El Gaviero

The New York Times has an article up today about the impact of global warming on the glaciers and water supply of the area surrounding La Paz and El Alto in the Andes of Bolivia. It’s a timely piece, as climate-change talks in Copenhagen are in tumult after poorer nations threatened to walk out over the richer nations’ reluctance to curb enough greenhouse emissions and contribute more to infrastructure improvements for the rest of the world.

La Paz and El Alto depend on the surrounding glaciers to act as natural reservoirs, which in the past stored water–as ice–in the dry season, slowly melting and supplying water for the millions of people living in the cities and countryside. Now, with the glaciers in retreat, water runs freely down the mountains, and the dry season is now truly dry.

Developed countries agree that they have an obligation to help relieve such stresses, but many remain hesitant to release funds, in part because poor countries have few concrete plans to address climate problems. The effects of climate changes have not yet been analyzed or quantified by Epsas, the water company, for example.But with little cash or expertise, it is hard to plan a giant new reservoir or a system to transfer water from one part of the country to another. Bolivia’s poor, said Edwin Torrez Soria, an engineer with Aqua Sustentable, who works with villages near the Illimani glacier, “aren’t responsible for what’s happening to the glacier but they suffer the most, and unfortunately the government doesn’t have much of a plan.”

People that have never been to Bolivia, let alone observed an election there, are perpetuating the myth that Morales’s MAS party will accompany voters to the polls to ensure that they vote appropriately in today’s election. As far as I am aware, this lie started out with Mary Anastasio O’Grady’s WSJ column last month, when she wrote, “Mr. Morales is expected to win re-election easily, in part because in many areas that he controls voters will be escorted into polling booths to make sure they choose correctly.” Now, the San Francisco Chronicle is parroting the lie: “Across the nation, [Morales's] enforcers will accompany voters into the voting booth to make sure they make the correct choices.” The Hearst-owned Chronicle, of course, cites no authority when leveling these charges. Interestingly, the title of the article is “Democracy Losing in Latin America.” There was no mention of last week’s elections in Honduras, a curious shortcoming in an article that purports to examine undemocratic trends in Latin America.

Weisbrot at the Center for Economic and Policy Research has a paper on Bolivia’s economic development under President Morales (who will likely–nay, almost certainly–win re-election tomorrow). I’ll be digging into it this rainy Saturday afternoon. Join me? (Via El Dude.)

IKN has Armen Kouyoumdjian’s excellent screed about LatAm critics living in glass houses. It’s a great and hilarious read.

I’ve been traveling around so forgive the paucity of posts this week. Otto and the Dude had some fun earlier with Manfred Reyes Villa’s post-election plans: Apparently he’ll be inaugurated in Miami! Hah! Reyes knows he hasn’t a hope on Dec. 6, the date of Bolivia’s presidential election as the chart below shows (Evo’s even consolidated his lead a bit more in the past few months.) I think it’s telling that Reyes, who is running against a former campesino–and the campesino favorite–Evo Morales, is spending nearly $4,000 on two plane tickets to the U.S.A. Bolivia is a very poor country, and this just makes Reyes look even more out of touch.

Table from Angus Reid Global Monitor.

William Finnegan has an excellent article in The New Yorker about the Honduran coup. He calls it like he sees it, and it’s not pretty: repression, use of force, and the unscrupulous lust for power of the oligarchy in Honduras (not to mention the devious behind-the-scenes machinations of U.S. senator Jim DeMint, a Republican scumbag who tilted the Obama State Department’s hand). It’s a pay-to-view article, but you can easily subscribe to The New Yorker’s 14-day free trial digital edition through a throwaway e-mail address. It’s great reporting. Please read.

“The Gaceta Oficial, (“Official Gazette”) of the Honduras coup regime is now freshly printed and has three new decrees and two orders restricting freedom of the press, the right to bear arms and officially strips Catholic Father Andres Tamayo of his Honduran citizenship, ordering him expelled from the country (the good Padre left for El Salvador last week).”

Wow. Just wow.

Read more at The Field.

The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal has a truly detestable Op-Ed by serial liar Mary Anastasia O’Grady which bemoans the “end of Bolivian democracy.” O’Grady’s factually challenged screed fails on many levels, one being her deification of disgraced former Bolivian president Gonzalo “Goni the Gringo” Sánchez de Lozada (presently wanted in Bolivia for ordering the massacre of his countrymen and a defendant in the U.S. for said crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killings).

Originally, I wasn’t going to comment on the WSJ’s prevarications–as any informed news watcher knows that that outlet is a cesspool of disinformation and lies–but via Abiding in Bolivia a comment to that article appears that should be read:

Mary Anastasia O’Grady’s Nov 22 column about Bolivias upcoming elections is full of inaccuracies and invective. Rather than respond point by point, we would like to point out three facts. In 2002 Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada received 22% of the vote and assumed the presidency at the head of an unstable coalition. His inability to respond to the crisis his policies brought about led to political unrest that culminated after 67 died when he authorized the use of lethal force on civilians. He resigned and fled the country and faces extradition charges. The US District Court of Southern Florida recently ruled that a case against Sanchez de Lozada for crimes against humanity and extrajudicial killings could move forward.

In December 2005, following constitutional procedures, Morales was elected with 54% of the vote, beating his closest rival by over 20 points, the most decisive election victory since the 1982 return to democracy. Since that time, over 100 international observers have monitored a recall election (Morales won 67% of the vote) and a constitutional referendum (which passed with 61%). There were few complaints of irregularities.

O’Grady should recognize Morales is an extremely popular president in the process of consolidating a weak state in a peaceful manner. The Morales administration has expressed interest in improving relations with the United States, which would serve long term goals of economic and democratic stability in Latin America.

Dr. Ben Kohl, Associate Professor, Temple University

Kathyrn Ledebur, Director, Andean Information Network

Dr. Daniel Goldstein, Anthropology, Rutgers University

Dr. Juan Arbona, Associate Professor, Bryn Mawr

Linda Farthing, writer

Franoise Martinez, Universit Paris Ouest France

Dr. Miriam Shakow, Assistant Professor Vanderbilt University

Emma Banks, Cornell University

Dr. Meredith Dudley, Tulane University

Dr. Susanne Jonas, University of California, Santa Cruz

Dr. Guillermo Delgado, University of California, Santa Cruz

Marion Oveson, La Paz, Bolivia

Dr. Pascale Absi, anthropologist, University of Paris

Dr. Jonathan Fox, University of California, Santa Cruz

Ms. Sarah Motola

Dr. Estelle Tarica, University of California, Berkeley

David Kane, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Dr. Leonardo Garcia-Pabon, University of Oregon

Elizabeth Weimer, Carleton College

Bloomberg reports that Bolivian presidential candidate Manfred Reyes Villas’s home was “attacked” last night. (The “attack” appears to be only a few broken windows, according to La Razón.) Reyes Villas’s bodyguards detained two men, alleged to be supporters of MAS, Evo Morales’s party. While home invasions by overzealous activists have happened in the past, this alleged attack smells a little fishy. First, barring any unforeseen cataclysm, Morales will win the Dec. 6 election. Why would the MAS monkey around with any home “attack” on Reyes Villa? It’s not worth it, and it’s unnecessary. It only harms Morales. Following that train of thought, who does benefit from this home “attack” story? One person: Reyes Villas, who might be hoping to drum up a couple thousand pity votes from this story. It looks like this attack is rather a case of vandalism by some stupid thugs, associated with the MAS or not.

And, not to excuse violence in any way, this might be in reaction to Morales’s supporters being beaten at their own campaign rally earlier this month. Violence begets violence, you know.

Update: Unforgivably, I forgot to link to the invasion of Victor Cardenas’s home. My bad.

El Dude’s in fine form with all things Bolivian. Plus, Branko’s back in the news!!!