Lou:
I'm fie; busy; in the streets. The shit is THICK. I'm sedning on a note
on the situation we've been working.
Now: one dead, 26 wounded, government weak, but we are tired.
Tom
===============
Dear Larry:
Here's the information: (a) a note from a friend doing the innternational
coverage; (b) an OK Reuers piece, which mentions the companies involved,
(c) the note to invite Oscar Olivera to the A16 events.
(a)
Dear Friends:
Just a few hours ago Bolivia was declared under martial law. People are
being arrested, the army is occupying the streets, human rights offices are
being invaded by government agents, radio stations are being closed by the
military and huge sections of the city have had their electrical power cut
(I had to leave home to find a computer that was still charged to write this).
The situation is grave and we need help to get the story out. Please
share the brief article below as far and wide as you can with anyone who
will publish or broadcast it. My own media list is in a computer which I
can´t access. For the time being I can still be reached at 591-4-290-725. I
will try to send updates as the situation allows. Please do not worry for
our safety, my family and I are fine and keeping well away from the
violence. IF YOU RESPOND, PLEASE RESPOND TO THE EMAIL BELOW, NOT THE
RETURN ON THIS ONE.
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
BOLIVIA UNDER MARTIAL LAW
As of 10 am Saturday morning Bolivia was declared under martial law by
President Hugo Banzer. The drastic move comes at the end of a week of
protests, general strikes, and transportation blockages that have left
major areas of the country at a virtual standstill. It also follows, by
just hours, the surprise announcement by state officials yesterday
afternoon that the government would concede to the protests' main demands,
to break a widely-despised contract under which the city of Cochabamba's
public water system was sold off to foreign investors last year. The
concession was quickly reversed by the national government, and the local
governor resigned, explaining that he didn't want to take responsibility
for bloodshed that might result.
Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971-78, has taken an action
that suspends almost all civil rights, disallows gatherings of more than
four people and puts severe limits on freedom of the press. One after
another, local radio stations have been taken over by military forces or
forced off the air. Reporters have been arrested The neighborhood where
most of the city's broadcast antennas are located had its power shut off at
approximately noon local time. Through the night police searched homes for
members of the widely-backed water protests, arresting as many as twenty.
The local police chief has been instated by the President as governor of
the state. Blockades erected by farmers in rural areas continue across the
country, cutting off some cities from food and transportation. Large
crowds of angry residents, many armed with sticks and rocks are massing on
the city's center where confrontations with military and police are
escalating.
(b)
Bolivia Declares Emergency Over Protests
Filed at 3:41 p.m. ET By Reuters
LA PAZ (Reuters) - Bolivia's government put the landlocked Andean nation of
8 million people under a state of emergency on Saturday after it was rocked
for a week by protests over pending waterworks projects and legislation.
``We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a
state of emergency to protect law and order,'' President Hugo Banzer said
in a message delivered by Information Minister Ronald MacLean at the
government palace.
The state of emergency giving Banzer special powers to deploy police and
the military will be in place for 90 days. It was announced Friday night to
avoid damaging ``the efforts for social dialogue'' and assure ``that the
great effort toward economic reactivation is not set back further,''
MacLean read.
The move has to be ratified by Congress, where the ruling party controls
the majority.
Bolivia has been hit by protests in the central city of Cochabamba over a
$200 million waterworks project that promises to hike drinking water rates.
Meanwhile, roadblocks have been set up on several national highways by
peasants pressuring the government to relent on a bill currently being
debated in Congress that could force them to pay for water they currently
obtain for free.
On top of the waterworks demonstrations, university students in the central
city of Sucre -- home to the nation's Supreme Court -- have staged a hunger
strike against a ``persona non grata'' from the southern Tarija province
civic committee who was received by the president.
And in the capital city La Paz various police units have set off a mutiny
over low pay.
Mobilization of police and military began early on Saturday morning with a
raid on the headquarters of the Bolivian Workers' Central Union (COB). The
wives of thirteen police officers who were on a hunger strike in search of
better wages for their husbands were hauled away.
And at least 10 civic leaders were arrested in Cochabamba, the scene of
violent protests during the week against the new waterworks project, which
could raise water rates by 35 percent.
MacLean confirmed that at least 20 people had been arrested. Government
Minister Walter Guiteras told reporters those detained would be confined,
although he did not mention where.
``The chaos has begun to spread ... just at the moment in which we are
beginning an important economic reactivation plan,'' said the dictum from
Banzer, the fourth consecutive democratically elected president to be
forced into declaring a state of siege.
The government is refusing to climb down on the $200 million waterworks
contract in Cochabamba with Aguas del Tunari -- a consortium led by
London-based International Water Limited (IWL) -- saying it must guarantee
the rights of foreign investors. IWL is jointly owned by Italian utility
Edison and U.S. company Bechtel Enterprise Holdings.
Tear gas was fired on Friday at thousands of demonstrators in downtown
Cochabamba and peasant leader Felipe Quispe promised the protests would
intensify over the weekend.
A large military operation has been put into action to clear the highways
in five of the nation's nine provinces.
The roads have been blocked for the last five days by peasants railing
against the water bill they claim will bring large-scale private utility
projects and put a price tag on their water.
Waldo Albarracin, the influential president of the local human rights
assembly, said he saw no justification for declaring a state of emergency.
``Now we wait and see if the situation does not deteriorate into human
rights abuses,'' Albarracin told reporters.
(c)
Oscar Olivera is the Executive Secretary of the Cochabamba Federation of
Factor Workers, and a worker in the Manacao shoe factory, a subsidiary of
the Canada-based Bata Shoe Organization.
Since late last yer (1999) he has been organizing and headin up the
Coordiadora de Defense de Agua y la Vida (the Coordinator in Defense of
Water and Life), a broad based citizens coalition which has been working to
stop the privatization and loss of local control over local water systems,
both urban and rural (irrigation).
In the coalition are environmental groups, economists, lawyers, labor and
local neighborhood organizations.
The water system was privatized, and is now controlled by a consortium led
by London-based International Water Limited (IWL).
IWL is jointly owned by Italian utility Edison and U.S. company Bechtel
Enterprise Holdings.
The consortium immediately raised rates as much as 35%, in some cases more,
sparking protests.
There have been three waves of protes: Jan 12, Feb 4 and 5, and over the
last 5 days the city has been shut down completely, yesterday a state of
emergency was called, constitutional guarantees suspended, and the leaders
of the Coordinadora (as people refer to it here) have been either arrested
or driven underground.
5 leaders are in jail; three others are at this moment underground, Oscar
Olivera included.
At this point in Bolivia, the front lines in the battle against
globalization is the water struggle here in Cochabamba; Oscar is at the
forefront, and under attack.
Thanks for your help.
Lou:
More:
GOING AFTER AUGUAS DEL TUNARI BY GOING AFTER THE BECHETEL CORPORATION
THE BASICS
There are two different sets of decision makers that could choose to have
Aguas del Tunari leave Bolivia. One is the Bolivian government, which has
been the target of all the pressure to date. The other is Aguas del Tunari.
The most viable pressure point on the company is through one of its most
significant major financial backers, the Bechetel Corporation. Based in San
Francisco, Bechtel is a prime target for public action in the U.S. It will
be sensitive to press and public pressure that threatens its public
reputation. It is also located in a city where we have easy access to the
major newspaper and television stations, hundreds of activists and a
political environment ripe for linking Bechtel to the protests, repression
and killings here in Bolivia.
Note: Our timing on this could not be better. Next weekend in Washington
there will be a huge national mobilization against the IMF and WTO, akin to
Seattle. Last night a friend of mine in Western Mass. read my e-mail about
Bolivia to an organizing meeting for the mobilization, with 1,000 people
and Ralph Nader present. I think we can make the water issue here a
presence in DC next week.
THE PLAN
We need to immediately begin linking Bechtel to events in Bolivia in the
following ways:
1) Media Pressure: I will feed this story, with appropriate details, to my
own press list of 150, via e-mail, this afternoon. This should get it out
via UPI and others. I will also write an op-ed for the San Francisco
Chronicle or San Jose Mercury (Bechtel’s hometown papers) lifting up the
theme, "The Bechtel Corporations Fingerprints on Bolivia’s Bloodshed".
2) Public Action: I will also feed this information to my activist e-mail
list of more than 1,000 this afternoon, asking for people to immediately
write and e-mail Bechtel’s Chairman, Riley Bechtel, demanding that the
company honor the wishes of the people of Bolivia and leave, allowing an
end to the violence they have created. I will also try to get Global
Exchange to take this on with some organized action at Bechtel’s
headquarters in San Francisco.
BACKGROUND FACTS
Aguas del Tunari is a consortium led by London-based International Water
Limited (IWL). IWL was originally a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bechtel
Enterprises Holdings, Inc. (BEn) which is the project development and
financing arm of the Bechtel Corporation. In 1999 Bechtel sold a 50%
interest in IWL to Edison S.p.A. of Italy. (sources: Reuters and Bechtel
Web Site)
Bechtel is a global giant, posting more than $12.6 billion in revenue in
1998, $2.4 just on their projects in Latin America. IWL is its arm through
which it pursues water privatization projects, such as Aguas del Tunari.
Bechtel trumpets that IWL "with its partners, it is presently providing
water and wastewater services to nearly six million customers in the
Philippines, Australia, Scotland, and Bolivia and completing negotiations
on agreements in India, Poland, and Scotland for facilities that will serve
an additional one million customers."
Tom
Tom Kruse Casilla
5812 / Cochabamba, Bolivia
TelFax: (591-4) 248242, 500849
TelCel: 017-22253
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org/
