Evo Morales on the WTO Negotiations Round

In Regard to the WTO Negotiations Round

Evo Morales

Translation: Machetera

International trade can play a major role in the promotion of economic development and the alleviation of poverty. We recognize the need for all our peoples to benefit from the increased opportunities and welfare gains that the multilateral trading system generates. The majority of WTO members are developing countries. We seek to place their needs and interests at the heart of the Work Programme adopted in this Declaration. – DOHA World Trade Organization Ministerial 2001: Ministerial Declaration

With these words, a round of negotiations began at the WTO seven years ago. Were economic development, the alleviation of poverty, the necessities of all our people and an increase in opportunities for developing countries really at the heart of the ongoing negotiations at the WTO?

The first thing I must say is that were it so, the 153 member countries and above all, the great majority of developing countries should have been the main players in the WTO negotiations. But what we’re seeing is that a handful of 35 countries are invited by the Director General to informal meetings in order to substantially advance in the negotiations and prepare the agreements for this “Development Round” of the WTO.

The WTO negotiations have become a fight by the developed countries to open the markets of developing countries in favor of their big businesses.

Not your ordinary .22

This was the weapon that was confiscated from one of the Nazis hanging around the airport in Bolivia where Evo Morales was about to touch down last Thursday. Machetera doesn’t know that much about guns but it doesn’t look like something you’d use to go after squirrels.

In fact it doesn’t look much like anything anyone should be hauling around an airport where a president is due to arrive any minute. What do you think would happen to someone found carrying this anywhere near where The Decider was about to touch down? You don’t need to answer that.

Chávez weighs in on Morales assassination attempt

Would this elegant assassin be Junior Vaca or the other one?

Bolivian Information Agency

Chávez Condemns the Liberation of Those Implicated in the Assassination Attempt Against Evo Morales

Translation: Machetera

Caracas, June 20 – On Friday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez condemned the release by the Santa Cruz Public Prosecutor of two men believed to be implicated in an assassination attempt against his Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales, and agreed that what’s going on is a process meant to divide Bolivia.

“The Santa Cruz prosecutor behaved as though (this region) was already its own republic (…); what’s happening in Bolivia is something very serious” and makes up part of “a strategy by the United States empire in several places, not just in Bolivia and Venezuela,” the President said, according to the EFE news agency.

Gunning for Morales, literally

If you read the Reuters or even the Al Jazeera account of the arrests of the would-be assassins of Evo Morales, you’d think, ah, well, someone hauling a gun around, that probably happens all the time in Bolivia, big deal. Maybe those Morales people are paranoid.

There’s a little more to it than that. And yes, it involves the Nazis from the Santa Cruz Youth Union. Let’s see what Telesur reported.

Bolivian Government Denounces Assassination Attempt Against President Evo Morales

(Two men arrested carrying a rifle with a telescopic sight were later liberated by authorities in Santa Cruz.)

Translation: Machetera

Those close to the arrest of two members of the ultra-rightwing Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC), detained this Thursday in the El Trompillo airport in Santa Cruz for carrying a firearm, have concluded that they meant to kill President Evo Morales.

This was the denunciation made on Friday by the Vice Minister of the Office of Governmental Coordination with Social Movements, Sacha Llorenti, who explained that those arrested were caught with a rifle with a telescopic sight and 300 shells, in a place where minutes later the Bolivian president arrived for an event in the town of Bicito in Santa Cruz.

Llorenti explained that “apparently these people were to go to the “Center” cinema, which is the highest in the area, with a roof that offers a panoramic view of the El Trompillo airport.”

Evo Morales on the EU “Returns Directive”

Open Letter from Evo Morales Regarding the European Union’s “Returns Directive”

Evo Morales Ayma – Bolpress

Translation: Machetera

Until the end of the Second World War, Europe was a continent of emigrants. Tens of millions of Europeans left for the Americas in order to colonize, escape famine, financial crises, wars and European totalitarianism and the persecution of ethnic minorities. Today, I’m following the process of the so-called “Returns Directive” with concern. The text, approved on June 5th by the Interior Ministers of the European Union’s 27 member countries, must be voted on in the European Parliament on June 18th. I feel that it drastically hardens the conditions for detention and expulsion of undocumented migrants, whatever their length of stay in the European countries, their work situation, their family ties, their will and their achievements at integration.

Europeans arrived en masse in the countries of Latin America and North America, without visas or conditions imposed by the authorities. They were always welcome, and they continue to be, in our countries on the American continent, which therefore absorb the economic misery of Europe and its political crises. They came to our continent to exploit its wealth and transfer it to Europe, with a very high cost for America’s original population. Such is the case in our Cerro Rico, in Potosi, where the fabulous silver mines provided the European continent its coinage from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The goods and personal rights of the European migrants were always respected.

Today the European Union is the main destination for the world’s migrants, as a consequence of its positive image as an area of prosperity and public freedom. The vast majority of the migrants come to the EU to contribute to this prosperity, not to take advantage of it. They occupy jobs in public works, construction, personal services and hospitals, which Europeans can’t or don’t wish to fill. They contribute to the European continent’s dynamic demographic, to maintaining the relationship between the active and inactive that in turn makes possible its generous systems of social security, internal market stimulation and social cohesion. Migrants offer a solution to the EU’s demographic and financial problems.

The Pentagon moves its pawns

There might be a reason it’s impossible to find a picture of a U.S. President playing chess. Not to underestimate the Pentagon, which probably does have a few decent chess players notwithstanding their mentally challenged commanders in chief, but Machetera’s bets are still with the Latin Americans.

It’s not hard at all to find a picture of el Che or Fidel playing chess. Publicly.

You can even re-live Fidel’s game with Filiberto Terrazas here.

* * *

With Evo and the FARC Weakened, Washington Begins its Checkmate Against Hugo Chávez and Rafael Correa

Heinz Dieterich – Rebelión

Translation: Machetera

1. The Checkmate Scenario

Washington has reached the following conclusions:

1. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have lost their operational capacity.
2. It has managed to neutralize the Evo Morales government through the creation of a parallel state in the four provinces associated with “Camba Nation.”
3. Its successes in Colombia and Bolivia set the stage to begin the checkmate against the governments of Hugo Chávez and Rafael Correa. This is the reason for the growing military provocations by Uribe’s troops, the U.S. military forces in the Caribbean, and the reactivation of the Fourth Imperial Fleet.

Who won in Bolivia

Machetera’s translation shop is back in business! Today, a double feature – incisive analysis from Marta Harnecker on the illegal referendum in Bolivia, and a moving excerpt from a speech by Fidel, all rolled into one. Enjoy!

Bolivia: Who Won the May 4th Referendum?

Marta Harnecker – Rebelión

Translation: Machetera

Following uncertain results, the two conflicting sides claim to have won the referendum on the autonomy statute held in the Department of Santa Cruz, [Bolivia] last Sunday, May 4th.

How should the winner be determined?

In order to judge or measure the results of any action, it’s essential to take into account the objective sought by both sides.

The Cruceña oligarchy sought to achieve a massive poll turnout: it was the only way to diminish the government’s arguments about the illegality of the process; if this objective was accomplished, then it might be argued that although it was not a legal process, it was a legitimate one because the people had massively expressed their feelings in regard to the autonomy statute and the government would have to take popular sentiment into account.

For its part, the government, the MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) and the social movements wanted to achieve the largest abstention possible, to diminish the voting results, where a large “Yes” vote was forecast.

Machetera hit by triple virus

Machetera’s translation factory took a triple hit this weekend, with two computer failures and the flu. The Apple people assure her it’s not the Pentagon’s fault, just bad luck, but who really knows?

In any case, were she up to speed, she’d have provided you with a translation of this article which appeared yesterday at Bolpress – something which amazingly, you won’t have found anywhere in the English language press. Here’s the gist: apparently in yesterday’s fake autonomy referendum in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, 20 ballot boxes stuffed with ballots pre-marked “Si” (that’s “yes’ in Spanish for the really language challenged) were discovered in the Plan 3000 section of the city. The story challenges even Machetera’s translation skills because it’s unclear whether the boxes were burned, or preserved as evidence; however, there’s a mention of people in the neighborhood standing watch over polling places to prevent the entrance of such things.

Where did we see this before? Oh right, Port au Prince. Nobody in U.S. “intelligence” ever thinks about updating the manual, apparently. Not that anyone’s complaining.

That’s all Machetera can manage for today. More later…

Bolivia appeals again to the OAS

5:30 p.m. May 2, 2008

Bolpress

Translation: Machetera

Evo Morales: We’ve Believed, We Believe and We’ll Continue Believing in the OAS

Bolivia’s Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca asked the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OEA) for unconditional support of the constitutional government of President Evo Morales and democratic institutions, and that it censure the May 4th referendum in Santa Cruz, as an act incompatible with the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which could provoke a rupture in Bolivia’s constitutional order and territorial integrity.

In an extraordinary session of the Permanent Council which took place in Washington D.C., Choquehuanca delivered a message to the OAS delegates from President Evo Morales: We’ve believed, we believe and we will continue to believe in the OAS.”

The Bolivian Foreign Minister asked for support for the country’s constitutional government and democratic institutions and requested a declaration in defense of Bolivia’s territorial integrity.

Choquehuanca said that the Morales government hoped to find a peaceful exit to the political crisis and believed that the efforts of the OAS, in a third attempt, could open the doors to dialogue before the May 4th referendum pushed by the Prefecture and the Santa Cruz Civic Committee.

The unvarnished truth, from Santa Cruz, Bolivia

From Santa Cruz, With Fury and Pain

Grover Cardozo – Alai-amlatina

Translation: Machetera

I’m at Santos Dumont Avenue at the height of Santa Cruz’s third ring. From the very heart of this land, from this region that is preparing for a hard episode in its history, I have a moral duty to denounce the following, to Bolivia and to the world:

Santa Cruz at the moment is a victim of a political agreement, a bloody pact by those who control the region with a strategy of fear. Powers that articulate a discourse with a Cruceñista appearance, but is nothing more than a concealment of the most perverse dark interests against the people and against the democratically elected government.

The social environment here in Santa Cruz is one of fear and uncertainty. Part of the population has taken on a festive atmosphere, joyful, with marches, carnival music, and dancing youth and children. Other sectors watch in silence, impotently biting their tongues against the activities of the affluent sectors, the light-skinned descendants of foreigners.