Judi Lynn
Judi Lynn's JournalAnti-government protesters in Bogota expel police infiltrators
(Image: El Tiempo / Twitter)
by Adriaan Alsema November 21, 2019
Anti-government protesters in Bogota peacefully expelled two policemen who tried to infiltrate the massive marches, newspaper El Tiempo reported Thursday.
The two undercover cops were caught while trying to join the protests near the Cundinamarca Governor’s office, according to the newspaper.
“We don’t want infiltrators,” the protesters responded loudly. “Go away!”
The policeman told a protest organizer he had been ordered to infiltrate in the protests “to protect people,” El Tiempo reported.
A protest leader reportedly told the policeman to please do so in uniform.
Police vandals caught in previous protest
During peaceful student protests that were held last month, students apprehended police infiltrators who were committing acts of violence in an apparent attempt to trigger action from the ESMAD riot police unit.
More:
https://colombiareports.com/anti-government-protesters-in-bogota-expel-police-infiltrators/
Bolivia's crisis exposes old racial, geographic divides
The Associated Press
November 17, 2019, 12:03 AM
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s increasingly violent political crisis is exposing historical racial, ethnic and geographic divides that many thought had been overcome after 14 years of rule by the Andean nation’s first indigenous president and a new “plurinational” constitution, analysts say.
While regionally Sunday’s resignation of Evo Morales marked the exit of the last member of the wave of leftist leaders who took power in South America in recent decades, inside Bolivia the departure of the president who had stabilized the chronically unstable nation was a political earthquake that has re-opened old cracks.
Analysts say the movement to oust Morales was an urban middle-class revolt against what opponents said was fraud in his re-election and his repeated bids to retool the constitution to extend his rule through four terms. After weeks of protests, military leaders urged Morales to step down.
. . .
Morales upended politics on Jan. 22, 2006 when he took power in a nation long ruled by light-skinned descendants of Europeans even though 65% of the population identify themselves as members of an ethnic group. His election was hailed as a milestone achievement for the nation’s indigenous population which had not gained the right to vote until 1952.
More:
https://wtop.com/latin-america/2019/11/bolivias-crisis-exposes-old-racial-geographic-divides/
Top Bolivian coup plotters trained by US military's School of the Americas, served as attachs in F
November 13, 2019
Top Bolivian coup plotters trained by US military’s School of the Americas, served as attachés in FBI police programs
Commanders of Bolivia’s military and police helped plot the coup and guaranteed its success. They were previously educated for insurrection in the US government’s notorious School of the Americas and FBI training programs.
By Jeb Sprague
The United States played a key role in the military coup in Bolivia, and in a direct way that has scarcely been acknowledged in accounts of the events that forced the country’s elected president, Evo Morales, to resign on November 10.
Just prior to Morales’ resignation, the commander of Bolivia’s armed forces Williams Kaliman “suggested” that the president step down. A day earlier, sectors of the country’s police force had rebelled.
Though Kaliman appears to have feigned loyalty to Morales over the years, his true colors showed as soon as the moment of opportunity arrived. He was not only an actor in the coup, he had his own history in Washington, where he had briefly served as the military attaché of Bolivia’s embassy in the US capital.
More:
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/13/bolivian-coup-plotters-school-of-the-americas-fbi-police-programs/
Western Media Whitewash Bolivia's Far-Right Coup
NOVEMBER 15, 2019
LUCAS KOERNER AND RICARDO VAZ
Bolivia has a new US-backed puppet leader, and the Western media can hardly conceal their adulation.
Jeanine Áñez declared herself “interim president” in a near-empty Senate chamber on November 12, proceeding to don the presidential sash with the assistance of uniformed soldiers. Despite a lack of quorum rendering the move nakedly unconstitutional, Áñez was immediately recognized by the Trump administration and 10 Downing Street.
Tuesday’s scene seemed like a parody of January’s events in Venezuela, in which a virtually unknown lawmaker, invoking highly dubious constitutional arguments, proclaimed himself “interim president” to the delight of Washington.
For all the supposed threat Trump represents and the enthusiasm sparked by his possible impeachment, Western media continue to march lockstep behind his administration’s coups in Latin America.
. . .
The right-wing violence was framed as “clashes” (DW, 11/8/19; France 24, 11/8/19) over “controversial” or “disputed” electoral results (Washington Post, 11/07/19; BBC, 11/7/19) enabling the US-backed opposition to don the mantle of pro-democracy protesters. To bolster this “fraud” narrative, Western journalists uncritically repeat the US-financed OAS’ claims of “irregularities,” and largely ignore a CEPR report that found no evidence discrediting the results.
More:
https://fair.org/home/western-media-whitewash-bolivias-far-right-coup/
Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016242529
Bolivia's interim president's indigenous-free cabinet heightens polarization
Rightwing Christian Jeanine Áñez vows to ‘pacify’ country
Disrespect for indigenous Wiphala flag stokes outrage
Dan Collyns in La Paz
@yachay_dc
Thu 14 Nov 2019 15.38 EST
Bolivia’s controversial new interim president has unveiled a new cabinet which critics say could further increase polarization in the country still deeply split over the ousting of her predecessor, Evo Morales.
To the applause of military top brass, lawmakers and senators, Jeanine Áñez vowed to “reconstruct democracy” and “pacify the country” at a late-night ceremony in the “Palacio Quemado” (Burnt Palace) presidential building.
“We want to be a democratic tool of inclusion and unity,” said the 52-year-old religious conservative, sitting at a table bearing a huge open Bible and crucifix.
But the transitional cabinet sworn into office on Wednesday night did not include a single indigenous person, in a country where at least 40% of the population belongs to one of 36 indigenous groups.
. . .
Speaking to journalists, Áñez’s new interior minister, Arturo Murillo, vowed to “hunt down” his predecessor Juan Ramón Quintana, a prominent Morales ally, stoking fears of a witch-hunt against members the previous administration.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/bolivia-president-jeanine-anez-cabinet-indigenous
What the coup against Evo Morales means to indigenous people like me
Nick Estes
The indigenous-socialist project accomplished what neoliberalism has repeatedly failed to do: redistribute wealth to society’s poorest sectors
@nick_w_estes
Thu 14 Nov 2019 02.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 14 Nov 2019 10.32 EST
Evo Morales is more than Bolivia’s first indigenous president — he is our president, too. The rise of a humble Aymara coca farmer to the nation’s highest office in 2006 marked the arrival of indigenous people as vanguards of history. Within the social movements that brought him to power emerged indigenous visions of socialism and the values of Pachamama (the Andean Earth Mother). Evo represents five centuries of indigenous deprivation and struggle in the hemisphere.
A coup against Evo, therefore, is a coup against indigenous people.
Evo’s critics, from the anti-state left and right, are quick to point out his failures. But it was his victories that fomented this most recent violent backlash.
Evo and his party, the indigenous-led Movement for Socialism (MAS in Spanish), nationalized key industries and used bold social spending to shrink extreme poverty by more than half, lowering the country’s Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality, by a remarkable 19%. During Evo’s and MAS’s tenure, much of Bolivia’s indigenous-majority population has, for the first time in their lives, lived above poverty.
The achievements were more than economic. Bolivia made a great leap forward in indigenous rights.
Once at the margins of society, Indigenous languages and culture have been thoroughly incorporated into Bolivia’s plurinational model. The indigenous Andean concept of Bien Vivir, which promotes living in harmony with one another and the natural world, was written into the country’s constitution becoming a measure for institutional reform and social progress. The Wiphala, an indigenous multicolor flag, became a national flag next to the tricolor, and 36 indigenous languages became official national languages alongside Spanish.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/14/what-the-coup-against-evo-morales-means-to-indigenous-people-like-me
After Trade Deal, Unhealthy Foods Flowed Into Central America, Dominican Republic
After Trade Deal, Unhealthy Foods Flowed Into Central America, Dominican Republic
November 14, 2019
By Eurasia Review
How do free trade agreements impact diet and health?
A study on a trade deal between the U.S. and smaller, developing countries in Central America and the Caribbean highlights the need for policymakers to consider this question, says Marion Werner, PhD, associate professor of geography in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the Center for Trade, Environment and Development at UB.
Werner led the research, published online this August in the journal Social Science and Medicine. The study analyzes the availability of non-nutritious food in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic in the years after the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) was signed between those countries and the U.S., going into effect in 2006.
The research was a collaboration between Werner and colleagues at UB and the Santo Domingo Institute of Technology (INTEC) in the Dominican Republic.
With regard to the Central American signatories and the Dominican Republic, “Our main finding is that the trade agreement is associated with the importation of much less healthy food,” Werner says. “This includes industrial sweeteners, edible oils high in saturated fats, and processed foods.”
“We’re trying to think about the health effects of trade agreements,” she says. “The U.S. is exporting ever-more processed foods, as well as meat, to the region, while making it harder for farmers there to supply healthy foods for the local market. This situation has an impact on the health of Central Americans, especially low-income folks, as an unhealthy diet can lead to higher rates of obesity and overweight populations.”
More:
https://www.eurasiareview.com/14112019-after-trade-deal-unhealthy-foods-flowed-into-central-america-dominican-republic/
Archaeologists find ancient site older than Machu Picchu
Archaeologists find ancient site older than Machu Picchu
The ancient mountaintop settlement in Peru is 1,500 metres higher than the Inca capital and has pre-Inca features
Hayley Skirka
Nov 12, 2019
Researchers in Peru have discovered an ancient site pre-dating the ancient Inca capital. Courtesy Pedro Szekely / flickr
Researchers and explorers in Peru have uncovered an ancient settlement that is older than Machu Picchu.
Archaeologists Thomas Hardy and Adan Choqque Arce alongside explorer Albert Linn used new drone technology to explore the ancient settlement high in the Peruvian Andes.
Located in an area called Wat'a and sitting at an altitude of almost 4,000 metres, 1,500 metres higher than the ancient capital of the Inca community, the region had previously only been explored using traditional archaeological methods.
. . .
Using Light Detection and Ranging technology (Lidar) the trio were able to identify signature Inca terracing and pre-Inca structures for the first time.
More:
https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/travel/archaeologists-find-ancient-site-older-than-machu-picchu-1.936503
ANCIENT INCA CITY LOCATED 13,000 FEET HIGH IN PERUVIAN ANDES REVEALED BY LASER TECHNOLOGY
BY ARISTOS GEORGIOU ON 11/10/19 AT 5:00 AM EST
Researchers have uncovered fascinating new insights into an ancient mountaintop settlement high up in the Peruvian Andes, which pre-dates the famous Inca site of Machu Picchu.
National Geographic explorer Albert Lin—along with archaeologists Adan Choqque Arce and Thomas Hardy—used a revolutionary technology known as LiDAR (light detection and ranging) to reveal the full extent of this city, which was settled by the Incas and the people that came before them (often referred to as the pre-Incas).
The settlement lies in an archaeological zone known as Wat'a—meaning "island" in the local Indigenous language—at an altitude of around 13,000 feet. This is around 5,000 feet higher than Machu Picchu, the crowning glory of the Inca civilization.
"It is very challenging to get there," Lin told Newsweek. "You're at around 13,000 feet of elevation and its mostly open landscape because there's not a lot of trees around, so you're basically baking in the high altitude sun, all the way up."
More:
https://www.newsweek.com/ancient-inca-city-peruvian-andes-1468755
Also posted in Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12295078
Legitimacy and Democracy in Bolivia
Rejecting Simplistic Readings of the Morales Ouster
November 12, 2019
Jeffrey C. Isaac
James H. Rudy Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington
This past Sunday, Bolivian President Evo Morales was forced to resign his position, in the face of an intensifying domestic polarization and civil violence, centered on the contested results of his October re-election, for the fourth time, to the Presidency.
It is clear that one important dimension of this polarization was the defection of important elements of the police and the armed forces. The New York Times reported that “Bolivian Military Asks Morales to Resign to Ensure Stability,” quoting General Williams Kaliman, the chief military commander: “”After analyzing the internal conflict situation, we ask the President of the State to renounce his presidential mandate, allowing for peace to be restored and the maintenance of stability for the good of Bolivia.”
This surely sounds like a coup. Morales and his supporters describe it as a coup, as do a great many supporters across the world and many of the governments in the region, including Mexico. The Times reported yesterday that:
Former President Evo Morales on Monday encouraged resistance to efforts to form a transitional government leading to fresh elections in Bolivia after his resignation prompted violent protests by many of his supporters. “You never abandoned me and I will never abandon you,” Mr. Morales wrote on Twitter from an unknown location only hours after he was forced to step down. “The world and patriotic Bolivians will repudiate this coup.”
More:
https://publicseminar.org/2019/11/legitimacy-and-democracy-in-bolivia/
Evo Morales reaches Mexico as supporters march in Bolivia
BY LUIS ANDRES HENAO AND CARLOS VALDEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
NOVEMBER 12, 2019 12:47 PM, UPDATED 2 HOURS 50 MINUTES AGO
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
Evo Morales, who sought to transform Bolivia as its first indigenous president, flew to exile in Mexico on Tuesday as thousands of his supporters clamored for his return in the streets of the Bolivian capital.
Military fighter jets flew repeatedly over La Paz in a show of force that infuriated Morales loyalists who were blocked by security forces from marching to the main square.
"We're not afraid!" shouted demonstrators, who believe the ouster of Morales following massive protests was a coup d'etat as well as an act of discrimination against Bolivia's indigenous communities.
~ ~ ~
Ronald Arias said he had left his home in El Alto and walked for three hours to his job in downtown La Paz because the cable car connecting the cities was suspended for security reasons and barricades blocked access to public transportation.
Arias, a native Aymara, said that thanks to Morales, his parents in the countryside gained access for the first time to running water and gas for cooking.
"I was so saddened by his resignation," he said. "A lot of people in El Alto shed tears for the president."
More:
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/world/article237269714.html
Profile Information
Member since: 2002Number of posts: 160,636
