El Gaviero

El Gaviero has just flown back to New York City, and boy is he tired. Unfortunately for him, the Bolivian news cycle never stops, and he now finds himself playing catch-up! Luckily for you all, other bloggers never rest. So here’s a round-up on the news from Bolivia:

• Otto’s got a great translation of a damning interview with former UJC president Ignacio Villa Vargas from the state-run paper Cambio!, which blows the lid on opposition leaders in Santa Cruz–including former Pro-Santa Cruz Committee leader Branko Marinkovic–and their alleged involvement with April’s terror cell. Here’s an excerpt:

  Branko Marinko­vic talked to me and offered me a series of economic offers and other deals. We were talking and they also linked me by phone to the Prefect of Santa Cruz, Ruben Costas, who offered me a house and some land. I asked what would have to be done and they answered that we had to finish what had been started. They were definitely referring to the attacks that were going to happen in the city soon as a demonstration of serious intent. They attacked the radio of Guido Guardia two months later, they made the attack on Saúl Ávalos by localizing him as target. Sometimes they would ask me to take them on a tour of the streets before the attacks. I saw that they were looking for escape or emergency routes. Regarding the attack on the Cardenal, Germán (Rózsa) and the Irishman (Dwyer) were there that day. They asked me to pick them up from the Hotel Santa Cruz at around 10pm and asked me to drive around several times close to Seminario Street in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood (where the Cardenal lived).

  Later I found out that a terrorist event occurred which repulsed me because I am Catholic. While laughing Germán commented that they had got out the car and placed the explosive that I saw them holding into a rubbish bin. He also said that he lit the fuse, got back in the car and drove forward half a block and waited for the explosion, then had to go back three times until Germán verified that the fuse had taken. He said with a smile that it was a pity we hadn’t killed the priest and that involved with the explosion were the driver and in the back seats were Germán and Michael Dwyer, who was armed with a pistol with the instruction to open fire and kill if somebody saw them.

  Otto’s got much more. It’s lightning in a bottle, and worth your time. Go read it.

• And look at the chart of the day. (And remember how these socialists can never accomplish anything.)
• T’anta Wawa Talks notes that information in Bolivia is A) incomplete and B) oftentimes so biased that it’s difficult to know whom to believe. Kinda like the United States. (And if any of you think this blog is too sympathetic to Morales, you’ll be happy to know that T’anta is equally skeptical toward the gov-run newspaper and news agency.)
• Canadian stalwart Bina–who deserves some kind of prize for her attention to all things crazy down south–picks apart the terror cell and comes up with another sinister-sounding name: Tibor Revesz, who had the foresight to be out of the country when the shit hit the fan last month. (Remember the last Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, which was set in Bolivia? With this plot, and the names that these villains have, there’s really no need for fiction–and I can state that there are beautiful Bolivian women who actually look Bolivian, no offense to Olga Kurylenko; that’s not an Aymara name, you know….)
• Blog from Bolivia reports that former Bolivian president Gonzalo (”Goni the Gringo”) Sanchez de Lozada goes on trial in absentia this week for his role in the deaths of 67 people during unrest that broke out in 2003 during the Gas War.
  

  After breaking with the Sanchez de Lozada government over the use of force, Vice President Carlos Mesa assumed the presidency and eventually initiated the proceedings for a Trial of Responsibility. While Sanchez de Lozada claims the trial is a political maneuver by the current administration, it was in fact initiated by Sanchez de Lozada’s own Vice President with the backing of a requisite 2/3 Congressional majority, in a Congress controlled by Lozada’s own party.

  In 2005, the Bolivian government submitted a notification to the U.S. regarding the extradition of Sanchez de Lozada and two of his former ministers, Jorge Berindoague Alcocer and Carlos Sanchez Berzain so that they could stand trial. However, the Bush Adminsitration ignored the notice. In 2008, the Bolivian embassy submitted the formal extradition request. Now, with a new Obama Administration, there is hope that the U.S. will respond to the request and stop obstructing the Bolivian judicial process.

  BfB asks that you contact U.S. authorities and demand that Goni’s U.S. protection be lifted. A good idea, but I say fat chance. (Of course it would help if Peruvian president “Twobreakfasts” Garcia hadn’t granted asylum to three key Goni ministers just days ago, which is illegal.)

And these are just the blogs from the last couple of days. There’s bound to be more out there, so stay tuned….