Source: workers.org
With shouts of “Jallalah Evo” and “Jallalah Bolivia,” which roughly translate to “We will continue in the struggle,” thousands of exhilarated Bolivians celebrated their triumph over a recall referendum on Aug. 10. They gathered in Plaza Murillo facing Palacio Quemado, the presidential palace, awaiting their president, Evo Morales, after defeating the recall by a wide margin.

James Suggett, August 11th

Mérida, August 11, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)-- The Venezuelan government congratulated Bolivian President Evo Morales for a successful national referendum Sunday in which Morales’s presidency was ratified by a record 63.1% of the vote. As a show of support, Venezuela, a close ally of the Morales administration, pledged to finance, along with Iran, a cement construction company to help the Bolivian government build housing and economic infrastructure.

“The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez Frías, together with the Venezuelan people, celebrates the victory achieved by the valiant Bolivian people today,” declared the Venezuelan Foreign Relations Ministry in a statement Sunday.

President Morales and Bolivia’s state governors were submitted to a referendum on their terms in office Sunday. The referendum was a compromise between the government and a separatist movement in Bolivia's wealthiest, most natural resource-rich eastern provinces to establish once and for all whether the federal government, national constitution, and regional leaders are legitimate.

Morales, Bolivia’s first ever indigenous president who was elected in 2005 with 53.7% of the vote, received more than 63% of the vote in his favor Sunday. He received overwhelming support in the western highlands where the indigenous majority of Bolivia is concentrated.

LA PAZ, July 31 (Reuters) - Bolivia has won a United States court ruling over $36 million that Telecom Italia transferred to U.S. banks from its former subsidiary Entel, which was nationalized earlier this year, the government said late on Thursday.

Bolivian President Evo Morales announced the government takeover of Entel on May 1, claiming Telecom Italia failed to meet investment commitments and owed the state $645 million in fines and taxes.

Bolivia's newly formed Nationalization Ministry said the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ruled that some $36 million under Entel's name in four bank accounts belongs to Bolivia and not to Telecom Italia.

The ruling forces the banks to turn the money over to Bolivia because the Bolivian state has a majority in Entel, the ministry said in a statement.

Last week a British appeal court issued a similar ruling confirming that some $49 million deposited in a British bank account and claimed by Telecom Italia belongs to Bolivia.

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Jul 21 (IPS) - His deportation order from Spain in his pocket, Juan Mercado walks the streets of Madrid for the last time as he waits to board a plane to return to the western Bolivian city of Oruro, with little in the way of savings, but "with dignity," he says clearly and firmly.

Although his case is not yet covered by the European "Return Directive" against undocumented migrants that will enter into force from 2010, Mercado was caught by the police without the necessary documents for staying in Spain, and waived the possibility of obtaining a permanent work permit, he told IPS by e-mail.

The Bolivian embassy in Madrid estimates that some 350,000 Bolivians live in Spain. But only 70,000 have authorisation to work and enjoy social and labour benefits.

Mercado waived the procedure to annul the deportation order because he no longer finds many job opportunities in an economy that is in crisis. He decided instead to go back home to support his wife in looking after their children, who have become unruly since their father left.

"It’s not worth spending my small savings waiting for the economic situation to improve. I plan to go back home to live as a poor person, but with more dignity," he said.

The media in Spain report that 1,700 Bolivian immigrants a month are detained in Spain, equivalent to 20,000 a year, but only 900 a year are deported.

The Bolivian community is one of the most vulnerable groups in Europe, not only because of the lack of documents but also because of their difficulty in adapting to the European lifestyle, Bolivian journalist Edwin Pérez, editor of the magazine Raíz, told IPS.

They tend to rebuild whole families, towns and neighbourhoods in the new country, and this has limited their capacity to interact with other groups or to attend European cultural and social centres, Pérez says.

"If you add to that the growing fear of police detention, we find they are increasingly isolated in a continent where movement within and outside of cities should be easier," he commented.

In 2007, cash remittances sent by Bolivian workers abroad amounted to 869 million dollars, 341 million dollars more than in the previous year, according to a Central Bank report.

This figure represents approximately 12 percent of Bolivia’s gross domestic product (GDP). The largest share comes from people living in Spain, with 35.4 percent of the total, followed by Bolivians in the United States, with 23.6 percent, and Argentina, with 18.6 percent.

Bolivian President Evo Morales spoke emphatically against the restrictive directive on the return of undocumented migrants approved by the European Parliament, and complained that the measure violates human rights. In retaliation, the president required visas for Europeans wishing to enter Bolivia.

Bolivians who go to Europe generally have one of two plans in mind: the first is to settle there and bring over the rest of their family, and the second is to return to Bolivia after accumulating some savings, and start their own business, Pérez said.

For the time being, good behaviour and respect for local laws is the best recommendation possessed by Teresa Suárez, who was born in the eastern Bolivian province of Santa Cruz, and now lives in Madrid with her husband and children.

Suárez blames Spain’s economic crisis for the reduction of her work week. "Previously, I was hired to do cleaning work three times a week, but now it’s only twice a week. I have to readjust the family budget," she told IPS.

Fidel Casto (middle) with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez and Bolivian leader Evo Morales http://stalin-mao.net/pictures/albums/userpics/hugo_fidel_evo.jpg

The previous Sunday, a helicopter in which the president regularly travels crashed, causing the death of four Venezuelan soldiers and one Bolivian.

July 27, 2008 - President Evo Morales expressed on Sunday that he feared a revolution if “something” were to happen to him, one week after the crash of a helicopter he regularly travels in, which killed all five passengers on board.

“I feel that if something were to happen to Evo Morales, I feel that there could be a rebellion and I am afraid of that” said the president in front of thousands of coca growers. During the event, Morales declared the cocalero region free of illiteracy and free of “North American imperialism.”

Morales did not specific what it was that could happen to him…..

On Friday, Morales speculated that the tragedy was not a coincidence. “Surely the accident was not a coincidence… something is happening” he said.

Sixty-one per cent of the cooperation that the Venezuelan government granted to Bolivia within the programme, ‘Bolivia Changes, Evo Delivers’, is directed at the departments of Santa Cruz, Pando and Beni and has created thousands of jobs, according to the Bolivian minister, Juan Quintana.

He indicated that till date about $110 million were invested through this cooperation; the total came as donation without any conditionality on the part of the Bolivarian (Venezuela’s) government. “It is unconditional cooperation, there are no bargaining chips, it is transparent, clean and direct,” said Quintana.

Federico Fuentes, July 26

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

On July 23 — one day after the right-wing opposition to Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales, demanded a referendum on the controversial issue of the nation’s capital — the sole magistrate remaining on the Constitutional Tribunal called into question the constitutionality of the recall referendums set for August 10 that will determine the fate of Morales and eight out of nine of the sitting prefects (governors).

The majority of prefects are from the opposition.

The Associated Press, July 23, 2008

La Paz, Bolivia - A top judge is telling Bolivia's government to put off a referendum on whether the president and governors should stay in power.

Magistrate Silvia Salome says electoral officials should suspend the Aug. 10 vote until the full constitutional court can rule on whether the vote is legal. President Evo Morales hopes the vote will boost his standing in disputes with autonomy-minded governors.

Defense Minister Walker San Miguel says the referendum will go ahead anyway. He argues that Salome's decree on Tuesday is invalid because she's the only magistrate left on the Constitutional Court and rulings are supposed to have a three-member quorum.

Andrés Soliz Rada, ex-minister of Hydrocarbons in Bolivia

La Paz, 19/07/08.- If Evo Morales announces the modification of the Movement Towards Socialism’ (MAS) Constitutional project, in regards to the recognition of the 36 indigenous nations, he will have recovered an important percentage of the middle classes, with which he will win without problems the upcoming recall referendum on August 10. The previous facts won't diminish the importance of this government in its struggle against intolerable social exclusion and the recovery of spaces of national sovereignty with regards to natural resources.

The governmental team is split between defenders of indo-mestizos, who back national unity, and the indigenists whom, financed by NGOs, have handed over to the separatists of Santa Cruz the arms that they need in order to carry out the atomisation of the country. As a consequence, they find themselves facing historical definitions. It will never be sufficient to insist that through and through separatists and indigenists have the same master: The New World Order, that is to say, imperialism.