Post by POA on Apr 24, 2004 5:28:18 GMT -5
Coup d'État Plot, Exposed, Shakes Bolivia
Chile and U.S. Military Officials Balked on March 25th, but Continue Pushing Three Alternate Coup Plans
By Luis Gómez
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
April 18, 2004
LA PAZ, BOLIVIA, APRIL 17 2004: It wasn’t a secret, but for a while, nobody was paying attention: there are groups plotting to destabilize the government of President Carlos Mesa, that are considering a coup d’etat in order to finalize the sale of Bolivian gas to Chile despite the outpouring of popular will against such a deal expressed in last October’s insurrection.
Of course, U.S. government officials have a lot to do with it (beginning with the Viceroy David N. Greenlee, his friends in the CIA, and even officials from the gringo agency USAID). It took a counterintelligence memo, put together by confidential Bolivian and Chilean sources, specifically accusing those foreign companies and politicians – to bring this matter to light. Then Congressman Evo Morales denounced the coup attempt, and the questions began…<br>
Yes, kind readers, the social movements also do counterintelligence work. But, let’s take this piece-by-piece.
After taking office in October 2003, President Mesa promised to consult the Bolivian people, through a referendum, on the possible exportation of Bolivian gas to Chile and other markets (mainly in Mexico and the United States). This had been one of the demands of the insurrection that toppled Mesa’s predecessor, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. Predictably, the interests who could be harmed by such a referendum, mobilized to protect their business deal. Among them are multinational energy businesses like Enron, Repsol, and BG (formerly British Gas) that control the exploitation and transport of oil and gas in Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and other countries. In the same way, as the counterintelligence report mentions, members of Bolivia’s armed forces, together with politicians linked to former president Sanchez de Lozada, have been plotting to pressure the government.
In the midst of these pressures from the right (and from international capital), are several U.S. actors that, in recent weeks, have been putting public pressure upon both Mesa’s administration and the social sectors, sticking their noses more and more into Bolivian affairs. A good example, to begin with, would be the recent conflict in Yungas, where the coca growers blockaded the roads and stopped the construction of an anti-drug base in La Rinconada financed by the Bush Administration. As Narco News South American Bureau Chief Alex Contreras reported as it was happening, the blockades begun on April 5th ended in an agreement between the farmers and government minister Alfonso Ferrufino. The focus of this agreement is a more profound dialogue between coca growers and the government, a freeze on forced eradication in Yungas, and suspension of the construction of the barracks at La Rinconada.
Viceroy Greenlee, that same day, turned up the heat when he visited the offices of Bolivia’s Secretary of State to say that the drug issue “is delicate.” But he refused to comment openly on his position. Instead, he deflected questions toward the issue of a treaty that provides immunity for U.S. military officials and whatever they do in Bolivian territory, signed by the administration of Sanchez de Lozada, but that was never ratified by the national congress.
“Hopefully one of these days it will be ratified because we want to collaborate with Bolivia,” said Greenlee. Does this have anything to do with the theme of this article? According to the counterintelligence report, it seems that it does.
“Intelligence personnel at the US Embassy (CIA) are working with other intelligence agencies (Chile-Israel) to destabilize the government of President Mesa. Objectives: Stop the Referendum, the Constituents’ Assembly, passage of a new Hydrocarbons Law and achieve the sale of gas through Chile,” the counterintelligence report says. To achieve these objectives, agents of the CIA are working on “various hypotheses and action plans.” In reality, there are three concrete plans, each of which not only attacks the government of Carlos Mesa and the sovereignty of Bolivia, but also shoots to kill against the will of the people.”<br>
A Coup, an Early Election, or Shut Down the Congress
According to the information collected in the report, the preparations for a coup d’état in Bolivia have the main goal of “provoking the reaction of the social movements to create chaos and internal division,” justifying, with that, the entrance of Chilean military troops, supported by U.S. Marines, to “pacify” the country. In the process, they would behead the social movements and create a government in accordance with the interests at play: an operation very similar to the coup against Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. The coup would be headed “by military officials, and supported by military units, high police chiefs, and the U.S. Embassy.”<br>
But, according to this counterintelligence document, the preparations have hit a snag: some military officials had patriotic reactions, causing the planned date of the coup, March 25th, to be postponed. Among the report’s list of military and police officials involved, some of whom are retired, are Army Generals Miguel Vidaurre, Luis Vargas, and Orlando Paniagua, as well as a dozen police colonels, all linked to former defense minister Carlos Sanchez Berzain. Berzain, who served under Sanchez de Lozada, was in charge of the massacre of Aymara peasant farmers and citizens in El Alto last October.
In any case, some military officials from Chile have come to Bolivia to continue organizing this plan, conducting acts of sabotage in border regions. All of this is accompanied by unusual movements of Chilean troops and weapons all along the Bolivia-Chile border, in particular in Colchane, in the north of Chile, and where dozens of elite units (with 500 troops), tanks, fuel, and munitions. Townspeople in the small communities in Southern Bolivia (in the Uyuni region, where the world’s largest salt desert exists) have also denounced the entrance of Chilean military troops that, they say, “enter the towns and act as if they are in their own country’s territory.”<br>
[rest in followup]