Checking in on Bolivia, the AP says: “Nine months after nearly 60 people died in street fighting against plans to export natural gas, Bolivians peacefully voted to do just that in a referendum that appeared to boost a president trying to calm simmering social unrest.”
The story’s complicated; I defer to Bolivia expert Miguel Centellas to sort out the details.
Elsewhere, the Christian Science Monitor’s Lucien O. Chauvin tells us: “Sunday’s Bolivian vote divided indigenous groups; elsewhere natives battle for control over resources.”
Chauvin goes on to note that in Ecuador:
…the country’s indigenous movement, one of the strongest in the world, could be splitting. In the 14 years since the first nationwide uprising in June 1990, which protested the use of natural resources, Ecuador’s indigenous movement helped overthrow two presidents – Abdala Bucaram in 1997 and Jamil Mahuad in 2000 – and usher in important constitutional changes guaranteeing respect for their rights.
In 2002 the movement was instrumental in electing current President Lucio Gutierrez. But indigenous leaders have since broken with Mr. Gutierrez citing his failure to follow through on campaign promises, such as scrapping the US dollar as its currency and returning to the sucre.
The country’s principle indigenous groups are now calling for outside monitors. They have accused the government of instituting plans to divide their organizations and fuel violence.
“Lucio Gutierrez took advantage of all the sacrifices made by the indigenous movement and then betrayed us. I believe that his goal is to eliminate the indigenous movement,” says Luis Macas, a longtime indigenous leader who served as agriculture minister in the Gutierrez administration.
We shall what happens to Lucio. I know I must sound like a broken record at this point, but I’m telling you: the Ecuadorian Prez’s days are numbered. (Although my buddies Mike F. and Jordan L. have said not so fast.)