Truthout.org, Saturday 23 January 2010
by: EFE | Los Tiempos (Bolivia)
President Evo Morales
On Saturday, January 23, Bolivian President Evo Morales kicked off his second term as leader of the country by announcing the appointment of his new Cabinet. Morales has replaced more than half of the ministers from his previous administration, and brought gender parity to his new team by apportioning exactly half of the ministerial positions to women.
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela has cut ties with Israel in protest over its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
Last week President Hugo Chavez expelled Israel’s ambassador from Venezuela over the attacks, which have sparked international condemnation.
“Venezuela … has definitively decided to break diplomatic ties with the state of Israel given the inhumane persecution of the Palestinian people carried out by the authorities of Israel,” said a statement read over state television.
Israel’s 20-day offensive, launched to halt rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas Islamist militants, has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians. A Palestinian rights group said 670 of those killed were civilians. Thirteen Israelis have been killed — three civilians hit by Hamas rocket fire and 10 soldiers.
Socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and has called the Israeli offensive in Gaza a Palestinian “holocaust.”
Bolivian President Evo Morales, a close Chavez ally, on Wednesday also cut ties with Israel to the protest the attacks.
An envoy from Israel, which is under increasing pressure to negotiate a ceasefire, is scheduled to meet Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Thursday.
Chavez in 2006 threatened to break ties with Israel over its five-week war in Lebanon in a diplomatic spat that led both countries to withdraw their envoys.
(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
| Al Jazeera, Sep 16, 2008 |
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South American leaders at a crisis summit in Chile have issued a statement strongly supporting Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, and rejecting any break-up of Bolivian territory. The meeting, where the statement was released late on Monday, was convened as an attempt to resolve the political turmoil in Bolivia that has left at least 18 people dead. In the statement the presidents of nine South American countries expressed “their full and firm support for the constitutional government of President Evo Morales, whose mandate was ratified by a big majority”. The statement was agreed by Morales and the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina, said after the six hours of talks that “the agreement was unanimous”. Rebellious governors The leaders also said they were looking at creating a committee to attend talks between Morales’s government and rebel governors in Bolivia’s east who oppose his rule and are seeking autonomy for their states. They encouraged both sides to negotiate an end to Bolivia’s political crisis, which has disrupted natural gas supplies to Argentina and Brazil.
“After nine hours of debating, they came out with unrestricted supoport for the democratically elected government of Bolivia,” Lucia Newman, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Santiago, said.”Morales came out saying … this proved, finally, that Latin America recognises and is ready to defend its democratically elected leaders.” At least 18 people died and 100 were wounded in Bolivia’s northern state of Pando last week after clashes broke out between government supporters and opponents. The South American leaders condemned the deaths in Pando and called for a commission to investigate allegations many of the victims were pro-Morales peasants shot dead in an ambush. Morales’ government has said it will charge the rebellious eastern governor with genocide for allegedly ordering the machine-gunning of peasants, a part of Bolivian society that strongly supports him. Coup claim On arrival in Santiago, Chile’s capital, Morales accused his enemies at home of mounting a “civic coup d’etat”. The summit statement said the presidents “warn that our respective government energetically reject and will not recognise any situation that attempts a civil coup and the rupture of institutional order and which could compromise the territorial integrity of the Republic of Bolivia”. “We hope opposition groups can understand this statement as being from all of South America, not just its presidents,” Morales said after the summit. The violence in Bolivia has also sparked a diplomatic standoff between Bolivia and Venezuela on the one side, and the US on the other, with Morales and Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, expelling Washington’s ambassadors to their countries, accusing them of backing the opposition. Washington responded by ordering the Bolivian and Venezuelan envoys to the US to leave. |
Peace and Justice Post 
Hugo Chávez Frías: Onwards towards a Communal State! On the anniversary of Caracazo, February 27
March 1, 2010I
“Zamora lives, the fight continues,” is the motto brought to life by our people. There could not be a better occasion for the enactment of the Organic Law of the Federal Council of Government than the unveiling of the statue of the Peoples General Ezequiel Zamora in the El Calvario Park, Caracas downtown. We were accompanied by representatives of Community Councils from all around country and the legislative power.
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Tags:Bolivia, communal state, Community Councils, Peoples Power, President Hugo Chávez Frías
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