Thursday, March 19, 2009

Bolivia: The masks slip in Santa Cruz

Take a wild guess as to which one of these people is a
racist TV and radio presenter in Santa Cruz
?

In one of the worst articles to be written on Evo Morales in the last year (and my stars, there's some competition), some damnfool named Eliza Barclay managed to make Morales into Mugabe (she passed on Mandela...wonder why?) and tried to get chattering classes in NE USA nodding in sage agreement over another of her carefully chosen quotes;

"Instead of governing for a whole country, he is governing only for the indigenous class and has brought racism with him."

Now, Barclay's fetid hit-piece has already been thoroughly and correctly lashed by Abiding in Bolivia and other people that actually know the difference between a decent journalism and plain stupidity, but now it's time to gently explain to Barclay what real Bolivian racism is, what it sounds like and where it comes from. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Carlos Valverde Barberí (above), mainstay of Santa Cruz politics, TV and radio personality (his verbal vomit gets spewed out via friendly Santa Cruz media) founder of the now infamous Unión Juvenil Cruceñista (UJC) nazi youth thugs and all round piece of shit.

The issue is a commentary on the handing over of 38,000 hectares of land on March 14th that previously belonged to rich white landowners (Larsen, Branko, all the other boys) to indigenous Guarani people. This came about via the newly minted constitution that allows people to own a maximum of 5,000ha going forward, so Branko, his pals and his multizillion hectare soybean business has hit a bit of a bump in the road, all things told. But on to Carlos Velaverde's comments as featured on Radio Patria Nueva, Santa Cruz, today. Eliza, have a pen and paper handy to make notes for your next report, yeah? He said of the handover;

"We have to shoot those that have recently occupied our land. They have to be killed because they are individuals that subjugate. They have to be killed because we are not all the same. This is a subjugation of Santa Cruz. It's incredible that Cambas (Santa Cruz residents) don't agree with us because the indigenous don't have anything to do with us here."

This is the mindset of the people that were presented by Simon Romero in the NYT last year as the anti-Evo heroic resistance movement. These are the people Eliza Barclay decided to ignore when she wrote a 1,500 word expansion on her own prejudices. However, now that the rubber is hitting the road and the real reason behind all this "Autonomy Now!" claptrap is being exposed, namely that those in charge knew all along they'd lose their precious land, the masks have slipped and the vicious underbelly is being exposed for all to see. Ten years ago the racist slavedrivers had their vast tracts of very profitable lands and a virtual unpaid labourforce to work it for them. Now they're losing both and they don't like it...my oh my, dontcha feel sad for 'em?

But remember what the racist apologist media tell you. It's Evo who is the racist that insists on dragging Bolivia back into the 17th century, not the people that for generations have taken all, have given nothing and are now getting their comeuppance. Eliza Barclay is just the latest in a long line of racist apologymongers who don't have the first clue about Bolivia, and thus to her we present the IKN coveted weekly award. Enjoy it, dumbass: