DANGL ON BOLIVIA

leftist Congressman Gustavo Torrico,
Torrico was meeting with members of the Bolivian Workers Center, one of the largest unions in the country.
one of the key reasons for the success of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), the party he and indigenous President Evo Morales helped construct.
"We choose political ideas from below and move those politics upward,"
"Social organizations are important to us because they are our essence. Without social organizations, we would not exist."

he said.
this dynamic relationship with
powerful unions, social organizations and movements that led to the December 6 re-election of Morales with 63 percent of the vote,
MAS more than two-thirds control of both houses of Congress,
coming months
to "accelerate the process of change."
first four years
various indigenous,
movements were pivotal in defeating
right-wing destabilization efforts, passing land reform legislation, radicalizing government policy and ushering in a new progressive Constitution.

At the same time, defending the MAS against the oligarchy and right wing often took precedence over self-criticism and internal debate; those who seriously questioned the MAS were sometimes labeled allies of the right and sidelined.
with opposition parties extremely weak and divided,
internal censorship will, hopefully, be swept aside to allow for more vigorous analysis of the MAS from the inside out.
Bolivian sociologist Oscar Vega
state-run newspaper Cambio (Change)
"It's no longer a matter of supporting and defending the [MAS] vision of change, but democratically constructing the change through participation, debate and consultation."
demands from party members
calls to radicalize economic measures, make the management of ministries more participatory and delegate power away from Morales and toward a less centralized system of decision-making.
landslide victory
two-thirds majority in Congress will allow
new legislation
regularly
blocked
by the right during
first term
MAS
to pass 100 new laws

to apply a broad spectrum of changes in the new Constitution--a document rewritten in a constituent assembly and passed in a national referendum in January.
but land reform, expansion of indigenous rights and participation in government, and the fight against corruption
securing more state control over natural resource development and exploitation and directly redistributing the wealth from nationalized gas reserves to impoverished sectors of the population through such programs as stipends to students, mothers and the elderly. New revenue from state-run industries will also enable the MAS to continue improving roads and expanding access to basic services, education and healthcare.
three days after election day, the government seized a forty-eight-square-mile ranch from right-wing political opponent Branko Marinkovic.
National Agrarian Tribunal asserted
land had been fraudulently obtained from the Guarayo indigenous communities
it will be returned to the Guarayo

The Constitution mandates
pass five key initiatives within the first nine months of its operation,
Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network in Cochabamba,
"These include regulation of the electoral court and policy, a framework to implement autonomy and decentralization measures, and defining the role of the Judiciary and Constitutional Tribunal." Decentralizing and granting autonomy to right-wing-led departments will likely remain controversial, even considering the weakness of the right.
"The Morales government will face significant obstacles
As an umbrella for social movements, unions and other interest groups with diverse and often conflicting demands, the MAS government will be under considerable pressure from its supporters to make key concessions denied for decades, and sometimes even centuries. There is no guarantee that these groups will give blanket support to MAS legal proposals."
more complex issues

"law to reconcile indigenous 'community' justice systems and the traditional legal system and determine jurisdiction."
the enormous process of decolonization--reversing 500 years of exploitation and marginalization of indigenous people and culture--could take decades of work.
implications of Morales's re-election can't be understated
given the current political climate in Latin America
cooling of US-Latin American relations under the Obama administration
signing of a deal to establish seven new US military bases in Colombia and Washington's devastating role in the coup and electoral farce in Honduras, the re-election of Morales is a signal that the leftward shift
unlikely to dissipate anytime soon.
Morales's re-election bolsters the left alliance
includes Hugo Chávez
Rafael Correa
more moderate leaders in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay--which, in turn, strengthens the pushback against the Washington Consensus and US military aims in the region.

"The historic landslide election in Bolivia has to be seen in relation to the coup in Honduras,"
"The right tried nearly the same exact destabilization campaign against Morales in 2008 that they then executed against Manuel Zelaya in 2009--with exact opposite results."
Morales denounced a violent right-wing civic coup attempt against his government in 2008,
Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup on June 28 of this year.
"The fact that Morales not only withstood the onslaught but recovered with a resounding win at the polls--leaving the opposition shattered--has to serve as a warning to those who see Honduras as the first step in a larger push to use undemocratic means to roll back the democratic left."
economic analyst Carlos Arce of the Center for the Study of Labor and Agrarian Development, told me that the MAS is turning itself into the new Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, a political party that came to power during the transformative revolution of 1952
maintained
for twenty years

"This 60 percent support in the elections is mathematically the same number of people who identify with the MAS in the national census," Arce said, referring to the roughly 60 percent of the population that identifies as indigenous and around the same percentage that lives under the poverty line. "The MAS could stay in power as long as the population doesn't change."

CLINTON IRAN AND LATIN AMERICA

Clinton said the United States was well aware Iran had stepped up its diplomatic activities in the region, citing Venezuela and Bolivia in particular.

"We can only say that is a really bad idea for the countries involved," Clinton told a State Department briefing on Latin American relations.

"This is the major supporter, promoter and exporter of terrorism in the world today," she said. "If people want to flirt with Iran, they should take a look at what the consequences might well be for them. And we hope that they will think twice."

Clinton said Washington would continue to express concerns about Venezuela - where Chavez won a referendum in February that allows him to keep running for re-election - and about Nicaragua, where the Supreme Court in October opened the way for leftist President Daniel Ortega to seek a new term in a 2011 election.

"We all hope in the not too distant future to be able to see a democratic Cuba...something that would be extraordinarily positive for our hemisphere,"

COLOMBIA VENEZUELA WAR

US builds up its bases in oil-rich South America

From the Caribbean to Brazil, political opposition to US plans for 'full-spectrum operations' is escalating rapidly

By Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Sunday, 22 November 2009

The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia.
part of an effort to counter the loss of influence it has suffered recently at the hands of a new generation of Latin American leaders no longer willing to accept Washington's political and economic tutelage.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela
bases agreement could mean the possibility of war with Colombia.
Evo Morales of Bolivia
called for the outlawing of foreign military bases in the region.
President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras
that US forces stationed at the Honduran base of Palmerola collaborated with Roberto Micheletti,
Brazil had already expressed its unhappiness at the presence of US naval vessels in its massive new offshore oilfields off Rio de Janeiro,
US gets half its oil from Latin America
US Fourth Fleet was re-established in the region's waters in 2008.

The fleet's vessels can include Polaris nuclear-armed submarines – a deployment seen by some experts as a violation of the 1967 Tlatelolco Treaty, which bans nuclear weapons from the continent.
Indications of US willingness to envisage the stationing of nuclear weapons in Colombia are seen as an additional threat to the spirit of nuclear disarmament.
four more nuclear-weapon-free zones were set up in Africa, the South Pacific, South-east Asia and Central Asia.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
the bilateral agreement on the seven Colombian bases,
risks a costly new arms race in a region.
rising arms expenditure in Latin America draining resources from social programmes that the poor of the region need.
US strategy
set out in May
US Air Force (USAF) proposal for its military construction programme for the fiscal year 2010.
Palanquero,
"in a critical sub-region of our hemisphere where security and stability is under constant threat from... anti-US governments".

Palanquero which, the USAF says, offers an opportunity for conducting "full-spectrum operations throughout South America.... It also supports mobility missions by providing access to the entire continent
if fuel is available
over half the continent if un-refuelled". ("Full-spectrum operations" is the Pentagon's jargon for its long-established goal of securing crushing military superiority with atomic and conventional weapons across the globe and in space.)

Palanquero could also be useful in ferrying arms and personnel to Africa via the British mid-Atlantic island of Ascension, French Guiana and Aruba, the Dutch island off Venezuela. The US has access to them all.
The USAF proposal contradicted the assurances
That USAF proposal was hastily reissued
without the reference to "anti-US governments".
Civil strife in Colombia meant
number of displaced since 1985 to 4.6 million,
much-publicised one in Islamist-ruled Sudan where 2.7 million have fled from their homes.

Palanquero, which adjoins the town of Puerto Salgar on the broad Magdalena river north-west of the capital, Bogota,

BOLIVIA'S LITHIUM FOR 4.8 BILLION CARS

"Lithium could bring us prosperity."
At 4,085 square miles, Salar de Uyuni in Southwest Bolivia is the world's largest salt flat. Those salts contain large amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium and lithium, and these days, it's the last element on that list that is attracting attention. According to the USGS, Bolivia has 35% of the world's lithium resources, and since in the coming years, electric cars and plug-in hybrids that use lithium-ion batteries are expected to greatly increase in numbers, this could mean big changes for Bolivia, South-America's poorest country.

Peak Lithium Not in Sight
Bloomberg has a very interesting feature piece on Bolivia's lithium reserves, and the obstacles that it faces to actually create a lithium mine there (the country has so far rejected investment offers, but that might change if it can't raise the money on its own), but the most interesting piece of information to me was that these lithium reserves would be enough for about 4.8 billion electric cars.

4.8 billion!

See also: Bolivia's Lithium Reserves Could Power Electric Car Boom

More Battery Tech
Breakthrough? Ordinary Paper + Ink + Nanotubes = Battery
Lithium-Ion Batteries for EVs to Grow from $878 Million Market in 2010 to $8 Billion in 2015
Nissan Working on New Battery to Double the Leaf's Range by 2015

THIRD FRONT

The United States are back in Latin America. The military coup in Honduras marked the beginning of Washington’s renewed grip on that continent. While another coup was thwarted in Paraguay, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have been deploying new forces to encircle the ALBA countries with a view to attacking Nicaragua, Ecuador and Venezuela. Readying for the gathering storm, Chile has embraced the North-American camp and stockpiled a powerful arsenal.

FIDEL

To accuse Hugo Chavez, the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, of inciting a war against the people of Colombia and unleash an arms race, to portray him as the mastermind and promoter of drug trafficking, and accuse him of repressing the freedom of expression, violating human rights and other similar misdeeds is a repugnant and cynical action, as everything else that the empire has done, still does and promotes. We can neither ever forget nor stop reiterating realities. Objective and well-reasoned truth is the most important weapon with which we should ceaselessly hammer into the conscience of peoples.

THE THIRD FRONT, AGAIN

Throughout Latin America and much of the rest of the world, the coup in Honduras is seen as a dangerous example of what the imperial strategists are plotting for the region. As one country after another votes in leftist parties—the latest example is Uruguay, where a former guerrilla leader who spent 14 years in prison was just elected president—the U.S. is expanding its military bases in the region. It may still try to cover its dirty deeds with democratic phrase-mongering, but actions speak louder than words.