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November 28, 2001
Happy Birthday to the Publisher's Mom
Please Distribute Widely
A Narco News Global Alert
Dear Colleagues,
A cynical ploy by the US Embassy and its "government" in Bolivia backfired
yesterday...
-- Bolivia Regime Goes After Olivera
-- The Viceroy Overplays Hand with Repression As Resumption of Coca
Eradication Is Threatened
-- Global Hero for the Environment and Workers Detained on Monday
"What the US Embassy Says, Goes"
-- ret. Colonel, Bolivian Armed Forces
http://www.narconews.com/
Narco News Commentary: Nothing is done by the Bolivian government without
permission from the U.S. Embassy. But yesterday the colonial viceroy --
Ambassador Manuel Rocha -- overplayed his hand.
Fearful of the popular response to government threats of resuming coca
eradication in the Chapare region -- where eradication was suspended and
4,000 military troops had to be withdrawn last week -- the Bolivian regime
and its Embassy puppetmaster tried to invoke fear. On Tuesday, one of the
nation's most important labor leaders and a global environmental hero, Oscar
Olivera, was forcibly detained. A message from his family appears on Narco
News. It says that this patriot has been charged with "sedition" among other
crimes.
Oscar Olivera, however, does not go quietly into the night. The winner of
the prestigious Goldman Award for environmental activism for the year 2001,
Olivera led a successful citizen movement against the Bolivian government,
the World Bank and multinational corporations; their attempted greedy grab
of water resources faced historic defeat at the hands of an organized
populace. Last year, Olivera received, in Washington, DC, the
Letelier-Moffit Human Rights Award, presented to him by the Institute for
Policy Studies and a leader of the AFL-CIO.
Olivera has spoken in the halls of the U.S. Congress, and in gatherings from
Washington to London to Ottawa to Vancouver in recent years.
It is obvious that as the US Embassy and its obedient government in Bolivia
are trying to spread fear of repression, as they attempt to jump-start the
eradication of small coca gardens, grown by families, for use as a food, but
they have not quelled the social revolt.
Olivera, and the labor and water movements that he has helped to lead, have
demonstrated active solidarity with the plight of the coca growers. That is
his only crime: Speaking and organizing, within his rights under law,
against a brutal tyranny imposed from far away.
The US government has long portrayed Bolivia as its Latin American "success
story" in the "war on drugs." It was able to do that through a
dictator-turned-"president" named Hugo Banzer, who fell ill last summer and
no longer inspires fear among the public. The new president, Jorge Quiroga,
does not have the same iron grip. And because the Bolivian regime has
misdirected too large a percentage of its wealth toward the drug war, the
national economy is in tatters. As Narco News has reported in recent days,
virtually every sector of Civil Society is lined up in opposition to the
regime's policies that are imposed by the US Embassy.
Narco News today publishes the letter from Olivera's family, and links to
information and reports from around the world that demonstrate the global
good will and solidarity that embrace Oscar Olivera and the movements he
represents.
Olivera was released from government custody on Tuesday afternoon, but the
State warned him that if he does or says anything that the regime dislikes
in the next three days, he may be arrested again. By arresting Olivera, the
Embassy and the regime had hoped to intimidate the social movements in
Bolivia at this key hour in the struggle. Instead, they have sparked global
attention and local outrage: the world is watching you, Ambassador Rocha,
and you will be held responsible by Civil Society within the United States
and throughout the world for any more repressive measures against Olivera or
any citizen leader on your watch. Because you, Mr. Viceroy, are under our
watch. That's not sedition, ambassador. It's called democracy.
from somewhere in a country called Am�rica,
Al Giordano
Publisher
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com/
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The State Department, too, subscribed for free alerts of new reports on The
Narco News Bulletin:
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