Source: AFP, via Getty Images
Bolivia is on fire.
The fiery democratic revolutionary babes of Santa Cruz are no more.
Anti-communist protest turns violent in eastern Bolivia Friday
Source: AFP, via Getty Images
Now, it’s angry citizens of The Media Luna – four provinces, led by Santa Cruz, fighting to the last man against the brutal expansionary communism of Evo Morales’ Bolivia. This is going well beyond peaceful demonstrations to the first stages of insurgency and maybe war. Revolutionary war. They are fighting tyranny.
They’re fighting with axes, fists, and cudgels, in an action that began with a general strike Friday in four provinces against Morales’ effort to rewrite the constitution to maximize his own power. Attendence was huge, and anti-communist sentiment was very strong. Ten were reported injured. Morales’ MAS supporters, known as the Grupo Che Guevara fought back.
These are Morales’ Grupo Che Guevara counterprotestors with cudgels
Source: AFP, via La Razon
Media Luna’s leaders, from independent, industrious, diverse, immigrant-heavy Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija and Pando provinces, have declared a permanent emergency and vow to make their demands for liberty known to the Bolivian constituent assembly. That assembly is trying to end all rights for political minorities by giving the ruling MAS only 51% legislative support needed to pass laws. They’re going to use those laws, by the way, to overturn the constitution, and put in Morales’ totalitarian version.
This is a beautiful photo but these Bolivian legislators are the constitution-rewriters who seek disproportionate rights for the western states and Marxist central government at the expense of the four industrious and independent Media Luna provinces of the east.
Source: AP, via Yahoo! News
How bad is it? I’ll let ace blogger Boli-Nica, in this doozy of a post, describe exactly what Morales is doing here:
A draft of the proposed Evo-Constitution has been leaked, the full text is here. The inspiration of Chavez and the ailing fossil he was babysitting in Havana are all over it. Arguably it even goes beyond Chavismo, its stupidity is simply astounding.
The preamble openly states the aim of establishing “communal and socialist” rights, and declares its opposition to “imperialism” and “colonialism.” It eliminates the executive, legislative and executive, replacing it with five “popular” powers, vaguely including native peoples – who are already granted self-rule under municipal law. Further, in rather Orwellian terms the Evo Constitution, “recognizes” freedom of expression so long as it “conforms to the ends of a socialist and communitarian society.” It seems to allow for expropriation of any real or personal property, under any circumstance the government sees fit – subject to “due indemnization.”
While this neo-totalitarian project was being cooked up by whatever dinasours and idiots who drafted it, the Evo-Government was playing dirty trying to change rules. Under their proposed scheme any substantive item in the constituent assembly needed only a bare majority to be approved. That on top of the Evo government attempting to give the Constituent assembly all-encompassing powers, to the point where he was asked if he would give up the government.
Don’t believe me on the communism? Then look here:
The influence of Cuban indoctrinators and reeducators is strong in Bolivia
Evo Morales is in the pocket of his master in Havana, the aging Raul Castro.
Source, all photos: AP via Yahoo! News
The protestors are out on the streets. But among the photos, I don’t see babes, anywhere, and I looked hard. Now, it’s the hour of the angry young men.
Unrest on the streets of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Friday
Source, all photos: AP and Reuters, via Yahoo! News
The force impelling them is the same as that which drove the American Revolutionaries of 1776. Which is ironic, because Bolivia’s Morales claims he’s the one “refounding” the Bolivian republic. He may be ‘refounding’ it, but Bolivia’s men and women of the Media Luna are the ones willing to take up arms and fight for it. It’s almost ironic. These Bolivians are fighting against the destruction of their democracy and takeover of their country by foreign powers – monstrous Fidel Castro’s tyrannical Cuba and thuggish Hugo Chavez’s crime-infested Venezuela.
The tyranny these Bolivians resist is derived from foreign influences, but Morales, as the willing pawn of Chavez and Castro, is responsible for much of the trouble.
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales
Source: Reuters, via Yahoo! News
The puppety, theatrical, costumey Morales regime is not just a cute Sandalista tourist attraction: Innocent people, like these are being thrown into prison.
Three Bolivians under the Morales boot
Source, all photos: AP, via Yahoo! News
Former World Banker Jose Maria Bakovic and former central bank manager Marcela Nogales, in handcuffs, left and center, have been thrown into Morales’ dungeons, the former on improbable corruption charges, and the latter, on no charges at all, just ‘preventative detention.” WSJ’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady has written a devastating detailed expose of Morales’ abuse of both of them here. The targeting of bankers is part of Morales’ war on capitalism. The right figure, former President Eduardo Rodriguez, is being threatened with treason charges. His likely real crime was ensuring the free and fair elections that got Morales into office last December, an ominous sign for the future of elections in Bolivia. O’Grady notes that the real prize they are after is the sunny, market-friendly, extremely popular ex-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who is currently in exile.
Meanwhile, farm lands are under threat of expropriation in the repetitive way all private property is descrated in Marxist regimes. Natural gas companies were the first victims of the Morales confiscations, and I don’t have photos of them but several executives from those companies have been thrown into prison or threatened. Castro’s intelligence agents are a presence, bringing in military personnel and spies – as are Venezuela’s oil functionaries, helping themselves to Bolivia’s natural riches.
This is a new kind of event in the annals of democratic revolution, the first one that has gone from vast peaceful people’s demonstrations and turned truly violent. These Bolivians are willing to fight on the streets and in the mountains and on the jungle lands for their freedom, because the democracy they entrusted with their votes to Evo Morales is morphing into dictatorship right in their faces. It’s only the outlines of insurrection but I don’t think we should not recognize it for what it is. The next step may be to set up a new state, as this flag here shows:
Media Luna’s autonomy flag, which may morph into an independence banner if the people’s demand for liberty is not heeded.
Source: AP via Yahoo! News
This revolutionary demonstration against tyranny and foreign forces has ominously shown us a new dimension in the struggle against those who would end all freedom.
This is not democratic revolution as we have seen in the recent past – this is the first shot in an emerging revolutionary war. Either Morales respects democracy, allows dissent, tolerates political minorities or he faces war. He is going to have to make up his mind soon because Bolivia won’t wait.
In Beni province, the horse posse mobilized against communist outlaws Friday. Bolivia is still Butch Cassidy territory. Not only do Bolivians fit the revolutionary tradition of Thomas Jefferson, they also are Wild West frontiersmen, steeped in the rugged traditions of the New World.
Source: AFP, via La Razon
Miguel Centellas at the superb Ciao! blog is back with a vengeance, writing that for the people of Santa Cruz, there is real fear of violence, yet there is equal fear of what Morales might do if there isn’t. Morales is running out of time – and may not have the military there for him – it’s powerful reading here. In fact, read the whole thing, just click here and keep scrolling for the whole well-detailed and informed picture.
The brilliant Miguel Buitrago at MABB blog is also in fine form, detailing the systemic breakdown of rule of law in his latest post here. But there is so much more to read, so much more consistently reliable reading of the situation and informed commentary – read the whole thing here.
The always thoughtful Boz at Bloggings by Boz has a short item with several good links here, noting the new atmosphere of trouble in the country. He may have more so keep an eye on his blog here.
The kickass Boli at Boli-Nica has a great backgrounder he wrote a couple weeks ago about the buildup to this growing disaster of democracy in Bolivia. He discusses the Castroite influence and the failure of Morales programs in a typical Boli post that’s always a treat to read here. In fact, scroll down past his rock-and-roll posts and get more scoop on Bolivia here.
UPDATE: Alek Boyd at VCrisis has a very valuable post explaining the Chavista template Morales is using to destroy Bolivia’s democracy. He goes into the specifics but his essay isn’t overly technical. Instead, it’s very informative and gives us understanding of this critical dimension to Media Luna’s struggle. Read it here.
UPDATE: Gulf Coast Pundit has an interesting comment thread about this issue, full of unexpected associations in the U.S. context. I enjoyed reading it – check it out here.
UPDATE: Miguel Centellas of Ciao! blog just talked to his parents in Santa Cruz. He says the day-long general strike was hugely successful, as the empty streets of the city showed. He also said that the Morales government was pulling a ‘Baghdad Bob’ in its spinning of the strike’s success, saying it was just drunks and no participation. He says that’s total baloney. Now, the strike’s leaders are willing to go to the negotiating table. But a worrying development is Morales’ shutdown of the dynamic region’s economic fair, just on an arbitrary whim. He’s got tons more detail on this in this must-read post here.