History Being Made in Bolivia

<h3><center>A Narco News Global Alert</CENTER></H3>
<H3><CENTER><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial">By Al Giordano</FONT></CENTER></H3>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" SIZE="+3" FACE="Arial">S</FONT><FONT
COLOR="#ffffff" SIZE="+1" FACE="Arial">ometimes the lack of
press coverage</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial"> in the
United States of the immediate history in our América
suggests that a story is too important to be told. Some news
has consequences to manufactured public illusions. Such is the
case with the news, this month, from Bolivia.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">The US-imposed drug policy
of eradicating the coca plant, even for use as a food and sacrament
by indigenous farmers, is a rotund failure that has only succeeded
in destroying the economy of a nation, and it has destabilized
the US-backed regime of Bolivian President Jorge "Tuto"
Quiroga.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT FACE="Arial">I</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">n
recent days, <I>Narco News</I> has translated reports that indicate
a </FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">Bolivia
on the verge of social uprising</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ffffff"
FACE="Arial"> and that </FONT><FONT FACE="Arial">members
of the United States Congress are concerned</FONT><FONT COLOR="#ffffff"
FACE="Arial"> about the price in human rights, militarization,
democracy and justice exacted by the drug policies demanded by
the US Ambassador in La Paz, Manuel Rocha.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">United States press agencies
- despite loud self-praise of "having rediscovered foreign
news" post-9/11 - are not reporting the story.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">Surely, it was news when
the Quiroga regime sent 4,000 military and police troops to the
Chapare region this month to forcibly eradicate coca.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">It was news when the Bolivian
press discovered that 500 illegal paramilitary forces were among
those troops, and documented that they are funded by the United
States, to do the dirty work of assassinating peasant farmers
and social activists.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">It was news when nine
farmers were assassinated.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">It was news when US Ambassador
Manuel Rocha praised the bloodshed, in the Spanish-language press,
as "heroic" and "sacrificial."</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">It was news when the farmers
of the Chapare region of Bolivia announced plans to blockade
the nation's highways in protest of the military invasion.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">It was news when other
social movements, including 250,000 retirees, joined in the social
protests.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">All this was, and remains,
the news of recent days, that goes unreported in the commercial
press.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">Even now, when the Bolivian
government, defeated by the popular protests, its economy in
shambles, withdraws 4,000 troops from the Chapare region and
suspends the forced eradication of coca, there has so far been
no mention of the details in the US press.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">Alone among the English-language
press has been the French wire service, Agence France Press,
with a report that appears below. But AP, UPI, Reuters, the New
York Times (with at least three correspondents in South America),
the Washington Post, the LA Times, CNN and the rest have chosen
to ignore the fact that one of three coca-growing countries in
South America has now suspended the program that eradicates coca
plants because of popular protests against the policy.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">The subplot is that the
US embassy is hopping mad at the decision to suspend eradication,
has begun behind-the-scenes pressure tactics against the democratic
institutions of Bolivia, and that President George Bush has called
Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga to Washington on December 6th
to reiterate the US position that, when democracy conflicts with
drug policies imposed by the US, democracy must be stopped at
all costs.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">Here is the hard news
and immediate history from Bolivia.</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">From somewhere in a country
called América,</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="Arial">Al Giordano, publisher</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT COLOR="#ff0000" FACE="Arial">The Narco News Bulletin</FONT></H4>
<H4><FONT FACE="Arial">http://www.narconews.com/</FONT></H4>