Larissa
1st February 2003, 15:17
This is recent information regarding the situation in Bolivia. Evo Morales (head of the Socialist Bolivian party MAS) did not attend the World Social Forum in porto Algre, Brazil due to the current and very important conflict in Bolivia.
Read the article at: http://www.narconews.com/hungerstrike1.html
"A Summary With New Information
Everyone will remember that the history of this new conflict (the most violent in five years) between the Bolivian coca growers' movement and the current government of this country, began with one Supreme Decree (number 26415). In this document, President Jorge Quiroga has decided that the coca from the Chapare region can not be sold because it is (so insist the government and the U.S. Embassy) a product of illegal crops. This unleashed a war over the eldest coca-leaf market in the country: Sacaba.
After various days of struggle in the streets with bonfires at almost every corner, four coca growers died in Sacaba, along with three military soldiers and a police officer. Beginning on Saturday, January 19th, the combined forces of the army and the police unleashed a wave of selective arrests that brought more than 100 leaders and militants of the Six Federations of Peasant Farmers of the Cochabamba Tropic. After these tragic acts and the arrests, the Congressmen from the traditional parties (fundamentally MIR, AND, MNR and NFR) came to an agreement: Evo Morales, the maximum leader of the coca growers and elected Congressman from the Chapare, had to be expelled.
On Thursday, the 24th, at 3:20 in the morning, the separation of the man who obtained the most votes in the general election of 1997 (according to data of the national Electoral Court, 70.3 percent) from his post was completed. In a process unworthy of representatives of the people, Morales' colleagues accused him of "abuse of immunity." That is to say, of taking advantage of his congressional immunity to foment crimes or protect criminals. In passing this resolution, the members of Congress based their maneuver on photocopies of newspaper reports! Although that was not the worst part of it, nor the fact that some of those who asked for his expulsion also have similar charges pending… The worst was that they violated their own ethics rules: they prevented him from defending himself. Evo Morales, according to said regulation (of which we have a copy), had 15 days from the presentation of the accusation against him to present proofs exonerating him, but this never occurred. And if it's about noncompliance with procedure, the stupidity of the congress members has come to the point of failing to deliver a copy of said resolution, in which, according to the internal norms and procedures of the House of Representatives, Morales would still be a member of Congress, because nobody has formally informed him of his definitive separation from Congress.
Nonetheless, Evo began his hunger strike in the seat of the Bolivian Congress, where they threatened to expell him by force and did not permit even the entrance of banners or placards. That's why, on Friday in the first flight to Cochabamba, the leader of the Chapare coca growers went there to continue his strike. On Tuesday, Morales reached his sixth day of hunger strike, installed in the offices of the Central Labor Union of the State of Cochabamba, a few steps from the police, the judges and other authorities in this city. His attorney, Dr. Héctor Arce, has presented a motion to the Supreme Court, the maximum judicial authority in Bolivia, against the illegal separation of Evo from Congress."
And Evo Morales' letter to the Wolrd Social Forum at:
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinam...arta_evomorales (http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.asp?pagina=carta_evomorales)
(Spanish only)
Other related site: http://www.aymaranet.org/EvoMorales1n.html
Read the article at: http://www.narconews.com/hungerstrike1.html
"A Summary With New Information
Everyone will remember that the history of this new conflict (the most violent in five years) between the Bolivian coca growers' movement and the current government of this country, began with one Supreme Decree (number 26415). In this document, President Jorge Quiroga has decided that the coca from the Chapare region can not be sold because it is (so insist the government and the U.S. Embassy) a product of illegal crops. This unleashed a war over the eldest coca-leaf market in the country: Sacaba.
After various days of struggle in the streets with bonfires at almost every corner, four coca growers died in Sacaba, along with three military soldiers and a police officer. Beginning on Saturday, January 19th, the combined forces of the army and the police unleashed a wave of selective arrests that brought more than 100 leaders and militants of the Six Federations of Peasant Farmers of the Cochabamba Tropic. After these tragic acts and the arrests, the Congressmen from the traditional parties (fundamentally MIR, AND, MNR and NFR) came to an agreement: Evo Morales, the maximum leader of the coca growers and elected Congressman from the Chapare, had to be expelled.
On Thursday, the 24th, at 3:20 in the morning, the separation of the man who obtained the most votes in the general election of 1997 (according to data of the national Electoral Court, 70.3 percent) from his post was completed. In a process unworthy of representatives of the people, Morales' colleagues accused him of "abuse of immunity." That is to say, of taking advantage of his congressional immunity to foment crimes or protect criminals. In passing this resolution, the members of Congress based their maneuver on photocopies of newspaper reports! Although that was not the worst part of it, nor the fact that some of those who asked for his expulsion also have similar charges pending… The worst was that they violated their own ethics rules: they prevented him from defending himself. Evo Morales, according to said regulation (of which we have a copy), had 15 days from the presentation of the accusation against him to present proofs exonerating him, but this never occurred. And if it's about noncompliance with procedure, the stupidity of the congress members has come to the point of failing to deliver a copy of said resolution, in which, according to the internal norms and procedures of the House of Representatives, Morales would still be a member of Congress, because nobody has formally informed him of his definitive separation from Congress.
Nonetheless, Evo began his hunger strike in the seat of the Bolivian Congress, where they threatened to expell him by force and did not permit even the entrance of banners or placards. That's why, on Friday in the first flight to Cochabamba, the leader of the Chapare coca growers went there to continue his strike. On Tuesday, Morales reached his sixth day of hunger strike, installed in the offices of the Central Labor Union of the State of Cochabamba, a few steps from the police, the judges and other authorities in this city. His attorney, Dr. Héctor Arce, has presented a motion to the Supreme Court, the maximum judicial authority in Bolivia, against the illegal separation of Evo from Congress."
And Evo Morales' letter to the Wolrd Social Forum at:
http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinam...arta_evomorales (http://www.forumsocialmundial.org.br/dinamic.asp?pagina=carta_evomorales)
(Spanish only)
Other related site: http://www.aymaranet.org/EvoMorales1n.html