How the global media tried to manufacture consent on Bolivia
By Jesse Ward | 31 March 2021, 11:00am
To understand what is going on in Bolivia, one must return to 2019, when then-President Evo Morales was forced to step down amid a surge in extremist violence in the wake of the country's elections.
Morales served as the country’s first Indigenous President from 2006 to 2019, under the promise to bring power to marginalised groups through a socialist agenda. One of his first moves as President was to nationalise Bolivia’s oil and gas industries with the aim to renegotiate contracts with foreign energy companies and transferring the wealth generated from these resources back to the Bolivian people.
He redistributed 134 million acres of land from state and private ownership to Indigenous families who had been forced to work as slaves and redirected revenue generated from the country’s commodity boom to schools, hospitals and infrastructure.
These redirected funds from the energy sector had a transformative impact on the country, with 4,500 educational facilities being built across Bolivia and an increase in personal household income while the minimum wage was increased several times through his tenure.
More:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/how-the-global-media-tried-to-manufacture-consent-on-bolivia,14946
= new reply since forum marked as read
American Rancher Resists Land Reform Plans in Bolivia
Duston Larsen, center, son of Ronald Larsen, on his family’s ranch in Bolivia, where
the central government wants to break up large holdings and redistribute the land
to farmers.
Credit...Noah Friedman-Rudovsky for The New York Times
By Simon Romero
May 9, 2008
CARAPARICITO, Bolivia — From the time Ronald Larsen drove his pickup truck here from his native Montana in 1969 and bought a sprawling cattle ranch for a song, he lived a quiet life in remote southeastern Bolivia, farming corn, herding cattle and amassing vast land holdings.
But now Mr. Larsen, 63, has suddenly been thrust into the public eye in Bolivia, finding himself in the middle of a battle between President Evo Morales, who plans to break up large rural estates, and the wealthy light-skinned elite in eastern Bolivia, which is chafing at Mr. Morales’s land reform project to the point of discussing secession.
After armed standoffs with land-reform officials at his ranch this year, Mr. Larsen made it clear which side he was on, emerging as a figure celebrated in rebellious Santa Cruz Province and loathed by Mr. Morales’s government, which wants to reduce ties to the United States.
“I just spent 40 years in this country working my land in an honest fashion,” said Mr. Larsen, who resembled Clint Eastwood with his weathered features and lanky frame. “They’re taking it away over my dead body.”
. . .
The Larsen family patriarch,
Ronald, an American, has
clashed with Bolivian officials
over the working conditions
of the Guaraní Indians he
employs.
Credit...Noah Friedman-Rudovsky for The New York Times
More:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/world/americas/09bolivia.html
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Note to Simon Romero:
Watch fewer movies, do more of your homework, please. That's your job.
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This thread should hold a lot of information which would give you a very good picture of how life really is in Bolivia for wealthy white-skinned people, all with European ancestry, and the ones they call "llama abortions," "f*cking Indians" and worse. Bolivians won the right to walk on sidewalks just like Caucasians after a revolution in 1953, as well as the alleged right to vote. Voting means so much to them, the Original Bolivians, they walk for very long trips down the roads from the mountains to get to the voting places.
Here's the thread which refers to Ronald Larson, who looks like a movie star, to New York Times reporter Simon Romero! Whoooo! Smokin'! Simon really has the values, doesn't he?
First article in the thread:
Bolivia seeks charges against Montana rancher, son
Source: Associated Press
Bolivia seeks charges against Montana rancher, son
Posted on April 19
By DAN KEANE of the Associated Press
LA PAZ, Bolivia - Bolivia's government is seeking to charge a rancher from Montana and his son na former Mr. Bolivia pageant winner n for their alleged role in violent protests against President Evo Morales' land redistribution plan.
Ronald Larsen, of Plentywood, who has extensive land holdings in Bolivia, and his son Duston are named in a criminal complaint for "sedition, robbery, and other crimes." The complaint was announced on Friday by Deputy Minister of Land Alejandro Almaraz.
Ronald Larsen is accused of firing on Almaraz's vehicle and holding the minister hostage as he tried to carry out a government inspection of Larsen's Bolivian ranch on February 29. The Larsens are also accused of leading a protest last week in the nearby town of Cuevo that left some 40 people injured.
Prosecutors will now decide whether to file charges against the pair. Neither could be immediately be reached for comment, and it was unclear if they had hired a lawyer.
Read more: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/04/19/bnews/br72.txt
Thread:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3274980
Adding photo of that nice young Mr. Larsen, during his reign as Mr. Bolivia:
Young Master Larsen with his "ruggedly handsome" father, Ronald Larsen:
