More background on events in Santa Cruz from 2008:
Quote:U.S.-supported ‘referendum’
Oligarchs trying to break up Bolivia
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published May 8, 2008 10:00 PM
On May 4, massive demonstrations of Indigenous people, peasants, workers and students took place all over Bolivia to protest an attempt by wealthy landowners and business heads to divide their country. These demonstrations got little attention in the international media emanating from the imperialist countries.
What they focused on instead was the “referendum for autonomy” in the province of Santa Cruz, which had been declared illegal and unconstitutional by the progressive government of Evo Morales.
The Indigenous people in Bolivia have been ignored, persecuted and exploited for 500 years. But today they are defending their rights, the unity of their country, and the national government led by Morales, Bolivia’s first Indigenous president.
U.S. imperialism has been carefully orchestrating a divisive strategy in Bolivia that it plans to apply in other countries of the region as well, including Ecuador and Venezuela. Santa Cruz is one of nine Bolivian provinces. The vote for “autonomy” is meant to destabilize the Morales government and divide the country, much as Kosovo was separated from Yugoslavia. In fact, some of the same actors are busy at work in Bolivia. The current U.S. ambassador there is Philip Goldberg, who was instrumental in the separation of Kosovo.
Concentrated wealth
Santa Cruz, in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia, is part of the Media Luna (half moon)—a crescent that includes the provinces of Pando, Tarija and Beni. The Media Luna is also the wealthiest part of the country, generating 44 percent of the gross national product. A right-wing opposition to the Morales government is entrenched there, with its leadership centered in Santa Cruz.
Santa Cruz is the largest province in Bolivia, with almost one third of the national territory. Its capital, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, is the largest city in the country, with nearly 1.4 million people. Santa Cruz alone generates 30.63 percent of the GNP.
Home to a white European oligarchy, it is also vehemently racist. Many of the oligarchs are “latifundistas” who own huge farmlands that produce export goods like soy, rubber and cattle.
One of those landowners is Ronald Din Larsen, a U.S. citizen who has lived in Bolivia for many years and owns 141,203 acres in Santa Cruz. According to Bolivian authorities, Larsen doesn’t even have a Bolivian registration or identity card, yet his family is actively opposing the land reform proposal of the Morales government that would break up these large estates and make land available to poor Bolivians. When Vice-Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz made a recent visit to Santa Cruz, he was attacked by a gun-toting group instigated by Larsen, according to the news agency ABI.
Santa Cruz is where most of the transnational corporations have their headquarters. It also has the largest reserves of natural gas, petroleum and other minerals.
The province’s business owners are organized in the Santa Cruz Civic Union, headed by Branko Marinkovic, a Croatian capitalist with close ties to the U.S. Embassy. Carolus Wimmer, national secretary of the Venezuelan Communist Party, told Venezuelan television that some members of the Croatian oligarchy in Bolivia had been expelled from Socialist Yugoslavia after World War II as fascist sympathizers. The Croats settled in several Latin American countries with the help of the CIA.
Marinkovic and Rubén Costas, the administrator of the province, are the leaders behind the separatist movement in Santa Cruz. Their armed wing, the Santa Cruz Youth Union, is a violent group closely allied to the Falange, a fascist organization active in the 1940s and 1950s that seems to be resurfacing.
In search of jobs, thousands of people from the highlands in the west have moved to Santa Cruz, particularly members of the Indigenous Aymara and Quechua nations. In Santa Cruz they face discrimination and often racist violence, perpetrated mostly by the fascist youth group.
Illegal referendum
The referendum on autonomy was illegal under the Bolivian constitution. Even the United Nations and the Organization of American States, no champions of progress, opposed the referendum. Gen. Luis Trigo, head of the Bolivian Armed Forces, publicly denounced it as affecting “the security and the defense of the Bolivian State.” He pointed out that some of the articles establish local control over legislation, all transport by land, river, air and roads, as well as the airwaves, security and defense.
It is in fact a project to provide legal cover for setting up a new country.
Informal polls show that the majority of the people in Santa Cruz did not know the exact contents of the referendum.
In an effort to deceive, the oligarchy’s media reported on May 5 that the “Yes” option approving autonomy won by more than 80 percent. In the U.S., the Washington Post echoed those numbers in an article that quoted Marinkovic as saying, “It’s a historic day, and tomorrow we have more work to do. ... We have to determine a new course for Bolivia, and it won’t be an easy task.”
Morales, in a televised speech, said, “This poll, which is illegal and unconstitutional, was not the success that they hoped for. ... Between the abstention rate of 39 percent, the votes ‘no’ and the blank ballots, that is practically 50 percent.” The turnout for the “referendum” had been low.
Interior Minister Alfredo Rada, in an interview with Telesur, stated that the elections were marked by “violence, confrontations and irregularities.” He said some names were erased from voters’ lists and 20 people were injured in confrontations with the fascist youth group. In a neighborhood called Plan 3000, a stronghold of the Morales party, the fascist youth picked a fight against the Indigenous and peasant residents, shouting racist epithets. The residents shouted back, “Get out fascists” and “Long live Evo.”
People in Santa Cruz who support Morales had seized and burned ballot boxes in rejection of the referendum. In the process, they found many supposedly blank ballots were already marked with the Yes option. They immediately called the press to announce the fraud.
In a Telesur broadcast, Morales also accused the United States of funding the opposition. “The Embassy of the United States is the one that leads this conspiracy,” he said, adding that “the U.S. ambassador is the great defender of the division of Bolivia, of the anti-constitutional attitudes, of those groups that do not want equality for our peoples, of the groups that want to steal from our country.”
Articles from different sources mention that USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy have given million of dollars to the opposition groups in the name of the “fight against drug trafficking.” (See, for example, http://www.coastalpost.com/08/04/18.html.)
E-mail: bjceci@workers.org
Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php
http://www.workers.org/2008/world/bolivia_0515/
From IKN in South America:
Quote:El Gaviero today picked up on reports from Bolivia that dead mercenary gang leader, Eduardo Rozsa Flores, was hired under a false name by the Santa Cruz COTAS telephone company. Why is this significant? Let me count the ways:
1) Why hire somebody under an assumed name if there's no skullduggery going on?
2) Note that arsenal of weapons found after the shootout and death/arrest of the gang of five? Yep, they were found hidden at a trade fair in the COTAS stand (the C-4 wisely in the fridge, considering the heat this time of year). Funny that, innit?
3) Remember those secret, unofficial and non-associated masonic lodges in Santa Cruz I wrote about last week? Well surprise surprise, it's well-known that COTAS is controlled by the very same people that head up those two "Toborochi" and "Caballeros del Oriente" lodges.
4) Some claim that COTAS is under one lodge's control, some claim the other. Some note that the two lodges split with each other after a spat in the early 1980's, other say they've mended relations and work in cahoots nowadays. Some say that Ruben Costas heads up Caballeros del Oriente, but nearly everyone says that Branko Marinkovic is the head guy at Toborochi.
So slowly but surely, the investigation is, unsurprisingly, homing in on the secret societies that run Santa Cruz and the fascists running those groups. The same secret societies that have been the subject of confessions from ex-members saying that they are actively trying to destabilize their country.
Nuff said. That poor sap Dwyer really had no idea of the trouble he was letting himself in for.
http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2009/04...in-on.html
There are links to investigations of the "lodges", in Spanish, at the url above.
Good find, Magda.
It seems like there's one journalist of integrity left in the Emerald Isle:
Quote:Bolivia gang linked to drugs trade, race killings
Irishman drawn in after becoming Facebook 'friend' of group's leader
The bizarre gang of violent right-wing extremists that Tipperary man Michael Dwyer was with when they were shot dead in Bolivia were linked to atrocities during the war in former Yugoslavia and were, by their own admission, planning insurrection against the left-wing government of Bolivia, it is now understood.
Mr Dwyer's body arrived back in Dublin last Thursday and has now been forwarded by the Dublin coroner to the State Pathologist. It is expected that a postmortem will be carried out on Monday and the body released to the family early next week.
"Obviously the family are very upset -- but they want to see this done properly rather than quickly, they want to find out the truth" said a spokesman.
It has now emerged that Michael Dwyer's associates in the Nacion Gamba group were responsible for racist murders and attacks on native American Bolivians and are also involved in the drugs trade. They openly flaunted their Nazi tendencies despite the fact that their leader, who was killed with Dwyer, was of part-Jewish extraction.
Information about the group's activities has been relayed to the Government where Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin is seeking information about the circumstances surrounding Dwyer's death. Department officials have been in contact with the Bolivian authorities and sources said that some of the information reaching Dublin about the activities of Mr Dwyer's associates is "troubling".
While his family are seeking an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the 24-year-old Tipperary man's death, it appears that he was drawn to the group after becoming one of the gang leader Eduardo Rozca-Flores' Facebook "friends".
The gang, led by Rozca-Flores, who was openly anti-Semitic, is believed to have been backed by right-wing elements in the wealthy Santa Cruz area of Bolivia where he and Mr Dwyer and another member of the gang were shot dead by state forces 10 days ago.
Bolivia was used as a haven by members of the notorious Croatian Ustachi who sided with the Nazis in the Second World War and committed genocide against the Serbian population during the war. The ex-Ustachis built strong links with the white ruling classes of the country. The Ustachi Croatians had extreme right-wing Catholic views and many were helped to escape to South America with the assistance of supporters in Rome.
The neo-Nazis that Mr Dwyer was associating with are responsible for attacks on the indigenous South American population and were plotting the assassination of the country's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, who is a socialist.
- JIM CUSACK
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/...20303.html
The "nacion gamba" mentioned above is, in fact, Camba Nation.
I'm still guffawing about Rozsa-Flores' ridiculous claim that his task was to protect the Spanish/German/Croatian/Nazi imperialist loooting class from "native 'indian' paramilitaries"....
PS to all the secret police who keep snooping around this thread:
Idź do diabła!
March 2009
Quote:Bolivian President Evo Morales heads to Vienna today to ask a United Nations commission to reverse its 48-year-old decision to qualify the coca leaf as a narcotic, Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said.
The 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs also said chewing of the coca leaf, the raw ingredient in cocaine, must be abolished within 25 years. Coca is consumed widely by Bolivians who say it helps them endure long hours at high altitudes and quell hunger. The leaf is also used in religious ceremonies.
“We believe the ‘61 convention is unjust; one can’t criminalize a natural plant,” Choquehuanca said late yesterday. Morales is scheduled to speak tomorrow.
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...light=coca
May 2009:
Quote:In La Paz this Saturday, former U.S. President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jimmy Carter accepted an invitation from Bolivian ruler and coca grower Evo Morales to harvest coca leaves on the Andean ruler's rural property in the El Chapare region (Central Bolivia).
"I hope that my next visit I will be able to go to El Chapare, where he (Morales) is going to take me to harvest coca leaves," thus affirmed the former head of state, with the help of an interpreter, during a press conference together with the Bolivian head of state, after a private meeting at the Government Palace.
Morales, leader of the coca harvesters of Bolivia, first fielded the invitation, amidst smiles and a pleasant press statement, assuring that there has been a long friendship with the Nobel Peace Laureate, who even invited him once to harvest peanuts on his lands near Atlanta (Georgia, Southeast U.S.). ...
The former U.S. head of state, already into his presentation, accepted the invitation.
"Given that President Morales has been to my property, and evidently has harvested some peanuts, I hope that on my next visit I can go to El Chapare, where he is going to take me to harvest some coca leaves," responded Carter, which also drew a smirk of happiness from Morales.
Article culled from url below, which is outraged at Carter.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009...accep.html
Jan Klimkowski Wrote:3) Remember those secret, unofficial and non-associated masonic lodges in Santa Cruz I wrote about last week? Well surprise surprise, it's well-known that COTAS is controlled by the very same people that head up those two "Toborochi" and "Caballeros del Oriente" lodges.
4) Some claim that COTAS is under one lodge's control, some claim the other. Some note that the two lodges split with each other after a spat in the early 1980's, other say they've mended relations and work in cahoots nowadays. Some say that Ruben Costas heads up Caballeros del Oriente, but nearly everyone says that Branko Marinkovic is the head guy at Toborochi.
So slowly but surely, the investigation is, unsurprisingly, homing in on the secret societies that run Santa Cruz and the fascists running those groups. The same secret societies that have been the subject of confessions from ex-members saying that they are actively trying to destabilize their country.
These lodges appear to be run along lines very similar - or even identical - lines to the Italian P2 lodge which had close connections to Opus Dei.
I have no the slightest doubt that certain very Catholic hard-liners inside the Vatican are deeply involved in these matters. The Ustache angle merely reinforces this view.
And let's not forget that the great Italian puppet-master and former master of the Italian P2 lodge had his Tuscan villa raided by police in October 1998. The police stumbled upon 150 gold bars hidden in large flowerpots on his patio. The markings on the bars apparently indicate they may have been part of the Yugoslavian gold plundered by the Ustache at the end of WWII. Geli, of course, served with the Nazi SS in Yugoslavia during WWII.
In googlish, but interesting.
Gladio meets P2 - held together by, um...... PAPERCLIPS? :hello:
Quote:Book summary
“LOGIAS EN SANTA CRUZ” "Lodge in Santa Cruz"
REYMI FERREIRA J.(ACTUAL RECTOR DE LA UNIVESIDADAD GABRIEL RENE MORENO) REYMI FERREIRA J. (RECTOR OF THE CURRENT UNIVESIDADAD GABRIEL RENE MORENO)
SANTA CRUZ 1994 SANTA CRUZ 1994
Fondo de Ediciones Municipales Municipal Fund Issues
The secret organizations in Santa Cruz.
THE EYE OF DATA BOOK 1994 (14 years) and does not describe the ascent AND CONSOLIDATION Branko MARINCOVIC AS HEAD OF THE LODGE "Toborochi" AND "GREAT coordinator" of the Lodges Cruceños in the company of "Grand Master" RUBEN COSTAS.
Overview:
It is essential to classify the secret societies that have acted or act in our city into two classes:
1. 1. Masonic Organizations
2. 2. Secret organizations
Organizations belong to the first Universal Masonry, in theory have aims primarily philosophical, moral and mutual aid. But in practice acted like the latter.
Second-class organizations, incorrectly called "lodges", are real secrets of power groups, whose goals are political and economic characterized by its regional character. Groups before speculative, operational partnerships, whose purpose is power.
This kind of secret agencies membership of the lodge "Sword of the East" and "Toborochi"
La Logia “Caballeros del Oriente”: The Lodge "Knights of the East":
The idea of forming a secret group Cruz was born to the late
seventies with the advent of democracy. The impending rise to power
of Communists of "UDP" and how to address the main
Cruz institutions that were, according to them, in "serious danger".
Faced with these threats, Cruz proposed the creation of organizations which are not political parties, acting as such, as the traditional political parties were insufficient
because the aim of his case could mean "lost vote" in thick sectors of the population from the interior.
The initial group of the Lodge "Knight of the East" had a relatively
public, and that the organization sponsored meetings - dinner at the restaurant
“Floresca”. "
In the "social flash" of the morning show "The World" dated Thursday 10
September 1981 there were two photos with some of those members in which Juan Dr. Sixto distinguish Nelson Fleig, Dr. Orestes Harnas, Jorge Flores Franco, Juan Carlos Limpias, Alejandro Gutiérrez, Stanley Landivar Stanley and others.
Draws attention to the fact that at that time, in full military dictatorship, this group are made public, then, a year, with the advent of Democracy in October 1982 to become secret groups. This small detail
reveals the undemocratic nature of the group, which the military allegedly
felt protected, but with democracy felt threatened and resorted to
capuchas. hoods.
The core of the lodge "Knight of the East", was made up of
following individuals: Walter Castro Luís Balcazar, Juan Carlos Antelo, Oreste Harnez, Lorgio Talavera, Sixto Nelson Fleig, Nicanor Jordán, Marcelo El-Hage, Edgar (son), Edgar Terrazas, Federico Fernández, Enrique Galván, Alejandro Gutiérrez, Bernardo Canario, Carlos Soruco Perrogón and a German citizen boliviano.
It is symptomatic that these groups are not organized to fight against the military dictatorships, as it seems their interests were well protected by them. But plunging into the night, in the darkness of secrecy
just when the sun of democracy beginning to emerge.
Lodges "regionalist" born as a defense mechanism and the search for power
seeking mechanisms to maintain local power in the hands of terrtenientes and industry.
The Lodge "Knight of the East" acts with various political parties and there is
part of its force, and which have been branching across all parties, although generally conservative or centrist parties. They are enemies of communism, because the margin of violating the "Cruz" generally links with the political forces of the interior. The versatility to accommodate all political parties explains why, who climb up or fall, the lodge always stays around for the circles of power.
The Lodge "Knight of the East", suffered a split within the organization,
due to differences in building construction Cordecruz. CORDECRUZ.
La Logia “Toborochi”: The Lodge "Toborochi:
Abruptly terminated the meeting at which the rupture occurred, the vast majority of the Lodge remained with the "prince". Where they took the decision to refundar la organización. Cruz society organized into cooperatives, establishment of democratic theory, but the choice of authors is headed by a permanent hegemonic economic groups.
El Comité Cívicotambién
The Committee Cívicotambién adopted as the basis of its elective system to corporatism, the same happened with professional and almost all regional organizations.
Expansion of both Lodges and the Division of Institutions Cruceños:
These rules were well used by those already in lodges en la September 1982 to combine three Cooperatives of public services in City of Santa Cruz and three professional schools: the architects, engineers and the division of médicos.Ante raised, despite the hostilities, agreed to settle the two lodges
dividing the disputed control of the institutions:
La Logia “Caballeros del Oriente”,
The Lodge "Knights of the East", was driving the Cooperative
Teléfonos Automáticos – COTAS, y el Colegio de Arquitectos Telephone - COTAS, and the College of Architects
La Logia “Toborochi”,
The Lodge "Toborochi" took charge of the Cooperative Utilities
SAGUAPAC”, and the Cooperative Rural Electrification - CRE College. And the Medical Society of Engineers.
Cooperatives had enjoyed full freedom and the people had full confidence
because they had been created and run by remarkable people, from noble
career as a great gift Liders Young, Placido Molina Barbery, Oswaldo
Gutiérrez, Juan Franco, Oscar Gasser, Pedro Ribero Mercado and others, but time now curiously began to be managed by a set of people, always the same, with no alternative or replacement.
From there on a permanent questioning of its structure undemocratic, its high utility costs, and even their businesses.
At that time, in 1985 Congress passed the Organic Law of Municipalities,
that regulate the services offered by cooperatives to the people. This Act,
transferring custody exercising the Ministries of Energy, Urban Development, Transportation and Communication, the municipalities, whose government would be elected in each city. This obviously meant to control the mayorships. Cooperatives, not the same as anyone because control from central government ministries was symbolic and does not really exist. The possibility that both the City departments such as the Mayor may inspect
the pricing of the services of Cooperatives, shocked the "furious".
One might ask what led to this strange behavior, and the answer is easy: if a neighbor wants to complain because they have risen to the bill CRE from 30 to 150 bolivianos, not going to go to La Paz the claim. But if this control is done in Santa Cruz, nothing is going to the Mayor and make complaints.
The first allegations about the existence of Lodges:
The magazine "Reflection" of Santa Cruz, was the first to denounce the existence of lodges. El Dr. Carlos Hugo Molina, through
articles called "The pujuso y la perestroika”, denounce the corporate institutions Cruz.
Under the title "The lodges in Santa Cruz" Ms. Susana Seleme published the first article which gave an outline of the Lodges.
In the year 1989, also in "Reflections," Fernando Prado Arq wrote
"In Praise of the lodges", made an interesting analysis of the real motivations
prompted the formation of lodges.
Institutional landscape of the Santa Cruz Civic Election 1989:
“Caballeros del Oriente” "Knights of the East"
Control: Comité Pro - Santa Cruz
Federación de Fraternidades
Federación de Profesionales
Federation of Private Entrepreneurs
Chamber of Industry and Trade
National Forest
COTAS
ASOBAN
SUPERINTENDENCIA DE BANCOS Superintendency of Banks
CORDECRUZ CORDECRUZ
COLEGIO DE ARQUITECTOS
SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS
COLEGIO DE ABOGADOS Bar
Institute BOLIVIANO OF FOREIGN TRADE
COUNTRY CLUB LAS PALMAS
JUNTAS VECINALES Neighborhood
“Toborochi” "Toborochi"
Control: CRE
SAGUAPAC
CLUB SOCIAL 24 DE SEPTIEMBRE
COOPERATIVA JISUNU
Incursion into the Political Parties:
As the lodges could not do anything that defines where the vote is democratic, The secret societies have launched the slogan to infiltrate political parties, although some of its militants had prior commitments and supporters.
This was the limit of the expansion of lodges. Tenían The whole structure, Institutional Cruz, now began the struggle for political power, not at all easy,
taking into account the objectives Autonomist and regionalists of both companies.
The militants of the lodge "Knights of the East" who through their parties entered the government structure, are:
Zvonko Matkovic
Jorge Robledo
Miguel Angel Parada Feeney
Jorge Aguilera
Herman Salvatierra Zankis
Juan Manuel Chaín
Freddy Terrazas
Luis Fernando Terrazas
Mauro Alberto Bertero
Luis Chavez del Rio
Jorge Landivar Roca
Carlos Dabdoud Arrien
José Serrate
Jose Mario Serrate
Enrique Antelo Gil
We clarify that in this tentative list of members of the lodges in the embedded política, has many missing names.
Unity between the two Lodges:
Are associated in general to defend business interests to secure benefits
in their activities, and despite legal mandates by personality or social
económicos, dare to violate the law to set targets by which example: "Santa Cruz has the mayor it deserves."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.redliberal.com/foros/archive/...-3202.html
Mmmm... Colombia is very close to Bolivia.
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/inte...m-Colombia
Radio Netherlands
May 7, 2009
Kosovan ex-PM expelled from Colombia
Former Kosovan prime minister Agim Ceku has been forced to cut short a visit to Colombia because of a warrant issued for his arrest by Serbia. Mr Ceku was attending a conference in Colombia when he was expelled. The authorities were not willing to arrest him.
Serbia wants to put Mr Ceku on trial for war crimes.
He was the highest commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, or UCK, which carried out a violent campaign against the Serbian security forces at the end of the 1990s.
At the time Kosovo was a province of Serbia, but it has since declared its independence.
![[Image: michaeldwyer_sindo_314004t.jpg]](http://www.independent.ie/multimedia/archive/00314/michaeldwyer_sindo_314004t.jpg)