What a biased, one-sided piece of reporting! Look at the elements they piece repeats over and over vs what they don’t say. Such as if those missiles were paid for and is Bolivia going to get a refund?

Still, I guess in the USA (and elsewhere) there is no such thing as an independent press.

that’s what these comment threads are good for.

if you’re not satisfied with the quality of the coverage, feel free to add your own contributions.

so…

were those missiles paid for?

is Bolivia going to get a refund?

anyone?

Hi Sweetiepies!

If anyone has been “successful in creating a fever-pitched hatred for all things capitalist” it is the United States. About them there “missiles”. Here’s when it first came up, Prensa Latina, 23 November. There is an egregious error at the bottom of the piece – always fun to find those little treasures.

Here it is, followed by my take :

Call to Try Bolivia Prez for Treason

Prensa Latina

La Paz, Nov 23 (Prensa Latina) Favorite Bolivian presidential candidate, Evo Morales, has called to put President Eduardo Rodriguez on trial for high treason for handing over Bolivian missiles to the United States.

The progressive MAS (Movement toward Socialism) candidate said the handing-over of the 28 Chinese made land-air rockets, which the president, as Supreme Chief of the Armed Forces, admitted, was an inadmissible act of treason.

Morales said the trial is being prepared by a MAS legal team and pointed out that Rodriguez lied from last October, when he swore the rockets were still in Bolivia, until Tuesday night when Defense Minister Gonzalo Mendez admitted they had been removed by a combined group of US and Bolivian soldiers.

Mendez was censored by the House last night, which dismissed his argument that the weapons were obsolete and had to be deactivated, with congress people pointing out if that were true, they should have been returned to the Peoples Republic of China.

Evo Morales argued that it is extremely serious to disarm the Armed Forces of strategic defense and give them to foreign interests, something every soldier knows never to do, he said.

Earlier, military experts who asked to remain anonymous, claimed that far from obsolete, the weapons are similar to those used in present conflicts, including by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and were the only ones of this type to defend Bolivian airspace.

Asked if MAS would acquire new anti-air defense weapons if it wins the December 18 election, Morales said they would analyze that with the Armed Forces, but would certainly assign a portion of the nation´s oil revenue to develop the national defense capabilities.

Former military security expert, Juan Ramón Quintana, declared that sending the missiles to the United States has injured the dignity of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces, and there is indignation and discontent in the barracks.

***

My take :

The original ballyhoo was to try the interim Prez for treason. Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze was (and still is) the interim president. He took over, reluctantly, it was my impression at the time, when the Bolivians decided that Mesa had to go. Back in June. Two guys declined the offer before the state finally got Veltze to accept it. The only worrisome thing about the guy is that he got his Masters at Harvard. What happened, I think, is that the right has been taking stabs at Evo’s relationship with Hugo so Evo’s now pointing out that US interference is by far more serious. Veltze was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The important thing was to limelight US interference.

We’re talking 30 Chinese SAMs circa 90s. $2500 US on the black market. Devastating they can indeed be.

The US has been pressuring the Bolivian government to grant US troops stationed there immunity from prosecution. So it’s a safe bet that’s not going to happen.

Bolivia, it seems, has no radar defense system. No nada, actually. So you can see why certain people “in charge” might be interested in the US MIC’s company. Evo wasn’t goin after Veltze, my guess is it’s the Defense Minister what’s been locked onto. And I gotta tell ya, that ain’t stupid and it ain’t wrong.

And here’s a nice piece from Upside Down World on Evo’s Goals and Ideologies also known as his attitudes towards capitalism (he calls it industrialising (basically it means localizing the added value bit)).

I don’t know what you want to mean when you say the press or the independent press but in the United States there is a great deal of extremely radical forward thinking global-justice oriented hard hitting publishing going on.

Extremely outspoken extremely well-informed and astute people…

Coming from and out of United States …. there’s no need to be downspirited.