The Network of Intellectuals and Artists in Defense of Humanity express their indignation at the criminal attack perpetrated in the afternoon of Tuesday July 3 against Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma, by the government of the United States and with the clear complicity of various European states.
Bolivia
Venezuela and Bolivia have agreed to raise cooperation to a 鈥渉igher level鈥 following Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro鈥檚 visit to Bolivia on May 25.
During bilateral meetings held in Cochabamba, Maduro and Bolivian President Evo Morales signed key accords in food production, industrial development and communications.
鈥淚t鈥檚 necessary to place the strategic map of bilateral cooperation at a higher level, including a more organised one,鈥 said Maduro.
Bolivia is demonstrating to the world why nationalising natural resources is a crucial first step for any government seeking to put people and the environment before profits.
On May 1, 2006, less than four months after becoming president, Evo Morales decreed the nationalisation of the country鈥檚 gas reserves. This move restored state control over the strategic resource.
Bolivia has earned more than US$16 billion from the energy industry since President Evo Morales nationalised the sector in 2006, Spanish newsagency EFE reported government officials as saying.
EFE reported that hydrocarbons minister Juan Jose Sosa said: 鈥淪even years before the nationalisation, from 1999 to 2005, the state received around $2 billion. After these seven years, the state received more than $16 billion.鈥
EFE said: 鈥淢orales issued an executive order on May 1, 2006, nationalising the seven oil companies, the majority of them foreign firms, operating in Bolivia.鈥
Bolivian President Evo Morales told a May Day demonstration in La Paz that his government would expel the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the that day.
The US government-funded agency provides funds and training to groups around the world that support US interests. In countries such as Bolivia and Venezuela, USAID has funded groups involved in bids to bring down elected governments.
In a quirk of history, Margaret Thatcher died a little more than one month after Hugo Chavez. Thatcher was a figurehead for the global class war in the 1980s and '90s known as 鈥渘eoliberalism鈥. Chavez was a figurehead for the struggle against it and the alternative starting to be built in Latin America over the past decade.
Katu Arkonada, a researcher at the University of the Cordillera in La Paz, Bolivia, gives a 2012 balance sheet of Bolivia's achievements and challenges.
It was translated from Spanish with additional notes by Richard Fidler and is reprinted from .
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About 7000 people joined the 鈥淚nternational Meeting with Social Movements鈥 festival in Barcelona on December 9, which features Bolivia's left-wing President President Evo Morales, the Andean nation;'s first ever indigenous president.
The event was largely attended by the Bolivian diaspora, many of whom travelled hours from Madrid and Valencia. However, flags of Catalonia, Palestine and Argentina reflected a broad internationalist gathering.
In an effort to assert control over national resources Bolivia has nationalized two Spanish electricity distribution companies. The measure, on the eve of a new year, comes as an example of initiatives to secure the interests of people.
Reuters reported on December 29 that the nationalisation that day of two electricity distribution companies owned by Spanish utility Iberdrola were 鈥渢he latest move by leftist President Evo Morales to assert control over the country's resources鈥.
The Plurinational State of Bolivia released the statement below on December 5 about the United Nations climate talks in Doha, Qatar. It was translated by Richard Fidler. Below that is Bolivia's official statement to the Doha talks. Both are reprinted from .
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Bolivia is one of the few countries that has consistently opposed treating biodiversity as a commodity at the United Nations Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biodiversity held in Hyderabad, India, over October 1-19. It has raised its voice against pro-market approaches in implementing the Strategic Plan and Aichi Targets of the UN's Convention on Biodiversity (CBD).
鈥淲ashington has refused to extradite a former Bolivian president to the South American country to stand trial over political violence that forced him from office nine years ago鈥, Reutuers reports that Bolivian President Evo Morales said on September 7.
Bolivia wants former US-backed president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, known as 鈥淕oni鈥, to face charges over corruption allegations and for his role in the deaths of 63 people killed by security forces during the 2003 uprising that overthrew him.
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