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Claude, thank you for sending this commentary <br><br>
<a href="http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47510" eudora="autourl">
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47510<br><br>
</a>by Professor Pastor Valley-Garay. He's certainly right about
the racism in the US institutional and mainstream media reaction to Evo
Morales, an Aymara, being elected president of Bolivia. He also
reminds us that there was a similar response to Chavez in Venezuela, and,
I would add, to the uprising of the Tzetzal people of Chiapas on New
Years Day, 1994, with doubts that they could possibly conceive of
something as complex as NAFTA.<br><br>
However, in attributing the triumph of Evo Morales entirely to Che's
struggle and sacrifice in Bolivia is equally racist. Professor
Valley-Garay appears to be ignorant of the international indigenous
movement that has been at work for the past three decades, preceded by
500 years of indigenous struggles for survival, self-determination, and
democracy, which is, I believe, why Che took his anti-imperialist forces
to Bolivia. <br><br>
If the left, particularly the Latin American left, misses this point,
it's a shame, as mistrust of and racism against the indigenous nations
has been the Achilles heel of previous revolutionary movements in Latin
America (as well as North America). Professor Valley-Garay, as a
Nicaraguan Sandinista, should be particularly aware of that.<br><br>
Evo Morales is mistrusted by some indigenous activists and organizations
in the Andean region because of his left politics, for the very reason
that the Latin American left has so consistently either ignored
indigenous issues and aspirations, or used the indigenous and tossed them
aside (recall that the liberation armies of Bolivar and San Martin, as
well as the independence movement and 20th century revolution in Mexico,
and the recent Guatemalan revolution, were made up of indigenous foot
soldiers.<br><br>
In this, the burden is on the American (and I mean western hemisphere)
left to catch up with what has been going on with the indigenous movement
in order to understand the victory of Evo Morales, which is a victory for
the indigenous peoples of the world AND for
anti-imperialism/anti-capitalism. And I agree, Che would be very
happy, and perhaps not surprised, for if there is ever to be socialism
and just societies in the Americas, the leadership and form of it must
come from the indigenous peoples. I think Che, like Peruvian
leftist José Carlos Maríategui, recognized this reality.<br><br>
Roxanne<br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="Times, Times" size=3>Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz<br>
<a href="http://www.reddirtsite.com">http://www.reddirtsite.com</a><br>
<i>Blood on the Border: A Memoir of the Contra War<br>
</i></font><a href="http://www.southendpress.org/2005/items/7417">
http://www.southendpress.org/2005/items/7417</a><br><br>
<br>
On Dec 27, 2005, at 5:54 AM, Anti-Imperialist News wrote:<br><br>
<a href="http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47510" eudora="autourl">
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=47510<br>
</a>Published: Tuesday, December 27, 2005<br>
Bylined to: <a href="mailto:pastor@yorku.ca">Pastor Valle-Garay</a>
<br><br>
<font face="Georgia" size=5 color="#7F0000">Che's dream comes true:
Morales' triumph rescues the dignity of the people <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>Toronto (Canada) York University
senior Scholar Pastor Valle-Garay
writes:</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3> It's a classic case of
poetic justice. In one thrilling moment social justice arrived in
Bolivia. Better late than never. In the firmament of revolutionary
heroes, no one is as pleased with Evo Morales' presidential triumph that
Cuban revolutionary hero Ernesto Che Guevara. <br><br>
It proves that Che did not died in vain on October 6, 1967. After being
wounded in combat, Che was captured alive near the village of La Higuera
by a squad of Rangers' from the Bolivian Army's Special Forces, trained
by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Bolivian president Rene
Barrientos immediately ordered his summary execution. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>Felix Rodriguez, a most vile
Cuban-American CIA agent, carried the execution orders to the little
school house were Che laid still alive.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>A repulsive bird of prey,
Rodriguez seized the opportunity to remove and steal from Che a
wristwatch presented to him by Cuban President Fidel Castro. Sergeant
Jaime Teran, chosen to carry out the assassination, was visibly nervous.
Che realized it. Addressing Teran he commanded "I know you have come
to kill me. Shoot, coward. You are only killing a man." <br><br>
The spray from a Carbine M-2 took the life of Che Guevara. He was
prophetic to the last. The man was dead ... his ideals remained alive for
ever ... his blood would fertilize the Bolivian soil with ideas of
liberation.
<ul>
<li>Thirty eight years, two months and nine days after Che's death, Evo
Morales, leader of the political party Movement towards Socialism,
triumphed in the Bolivian presidential elections.
</ul><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>The US press does not know what to
make of it ... they discuss Morales' indigenous background as if it were
an object of curiosity. They seem astonished that a native Indian became
the first President-elect in the Hemisphere.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=5 color="#7F0000">How utterly
stupid! <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>Not strange however ... only a society
mired in the manure of its own racial prejudices could generate such
racist wonderings about the ethnic background of the Bolivian
President.<br><br></font>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Georgia" size=2>It happened before ... the US media also
raised its collective eyebrows and raised similar questions about
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’ ethnic background.<br><br></font>
</dl><font face="Georgia" size=3>Morons! A nation with a 70% indigenous
population certainly has earned the right to democratically elect someone
from their own ranks to lead it. Who knows! Perhaps the US media feels
more comfortable when a moron who barely graduates from Harvard and can
hardly speak his own language runs the White House. Arguably they might
think 'At least he's more like one of us.' They would be right and they
can keep him. Bolivia deserves better. <br><br>
It is scandalous, however, that the US media would trivialize Morales'
triumph by focusing on his leadership role in the union of coca leaf's
farmers or suggest that the new President is a cocaine dealer.<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000">It’s the stuff of
ignorant hacks.<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2>For thousands of years native
Bolivians have harvested coca leaves for their medicinal qualities, for
religious rituals and just as often to kill the hunger pains which have
decimated the population for generations.<br><br></font>
<dl>
<dd><font face="Georgia" size=3>Moreover, in the last century, US
corporations exploiting the nation's rich tin mines would distribute
large, daily portions of coca leaves among the indigenous miners to keep
them working longer hours in the hellholes.<br><br>
</dl>It was not until US consumers discovered the exotic qualities of the
processed coca leaf that they turned into a most profitable source of
income for drug dealers and the US economy. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2>What Morales will certainly insist on
regarding coca is only fair: the continuation of the harvesting of the
leaves as a birthright of its indigenous people while banning it from the
world's drug markets. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>Adding fuel to the fire, the US media
resorts to asinine speculation on whether Washington should be concerned
with the cordial relations between President Morales, President Castro
and President Chavez ... as if Morales lacked the intelligence to conduct
his nation’s affairs without outside interference. It is both
ignorant and contemptuous of the traditional friendship among America’s
sister nations!<br><br>
What makes this line of questioning more poignant is that no one in the
US media has had the guts and taken the same pains and risks in
questioning the closely-knit ties between President Bush's ancestors with
Germany's Adolph Hitler or between both Bush father and son and their
close relationship with Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein before they
fell from US grace. <br><br>
<dl>
<dd>With some remarkable exceptions, the US media conveniently ignores
that Morales' overwhelming election victory ... in defiance of the White
House's strategy to defeat him at the polls ... has just provided a blow
to Washington's hegemony in the Hemisphere. <br><br>
</dl>Simultaneously, Morales' victory symbolizes one more setback to
Bush's careful plans of using Free Trade as means of eternalizing Latin
America’s exploitation. And in what must be its sweetest aspect, Morales'
leadership in the Movement towards Socialism political party will clearly
be perceived in Latin America and elsewhere as symbolic triumph over US
imperialism. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000">Of course Bolivia may
expect radical changes.<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>The political system has been riddled
with rampant corruption. However in spite of internal pressure to
nationalize the rich tin, oil and gas resources ... presently run by
foreign multinationals and local oligarchs ... Morales has indicated that
he is prepared to discuss the corporations’ fair and equitable
administration of the resources in conjunction with his
government.<br><br>
It's about time ... these natural resources are certainly rich enough to
radically change the standard of living of a nation reduced to misery in
its 180 years of independence. At present Bolivia's unemployment reaches
60%. Without a doubt Morales has the personal and political credentials
and the work ethic to lead his nation out of this shameful conditions.
<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000">No doubt that Che's
seed germinated and now flourishes...<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>The authentically Bolivian triumph of
President Morales represents a breath of fresh air and new hopes for its
8.8 million people. Morales victory must fill the peoples of the Americas
with pride and joy. It must be particularly thrilling for the continent's
native peoples. It truly is a revolutionary triumph.<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2>Peaceful this time, but certainly just
as glorious as anything Che Guevara might have
dreamed.</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>
<ul>
<li>It also adds another significant dimension to Venezuelan President
Chavez' Bolivarian dream.
</ul><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000">Perhaps now it is
worthwhile to recall for the benefit of the US media Che Guevara's
prophetic and immortal words about Latin America during a speech at the
United Nations "This great humanity has said ENOUGH! … and has
started to walk." <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=5>Pastor Valle-Garay<br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=5 color="#000080">
<a href="mailto:pastor@yorku.ca">pastor@yorku.ca</a></font>
<font face="Georgia" size=3> <br><br>
<br><br>
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