of Venezuela's fiery leftist leader Hugo Chavez, expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Morales accused Goldberg of fanning the protests.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement that Washington "officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata."
[v]FEAR OF COUP[/v]
Chavez said he was expelling the U.S. ambassador from his oil-rich country in a show of support for Morales.
"The yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia," he shouted at a political rally. He vowed earlier to come to the Bolivian president's aid if there was a coup.
In a sign of regional concern about the escalating chaos, Brazil's more moderate leftist government said it would not accept any attempt to overthrow Morales.
"We won't tolerate a rupture in the constitutional order of Bolivia," Marco Aurelio Garcia, foreign policy advisor to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters.
Bolivian Finance Minister Luis Arce said the army was sending more troops to natural gas fields and border crossings with Brazil after protesters vandalized pipelines and stormed a pumping station, cutting natural gas imports to Argentina and temporarily halving exports to Brazil.
Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and its economy is heavily dependent on natural gas. Brazil is Bolivia's biggest foreign investor and half of its natural gas needs are met by Bolivian imports.
Clashes also erupted in Tarija, a region rich in natural gas, and anti-Morales demonstrators occupied public buildings in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold, for a third day.
American Airlines canceled flights to Santa Cruz, and Bolivia's Erbol radio said gunfire wounded five people after a militia-style anti-Morales youth group stormed a market in a pro-Morales neighborhood in the city.
Troops were withdrawn from downtown Santa Cruz after several soldiers were beaten up in front of TV cameras earlier this week. The government response has been restrained.
However, Bolivia's ambassador to Brazil, Rene Dorfler, said the government was considering imposing martial law.
"We've been asked for patience, prudence, and we're going to hang in there. But patience also has a limit," Morales said in a speech in La Paz, adding that large landholders who oppose his land reforms were financing the opposition.
Since taking office, Morales has channeled more state revenues and given more power to his Indian power base in western Bolivia, accentuating a rift with the mixed race population of the east.
(Additional reporting by Carlos Quiroga in La Paz, Susan Cornwell in Washington, Natuza Nery in Brasilia and Enrique Andres Pretel in Caracas; Editing by Helen Popper and Sandra Maler)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1119262320080912?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
Eight killed in Bolivia clashes,
U.S. tensions rise</font size></center>
A riot policemen stands guard outside the U.S embassy in La Paz
September 11, 2008.
A member of the Santa Cruz Mayor guard stands in front of graffiti that
reads "Evo murderer" in Santa Cruz September 11, 2008. At least eight
people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on
Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions
with the United States. REUTERS/David Mercado
U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia Philip Goldberg arrives at El
Alto airport on the outskirts of La Paz, July 2, 2008.
REUTERS/David Mercado
Reuters
By Eduardo Garcia
Thu Sep 11, 2008
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions with the United States.
Opposition activists shot dead seven peasant farmers in the remote Amazon region of Pando, a government official said, describing the incident as a massacre. An employee of the opposition-led regional government was also killed.
"We're talking about a real massacre and the person responsible is the Pando governor," [/v]said Deputy Minister of Social Movements Sacha Llorenti.
President Evo Morales' leftist government blames the unrest on rightist governors who control four of the poor country's nine regions.
The opposition demands greater autonomy and energy revenue and opposes plans by Morales, a former coca farmer and Bolivia's first indigenous president, to rewrite the constitution and distribute land to the poor.
Washington ordered out the Bolivian ambassador on Thursday a day after Morales, a close ally of Venezuela's fiery leftist leader Hugo Chavez, expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Morales accused Goldberg of fanning the protests.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement that Washington "officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata."
[v]FEAR OF COUP[/v]
Chavez said he was expelling the U.S. ambassador from his oil-rich country in a show of support for Morales.
"The yankee ambassador in Caracas has got 72 hours to get out of Venezuela, in solidarity with Bolivia," he shouted at a political rally. He vowed earlier to come to the Bolivian president's aid if there was a coup.
In a sign of regional concern about the escalating chaos, Brazil's more moderate leftist government said it would not accept any attempt to overthrow Morales.
"We won't tolerate a rupture in the constitutional order of Bolivia," Marco Aurelio Garcia, foreign policy advisor to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told reporters.
Bolivian Finance Minister Luis Arce said the army was sending more troops to natural gas fields and border crossings with Brazil after protesters vandalized pipelines and stormed a pumping station, cutting natural gas imports to Argentina and temporarily halving exports to Brazil.
Bolivia is the poorest country in South America and its economy is heavily dependent on natural gas. Brazil is Bolivia's biggest foreign investor and half of its natural gas needs are met by Bolivian imports.
Clashes also erupted in Tarija, a region rich in natural gas, and anti-Morales demonstrators occupied public buildings in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, an opposition stronghold, for a third day.
American Airlines canceled flights to Santa Cruz, and Bolivia's Erbol radio said gunfire wounded five people after a militia-style anti-Morales youth group stormed a market in a pro-Morales neighborhood in the city.
Troops were withdrawn from downtown Santa Cruz after several soldiers were beaten up in front of TV cameras earlier this week. The government response has been restrained.
However, Bolivia's ambassador to Brazil, Rene Dorfler, said the government was considering imposing martial law.
"We've been asked for patience, prudence, and we're going to hang in there. But patience also has a limit," Morales said in a speech in La Paz, adding that large landholders who oppose his land reforms were financing the opposition.
Since taking office, Morales has channeled more state revenues and given more power to his Indian power base in western Bolivia, accentuating a rift with the mixed race population of the east.
(Additional reporting by Carlos Quiroga in La Paz, Susan Cornwell in Washington, Natuza Nery in Brasilia and Enrique Andres Pretel in Caracas; Editing by Helen Popper and Sandra Maler)
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN1119262320080912?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
sounds like advocating intervention to me, but if not my apologies. i'll let it go.
<font size="5"><center>US to evacuate citizens from Bolivia
after pulling out Peace Corps </font size></center>
The News International
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
WASHINGTON: The US government, citing growing concerns about unrest in Bolivia, offered Tuesday to arrange to fly US citizens out of La Paz after pulling out volunteers in the Peace Corps development program.
The moves came as at least 18 people died in anti-government protests in the impoverished South American country and the leftist government in La Paz last week expelled the US ambassador
The State Department said that US authorities have informed US citizens in Bolivia that they are trying to schedule one or two flights on Wednesday but needed more details from Americans living in the country.
The US government would fly Americans, who would pay for the flights, to Lima, Peru, according to a statement released by the State Department.
"US citizens currently in Bolivia are encouraged to depart if the situation permits, and if you remain should remain vigilant, monitor local media, and review their security posture on a regular basis," it said.
The statement said that all commercial flights were still available in Bolivia -- apart from those on American Airlines between Bolivia and Miami, Florida, which have been canceled until September 21.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=55469
after pulling out Peace Corps </font size></center>
The News International
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
WASHINGTON: The US government, citing growing concerns about unrest in Bolivia, offered Tuesday to arrange to fly US citizens out of La Paz after pulling out volunteers in the Peace Corps development program.
The moves came as at least 18 people died in anti-government protests in the impoverished South American country and the leftist government in La Paz last week expelled the US ambassador
The State Department said that US authorities have informed US citizens in Bolivia that they are trying to schedule one or two flights on Wednesday but needed more details from Americans living in the country.
The US government would fly Americans, who would pay for the flights, to Lima, Peru, according to a statement released by the State Department.
"US citizens currently in Bolivia are encouraged to depart if the situation permits, and if you remain should remain vigilant, monitor local media, and review their security posture on a regular basis," it said.
The statement said that all commercial flights were still available in Bolivia -- apart from those on American Airlines between Bolivia and Miami, Florida, which have been canceled until September 21.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=55469
