I just changed the archive path URLs for this blog. My apologies, but it was a necessary evil (better now than much later). Please not that all previous links no long work, unless modified to fit this format:
http://www.mcentellas.com/archives/...
Basically, just insert .../archives/... into the URL. I have set up an automatic re-direct that should work for all pages; so this is just in case.
I’m traveling to Bolivia in a few days. In some ways, this is nothing new. Though my family moved to Michigan in 1985, we frequently went back to visit relatives & friends, especially in Santa Cruz & La Paz. It’s also nothing new to K8; we met there (we were both Fulbright fellows). But this time, we must consciously plan our visit around potential bloqueos & street protests.
I don’t usually use my blog for “advocacy” links. But I’ve decided to post a “Free RCTV” logo on the main page. There are numerous other causes I could be supporting, but I’ve chosen this one. In part, because I worry about the future of democracy in Latin America. Venezuela’s “partidocracia” (party-ocracy) of the 1970s-1990s was problematic, to be sure; like many, I was hopeful when Chávez was elected in 1998. The 1980s “lost decade” were very difficult on Venezuela’s poor, and it was clear that the existing parties were no longer capable of solving the political, economic, and social crisis. Many were pleased to see Chávez abandon golpismo (coup-making) in favor of electoralism; we hoped he had become a democrat. Since then, he has slowly concentrated powers in his hands—and I mean his personal hands, not his party or movement.
The news from Bolivia is not so good. It’s sad that June is now just recognized as the start of “bloqueo season” in the country (K8 & I will be traveling just then; will we be able to reach La Paz?). But things are getting dicey again.
This weekend was my first Memorial Day weekend since moving to Pennsylvania (does PA count as “East Coast”? I’m never sure). I spent most of Friday driving to & back from Pittsburgh. Then I spent Sunday & Monday in Philadelphia & Wilmington (Delaware). That meant I became rather intimately familiar w/ I-76 (aka the Pennsylvania Turnpike).
I should comment on this weekend’s events in Venezuela, after Hugo Chávez closed down an opposition television station (RCTV) by not reinstating its license. There were, of course, significant protests in Venezuela (broken up by government security forces). Greg Weeks has a short, but excellent post on the subject—followed by some interesting comments [Ed. here’s another good thread from Boz].
This is the latest installment of the Facebook primaries updates. I’ve been keeping track of primary presidential candidates’ Facebook profiles, taking a periodic tracking of their number of “supporters” (i.e. “friends”). Note that Rudy Giuliani still has no profile.
Today is Mother’s Day in Bolivia. I’ve always liked this holiday; though perhaps that’s partly due to heavy “patriotic” government indoctrination I received in Bolivian elementary schools. In contrast to the US holiday, it (in part) honors one of the country’s “founders” (a founding mother?): Juana Azurduy de Padilla.
I never understood why many jumped to the conclusion that Evo Morales was an “indigenous” political leader in Bolivia. Yes, he’s primarily of indigenous origin. But does that make him an “indigenous” leader? Especially in Bolivia, which has a long tradition of indigenous political movements—the kataristas—who were mostly concentrated in the Andean Altiplano. During the 1980s, the most important of these was MRTKL (Movimiento Revolucionario Tupaj Katari de Revolución); in the 1990s, it was MIP (Movimiento Indígena Pachakuti). These weren’t the only such movements. And it’s important to note that Evo was never a member of any of these. He belongs to a different trajectory.
A short column I wrote for Tiempo Político1 came out today. I won’t have time to translate it, but the column (“Ingeniería electoral: el sistema de voto alternativo [Electoral engineering: the alternative vote system]”) is based on this this earlier post. And w/ that I’m off on the road to Pittsburgh.
Tomorrow marks the 30th anniversary of the birth of the Star Wars universe. A colleague in the French department is hosting a Star Wars theme two-day party (or “conference”). Sadly, I’ll have to miss out on the second day (when they’ll watch/discuss episodes IV, V, VI) because I’m driving to Pitt to visit some friends & browse their library’s Eduardo Lozano Collection (probably the largest Bolivia-specific collection in the US). But I’m trying to scramble to put together an appropriately themed snack and/or drink to bring to the festivities (for some reason I thought this would be on Saturday). I will make one small contribution: my favorite Star Wars fan film is Troops (1997). Enjoy!
The conflict between Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, and the judicial system continues (previous post). Yesterday, the head of the supreme court resigned. The other court ministers have stated that they’ll resist the executive branch. But a MAS spokesperson threatened to topple the court through social pressure. This is the same kind of threat made January against Cochabamba’s prefect; clashes there left three dead & several injured in January.
I’ve just added a link to the “Basics” sidebar that allows you to subscribe to this blog by email.
As Bolivia’s constituent assembly starts gearing up to write draft constitutions, a confrontation between the executive & judicial branches is brewing. But this isn’t directly connected to any of the legalities of the constituent assembly itself. Instead, this is merely the typical kind of confrontation common to “delegative” democracies.
Today, an investigative report by the Grupo de Diarios América (GDA) was published in a number of newspapers, including several in Bolivia. The report addresses the influence of Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez across Latin America (from La Razón). The report is meant to draw together the various kinds of “cooperative assistance” the Venezuelan leader is engaged in, showing his vast influence. Of course, there’s nothing really shocking there. All states try to influence their neighbors through economic (and other) assistance programs. Chávez is currently swimming in petrodollars—and if he wants to make a play for regional hegemon, he certainly has the ability. But there is one troubling underside: Bolivia’s security policy.