[Marxism] Bolivia: A fair assessment

["Nestor Gorojovsky" <nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am waiting word from Andrés SR.  Once I get it I will send to the 
list an assessment of events at Huanuni that I have been drafting 
these days.  However, the general description of the Cuban news 
agency sounds fair enough, though too abstract.


> Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 10:10:06 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Walter Lippmann <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Marxism] Bolivian Miners, Victims of Neoliberalism
> 
> Bolivian Miners, Victims of Neoliberalism
> 
> La Paz, Oct 7 (Prensa Latina) Bolivian Government Minister Alicia
> Munoz blamed neoliberal economic model for the 17 miners dead and 61
> wounded in Huanuni.
> 
> The Minister told the media that clashes between salary workers and
> cooperatives originate in past criminal economic model that laid off
> 30,000 miners.
> 
> They turned to plant coca, emigranted or joined unemployment ranks,
> adding that just the process of changes led by President Evo Morales
> can solve those and other accumulated problems.
> 
> Minister Munoz highlighted the will of clashing mining confederations
> to settle the crisis and restore peace at the tin mine.
> 
> She explained that Guillermo Dalence replaced Walter Villarroel as
> mining minister because the latter favored cooperative workers and the
> government seek alliances and benefits for all workers.
> 
> So far, coordinated effort by the government, the police and armed
> forces restored order and paved the way for negotiations.
> 
> President Evo Morales called to investigate the events and blamed
> those that try to disrupt the Constituency Assembly of attempt to
> frustrate oil nationalization that will eventually include all natural
> resources.
> 
> sus emw ga
> 
> PL-30
> 
> 
> HOUSTON CHRONICLE
> Oct. 7, 2006, 7:19PM
> 
> http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4243424.html
> 
> Bolivia hints at expropriating mines
> By DAN KEANE Associated Press Writer
> © 2006 The Associated Press
> 
> LA PAZ, Bolivia â?? Bolivia's president said Saturday the government
> should expropriate mines where private owners have not invested
> sufficiently, taking aim at the industry after clashes between rival
> bands of miners left at least 16 dead.
> 
> 
> The violence began Thursday morning when the independent miners
> stormed the state-owned Huanuni mine, 180 miles south of La Paz, which
> holds Bolivia's richest tin deposits. They were demanding more access
> to the tin deposits. State-employed miners counterattacked to regain
> control and the groups exchanged gunshots and threw dynamite, killing
> at least 16 people and injuring at least 60.
> 
> On Friday, Bolivian President Evo Morales replaced his minister of
> mines and the head of the state mining company.
> 
> "Mining concessions where there has not been investment must return to
> the hands of the Bolivian government," Morales told Indian coca
> farmers in the central Chapare region on Saturday. He gave no further
> details about government plans for undeveloped mining concessions.
> 
> Morales nationalized the country's petroleum reserves on May 1, giving
> all foreign oil companies six months to negotiate new contracts that
> cede majority control of their Bolivian operations to the state or
> leave the country.
> 
> Hundreds of miners belonging to independent cooperatives and
> state-employed miners have fought each other with gunfire and dynamite
> over access to the Huanuni mine. Hostilities between the miners ended
> in a tentative truce Friday after the government sent 700 police to
> control the mountainside where the mine is located.
> 
> Presidential spokesman Alex Contreras said both sides agreed to allow
> humanitarian aid to enter the town of Huanuni.
> 
> "We're only in a truce to give our families a burial," said Roxana
> Mercado, a leader of the mining cooperatives. "We haven't stopped the
> fight. Now the government will say if it will have a solution."
> 
> Bolivian mines once produced more than 30 percent of the world's tin.
> But production came to almost a complete halt following a collapse of
> the world metal market in 1985, and national mining company Comibol
> slashed its work force by about 25,000.
> 
> Indigenous Summit Opens in Bolivia
> 
> La Paz, Oct 8 (Prensa Latina) The Continental Summit of the Indigenous
> Peoples and Nationalities of Abya Yala is opening Sunday in Bolivia to
> condemn the new conquests in the region, boosted by the US.
> 
> More than a thousand representatives from Latin America and Europe
> attend the meeting called "From Resistance to Power", which starts
> with a ceremony to honor the 39th anniversary of the death of
> legendary Argentine-Cuban fighter Ernesto Che Guevara.
> 
> Natives from the US, Canada, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Brazil,
> Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela and Uruguay, among
> others, will spurn the Spanish colonialism and Washington´s new
> colonization strategy through the Free Trade Area of the Americas and
> the Free Trade Agreements.
> 
> They are also slated to brainstorm on interventionist policies against
> indigenous peoples plus condemn militarization and violation to their
> sovereignty and dignity.
> 
> Likewise, the encounter ending October 12 will stage solidarity events
> with the processes of Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela
> 
> hr ymr ga
> 
> PL-3
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 



Este correo lo ha enviado
Néstor Miguel Gorojovsky
nestorgoro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[No necesariamente es su autor]
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"La patria tiene que ser la dignidad arriba y el regocijo abajo".
Aparicio Saravia
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