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



----- 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!






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