Apr 16 2009
Assassins In Bolivia
An assassination attempt on the Bolivian President Evo Morales has been thwarted, leaving three dead, and two in custody. The assassins were foreigners, possibly Hungarian or Irish, and some reports say Bolivian. The plot was against Morales, the leftist President of the past three years, and Bolivia’s first indigenous leader, as well as the Vice President, and one cabinet member. There was a shoot out in Santa Cruz where the assassins were staying, according to the BBC. Santa Cruz is the central location of the opposition. Morales, who was informed by intelligence of the plot days ago, ordered the attack. The question is - why would foreigners try to assassinate Morales? What interests do they have in the Andean nation? They are reported to be a group of international mercenaries - paid by whom?
The Bolivian opposition, the wealthy conservative class that rules the Senate, or any other interests that don’t like a man of the people, and a supporter of Chavez ruling a South American country. Were the assassins paid by a political groups, or a conglomerate of corporate interests? The two survivors will obviously be interrogated for information, although they themselves may not know who they were working for. Police found heavy weaponry, including C-4 explosives, which are not found in Bolivia, according to a statement by Vice President Alvaro Garcia (Associated Press), as well as plans to go after the presidential motorcade.
The attempt comes two days after Morales ended his five day hunger strike. He was acting in protest of the blockage of constitutional changes which the majority of the population had voted for earlier this year. The changes would allow Morales to run again in December elections, and will reserve seven seats in the lower house of parliament for minority indigenous groups. Morales has so far done his best to work for his people, giving them a voice that they never had in their own country. Bolivia has been ruled by the mixed-race, wealthier classes who reside primarily in the south.
On a side not, to follow up on one of my recent posts - prosecutors in Spain have recommended to the court to drop the case against former Bush officials for their role in alleged Human Rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, saying that if they are to be brought to trial, the United States should be the first ones to take them to court. It is still possible that the court itself will choose to go ahead with the case.
Morales like Chavez represent the threat of a good example.
Good points to both, so this all loops around - what chance does latin america have for progress if “interests” are always wiping out the good guys.
Peter,
“Go back into history for your answer” What answer? To what question? Hmm Anyway when you say they did not “need to kill him”(Allende) I think they wanted to kill him. I think some wish that they had killed Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The CIA has had their dirty little fingers in plenty coup’s or undemocratic changes of guard Arbenz in Guatemala ’54, Lumumba in ’60 there is a long list and it seems killing people is usually just part of the deal. Don’t you know someone took an ass kicking over letting Chavez regain power in ’02. If they would have shot Chavez the company would have been thrilled and the thorn in Washington’s side would not have regained power 47 hours later.
Bstone,
What chance do they have? Hmm well I would not have thought Castro would have lasted as long as he did, nor Chavez but now we have Morales. Who knows, the US is due for a big fall and with that fall many of the colony’s of yesterday may gain democracy tomorrow. They have their share of ballsy leaders down there, we could use a few like that here in the US.
You know that’s very true. If leaders like Chavez and Morales can manage to take back the resources from foreign companies, then they will re-take the wealth that helped to make the US strong for all these years. I have the open veins of latin america book, but never read it, so will have to check it out. have you read it?