Bolivia: Chronology of an Authentic Netwar

June 12, 2005
Gary Webb - Presente

Please Distribute Widely

Memo to Copublishers and Readers:

This is to thank each of you who participated, who reported, who
commented,
who “distributed widely,” and who responded to my appeal of last week,
“Help
Protect Your Journalists at an Hour of Moral Crisis.”

You made possible what happened in Bolivia – and on these pages – this
week.
Together we showed what a dedicated network of Authentic Journalists
and
supporters can do, in tandem with social movements, when we pool our
talents, resources, and keypads together.

In case you blinked – because it all happened so fast – I’ve prepared
this
summary of the action-packed series of breaking news reports from Luis
Gómez
and our entire team in Bolivia, and the considerable helping hand lent
them
from diverse points in our América and around the world.

As during previous hours of crisis, the lies got swatted down, the
truths
were shone bright, new advances were made in how to wage a popular
Netwar,
and Authentic Journalists drove, in recent days, the coverage of most
Commercial Media organizations to be more truthful than ever before
when
reporting events in Latin America…

An Authentic Chronology

Monday, June 6: Narco News Predicts a Resignation

Acting Publisher Luis Gómez reported at 3:37 p.m. that Bolivian
President
Carlos Mesa was close to resigning. Managing Editor Dan Feder swiftly
translated his report to English, too. Gómez reported that “according
to a
source within the Catholic Church who asked to remain anonymous, Carlos
Mesa
has a resignation letter ready and could present it, at latest,
tomorrow
night.”

At 9:45 p.m. Mesa began his resignation speech. It was up on Narco News
–
and on hundreds of other newspaper and newswire pages - 11 minutes
later.
But if you had read Narco News earlier in the day (as so many other
reporters tipped off to what was in the works by our report were now
paying
attention), then you already knew it was likely to occur.

Tuesday, June 7: The Tumult That Would Not Be Silenced

Gómez reported on Tuesday that Mesa’s resignation had not silenced nor
stopped the blockades and protests that were still shaking the country,
demanding a new constitution and the nationalization of the country’s
gas
supplies: With phrases like “The miners numbered several thousand
today, and
arrived heavily armed with dynamite,” it was clear that a resignation
aimed
at quieting a restless land only succeeded in agitating it more.

Jean Friedsky, via The Narcosphere, explained, from La Paz, how the
protests
were so very different than demonstrations she had witnessed in the
United
States:

“Here, ‘the revolution’ is anything but a party. Dancing hippies, drum
circles and four-story high puppets are notably absent from the recent
mass
mobilizations that have rocked Bolivia for the past two weeks. There
are no
breaks for concerts, no hemp clothing for sale. You are not an
individual,
but a part of your contingent, and from them you do not stray. In stark
contrast to the large-scale demonstrations in the US that have
characterized
the burgeoning anti-globalization movement, marches here in Bolivia are
supreme examples of discipline and seriousness. Rigidity replaces
fluidity;
unity replaces individualism; rash actions are rare. The marchers have
anger and determination in their hearts but reign that in for the sake
of
the long-term struggle. Their intensity is in their expressions, chants
and
willpower - not in violent behavior. Sure, some bring their whips,
dynamite
is abundant, and I saw one man yesterday wielding a cactus. But most of
the
time these are symbols of strength, rather than weapons for
destruction.”

As Gómez and Friedsky and our other collaborators on the ground in
Bolivia
were reporting from the front, I watched – across the Caribbean to the
Organization of American States assembly in Fort Lauderdale, Florida –
as
the US Ambassador to that organization, Roger Noriega, threw a tantrum
over
what was happening in Bolivia, blaming the events in the Andes on
Venezuela
President Hugo Chavez, and, we took on Noriega and his specious
arguments in
public.

The Christian Science Monitor linked to that report. So did The
Economist of
London. So did Venezuelanalysis.com, New Zealand’s daily Scoop, The
Smirking
Chimp blog, Norway’s Internasjonal Reporter, the international
Indymedia
front page (and countless other regional Indymedias), among many
others.

Narco News’ axiom, “please distribute widely” is not just a slogan on
our
alerts: it is an active principle of a functioning network and a weapon
in
Netwar. News was spreading fast and wide. It alerted all to pay
attention to
Bolivia. Whatever dark plans were being made in the control rooms of
power
and money for this Andean country, it was already clear that they would
not
go down quietly.

International media scrutiny, after all, is what keeps our reporters –
and
the people whose movements we cover – safer, sometimes even alive:
sunlight
as a defense weapon.

Wednesday, June 8: The Narco News Swarm

By Wednesday, Narco News was breaking major developments to the
English-speaking world: That the US Embassy in Bolivia, was being
evacuated,
and that Bolivian Congressman Evo Morales had called for a blockade of
the
city of Sucre where Congress had been moved by the Senate President who
wanted to be made president, Hormando Vaca Diez: a story first
published in
Spanish by the French Press Agency, but it was translated immediately
into
English by Narco News.

Bolivian Authentic Journalists Gissel Gonzales of Cochabamba, and Irene
Roca
Cruz of Santa Cruz weighed in with reports and analysis. Uruguayan
Authentic
Journalist Manuela Aldabe – picking up the telephone from Rome, Italy –
tracked down Bolivian Authentic Journalist Alex Contreras in the city
of
Sucre.

The authentic news was exploding now like popcorn from La Paz,
Cochabamba,
Santa Cruz, Sucre and elsewhere. Charlie Hardy, our own Cowboy in
Caracas,
posted historical perspective based on his own travels in Bolivia. Teo
Ballve, the Argentine Journalist in New York who keeps an eye on the
hemisphere posted some analyses. Gómez, Friedsky, Gonzales, Roca Cruz,
Feder, Aldabe, Contreras, Hardy… Experienced Narco News readers
recognize
these names as alumni and professors of the Narco News School of
Authentic
Journalism... Avengers Assemble! The Narco News “swarm” buzzed toward a
crescendo.

Thursday, June 9: Twenty-one Hours That Shook the World

At 2 a.m. on Thursday, the tireless Luis Gómez (who dressed himself in
glory
all week showing that my Tuesday comparisons of Gomez to John Reed,
Charles
Horman and Mario Menendez as a history-making reporter of revolution in
Latin America were not exaggerations), before he could try to rest on
the
tense night before the showdown, filed a report, Thursday Brings a New
Assault on Power in Bolivia:

“The great majority of the miners who faced the police with dynamite
downtown yesterday have already departed towards Sucre. And thousands
more
head there as well. Among them, hundreds of rural Aymaras, who decided
to go
as well this morning to surround the National Congress and stop its
president, Senator Hormando Vaca Díez, from taking the office of
president
of the republic…
“Tomorrow, we will try to learn whether this conflict will deepen, who
decided its end, or if there is a possibility of calling early
elections, as
Mesa proposed last night…

“Kind readers, renew your strength tonight and wait for tomorrow…”

Meanwhile, here from the site of the future permanent campus of the
Narco
News School of Authentic Journalism, at 11:30 p.m., the dogs up and
down
this dirt road began to howl.

Down the hill, a sound emanated from the ocean.

It was the long, high-pitched wail of… it was… yes… a whale!

The oceanic alarm, it seemed to move, like the news itself, from South
to
North… a creature that, like Authentic Journalism, faces extinction but
that
keeps sounding its siren alarm. I was jostled out of bed, worried for
our
journalists in Bolivia… tossed and turned, tried to sleep... by 2:30
a.m.,
the neighborhood dogs were barking again, sending the local roosters
into
chorales of crowing. With so many of our journalists on the battlefield
on a
dangerous day to come, and sleep an option no more, your correspondent
surrendered to the story, put coffee on the stove for the long day’s
battle
ahead, and penned Zero Hour in Bolivia: What to Watch for Today, to set
the
tone of the coming day’s coverage at the beginning of the day’s news
cycle.

Our reporters on the ground in Bolivia would dependably chronicle as it
was
happening.

Via the Internet, Narco News tuned to Bolivia’s national public Radio
Erbol
and began translating their reports from Sucre into English, moments
after
each was broadcast. (See also Ben Melançon’s analysis, In this
Relentless
Bolivian Revolution, Media Matters.)

Narco News reported (the first to do so in English) that the Bolivian
Congress had not succeeded in convening at 10:30 a.m. as planned.

Before lunch hour, Luis Gómez predicted that Congress may not be able
to
meet at all in order to coronate Vaca Diez as president:

“Copublisher Jean Friedsky and this reporter doubt that they will pull
off a
session today. There was a general pre-agreement to begin work by 6
p.m.,
but it is far from certain whether that will happen.”
Gómez and Friedsky turned out to be, again, prophetic.

At 3:49 p.m. Gómez broke a major story: that disgraced and exiled
Bolivian
president Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada’s son-in-law had arrived in
Sucre
riding on the same airplane as aspiring dictator Vaca Diez, and traced
the
facts showing that Goni and the US Embassy were collaborating in the
attempt
to impose Vaca Diez upon the throne.

Sixteen minutes later, at 4:04 p.m. Gomez informed the world that the
day’s
conflicts had brought the first martyr: Juan Coro, a Bolivian
mineworker,
who had been shot by police while he sat on a bus on his way to the
protests
in Sucre.

Rumors quickly spread throughout the World Wide Web that Bolivian
Military
soldiers had assassinated him. If true, it would have been even graver,
for
all prior indications (including in Narco News reports) were that the
Armed
Forces were refusing to act violently against the Bolivian people in
this
conflict. It was a moment when we all got a collective lump in our
throats,
and worried intensely while also mourning a fallen American.

At 5:08 p.m., Gómez came in with an earthshaking report that changed
the
course of history: “BOLIVIA’S ARMED FORCES DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE
REPRESSION,” Gomez shouted in capital letters.

The assassination had been committed by police who had, according to
Gomez’s
famously accurate sources, been ordered by aspiring president Hormando
Vaca
Diez to stop the mineworkers from reaching the Congressional meeting in
Sucre:

“Vaca Diez ordered the Commander in Chief of the National Police, David
Aramayo, to block the passage of all demonstrators who were marching
toward
the capital to surround the session of Congress.

“It was members of the special forces group known as ‘The Dalmatians,’
known
for their brutal participation in the Water War of 2000 in Cochabamba,
who
repressed the mineworker’s march. Now, with this information confirmed,
we
can correct (the facts), for the peace of mind of all the world…”

Apparently Vaca Diez (also in constant contact with his advisors
utilizing
many of the same cell phone-to-Internet communications systems that are
part
of the new landscape for newsmakers as well as news reporters) was one
person to whom this news did not cause “peace of mind.” He immediately
fled
from the Congressional session – claiming he was going to meet with a
police
officer – and ran directly to the military base in Sucre seeking
protection
from angry mineworkers who were also learning, at this moment, of his
role
in the true facts about the death of their fallen comrade. Vaca Diez
was,
factually speaking, a hunted man.

In his report for the next morning's daily La Jornada in Mexico, Gómez
added
some interesting context that showed just how responsibly the Bolivian
Armed
Forces had acted. And given the dark history of how that institution
was
used and abused by Power to repress its own people throughout history,
this
was an especially comforting report:

"The Bolivian military, that on this day had deployed troops in various
cities of the country, especially in Santa Cruz, evaluated the
situation of
Senator Vaca Diez. 'Seeing that the country was in a delicate
situation,'
one high ranking military officer told La Jornada, 'and that it was
impossible to get him out of there discreetly without causing
confrontations, we made a call to him.' Vaca Diez listened, via his
cell
phone, to the firm voice that explained everything to him. At the time
the
position of the Armed Forces of Bolivia was made clear to him: 'Avoid a
confrontation between brothers at all costs.'
"'It was about nothing more or less than an 'invitation' to consider
that
the Armed Forces were not going to resort to bullets, in contrary to
what he
and others believed,' the high ranking military official continued.
'And he
was also reminded that we had said that Congress should listen to the
voice
of the people, to the popular demands.' That made the difference. And
Vaca
Diez, a capable politician, opted to return to the Congressional
meeting in
Sucre three hours later.

But at that same hour, on Thursday afternoon, many news organizations,
including activist sites, had jumped on the news of the death of
mineworker
Juan Coro, and pointed the finger at the Bolivian military. Narco News
alone
corrected the story and brought the true facts up for air.

To give you an idea, kind reader, of what goes on behind the screen,
between
our newsrooms and reporters in the field at hours of crisis like this:
Narco
News has established lightning-fast communications systems, utilizing
cell
phones, Internet, online text messaging to cell phones, Instant
Messenger
service with various backup systems, emergency Internet “safe houses”
to go
to in case our communications systems suddenly went down… We set up
“buddy
systems” for reporters to keep track of each other and of our best
sources
to alert us of any problem or threat to security.

At the moment that bulletin came in from Gómez, I had been chatting on
IM
with various collaborators, including Teo Ballve in New York. “What’s
happening?” he typed.

“It’s over for Vaca Diez,” I replied. “He can’t survive this latest
revelation.” I turned to Gómez and asked, "can we publish that as a
fact
yet?" Gómez said we needed to do more investigating, and we all went
back to
work contacting sources.

The sources spoke, the facts rolled in, the news updates came flooding
via
the Narcosphere: At 5:50 p.m. Gómez confirmed that Vaca Diez had
suspended
the Congressional session – forty-two minutes after Narco News had
reported
the information about his role in the death of the mineworker. By 9:31
Gómez
and other news agencies widely reported that Vaca Diez had withdrawn
his bid
to become president. Then at 11:17, the world knew: Bolivia Has a New
President, Eduardo Rodríguez, whose first act was to call for new
elections.

In twenty-one hours, a likely wave of terror was transformed into
another
hopeful step toward authentic democracy.

The feared wave of repression promised by Vaca Diez and his “Doctrine
of
Authoritarian Government” had been stopped in less than a day by the
social
movements of Bolivia. Authentic Journalists inside the country and
around
the world lent a significant assist and back-up to their heroism, and
particularly acted as a counterweight to the distorting abilities of
the
Commercial Media and the power brokers in Washington and Wall Street.

This is what Narco News and the Narcosphere was set up to do: to
harness the
energy and creativity of truth-tellers and Authentic Journalists to
smack
down the lies and bring sunlight upon the dark recesses of media
simulation,
especially at those hours of crisis when the professional simulators
have
for so long gotten their way.

I am certain, kind reader, that this story would have ended up
differently
had your journalists not been in the battle on June 9, 2005, and in the
weeks prior to the shift.

Study how this story was reported, and how the way it was reported, so
differently from the formulas of the Commercial Media affected the
outcome
of the story.

From the point of view of strategy, tactics and journalistic technique,
these recent days represent an advance for the Narco News “swarm
coverage”
form of Authentic Journalism. Just as in previous major news torments –
the
Mexican presidential elections of 2000, the Zapatista caravan of 2001,
the
rise of the Bolivian coca growers of that same year, the Venezuela coup
attempts of 2002, the staggering electoral changes from Bolivia to
Brazil to
Ecuador to Argentina during these same years, Venezuela’s presidential
recall referendum of 2004, the defeat of the Mexican “desafuero” plot
in
2005, and now this week’s events in Bolivia… Speed and accuracy, when
combined in reporting, are global weapons now.

These are weapons in your hands. Here, although we meet professional
codes
and standards, we don’t just leave it up to the so-called
professionals. For
us, "professional" has nothing to do with whether someone gets paid or
not.
We involve you, the readers and the sources, and our humungous and
growing
international network of Authentic Journalists together as we cover
immediate history like it has never been reported before.

There will be more battles to come, more truths to be told, more lies
to be
smacked down, and an authentic democracy to be won. If you were part of
this
week’s events with us – as a reporter, as a copublisher, as one of the
readers who donated to let this all happen this week – I know you feel
pretty damn good right now.

You know what you did, what we did, together. It’s exciting. It’s a new
day.
It’s a new way of fighting, and a new way of winning.

If you were not part of it but you find yourself reflecting that this
is the
kind of participation in your world and your hemisphere that gets
results
and therefore is worth your time, please join in this Authentic
Journalism
crusade. We need all hands on deck for the stories and battles to come.

We – the journalists, the copublishers, the donors – all give what we
can,
in labor and in resources – in order to make reports like this
available
free of charge to everybody in the world.

Primarily, though, it is the real people of Bolivia who risked their
lives
to save their country from an evil return to the past of dictatorship
and
repression: Authentic Journalism plays an auxiliary role, but one that
is
absolutely necessary to the people’s voice being heard – and not being
distorted or simulated - across borders.

So, if you were involved, thank you.

And if you are not yet involved, or have been busy with other things,
I’ll
tell you this: We, the journalists, do this work on vapors. This week
of
course required more resources than normal weeks. And you can still be
part
of it by making a donation to our fiscal sponsor, The Fund for
Authentic
Journalism.

After all, what else have any of us done this week or weekend that is
more
worthwhile than changing the course of history for the better? Whatever
you
are spending your hard-earned money on these days, please consider that
alimentation with information is just as important as food, drink,
shelter
or entertainment, in many cases more so, to our living in a civilized
and
informed world.

What we don’t know can hurt us.

What we do know can save us.

Help make sure we keep knowing and reporting the big truths and facts.
Make
a donation, online, right now via The Fund for Authentic Journalism
website:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org/