We raised over $1000 for the charity. By far our largest amount yet for a cause. What a great time and for a great cause!
Bolivia has the largest indigenous population in South America, 62%.
Bolivia is rich in natural resources, including fertile land, silver, tin, gold, zinc, lead and hydrocarbons. Bolivia also possesses South Americaʼs second largest reserves of natural gas, the fifth largest reserves of potable water in the world, and ranks eighth in the world in biodiversity.
Despite its vast natural wealth, Bolivia remains the poorest country in South America. Since the days of the conquistadors, their wealth has been drained off by external actors and a small group of internal-colonial elites. In the first century of colonization, Spain plundered enough silver to triple the wealth of the Spanish Empire. Later day expropriations continued to be facilitated by the neo-liberal economic model and Washington-backed Bolivian presidents. From 1990 to 2000, 30-40% of Bolivians lived on $1/day. In 2007, 60% suffered from malnutrition, over 80% lived in poverty, and a mere 400 individuals owned 70% of the potentially productive lands.
While the vast majority of Bolivians live in dire poverty, ex-President Gonzalo (“GONI”) Sanchez de Lozada has made tens of millions of dollars (some estimates are as high as hundreds of millions) from exploitive mines and haciendas. Goni’s money helped him win the presidency in 1993-1997 and again in 2002-2003. His second presidency was secured after he hired the consulting firm of James Carville (the “Raging Cajun”) to publically smear his competition. Goni won with just 22.46% of the vote, beating the next two candidates by roughly 1%. This story is told in the documentary, “Our Brand is Crisis”.
Goni was raised and educated in the U.S. He speaks Spanish with an American accent and so some call him “el gringo”. He is a product of the U.S. educational, political, and economic institutions. Due to the number of privatizations of Boliviaʼs industries and resources, he is also called “Vendepatria”, he who sold out his country. Bolivia was a “lab rat” for the economic policies espoused by the Washington Consensus, and Goni was their point man. In 1996 he privatized Boliviaʼs hydrocarbon industry, resulting in an arrangement where foreign international oil companies received 82% of the profits, leaving only 18% for Bolivia. His policies widened the gap between rich and poor (and white and indigenous) immensely.
By 2003, Goni’s neoliberal policies had driven the country further into disarray, and Bolivia struggled under an enormous IMF debt burden. To raise revenues Goni had a choice to either increase the tax on the foreign oil companies or tax poor and working class Bolivians. Goni, who made tens of millions of dollars off of resource extraction in Bolivia, chose the latter. His decision resulted in widespread protests in February, only a few months into his presidency. The government quelled these protests with violence, and dozens were killed.
Goni’s penchant for violence was again manifested later that year. In September and October of 2003, indigenous groups, unions, and church groups participated in nationwide demonstrations to protest what many saw as corrupt natural resource policies. Goni, again, responded with violence, sending the military into indigenous communities and killing unarmed Aymara and Quechua civilians. One of the first killed was 8-year-old Marlene Rojas, who was shot in her home by a sniper. After a month of torture, kidnapping, and killing by government forces, 67 indigenous Bolivians were killed and over 400 were injured. On October 17, Goni resigned, and with his Defense Minister, fled to the United States with millions of dollars.
In 2004, during the ensuing presidency of his vice president, Goniʼs own party in congress voted by the required 2/3 majority to bring charges against him. To this day he has never answered to the Bolivian judicial system or submitted to questioning regarding the events of 2003. A summons to return to Bolivia was sent to the U.S. in 2005, but the Bush administration ignored it. Currently, Goni lives freely in the wealthy D.C. suburb of Chevy Chase, Md. The U.S. Government continues to harbor this international fugitive and human rights violator.
In 2007, ten families of the victims of the massacre filed a civil lawsuit against Goni in Miami with the help of human rights attorneys from Harvard and the Center for Constitutional Rights. This case is still pending. In November of 2008, the Bolivian embassy delivered a formal request for Goniʼs extradition, but the U.S. Government has not responded to that request. Earlier this year, the victims of Black October commenced a trial in Bolivia against the Generals and Ministers involved in the 2003 brutality. Two of the five accused generals were trained at the School of Americas (known throughout Latin America as the “School of the Assassins”) in Fort Benning, GA.
The Comité works directly with the victims to bring to justice and those who collaborated in the massacres of 2003. They are fighting to end the impunity and repression that has plagued Bolivia for centuries. Goni is emblematic Bolivia’s exploitive past, and he must be brought to justice. El Comité Impulsor del Juicio a Goni.
also referred to as the Comite. A link to their website is at: http://www.juiciogoniya.org.bo/ as well as an english link. http://juiciogoniya.org.bo/?q=content/documents-english
