by the El Reportero news services
Rafael Correa Delgado
President Rafael Correa’s Acuerdo País claimed to have won 80 of the 130 seats in the constituent assembly elections on 30 September. The results are not yet official and the opposition parties are clinging to the hope that the official results will give them a boost, but the preliminary results look conclusive. Indeed the opposition parties were so despondent that they refused to publish their exit poll, from Consultar, and allowed the Santiago Pérez exit poll, followed by a sampling from Participación Ciudadana, to set the agenda. Both showed Correa’s Acuerdo País winning between 77 and 80 seats.
Human rights lawsuits brought against former Bolivian president
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) announced that it, along with other human rights lawyers, has filed two lawsuits charging former Bolivian President Gonzalo Daniel Sánchez de Lozada Sánchez Bustamante and former Bolivian Minister of Defense Jose Carlos Sánchez Berzaín for their roles in the killing of civilians during popular protests against the Bolivian government in September and October 2003.
The suits, which seek compensatory and punitive damages under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS) and the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) charge Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín with extrajudicial killings and crimes against humanity for their roles in the massacre of unarmed civilians, including children. In September and October 2003, Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín ordered Bolivian security forces to use deadly force, including the use of high-powered rifles and machine guns, to suppress popular civilian protests against government policies.
In all, during those two months forces under their leadership killed 67 men, women, and children and injured more than 400, almost all from indigenous Aymara communities.
Each of the ten plaintiffs, who are Aymara natives of Bolivia, are survivors of individuals who were killed by forces under Sánchez de Lozada’s and Sánchez Berzaín’s command.
The ten plaintiffs include among them: Eloy Rojas Mamani and Etelvina Ramos Mamani, whose 8-year-old daughter was killed in her mother’s bedroom when a single shot was fired through the window; Teofilo Baltazar Cerro, whose pregnant wife was killed after a bullet was fired through the wall of a house, killing her and her unborn child; Felicidad Rosa Huanca Quispe, whose 69-year-old father was shot and killed along a roadside; and Gonzalo Mamani Aguilar, whose father was shot and killed.
The alternatives to Chávez
The election result in Guatemala, perhaps the most fragile democracy in the region, was unusual because the populist leftwing barely featured. Yet no political commentator has rushed to proclaim that the Left’s failure means that support for President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela is ebbing. Embarrassingly for the anti-Chavistas, the two run-off candidates in Guatemala are a former general, accused of human rights abuses (Otto Pérez Molina), and a political hack, Alvaro Colom, who faces a slew of corruption allegations.
Iran strengthens ties with South America
CARACAS, Venezuela– The presidets of Iran and Venezuela secured an alliance aimed at countering the United States while the Iranian president reached out to a new ally in Bolivia and declared that together, “no one can defeat us.” After being vilified during his U.N. visit this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled on to friendlier territory Thursday, first stopping in Bolivia – where he pledged $1 billion in investment – and then visiting Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chavez.
