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Tensions and uncertainties continue to rise as what some are calling a bout of “referendumitis” sweeps through Bolivia.

“We are the sons and daughters of Bolivarian socialism and we want to defend it”, explained Eduardo Churrio, speaking to 91������̳ Weekly.

Only six months into her term as president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner faces a massive crisis following the decision by Vice-President Julio Cobos to vote against Fernandez’s proposed tax increases on food exports, breaking the senate vote deadlock in favour of the opposition.

With the victory of an unlikely opposition candidate in the June 29 election for prefect (governor) of Chuquisaca, the number of opposition-controlled prefectures increased to seven out of nine.

“As a product of four weeks of meetings between the different currents in the National Union of Workers (UNT), together with important union federations, we have democratically decided, in consultation with the grassroots, that [on September 19-21] we will hold a national congress.

In stark contrast to the thumb-twiddling of the G8 overlords, who meet on July 7-9 to decide on taking as little action as possible on climate change and the developing global food and fuel crises, the June 30-July 1 summit of the Common Market of South America (Mercosur) was one more demonstration of the role being played by Venezuela — together with other South American countries — in charting a way out of these crises.

Following the December 2 constitutional reform referendum defeat — the first for the forces of the Bolivarian revolution since the election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 1998 — and facing popular discontent at the problems holding back the advance of the process of change, the pro-revolution forces face a big challenge in securing an overwhelming victory in the November regional elections in order not to lose ground to the US-backed opposition.

A new period of uncertainty has opened in Bolivia with the initiation of recall referendums for the president and prefects of Bolivia’s nine departments by the opposition-controlled Senate.

The drums of war are once again beginning to sound, as US imperialism steps up its propaganda attack on Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution.

A day of violence, fraud and a “grand rebellion” against the Santa Cruz oligarchy.

The message delivered by Bolivia’s indigenous president couldn’t be clearer: “If we want to save the planet, we have to put an end to and eradicate the capitalist model.”

First came the decision by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on April 9 to re-nationalise the Sidor steel plant, privatised by a pre-Chavez government in 1997, after a long workers’ struggle.