Bolivia leader's hold on power fading (Massive Uprising Continues)

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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7016007.htm

--snip--

For the second day in a row, the capital city of La Paz and the adjoining city of El Alto remained paralyzed and shut off from the rest of Bolivia by protests demanding the president's resignation that have left dozens dead in three weeks.

With commercial flights shut down and highways into La Paz and El Alto blocked by broken bottles and rocks, food and gas supplies were running short. Stores, banks, offices and public transportation were closed and many intersections were blockaded with rocks, tree branches and other debris.

--snip--

The protests spread Tuesday to Cochabamba, Potosí and other smaller cities. Unless the president can regain control of the streets, his political base seems likely to erode.

--snip--

The protests were sparked by opposition to plans to export Bolivia's huge gas reserves through Chile, the country's hated southern neighbor. But after seeming to falter at the beginning, they picked up steam as Bolivians nursing a number of grievances began calling on Sánchez de Lozada to step down as president of South America's poorest nation.

end article


The uprising continues. Recent developments courtesy of Al Giordano's blog:
http://www.bigleftoutside.com/

-- The Pope calls for calm.

-- Foreign nationals are flown out of La Paz on military aircraft.

-- Transit workers in Cochambamba, 3rd largest city, join strike.

-- The Spanish company Repisol announces that it is suspending its project to export natural gas.

-- Human Rights Watch issues a statement: “With violence escalating, Bolivia is at the brink of catastrophe... To avoid further tragic consequences, the government must order the army to act with restraint and must carry out a thorough and impartial investigation into the deaths of the last few days.”
http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/10/bolivia101503.htm

All this, because Bushco wants to steal Bolivia's gas and export it through Chile.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

1. Anti-government protests sweep major Bolivian cities amid calls for

president to resign.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap10-15-130213.asp?reg=AMERICAS



<snip>
Human rights groups and local media have reported up to 63 deaths in three weeks of street clashes between mostly Indian demonstrators and troops. The authorities have reported at least 16 deaths, but have not confirmed the higher figure.
Protests spread to the western city of Oruro and the southern city of Sucre, once the country's colonial capital. Thousands of peasants moved to blockade the four major highways leading into Sucre.
Outside La Paz, some 1,000 coca-growing farmers from the northern region of Los Yungas descended on the capital to join the protesters, who include labor unions, students, community groups and other government opponents.
Bolivia's poor Indian majority has grown increasingly disenchantment with free market reforms and U.S.-backed plans to eradicate coca, the plant that is the raw material for cocaine but is also chewed to stave off hunger and as a natural stimulant in the Andean mountain nation.
The capital, emptied of traffic Wednesday, took on the appearance of a ghost town. Schools, shops, banks and businesses closed. Protesters manned barricades of burning debris on major highways, shutting down La Paz and the capital's sister city of El Alto.
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Was going to start a thread with this, but saw your thread and they are on the same lines.

More sleight of hand by Bush and his "Patriots."

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2. Thanks, Billy_Pilgrim

I'm glad to see more people are following this story! It is HUGE and the corporate media is trying to shove it under the rug... which has worked in the past, but not this time. The protests are gaining steam instead of dissipating-- and the massacres on Sunday and Monday are creating even more resistance instead of scaring people into submission.

I only hope Sanchez steps down before too many more people get killed...

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. It worked with bananas and pineapples....

Of course, there wasn't an internet then.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Does this mean we won't be getting the natural gas we wanted?

What are going to do without "our" natural gas? Should we send the troops?

/sarcasm

[morebunk]

5. Another US puppet government is going to bite the dust...

The world is still safer without Saddam...don't you just feel it in your bones?

[smallprint]

6. new cartoon

Translation:
Bolivia Soberano = Sovereign (Independent) Bolivia

Fuera El Gringo = Out with the Gringo (that's what they call Sanchez, because he's basically an American)

El Gas No Se Vende = The Gas is Not For Sale

El Alto De Pie, Nunca De Rodillas = The city of El Alto stands on its feet, never on its knees

[EX-CONservative]

7. Goni is despised...

He has a 10% approval rate...

He'll likely end up like Mussolini. In earlier protests, he escaped death by hiding in an ambulance!

[Resistance Is Futile]

8. Restoring the natural order of things

CIA-backed military coup or invasion?

Which will the Texas Fascist Party pick?