El Gaviero

From a press release this afternoon:

The Pro-Santa Cruz Committee condemns and rejects the political persecution against Santa Cruz civic leaders.

Again the central government carries out state terrorism through the subservience of the justice system to the government.

Because of this, the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee condemns and rejects political persecutions and human-rights violations in Bolivia.

We sympathize with former civic president Branko Marinkovic and the first vice president of the committee, Guido Nayar, who are being persecuted by the judicial officers of the government.

The Pro-Santa Cruz Committee calls for and demands a fair, impartial, and transparent trial that respects the natural jurisdiction, rights, and guarantees of persons, and that the investigation also include the brother of vice president, the Venezuelan pilots, the alleged key witnesses, Captain Andrade, M. Clavijo, and the quantity of videos that demonstrate manipulation against Santa Cruz.

Why haven’t the forensic reports of international experts been taken?

Where are the key witnesses? Where are the Venezuelan pilots that were in the hotel?

Where is Mr. Clavijo, who was a government functionary?

There is much evidence that the participation of the government and prosecutor Sosa are distorting the truth for political gain.

The Pro-Santa Cruz Committee, civic institutions, and the Human Rights Foundation of Bolivia will take actions that this case warrants in order to defend against the continuing political persecution.

Ïf the government wants an uproar, the committee will be there in order to defend Santa Cruz leaders and the Bolivian people.

My translation.

Comunicado de Prensa 02.02.10
Comité pro Santa Cruz

El Comité pro Santa Cruz condena y rechaza la persecución política contra los líderes cívicos cruceños

Nuevamente el gobierno central ejecutando un terrorismo de Estado a través de los operadores de justicia serviles a este gobierno.

Por esta razón, el Comité pro Santa Cruz condena y rechaza las persecuciones política y las violaciones a los Derechos Humanos en Bolivia.

Nos solidarizamos con el ex presidente cívico Branko Marinkovic y el primer vicepresidente del Comité, Guido Náyar, que están siendo perseguidos por los operadores judiciales del gobierno.

El Comité pro Santa Cruz exige y demanda un juicio justo, imparcial y transparente, donde se respete la jurisdicción natural, los derechos y garantías de las personas, y que la investigación también incluya al hermano del vicepresidente, a los pilotos venezolanos, a los supuestos testigos claves, al capitán Andrade, al señor Clavijo y la cantidad de videos, que demuestran la manipulación contra Santa Cruz.

¿Por qué no se toma en cuenta los informes forenses que han hecho peritos internacionales?

¿Dónde están los testigos claves?. ¿Dónde están los pilotos venezolanos que estaban en el hotel?.

¿Dónde está el señor Clavijo?, que era funcionario del gobierno.

Hay muchas evidencias de la participación del gobierno y el fiscal Sosa está distorsionando la verdad, sólo con un afán político.

El Comité pro Santa Cruz, la institucionalidad cívica y la Fundación de Derechos Humanos de Bolivia asumirán las acciones que el caso amerite a fin de evitar que la persecución política continúe.

“Si el gobierno quiere bochi, ahí estará el Comité, para defender a los líderes cruceños y el pueblo boliviano”.

Former head of the Pro-Santa Cruz Committee Branko Marinkovic was formally accused by prosecutor Marcelo Soza of financing the alleged terrorist cell that was broken up by Bolivian police last year, according to El Día. The prosecutor is linking Marinkovic, Santa Cruz prefect Rubén Costas, and cattle rancher Guido Náyar in the plot to assassinate president Morales and destabilize Bolivia, which, according to some accounts, would help the lowland departments either secede or form a quasi-independent state outside of La Paz’s grasp.
Marinkovic’s lawyer, Erick Feifert, says the charges violate due process on constitutional grounds.

We’re back! It’s been a busy month, and there’s a lot of catch-up to do.

Let’s start with an excellent report from the Bolivia Information Forum, which has a new bulletin out about the re-inauguration of Bolivian President Evo Morales. The BIF not only has a good rundown of the official ceremony–held in the ruins of the pre-Inca city of Tiwanaku–but also delves into the new makeup of the Bolivian legislature, of which Morales’s MAS party has a commanding majority. (MAS even won big in the lowland regions, which goes to show how much the opposition has been deflated in the last year.) Other interesting facts gleaned from the BIF report: Germán Antelo, former head of the Comité Pro-Santa Cruz, gains a seat on the assembly, and whipping boy to the opposition Jaun Ramón Quintana is out as Morales’s cabinet as minister of the president. (Quintana was accused by the opposition as somehow manufacturing the crisis and massacre of campesinos in Pando department in September 2008; could Morales be trying to placate the opposition with this move?)

There a lot more in the report, and all Bolivia-watchers should read it.

Yesterday a powerful earthquake hit Haiti, devastating its capital, Port-au-Prince. Reports–the ones that are getting out, anyway, as most communications are cut off–are pretty bleak. Haiti’s had a spat of natural disasters lately, which has already tested its resilience, and this powerful earthquake is just brutal.

Via the Brooklynite on Ice, who suggests that concerned people donate to Oxfam or the Lambi Fund, here’s a Twitpic photo stream of the devastation. Frightening, scary stuff.

The AP (via NYT) presents a story today about the Guarani in the Bolivian lowlands, who are finally getting lifted out of serfdom by Evo Morales’s policy of appropriating fallow or unproductive land–or land from fugitive landowners and rich American expats–and redistributing it to poor indigenous groups. Great read, great reporting. Kudos to the AP on this one.

Ousted Cochabamba prefect and failed Bolivian presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villa is apparently stateside, as a fugitive from Bolivian justice, which is looking into how the onetime army officer and bodyguard is now a very, very rich man (hint: by steering government funds into his pockets).

Also: Real Coca Cola (or Colla) will be available in 2010!

It figures that the week between Christmas and New Year’s–when most people in publishing have mandatory vacations–El Gaviero’s actually got work projects to complete. So, there’s a dearth of posting here. My apologies, but the New Year will hopefully find this blog hopping again. In the meantime, check out my friend Richard’s reporting from Haiti, where he covered the recent Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince for PRI’s The World.

From El Deber, word that Manfred Reyes Villa, who just lost the presidential election in Bolivia, is wanted by the police for several financial irregularities while he was prefect of Cochabamba department. He is currently hiding out, presumably in Santa Cruz.

Irish television network RTÉ has a 40-minute documentary on the alleged Santa Cruz terror cell that was gunned down earlier this year. It is a pretty balanced look at the group and what led to its existence in the Hotel Americas. The documentary does raise suspicions about the conduct of the Bolivian police on the night that Rózsa Flores, Dwyer, and Magyarosi were shot and killed, but it also looks unflinchingly at the group’s probable involvement in a then-inchoate Bolivian civil war.

Bina’s got the goods on another Irishman allegedly involved with the Santa Cruz terror plot earlier this year.