Is there a way out of this mess?
"By Eduardo Garcia
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions with the United States.
Opposition activists shot dead seven peasant farmers in the remote Amazon region of Pando, a government official said, describing the incident as a massacre. An employee of the opposition-led regional government was also killed.
"We're talking about a real massacre and the person responsible is the Pando governor," said Deputy Minister of Social Movements Sacha Llorenti.
President Evo Morales' leftist government blames the unrest on rightist governors who control four of the poor country's nine regions.
The opposition demands greater autonomy and energy revenue and opposes plans by Morales, a former coca farmer and Bolivia's first indigenous president, to rewrite the constitution and distribute land to the poor.
Washington ordered out the Bolivian ambassador on Thursday a day after Morales, a close ally of Venezuela's fiery leftist leader Hugo Chavez, expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Morales accused Goldberg of fanning the protests.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement that Washington "officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata."
Here we have old wounds that never seem to heal. Historically we have supported the landowners and upper classes at the expense of the poor, which has given the communists political ammunition to shoot at the US.
Is there a way to work out a compromise here so that vast numbers of the poor are served while preserving the property rights of the landowners? In the end creating a better economy can help everyone. It may be naive but aligning with one group at the expense of the other groups and engaging in violence only makes things worse.
News on the Blue Marble
SANTA CRUZ, Bolivia (Reuters) - At least eight people were killed as violent anti-government protests flared in Bolivia on Thursday, creating havoc in the natural gas industry and raising tensions with the United States.
Opposition activists shot dead seven peasant farmers in the remote Amazon region of Pando, a government official said, describing the incident as a massacre. An employee of the opposition-led regional government was also killed.
"We're talking about a real massacre and the person responsible is the Pando governor," said Deputy Minister of Social Movements Sacha Llorenti.
President Evo Morales' leftist government blames the unrest on rightist governors who control four of the poor country's nine regions.
The opposition demands greater autonomy and energy revenue and opposes plans by Morales, a former coca farmer and Bolivia's first indigenous president, to rewrite the constitution and distribute land to the poor.
Washington ordered out the Bolivian ambassador on Thursday a day after Morales, a close ally of Venezuela's fiery leftist leader Hugo Chavez, expelled U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
Morales accused Goldberg of fanning the protests.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in a statement that Washington "officially informed the government of Bolivia of our decision to declare Ambassador Gustavo Guzman persona non grata."
Here we have old wounds that never seem to heal. Historically we have supported the landowners and upper classes at the expense of the poor, which has given the communists political ammunition to shoot at the US.
Is there a way to work out a compromise here so that vast numbers of the poor are served while preserving the property rights of the landowners? In the end creating a better economy can help everyone. It may be naive but aligning with one group at the expense of the other groups and engaging in violence only makes things worse.
News on the Blue Marble
posted by matua105 at 7:52 PM
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