UN hails Bolivia sentence for 2003 massacre

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

UN hails Bolivia sentence for 2003 massacre
September 03, 2011

GENEVA: The UN’s rights chief on Friday welcomed a decision by Bolivia’s top court to sentence two former ministers and five senior military officers to prison for their role in a deadly 2003 crackdown.

~snip~
On Tuesday two former ministers and five ex-military officers were each given prison terms of between three and 15 years for their role in a brutal crackdown that left some 65 people dead and injured 500 during a 2003 protest.

~snip~
Sanchez de Lozada, whose indictment was authorised by Congress before Evo Morales’ December 2005 election, has long argued that using force was justified because a blockade by unruly protesters in El Alto had cut off La Paz from food and fuel.

But prosecutors said nothing justified letting soldiers open fire on civilians who were armed only with sticks and rocks.

Read more: http://gulftoday.ae/portal/c9720a01-c182-49a5-a882-7f9f429f259b.aspx

[Judi Lynn]

1. Black October: Victims of a Bolivian massacre seek justice in Miami.

Victims of a Bolivian massacre seek justice in Miami.
By Tim Elfrink Thursday, Dec 18 2008

It's just after 4 p.m. on a cold September Saturday in the highlands of Bolivia. Inside a two-story mud-brick home that smells of damp hay, a young mother lies in bed, wrapped in heavy alpaca blankets, still weak from giving birth a few days earlier. Her eight-year-old daughter Marlene is not far away, standing on her toes to peek out a simple three-pane window at the remarkable plateau outside: muddy brown shacks, windblown plains stretching to the horizon, and in the far distance, snow-capped peaks towering over Lake Titicaca.

This is Warisata, a small village of Aymara Indians nestled 10,000 feet above sea level. It sits next to a pitted, bumpy road that leads 45 miles to the capital of La Paz. The villagers rarely make the journey. For thousands of years, they have led an austere, fiercely independent life. But times are changing.

Natural gas deposits have been discovered in Bolivia, and tensions between the mostly white ruling class and indigenous leaders over this national treasure have simmered for weeks. Confrontations between protesters and the nation's military are erupting in violence, and word has just reached the village that the army is now marching toward Warisata to kill its men.

Marlene's mother tells the girl to stay calm. Her father, who has fled to the dun-colored hills to hide, will be back soon, she promises. But Marlene's curiosity cannot be contained. It keeps her up late at night studying by candlelight, dreaming of a life this impoverished village cannot offer. And it keeps her standing at the window, looking toward the mountains where her father has gone, into the dusky darkness.

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2008-12-18/news/black-october-victims-of-a-bolivian-massacre-seek-justice-in-miami/

The former President, US-educated "Goni" is still being protected from extradition, along with another or two of his cabinet, in the U.S. after they beat a quick retreat to Miami.

[EFerrari]

2. Judi Lynn, you're not going to believe this.

Last night I caught part of a segment on how Bolivia was a narco state being aired by Univision (Mom was watching while I washed up for her). Their evidence was drug planes allegedly moving in and out of Santa Cruz.

It was the poorest fabrication you can possibly imagine. They weren't even trying. But it was disturbing to see how widely broadcast the bulleria is.

[Judi Lynn]

3. That's so crazy! Santa Cruz is the area NOT identified with Bolivia, considering they want to secede

and literally despise the Bolivian President, usually referring to him as the "####ing Indian."

We've watched all their dirty war on Evo Morales from the first. Wow.

So Univision is trying to smear Bolivia via Santa Cruz. You remember the brutal dictators in Bolivia, incfluding Hugo Banzer, who tried to create a "White Bolivia" by giving the land under the feet of indigenous Bolivians to South African white settlers, and the Cocaine Coup people, who hired escaped Nazi Butcher Klaus Barbie, all came from that seething, reeking pit of murderous, greedy, rightwing scum.

Interesting, isn't it, that an owner of Univision is the Venezuelan media mogul, and best buddy of George H. W. Bush, Gustavo Cisneros, one of the richest men in the world?

Such a small, nasty world when these mutants are running things. You can never get far enough away from them.

Ah, Santa Cruz, where the racist youth movement of young men take barbed wire-wrapped clubs, get in trucks, and storm into indigenous neighorhoods and viciously beat anyone they find before skittering back home.

Hope to hear more about this. Please let us know if you hear more from the right-wing hispanic managed news at Univision.

They call Cisneros the "Murdoch of Venezuela." He has homes here in the U.S., of course, to be close to his pals.

http://www.soberania.org.nyud.net:8090/Images/Cisneros_422g.jpg http://www.dominicantoday.com.nyud.net:8090/image/article/65/209x400/0/B73183E1-45D9-4FB9-99C7-F65BE7CE183B.jpeg

Cisneros, gone fishing with his pal, George H W Bush.



He'll speak to Democrats, too, of course.

[EFerrari]

4. I knew you'd know how this was possible.

I need a chart or something to keep track of this scum. Cisneros.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Cisneros goes into a huddle with Bushes at the drop of a hat, like immediately after the failed coup

which was aborted by the people of Venzuela. In a heartbeat, Cisneros was holed up at the resort owned by Cuban "exile" sugar barons, Alfi and Pepe Fanjul in the Dominican Republic. Cisneros owns a permanent villa there, too.

http://images3.listindiario.com.nyud.net:8090/image/article/7/460x390/0/07DBCF6E-D14D-49A9-8E83-7248A047F72B.jpeg

Here's a photo of Cisneros, Pepe Fanjul, and George H. W. Bush during another huddle in the D.R.
Other guests of Cisneros in the D.R. with Bush have been Alvaro Uribe, Bush pet, from Colombia, and little Spanish fascist, Jose Maria Aznar.

[rabs]

6. Here is the Univision video report (four minutes, Spanish)

http://eldia.com.bo/index.php?c=Portada&articulo=Univision:-El-jefe-del-cartel-de-Sinaloa-operaba-en-Bolivia&cat=1&pla=3&id_articulo=72735


It is a weak and confusing report, citing only "intelligence documents obtained by Univision;" it claims Mexico's Sinaloa cartel is using Santa Cruz to ship out cocaine.

I watched it twice and it does not make much sense. Univision apparently is trying to smear the Morales government, but what the report winds up doing is implicating the anti-Morales Santa Crucenos in the Mexican drug trade. :shrug:

There was supposed to be a part II video tonight, but have not seen it yet.