Here is an article in Reuters today: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12423749.htm
I have also pasted below another article in English that just came in.
Unfortunately there is not much comprehensive coverage of the
situation in the main stream English language press. I think this
Reuters article lays out the basic situation. Just as a point of
reference when the organizers of the film festival were in Santa Cruz
last spring trying to organize venues for the festival they spoke with
someone from the Ministry of Culture there who said to them "there are
no indigenous people in Bolivia, so why would you want to have a
festival for them?" My co-worker from the Chiapas Media Project/
Promedios, Paco Vazquez was in Santa Cruz on Tuesday, and out on the
street taking photos of the unrest when he was grabbed by one of the
right wing agitators who called him an "indio" (Indian) and then tried
to get his camera away from him.
What is happening in Bolivia is that the racist, right wing elite does
not want to recognize a democratically elected indigenous president or
share their wealth with the majority indigenous population. It's
probably safe to assume that the US Embassy in Bolivia is in some way
supporting this uprising which is why Morales threw out the US
Ambassador. The good news is that all of Bolivia's neighbors are in
support of Morales and have offered to help mediate the situation.
Best,
Alex
Alexandra Halkin
International Coordinator/Coordinadora Internacional
Chiapas Media Project/Promedios de Comunicación Comunitaria
Distribution Commission for the Coordinator for Latin American
Indigenous Film and Communication (CLACPI)/Comisión de Difusión y
Distribución de la Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación
de Los Pueblos Indigenas (CLACPI)
US:
1-312-504-4144
Mexico/Chiapas:
52-967-67-81742
promediosmexico.org
www.clacpi.org
THE FASCIST COUP HAS STARTED IN SANTA CRUZ, DENOUNCES THE BOLIVIAN
GOVERNMENT
(Bolpress)
The Bolivian government communicated today to the national and
international community that a civil coup has been put into action in
the departmental capital city of Santa Cruz, led by the President of
the Civic Committee, Branco Marinkovic, and supported by Prefect Ruben
Costas. The national government will not respond to “provocations by
fascist groups” and will defend democracy and national unity without
declaring a state of emergency in the convulsed regions.
The government denounced several times in the last few weeks that
there were
preparations for violent protests with internal and external support.
Today the predicted events materialized and began a “civic prefectural
coup against the
unity of the country and democracy,” said the government minister
Alfredo Rada.
Students and activists of the [neo-fascist] group the Santa Cruz
Youth Union (UCJ) and shock groups of thugs paid by the business-led
civic movement from
Santa Cruz attacked on Tuesday offices of Internal Revenue, the
National Institute of Land Reform (INRA) and the National Company of
Telecommunications (ENTEL).
The vandals stole computers, televisions, telephone equipment and
other public goods,
and burnt furniture and documentation. They beat conscripts and police
guarding the State properties with sticks. After destroying public
entities that had been taken over by the
State recently, the fascist groups burnt the offices of the human
rights organization,
Centre for Juridical and Social Studies (CEJIS). In addition they
burnt installations of
Radio /Patria Nueva, /attacked offices of the State television company
Channel Seven in
Santa Cruz and robbed equipment. They forced Radio /Alternativa /to
suspend broadcasts
and intimidated other media that are not aligned to the movement for
elite-led autonomy,
in scenes reminiscent of the previous week in Cobija, where four radio
broadcasters had
to stop their work in order to protect the safety of their journalists.
They have installed a type of “regional and civic terrorism in four
regional
departments in order to take hostage the people’s voice and the free
ability to express
one’s opinions,” lamented the Presidential Minister Juan Ramon
Quintana. The curious fact is that the National Association of Press
(ANP), a strong defender of private media, has not said a single word
in defense of “freedom of expression” in the light of these events.
The Defence Minister Walker San Miguel praised the restraint of the
soldiers and police
who faced off vandals “without firing a bullet” even at risk to their
own personal
security, conscious that the ultra-right are looking for deaths and
wounded for political
manipulation.
The Minister Rada blamed the events in Santa Cruz on the civic
leader Marinkovic and
the Prefect Costa, who failed to comply with their basic obligation to
guarantee security
and peaceful coexistence for its inhabitants and who from the “shadows
incite these types
of violent acts. These two people incited, promoted and carried out
this fascist and
racist violence.”
San Miguel revealed that opposition groups planned in the coming
hours to take the
refinery of Palmasola and interrupt fuel supplies, but the “fascists
will not pass.”
“What they are attacking essentially is democracy. They want to
overthrow the
institutional order that has been built with such difficulty, but we
will not allow it,
as we have popular support,” promised Quintana.
The government will not declare a regional state of emergency, as
this extreme
constitutional measure will only radicalize further the ultra-right
shock groups.
Furthermore, the democratic liberties of more than a million
inhabitants of Santa Cruz
must not be affected by the works of 500 or a thousand thugs, said
the Minister San
Miguel.
The national government says that confronting criminals and vandals
who respond to a
terrorist regime shows that they are without political arguments and
incapable of
debating democratically. The government will use legal and
constitutional instruments to
stop the fascist civic coup.
The big land and cattle owner and head of the right-wing PODEMOS
party benches, Antonio Franco “applauded” the taking of offices in
Santa Cruz. The looting was also encouraged by deputy Pablo Klinsky
(PODEMOS) who is close to Marinkovic.
“We will not be beaten, if we are talking about confrontations let’s
talk about
confrontations, if we are going to talk about war, let there be war,
but they will not
impose anything on us. We are sufficiently strong to split off from
the country, and if I
have to take a stick, a sling, a gun, I will do it. I will go and
defend my territory
because no-one will push me around,” warned the PODEMOS deputy from
Santa Cruz Oscar Urenda.
On Sep 12, 2008, at 10:04 AM, Jonathan Langdon wrote:
> I just saw these emails and wonder if it is related to the reason
> Evo Morales gave for the expulsion of the US Ambassador for US
> support of "opposition" groups who have been taking over public
> institutions lately - opposition groups protesting the
> nationalization of petroleum in Bolivia, and who are linked to the
> wealthy elite? Is this connection right? I second Wilna's call, a
> tutorial would definitely be useful here...
>
> Jonathan Langdon
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Juan Salazar <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 5:56:13 PM
> Subject: Violence in opening of IX Indigenous film/video festival in
> Bolivia (Espanol & English)
>
> FROM AMALIA CORDOVA
>
> Sending you sobering news from indigenous filmmakers meeting in
> Bolivia.
>
> **English follows Spanish**
>
>
> Compañeros,
>
> Saludos. Reenvio Note de Prensa de los organizadores del IX Festival
> Internacional
> de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas respecto a la violencia
> vivida de
> Santa Cruz.
> Se agradece difusión.
>
>
> Nota de prensa suspensión del festival en Santa Cruz
>
> La violencia y el racismo acallan la fiesta del cine indígena en
> Santa Cruz
>
> La Paz, 10 de septiembre, 2008
>
> Los actos de violencia vividos el pasado 9 de septiembre en la
> ciudad de
> Santa Cruz han obligado a suspender, por cuestiones de seguridad, los
> actos previstos en esta ciudad en el marco del IX Festival
> Internacional
> de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas. Después de la toma por parte
> de los grupos de choque de la oposición "cívica" de diferentes
> instituciones
> públicas y medios de comunicación afines al gobierno, se temen ataques
> a los participantes de dicho festival. Este es el motivo que ha
> obligado a
> las
> organizaciones indígenas originarias convocantes a suspender el
> festival en Santa Cruz.
>
> Desde 1985 la Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Cine y Comunicación de
> los Pueblos Indígenas, CLACPI, junto a Organizaciones Indígenas y
> aliados de diferentes países, impulsa el desarrollo de los Festivales
> Internacionales de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas. En esta
> edición, la violencia y la intolerancia han acallado el mensaje de los
> pueblos indígenas y originarios de muchas partes del mundo.
>
> Después del triunfo de la violencia y la sinrazón, el festival no
> tiene más remedio que trasladarse ahora a la ciudad de La Paz, donde
> estaba previsto su inicio el próximo domingo 14 de septiembre, con la
> presentación de la película "El grito de la selva", primer
> largometraje de ficción indígena producido en Bolivia. En esta
> película se narra la lucha de los pueblos indígenas de la amazonía
> boliviana por defender su territorio del avasallamiento sufrido por
> parte de grandes latifundistas. Precisamente, estos latifundistas y
> otros grupos opositores, son los que ahora pretenden frenar el proceso
> de emancipación que viven los pueblos indígenas en nuestro país.
>
> Sin embargo, la violencia de los intransigentes no impedirá que el IX
> Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígena
> consiga: afirmar el pleno reconocimiento social, político y cultural
> de los pueblos indígenas; resaltar el valor de la imagen y la
> comunicación para celebrar un mundo plural en el que los pueblos
> indígenas puedan construir el futuro que buscan; motivar la producción
> de obras cinematográficas y videográficas que dan voz y que los
> retratan dignamente; ni fortalecer los lazos que unen a las y los
> comunicadores indígenas y no indígenas de diferentes continentes
> luchando por un mundo más justo y por el pleno reconocimiento del
> derecho a la autodeterminación.
>
> Comité Organizador
> IX Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas
> www.clacpi.org <http://www.clacpi.org/>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> Press release suspension of the 9th CLACPI festival in Santa Cruz
>
> Violence and racism quell the indigenous film festival in Santa Cruz.
>
> La Paz, Sept. 10, 2008
>
> The violence experienced on September 9 in the city of Santa Cruz
> has forced
> organizers to suspend, for security issues, the events planned in
> this city
> to
> launch the IX International Festival of Indigenous Peoples Film and
> Video.
> Following occupations by "civic" groups of the opposition of different
> public
> institutions and communication media centers related to the
> government,
> fearing potential attacks to participants of the festival. These have
> reasons forced
> the indigenous organizations to suspend the Festival in Santa Cruz.
>
> Since 1985, the Coordinator of Latin American Cinema and Communication
> Indigenous Peoples, CLACPI, alongside indigenous organizations and
> allies of
> different countries, promotes the development of International Film
> and
> Video
> Festivals of Indigenous Peoples. In this edition, violence and
> intolerance
> have
> silenced the message of Indigenous and originating in many parts of
> the
> world.
>
> After the triumph of violence and unreason, the festival has little
> choice
> but to
> now move on to the city of La Paz, where the film "The Cry of the
> Jungle",
> the first
> indigenous feature film produced in Bolivia, was planned to start next
> Sunday
> September 14. This film narrates the struggle of indigenous peoples
> defending
> their territory in the Bolivian Amazon in the face of subjugation
> suffered
> at the
> hands of large landowners. These landowners and other opposition
> groups are
> precisely those who now seek to halt the process of empowerment of
> indigenous
> peoples living in our country.
>
> However, hardline opposition violence will not prevent the Ninth
> International
> Festival of Film and Video of Indigenous Peoples from: asserting full
> social,
> political and cultural recognition of indigenous peoples;
> highlighting the
> value
> of images and communication that uphold a pluralistic world in which
> Indigenous
> peoples can build the future we seek; motivate the production of
> film and
> video
> works that give voice to indigenous peoples and that portray
> indigenous
> peoples
> with dignity; strengthening the ties that bind and Native and non-
> indigenous
> people from different continents fighting for a more just world and
> for the
> full
> recognition of self-determination rights.
>
> Organizing Committee
> IX International Festival of Indigenous Peoples´ Film and Video.
> www.clacpi.org <http://www.clacpi.org>
>
>
>
>
>
> Amalia Córdova
> Latin American Program Manager
> Film + Video Center
> Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
> 1 Bowling Green, New York, NY 10004
> Tel: +1 212-514-3735
> Fax: +1 212-514-3725
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> www.nativenetworks.si.edu <http://www.nativenetworks.si.edu/> /
> www.redesindigenas.si.edu <http://www.redesindigenas.si.edu/>
>
> Abierta convocatoria al XIV Festival de Cine y Video Indígena!
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ask a question on any topic and get answers from real people. Go to
> Yahoo! Answers.
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