Some late news from Bolivia by way of Narco News' publisher Alberto Giordano

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Unfortunately, what follows is one of the last posts from NarcoNews
which stops posting on
Oct. 19, which I have found despite (or perhaps because of their
legalize-drugs centered orientation) one of the best news sources
about Latin America.  Of course, Bolivia, where masses of peasants
produce for the (in the United States) illegal drugs market, and fight
militantly as peasants for their human right to do so until something
better comes along,  is Hog Heaven for NarcoNews and their reporting
has been extremely valuable.  I will miss them, as someone who has
never indulged.

I agree with Narco News that this is likely to be a long night.  It
was staying up all night to follow the collapse of the rightist coup
in Venezuela that recruited me to the Marxism list.
Fred Feldman



Blog entry:
There is nothing on the English-language wires yet, but Immediate
History
is sweeping Bolivia right now as I type...

Primero: After standing with the embattled president two nights ago in
a
last-ditch show of unity, the New Republican Force Party and its
leader,
Manfred Reyes Villa have called upon Goni to consider resigning today.

CNN Español reports:

"One of the parties that sustains the Bolivian administration
proposed, on
Friday, to President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada to think about
resigning as
a 'democratic solution' to the crisis that the country is living, said
a
party spokesman.

"The proposal was communicated to the president by the maximum leader
of
the New Republican Force party (NFR, in its Spanish initials), Manfred
Reyes Villa, during a meeting that was held in the leader's home, in
the
southern section of La Paz.

"'The NFR chief proposed to the president the urgency of a democratic
solution,' said party press secretary Carlos Millares..."

Segundo: The Bolivian Congress has scheduled a meeting for 4 p.m. in
La Paz.

Tercero: Marcio Aurelio Garcia, special envoy from the Lula government
in
Brazil, arrived in La Paz an hour ago, together with an envoy from the
Kirchner government in Argentina, Ricardo Scuiglia.

Lula and Kirchner met yesterday and, in a brazen rejection of
Organization
of American States boss César Gaviria (the former Colombian president
and
bat boy for Washington), have unilaterally sent their aides in to
monitor
and, behind the scenes, mediate a solution to Bolivia's standoff.

Aurelio Garcia is one of Lula's closest, most trusted, and smartest
advisors. And he's very enlightened on the need to reform drug policy
in
Brazil and throughout América. Bolívar's dream of a united Latin
America
takes a new leap forward.

Cuarto: Members of the Bolivian and foreign press corps now widely
refer
to the US Ambassador to Bolivia, David Greenlee, as "El Virrey" or
"The
Viceroy," a nickname first, and repeatedly, assigned to this war
criminal
by Narco News.

Quinto: One of the factors that has sealed the fate of Goni was his
tantrum last night on CNN Español, in which he launched an unprovoked,
Washington-scripted, attack against Venezuela President Hugo Chávez.
Other
Latin American heads of state believe that Goni's continuance now
works
against the construction of the South American Union. (Colombia's
increasingly isolated narco-president, Alvaro Uribe: take notice.)

Sexto: Thus, tonight being our last night of publication in the Narco
Newsroom, it looks like we may be going out with a bigger bang than we
had
thought.

Authentic Journalists Luis Gómez, Alex Contreras, and Andrea Arenas
are on
the scene in Bolivia to chronicle the Immediate History underway.
Three
more of our Authentic Journalism scholars are headed, as I type, to
Bolivia. Charlie Hardy has just filed a related update from Venezuela
(which may explain Washington's desperation to get Goni to attack
Chávez
last night). Webmaster Dan Feder and I are preparing for what could be
a
long night, if history breaks out in this afternoon's Bolivian
Congressional session.


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