Morales animó un programa piloto de 3 horas
I was wondering when was this going to happen!
Morales experienced with a pilot radio program that lasted about three hours. This only strengthens my belief that he is following some kind of model or specific advice.
More links:
Radio Kawsachuncoca (new radio)
Radio Patria Nueva (state's official radio)
MABB © ®
February 22, 2012
February 21, 2012
MABB © ®
Hier is an interesting article that says a lot about our Latin American society. It deals with the color of skin and the level of education. Not surprisingly (for me at least) it finds that there is a revealing negative relationship between the color of skin and the level of education in the region. It is a simple yet illuminating article that puts the finger on the wound!
Here you can access the English version!
For those of you who want to read it in Spanish, here it is!
Hier is an interesting article that says a lot about our Latin American society. It deals with the color of skin and the level of education. Not surprisingly (for me at least) it finds that there is a revealing negative relationship between the color of skin and the level of education in the region. It is a simple yet illuminating article that puts the finger on the wound!
Here you can access the English version!
For those of you who want to read it in Spanish, here it is!
February 06, 2012
January 19, 2012
The Fragility of MAS in Congress
MABB © ®
This is a development that was expected to come, some time, to Bolivian politics. As you may already know, the Bolivian political forces in the Plurinational Assembly are distributed thus. From a total of 166 seats in the assembly (36 in the Senate and 130 in the Deputies Chamber), the MAS controlled, until now, 113 (88 in the Deputies Chamber and 25 in the Senate). So, a fragile 2/3 majority, considering for such a majority 111 seats are needed.
Now, two seats above the needed is anything other than comforting for the government because with such a small margin there is always the danger of losing that majority. This is especially true in the constantly changing political environment in Bolivia.
Well, this is exactly what is about to happen. A group of indigenous congressmen and congresswomen have decided to diverge from MAS and place their "compromise with the change" the government is leading on hold to practice a bit of opposition. These group wants to oppose the central government's efforts to build a road through the natural reserve and indigenous territory TIPNIS. If you followed a bit of Bolivia's politics lately you might know that the government was practically forced by indigenous groups to back down on its plans to build that road. In fact, it was forced to pass a law declaring the whole territory as intangible.
However, the MAS government must be regreting that outcome because it is still trying to somehow build the road. One way in which it wants to do that is by inciting other indigenous groups who are in favor of the road to support the repeal of that law.
That is what the group of indigenous members of congress want to stop.
The group, denominated originary block, is said to be made up by Justino Leaños, Blanca Cartagena, Pedro Nuni, Bienvenido Zacu y Cristina Valeroso. It is also possible that other members will join this effort, such as Julio Cortez, Teresa Nominé, Bertha Ramallo y Sonia Justiniano.
The report can be found in Pagina Siete.
This is a development that was expected to come, some time, to Bolivian politics. As you may already know, the Bolivian political forces in the Plurinational Assembly are distributed thus. From a total of 166 seats in the assembly (36 in the Senate and 130 in the Deputies Chamber), the MAS controlled, until now, 113 (88 in the Deputies Chamber and 25 in the Senate). So, a fragile 2/3 majority, considering for such a majority 111 seats are needed.
Now, two seats above the needed is anything other than comforting for the government because with such a small margin there is always the danger of losing that majority. This is especially true in the constantly changing political environment in Bolivia.
Well, this is exactly what is about to happen. A group of indigenous congressmen and congresswomen have decided to diverge from MAS and place their "compromise with the change" the government is leading on hold to practice a bit of opposition. These group wants to oppose the central government's efforts to build a road through the natural reserve and indigenous territory TIPNIS. If you followed a bit of Bolivia's politics lately you might know that the government was practically forced by indigenous groups to back down on its plans to build that road. In fact, it was forced to pass a law declaring the whole territory as intangible.
However, the MAS government must be regreting that outcome because it is still trying to somehow build the road. One way in which it wants to do that is by inciting other indigenous groups who are in favor of the road to support the repeal of that law.
That is what the group of indigenous members of congress want to stop.
The group, denominated originary block, is said to be made up by Justino Leaños, Blanca Cartagena, Pedro Nuni, Bienvenido Zacu y Cristina Valeroso. It is also possible that other members will join this effort, such as Julio Cortez, Teresa Nominé, Bertha Ramallo y Sonia Justiniano.
The report can be found in Pagina Siete.
January 06, 2012
Bloggings by boz: Latin America mentions in new US defense strategy
MABB © ®
Here is a post from boz about the US' defense strategy. If you read the post you'll see that there is not much mentioned about the region. In fact, it is just about one paragraph. In turn, boz does call on to the fact that the document is only about 8 pages long. I say, that is just about right! The length of both, the paper and the mention of Lat Am, is symptomatic of the attention the US gives to his backyard, where the grass is getting longer and the bushes are growing as they please, to the point that the US government will not be able to set foot into it. :-)
Here is the post, enjoy!
Bloggings by boz: Latin America mentions in new US defense strategy: President Obama visited the Pentagon yesterday to unveil a new National Defense Strategy. The big story was the planned reduction of militar...
Here is a post from boz about the US' defense strategy. If you read the post you'll see that there is not much mentioned about the region. In fact, it is just about one paragraph. In turn, boz does call on to the fact that the document is only about 8 pages long. I say, that is just about right! The length of both, the paper and the mention of Lat Am, is symptomatic of the attention the US gives to his backyard, where the grass is getting longer and the bushes are growing as they please, to the point that the US government will not be able to set foot into it. :-)
Here is the post, enjoy!
Bloggings by boz: Latin America mentions in new US defense strategy: President Obama visited the Pentagon yesterday to unveil a new National Defense Strategy. The big story was the planned reduction of militar...
December 13, 2011
Curious Drug Bust Finds Cocaine Paste Labled With the Nazi Symbol, a Swastika
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A very curious drug bust in Santa Cruz, Bolivia found around 250 kilograms of cocaine paste in the form of bricks. The curious think was that each brick displayed, on one of the flat sides, a swastika. Here is the press article from El Deber.
The bust leaves more questions than answers. Above all, why do all the bricks carry a Nazi symbol?
Bizarre!
A very curious drug bust in Santa Cruz, Bolivia found around 250 kilograms of cocaine paste in the form of bricks. The curious think was that each brick displayed, on one of the flat sides, a swastika. Here is the press article from El Deber.
The bust leaves more questions than answers. Above all, why do all the bricks carry a Nazi symbol?
Bizarre!
December 08, 2011
The Dangers of Communitarian Justice
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There is a real danger about relying on communitarian justice when the state is not able to establish its presence in rural areas. That is the problem that has been highlighted by Bolivia's attempts at relying on communitarian justice in order to complement the weak judicial apparatus in the country.
The Bolivian constitution raises communitarian justice to the same rank as ordinary justice. On the back of ethnic, autonomic and indigenous peoples discourse, now rural dwellers around the country (there where the state is not really present) can claim the use of communitarian justice as an equal alternative to ordinary justice.
This, on one side, stems from the insecurity these dwellers feel because of the lack of presence of police forces. In addition, more often than not, people have to travel long in order to come to the nearest judge.
On the other side, these affinity for communitarian justice stems from the traditional forms of justice some Andean groups have had in the past and still have now. This has become the fundamental argument, within this indigenist discourse, to justify uses of what otherwise would be known as mob justice.
The reason for this post is to highlight an example of what has been happening in Bolivia for some time now.
In the last weeks, the Bolivian statistical institute has been sending people to the rural areas to gather survey data to measure poverty, health, and other things. In the last days, eight of those people were thought to be thieves, kept captured, and almost lynched by the skeptical people in a small town in Cochabamba. The people could be freed after long negotiations with the police and other security forces.
What does this latest example says is that this form of "justice" is not adequate to be a legitimate form of justice. At the most, if anything, it should be incorporated into a conflict solution mechanism.
There is a real danger about relying on communitarian justice when the state is not able to establish its presence in rural areas. That is the problem that has been highlighted by Bolivia's attempts at relying on communitarian justice in order to complement the weak judicial apparatus in the country.
The Bolivian constitution raises communitarian justice to the same rank as ordinary justice. On the back of ethnic, autonomic and indigenous peoples discourse, now rural dwellers around the country (there where the state is not really present) can claim the use of communitarian justice as an equal alternative to ordinary justice.
This, on one side, stems from the insecurity these dwellers feel because of the lack of presence of police forces. In addition, more often than not, people have to travel long in order to come to the nearest judge.
On the other side, these affinity for communitarian justice stems from the traditional forms of justice some Andean groups have had in the past and still have now. This has become the fundamental argument, within this indigenist discourse, to justify uses of what otherwise would be known as mob justice.
The reason for this post is to highlight an example of what has been happening in Bolivia for some time now.
In the last weeks, the Bolivian statistical institute has been sending people to the rural areas to gather survey data to measure poverty, health, and other things. In the last days, eight of those people were thought to be thieves, kept captured, and almost lynched by the skeptical people in a small town in Cochabamba. The people could be freed after long negotiations with the police and other security forces.
What does this latest example says is that this form of "justice" is not adequate to be a legitimate form of justice. At the most, if anything, it should be incorporated into a conflict solution mechanism.
November 18, 2011
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I am posting this time some links I found intersting.
This first link is an article strongly criticizing the Morales governmet written by Roberto Laserna (a Bolivian academic).
The second link leads to a picture of the swearing ceremony for the elected judges, that is those who won the judicial elections in Bolivia. With this, the electoral act is confirmed. It did not really matter that the spoiled vote won, did it?
The third link to a youtube video where former Government Minister, Quintana, accuses the DEA of being involved in drug trafficking and protecting the TIPNIS region for this purpose.
I am posting this time some links I found intersting.
This first link is an article strongly criticizing the Morales governmet written by Roberto Laserna (a Bolivian academic).
The second link leads to a picture of the swearing ceremony for the elected judges, that is those who won the judicial elections in Bolivia. With this, the electoral act is confirmed. It did not really matter that the spoiled vote won, did it?
The third link to a youtube video where former Government Minister, Quintana, accuses the DEA of being involved in drug trafficking and protecting the TIPNIS region for this purpose.
November 12, 2011
The Results of the Judicial Elections in Bolivia
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The results of the vote to fill judge posts in the four judicial sub-branches in Bolivia have been published by the Plurinacional Electoral Organ (the electoral court). Although, I have to say, since Evo is in government, the website does not work as well as it should. However, I was still able to get the final and official results.
First, I have to clarify that when I wanted to access the official results I had problems accessing the right results. For example, as I selected Santa Cruz or Pando, I got the Chuquisaca or Beni results. Only after 20 or 30 times trying to access the data by clicking on the same selection from the drop down menue I was able to access these results. Just to clarify further, I never had such a problem when I tried to access this kind of data before. I think the quality of data access has gone down.
Regardless of my petty problems by accessing the data, I was finally able to access it and from that data I created the following graph.
The graph shows the results of the judicial elections (valid, blank and spoiled votes) by tribunal or court. These results show a clear victory for the green bar or spoiled vote in the Supreme Justice Tribunal. This court is in the nine departments present and what the results say to me is that the majority of the departments did not support this court nor the vote for justices for this court. This is supposed to be the highest instance in the land.
More over, the spoiled votes show a close outcome together with the valid votes (the blue bar). How close it is, I think is irrelevant in this case. What counts for the governmet in this case is that the distance between one bar and the other is not significant or not visible. For the government that should signal a solid support for the voting exercise and the judges elected for the rest of the courts.
However, were we to add the blank votes to the spoiled votes, thereby assuming that those who voted blank protested against the vote, the result would be overwhelming for the government and clear for the rest of the world. No one will know if these votes were protest votes or the people who issued these votes did not know how to vote, were overwhelmed by the complexity of the ballot, or if they just did not care about it.
The opposition, in turn, can interpret this vote as if they did win the election. In the end, it is very remakable that the percentage of spoiled votes was so large in such elections. In fact, that is what they did. The opposition has been saying for weeks now that the spoile vote won and the elections were not legitimate.
In the end, however, the government has began to appoint the judges in their posts as the results mandate and has been able to say that the election results were not that bad. That is the success the Morales government has been able to gain from this electoral exercise. And, that seems like a good result, doesn't it?
The results of the vote to fill judge posts in the four judicial sub-branches in Bolivia have been published by the Plurinacional Electoral Organ (the electoral court). Although, I have to say, since Evo is in government, the website does not work as well as it should. However, I was still able to get the final and official results.
First, I have to clarify that when I wanted to access the official results I had problems accessing the right results. For example, as I selected Santa Cruz or Pando, I got the Chuquisaca or Beni results. Only after 20 or 30 times trying to access the data by clicking on the same selection from the drop down menue I was able to access these results. Just to clarify further, I never had such a problem when I tried to access this kind of data before. I think the quality of data access has gone down.
Regardless of my petty problems by accessing the data, I was finally able to access it and from that data I created the following graph.
More over, the spoiled votes show a close outcome together with the valid votes (the blue bar). How close it is, I think is irrelevant in this case. What counts for the governmet in this case is that the distance between one bar and the other is not significant or not visible. For the government that should signal a solid support for the voting exercise and the judges elected for the rest of the courts.
However, were we to add the blank votes to the spoiled votes, thereby assuming that those who voted blank protested against the vote, the result would be overwhelming for the government and clear for the rest of the world. No one will know if these votes were protest votes or the people who issued these votes did not know how to vote, were overwhelmed by the complexity of the ballot, or if they just did not care about it.
The opposition, in turn, can interpret this vote as if they did win the election. In the end, it is very remakable that the percentage of spoiled votes was so large in such elections. In fact, that is what they did. The opposition has been saying for weeks now that the spoile vote won and the elections were not legitimate.
In the end, however, the government has began to appoint the judges in their posts as the results mandate and has been able to say that the election results were not that bad. That is the success the Morales government has been able to gain from this electoral exercise. And, that seems like a good result, doesn't it?
October 31, 2011
TIPNIS Environmental Report
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I found an environment report on the TIPNIS region in PDF format for those who are interested and can read Spanish. I am sorry I cannot translate it, I wish I had the time.
It provides information on which indigenous peoples live around the area and which other groups of settlements are there. Especially it talks about the colonizers.
Of course, it talks about the importance of the region for the ecological well being of the areas in and around the park.
I found an environment report on the TIPNIS region in PDF format for those who are interested and can read Spanish. I am sorry I cannot translate it, I wish I had the time.
It provides information on which indigenous peoples live around the area and which other groups of settlements are there. Especially it talks about the colonizers.
Of course, it talks about the importance of the region for the ecological well being of the areas in and around the park.
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