UN agrees to observer role in Bolivia

[Judi Lynn]

Tuesday, 24 February 2009
UN agrees to observer role in Bolivia

BOLIVIA: The United Nations agreed to be an observer in the implementation of the new Bolivian Constitution, as requested by the opposition and allowed by the government, according to local press reports.

The announcement was made by UN Information official in Bolivia Roberto Brockman after consultation with UN and UNDP representative in Bolivia, Yoriko Yasukawa.

We are ready to help political players, and we are pleased that they have agreed on requesting guarantors in the process, said Brockman on Saturday.

On Friday, President Evo Morales ratified the government's openness in implementing controversial issues in the Constitution, including autonomies and land reform.

We are not afraid. All observers will be welcomed, regardless of their origin, said Morales in a military promotion ceremony.

More:
http://www.dailynews.lk/2009/02/24/wld06.asp

[Peace Patriot]

1. I am very glad to hear this, both for the sake of peace in Bolivia, and for the principle

of United Nations involvement in objective monitoring and peacemaking. Now that the U.S./Bushwacks are out of Bolivia, peace is possible in Bolivia. UNASUR, which brokered the peace talks that made the recent vote on the Constitution possible, is a very new organization, formalized only last summer, and doesn't yet have the institutional structure for long term involvement. So this is the perfect solution. The fascists that the Bushwhacks were funding and organizing are still a menace, but they so discredited their cause, by their massacre of some 30 unarmed peasants, and by their association with the Bushwhacks, that they were not even invited to the formal UNASUR meeting about Bolivia. (UNASUR sent a delegation to talk to the saner faction.) But they do have to be dealt with, and any continuing threat of destabilization and secession averted. (They wanted to secede and take Bolivia's main gas/oil resources with them, and form a fascist mini-state in control of the wealth.)

I'm wondering about international election monitors in El Salvador. I haven't researched this yet. Have you picked up anything on this yet, Judi?

And thank you for this post! It's good news!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Regarding the upcoming Salvador election, looks as if there will be many observers.

There is information here which you may find worth some study: it's stuff I've never heard, of course.

Elections Update: International observers underscore high stakes in 2009 elections
Thursday, 18 December 2008

also in this update:

* Women’s Association of Tecoluca denounce ARENA for Political Violence
* Fuerza Solidaria and its “dirty” fear campaign
* 2007 Salvadoran Census and the extra 500,000 voters that no one can explain

The first week of December saw Electoral Observation Missions from the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Union (EU) arrive in El Salvador. Both organizations stated that their missions would work with impartiality and transparency to strengthen the democratic process in El Salvador. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the government body that oversees elections in the country, invited both missions. TSE magistrate Eugenio Chicas of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) party pointed out that the arrival of so many international observers highlights two realities: the electoral process “still has many irregularities,” and the left is poised to win the presidency, generating international interest in the elections.

The FMLN has welcomed the presence of international observers, including the OAS and EU, but maintains that many of the electoral reforms passed last year by the TSE—which is dominated by right-wing magistrates—and the TSE’s refusal to make the voter registry available to all parties have opened up the process to the possibility of fraud. FMLN presidential candidate Mauricio Funes, who leads by as much as 16 points in recent polls over the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), has met with OAS leadership to discuss his concerns about electoral fraud.

Early in 2008, the OAS recommended that the TSE undergo internal reforms to further prevent corruption and fraud in the electoral process. These reforms included making the electoral roll public, updating the electoral register (e.g. purging the names of dead people from voter rolls), and re-structuring procedures that could enable fraudulent, unverified ballots from being counted.

While the TSE proclaims that it has carried out the necessary OAS recommendations, the expected arrive of the largest-ever contingent of international observers suggests otherwise. Over 2,000 international election observers are expected to monitor polling places in El Salvador’s 262 municipalities to prevent fraud and corruption in the January elections, overseeing tasks ordinarily preformed by the TSE.
Women’s Association of Tecoluca denounce ARENA for political violence

November marked the official beginning of El Salvador's presidential campaign season, and it didn't take long for ARENA to revert to its old dirty campaign tricks, inciting fear in the Salvadoran population to sway the results of the 2009 elections. On December 1, ARENA activists physically assaulted and smeared paint on the face of a local member of the Women’s Association of Tecoluca, Yesenia Portillo, after she asserted that the ARENA campaigners’ actions violated local zoning laws in the municipality of San Romero de Tecoluca.

The incident occurred when the ARENA members set out to cover the sidewalks, curbs, and posts of San Romero province with ARENA campaign propaganda. However, upon realizing ARENA’s mass painting efforts violated local zoning laws, Yesenia Portillo set out to confront the ARENA activists.

When Portillo approached the activists, an ARENA campaigner known as “el Tucan” struck Portillo with his open hand, leaving her face covered in paint.

ARENA mayor Dimas Villalta refused to recognize the illegal campaign tactics of the ARENA members, stating “everything that happened was due to the antagonism of the women of San Romero.”
Fuerza Solidaria, and its “dirty” fear campaign

ARENA’s right wing ally group Fuerza Solidaria’s fear-based campaigning continues to escalate as El Salvador closes in on the January and March elections. One of the most recent television advertisements continues to incite fear in the population by connecting Mauricio Funes to Hugo Chavez. The advertisement quotes Dan Restrepo, U.S. President-elect Obama's advisor on Latin America, as stating “Obama does not support the anti-Americanism” of Hugo Chavez. The ad claims that Chavez wants to spread this anti-Americanism by intervening in other countries, including El Salvador. The message the ad attempts to send to voters is that, by supporting the FMLN, they are aligning themselves with Chavez and against the United States.

By framing support for the FMLN as a direct threat to El Salvador's relationship with the US, Fuerza Solidaria continues to use fear based tactics to sway the results of the 2009 election. You can view some of the ads on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbx9pYAc2qQ& and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om47szVuA6I&
2007 Salvadoran Census and the extra 500,000 voters that no one can explain

Concerns remain about population data from El Salvador's 2007 census which included an unaccounted-for 500,000 voters that no one, not even the electoral records, can explain.

According to FMLN legislators, the ARENA government manipulated the 2007 census, inflating the population in areas with strong ARENA support, and deflating the population in strong FMLN provinces, all with the intention of facilitating electoral fraud and manipulation.

The 2007 census does not account for children in four municipalities, stating these municipalities populations consist solely of eligible voters (18 years of age and older). In the municipality of Comalapa, Chalatenango, for example, the electoral registry accounts for 3,065 voters. However, according to the 2007 census, 2,996 people live in the municipality, indicating a total population that is 69 people fewer than the number of voters accounted for by the electoral registry. Not only does the census understate the total voting population in Comalapa, but it also denies the existence of children younger than voting age.

In Santa Tecla, an area with strong FMLN support, the 2007 census data states the population decreased by 38% from the previous count; meanwhile, the population in Huizúcar, a strong ARENA municipality, increased by 34%.

ARENA legislator Alberto Romero explained that these extreme population fluctuations resulted from migration away from some cities. However, Roberto Lorenzana, head legislator of the FMLN, criticized the 2007 census, claiming that it is part of a series of ARENA’s attacks on the FMLN that attempt to diminish the party's electoral success in key municipalities.

http://www.cispes.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=498&Itemid=29

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~snip~
Observers from the United States will be on hand Sunday, January 18 as El Salvador embarks on the first of two rounds of elections: Salvadorans will vote for mayors and legislative deputies in January, then vote for their president on March 15.

Members of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) will be acting as accredited observers as part of the International Observers Mission (MOI). They will be available for interviews on the elections day and during the following days when the results are announced.

With polls showing that the right-wing ARENA party might lose power for the first time in 20 years, the situation has grown increasingly tense in El Salvador. Last week in the department of Morazán, a heavily-armed group assassinated two activists from the leftist FMLN party, which leads in public opinion surveys for the presidency as well as the legislative and municipal elections. Skirmishes between activists of different parties have continued and grown more violent. Meanwhile, a dirty campaign of fear propaganda has focused on the false threat that US diplomatic relations will end should the FMLN prove victorious.

International observers from the MOI will not only be monitoring various polling stations throughout El Salvador for potential fraud and irregularities, but will also be reporting on any violence that occurs on Election Day. In coordination with the CISPES office in Washington DC, they will be posting elections day reports and will hold a press conference on January 20 to present their observations.

http://cispes.org/09electionsblog/?page_id=2

[Peace Patriot]

5. Thank you for this info, Judy! 2,000 election monitors! Goodness!

And El Salvador is such a small country. There will be election observers crawling all over the place.

That is very, very, VERY good news.

I think there were only a few hundred in Venezuela for the referendum. Of course, the election monitoring groups have done a good job in Venezuela over the years; they helped set up a good system; Venezuela always gets good reports. So they didn't really need a lot of monitors there. Election fraud is unlikely in Venezuela.

At the least, if things go bad in El Salvador, we will hear about it, in the observers' reports. And I see that the monitoring groups have already been busy. These groups generally require their participation ahead of time, before any actual election--in setting up the rules, and reviewing implementation and fairness in election preparations. Sounds like they're going their job. But it also sounds like they may be anticipating trouble.

El Salvador's rightwing seems a lot like the Venezuelan rightwing opposition during the first 4-5 years of the Chavez government: hysterical, volatile, violent, no doubt planning disruption if they lose--and possibly a crippling strike of some kind, or an outright coup. The Venezuelan fascists caused immense trouble to the Chavez government, in that vein. But then, they had Bushwhack backing, including funding, training, organization. This is a different context--with Obama having said he wants peace and cooperation. I have no illusions about what our secret government may be doing, no matter what Obama says. And we should note that this use of "Hugo Chavez" as a bogeyman by El Salvador's fascists may be coming straight from Obama's State Department and/or Panetta's CIA. (It could also be Bushwhack residue--with, or without, Obama's blessing--it's too early to say what Obama's team intends, as to covert activities.) In any case, the political landscape of Latin America has also changed in the meantime. Nicaragua elected the Sandinistas. Guatemala--of all places--elected their first progressive government, ever. Even Honduras is leaning left. And South America, of course, is almost all deep blue. Back in the early Chavez years, Venezuelans were pretty much alone in fighting their battle for their Constitution, for democracy and for economic reform. El Salvadoran leftists are not alone. They now have friends in power all over Latin America. And even a more U.S.-friendly, centrist government like Chile's is adamant on the issue of the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and resisting U.S. interference.

[magbana]

2. This gives me the willies . . .

I know why Morales had to say "yes" to UN observers. His government is transparent and logically there should be no fear of having the UN in the country. But, like the experience in Haiti, albeit peacekeeping, where the operation was used to extend US influence over Haiti, having UN observers should be viewed with some skepticism. Sure, everything might run just fine, but I hope Bolivian state security keeps a close eye on these folks especially since the idea to have them there was at the behest of the opposition.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Yes, I see what you're saying. It's a good caveat.

The opposition did make the request (for UN observers). And one reason they might have done so is that UNASUR has little sympathy for them. None actually. UNASUR refused their request to participate in the UNASUR meeting about Bolivia. I think UNASUR's reply was something like: "Sorry, you are NOT the government. Um, who ARE you?" The fascists were trying to represent their secessionist insurrection as some sort of legit official entity. UNASUR may have also been reacting to the fascists' murder of some 30 unarmed peasants, and all their rioting and mayhem. So-o-o, the white separatists would be unlikely to appeal to UNASUR for observers, since UNASUR has their number. Does the UN? Good question. It may depend on which countries and which observers participate. And I have no idea how they are chosen. Another point for your caveat: Why isn't the OAS monitoring it? Because they, too, have no use for the fascist opposition? And what of the Catholic bishops? They were also involved in trying to broker a peace in Bolivia. Maybe not appropriate on the constitutional/land issue, but still--all previous parties, who all made it very clear that secession would not be tolerated, were not asked by the opposition to observe the current process. Who was left? The UN, which had not participated previously. Can/will the opposition manipulate UN observers. Dunno. Time will tell.

On thinking this through, I am not so benign about UN involvement. I would feel more confident if it were UNASUR or the OAS, who have dealt with these rich fascists before. However, I would imagine that Morales has some say in who is on this UN delegation. Bolivia currently does not have diplomatic relations with the U.S. So the U.S. is out, I would imagine. But there could be U.S. stalking horses. Morales is smart, though. He knows what's what, and will certainly cry foul, if something's wrong with delegation. Also, I imagine that UNASUR and the OAS are watching all this pretty closely, even if not directly. I was wondering why Morales hadn't invited UNASUR to participate, alongside the UN. It may well be an institutional problem--they just don't have the capability yet. But I believe that UNASUR's headquarters is going to be in La Paz, so some UNASUR people may be there, setting their headquarters up. And they have already, of course, played a big role in helping Morales keep Bolivia together.