BOLIVIA DEMANDS EX-PREFECT EXTRADITION FROM US

[Judi Lynn]

BOLIVIA DEMANDS EX-PREFECT EXTRADITION FROM US

LA PAZ, Jan 3 (NNN-Prensa Latina) –Bolivia’s Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) requested to begin the procedures to extradit former Cochabamba Prefect Manfred Reyes Villa, who fled to the United States on Dec 15.

According to police reports, another former presidential candidate of opposition Progressive Plan for Bolivia (PPB) probably left the country in disguise.

Government Minister Alfredo Rada said Reyes Villa is now a “fugitive from the Bolivian justice.”

The former authority’s escape led to several dismissals in the intelligence services and a purification of the immigration department and the police personnel in charge of monitoring the check point in Desaguadero, an area that borders with Peru.

According to a police investigation, through some point of the long border between Argentina and Bolivia, Reyes Villa was able to escape before fleeing to the United States.

http://world.brunei.fm/2010/01/03/bolivia-demands-ex-prefect-extradition-from-us/

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Bolivia's Water War Victory
by Jim Schultz
Earth Island Journal, Autumn 2000

At 10am, President Hugo Banzer places Bolivia under martial law. This drastic move concludes a week of protests, general strikes and transportation blockages that have jerked the country to a virtual standstill, and follows the surprise announcement of government concession to protesters' demands to break a $200 million contract selling Cochabamba's public water system to foreign investors.
The water system is currently controlled by Aguas del Tunari, a consortium led by London-based International Water Limited (IWL), which is itself jointly owned by the Italian utility Edison and US-based Bechtel Enterprise Holdings. Upon purchasing the water system, the consortium immediately raised rates by up to 35 percent. That untenable hike sparked the protests.
In January, "Cochabambinos" staged strikes and blocked transit, effectively shutting their city down for four straight days. The Bolivian government then promised to lower rates, but broke that promise within weeks. On February 4, when thousands tried to march in peaceful protest, President Banzer had police hammer protesters with two days of tear gas that the 175 people injured and two youths blinded.
Ninety percent of Cochabamba's citizens believed it was time for Bechtel's subsidiary to return the water system to public control, according to results of a 60,000-person survey conducted in March. But it seems that the government has come to Bechtel's rescue, insisting the company remain in Bolivia. President Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971-78, has suspended almost all civil rights, banning gatherings of more than four people, and severely limiting freedom of the press. "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order," Banzer trumpeted.
Local radio stations have been closed or taken over by military. News paper reporters have been arrested. Police conducted nighttime raids searching homes for water protesters and arresting as many as 20 people.
The local police chief has been installed as state governor. The "emergency government" now consists of a president (Hugo Banzer), a governor (Walter Cespedes) and a mayor (Manfred Reyes Villa), each of whom is a graduate of the notorious School of the Americas in Ft. Benning, Georgia (infamous for training foreign military personnel in terror and assassination techniques).
Rural blockades erected by farmers have cut some cities off from food and transportation. Large crowds of angry residents armed with sticks and rocks are massing in the city centers, where confrontations with military and police escalate.
Tear gas has engulfed thousands of demonstrators in downtown Cochabamba, while a large military operation is mobilizing to clear the highways in five of the nation's nine provinces.
All this puts Cochabamba on the front-line in the battle against a globalization of water resources. The Coordiadora de Defense de Aguay la Vida (CDAV, Coalition in Defense of Water and Life), a broad-based collaborative including environmental groups, economists, lawyers, labor unions and local neighborhood organizations, spearheads the campaign to prevent loss of local control over water systems. Its leaders either have been arrested or driven underground.
Bechtel Crumbles, Flees Bolivia
It has been one hell of a week here. The CDAV, led by 45-year-old machinist Oscar Olivera, has kicked the Bechtel Corporation out of Bolivia! (I'd like to see a consumer revolt in my home state of California match that!) The people stood up to President Banzer and martial law. I am in awe at what we were able to accomplish together, all across the globe, using the Internet. Hacking away at this keyboard in a corner of the Andes that few people in other places ever think about, we sent the news of what happened here out to many thousands of people around the world. In a matter of hours, we transformed the Bechtel Corporation from "the invisible hand behind the scenes" to a corporation right smack on the hot seat.

More:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html

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