Bolivia Rejects Globalization >Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2000 20:35:24 -0700 > >Bolivia Vanishes: See Style Section >by Gregory Palast* >- Gregory Palast, an award-winning investigative journalist, writes a >fortnightly column, "Inside Corporate America," for The Observer of >London, the Sunday paper of the Guardian Media Group. > >In April, five people were shot dead in Bolivia, a military policeman was >lynched and the president declared a state of siege following a general >strike that shut down much of the nation. At the end of it all, for the >first time in a decade anywhere in the world, American and British >corporate giants, the targets of the protest, were booted out of the >Andean nation, a stunning reversal of the march of globalization. >You didn't read the story? Come now, it was right there in the Washington >Post ... in paragraph 10 of the story, on page 13 of the Style section. I >kid you not: the STYLE section. It dangled from the bottom of a cute >little story on the lifestyle of some local anti-WTO protesters. >And so, one of the most extraordinary international stories of the year >just went PFZZZT!!! and disappeared from sight. >Here's what you didn't hear. In the 1990s, Bolivia became the World Bank's >South American poster child for neo-liberal "reform" by following with >pathologic care all the Bank's dicta. This included the forced sale of all >the nation's public water systems. But when the new Anglo-American owners >of one city's water company hiked prices 35 percent to 150 percent per >World Bank orders, a general strike shut the town. The government's bloody >reaction helped spread the protests nationwide. After 13 days, Bolivia's >president, in fear of the strengthening protests, took back the water >company from the U.S.-British operators and canceled the price hikes. >Some vital stories get buried because they fail the "sex" test of hot >photos, or they have no domestic news hook. But Bolivia had it all. >Networks could obtain high-quality video footage of the military gunning >down civilians. At the center of the story were huge American and British >multinationals, including Bechtel of San Francisco and Britain's United >Utilities. Most importantly, this general strike in South America offered >a dramatic and bloody parallel to protests in Washington against the >International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which were occurring that very >week. By any normal news measure, this was a helluva story of >globalization stopped dead in its tracks ... all while McDonald's burned >in Washington. >James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, was so shaken by events in >Bolivia that on April 12, in the midst of responding to the Washington >demonstrations against the Bank, he took time to denounce the Bolivian >protesters as "rioters." Wolfensohn's wild statement (the rioters were >peaceful demonstrators led by the town's archbishop) was meant to >discourage the press from writing sympathetically about the Bolivians. >He need not have worried. There was nothing on the tube; and aside from >the mention in the Post's Style section and a few news wire paragraphs in >The New York Times, for the mainstream media, the Bolivians simply vanished. >I can't say there were NO reports. The Financial Times sent a reporter to >Bolivia. The lead paragraph of his April 26 report informed us that on the >wall of the protesters' headquarters hung "faded portraits of Che Guevara >and Fidel Castro." There was no mention at all that five civilians and a >policeman had died. >The FT reporter, who should have known better, picked up the line that >drug traffickers were somehow behind the water protests. This fanciful >accusation originated in a Bechtel news release. (As one Bolivian told me, >deadpan: "Traficantes don't care about their water bill.") Bolivians >themselves were also denied the full story, but by more direct means. The >courageous editor of the Bolivian newspaper Gente (People) published an >investigative series exposing the sweetheart deals between the >U.S.-European investors and politically connected Bolivians. At the end of >April, Gente's publishers, admitting to threats of financial ruin by the >water system's Bolivian partners, demanded that the editor, Luis Bredow, >print a retraction of his reports. Bredow printed the paper's retraction >... and his resignation in protest. > >====================== >*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material >is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest >in receiving the included information for research and educational >purposes. Feel free to distribute widely but PLEASE acknowledge the >source. *** >Thanks to Robert Rodvik for this post. (and to Roger Lagassé, a bilingual >educator and activist from BC. >Jeunes Écrivains du Canada / Young Writers of Canada >http://www.schoolnet.ca/vp-pv/jec/) >