Open letter to my Santa Cruz friends in Bolivia

I have been watching from TV your current attempt at voting a referendum to define the extent of the autonomy from the constitution that Evo is trying to impose. I am not going to discuss here whether such constitution has merits or whether you are justified in starting on a path that could lead eventually to a Bolivian break up. Though there is one thing I am willing to bet good money on: a constitution that was voted in a run behind closed doors cannot be very good for you all.

No, what I am writing tonight about is the latest OAS meeting that was discussing the Bolivian situation. Apparently, I am pleased to see that Dante Caputo, the Argentinean ex foreign minister, or something like that, seems not to have succeeded very much in the real goal of his mission there, to stop the referendum from taking place. I must congratulate you on your steadfastness. I did not quite get who called the OAS on, if Evo to protect himself of you to protect your democratic interests, though whomever did not officially convoke the OAS must have been overjoyed by the other side calling it first.

Whatever it is I congratulate you for the failure of the OAS mission. I hope it is due in part to the experience that Venezuela had with the last time the OAS, helped with the Carter Center and Carter himself. My political side got royally screwed up by these guys and if Chavez has all the power he has today and if he can commit all the abuses he can get away with it today it is due in large part, in a very, very big part in fact, to the “alcahueteria” of these individuals. To add insult to injury, the opposition guys that were asked to attend the negotiation table were supposed to be protected by the OAS and the Carter Center. Right now one was jailed without cause and had to escape from jail to preserve his life and lives now in exile. Another one died of the strain these unfair negotiations gave him. A third one has “lost” a large chunk of his business in Venezuela courtesy of state fascists agencies. Have we ever heard a strong word from Jennifer McCoy or ex-secretary Gaviria protesting the Lapi fate? Have they come out strongly against the Tascon list, something that should have been condemned in the strongest terms when their eyes were on Venezuela? Nope! A few pious words after the fact do not erase the terrible damage that these people helped Chavez inflict on us.

Thus, in case you did not notice it, look at the example of Venezuela in 2003 when the political opposition in Venezuela was betrayed for the only sake that Venezuela oil kept flowing to the US and other pals. Do not trust any one, not the US, not Lula, not Evo, no one. No one cares about you and you will be screwed by polite diplomats such as Insulza who pretend that the FARC is OK. Besides, Insulza knows very well that Bolivia will be only the weakest if Santa Cruz is forced to obey Evo. And Insulza wants to be next Chilean president. He is a coiled snake when Bolivia is concerned.

Do what you have been doing, receive them politely, talk, talk and talk and in the end do as you must do, never what they “suggest” you to do. The OAS only serves some good when war threatens between countries, and not that much anyway. For the rest they are fierce defenders of mediocrity and the status quo. At least if Chavez and Evo manage to get you in the end you will have fought the good fight and you will not be blamed, as often it seems that the Venezuelan opposition is blamed for sins it did not commit. Because this was the beauty of the con job, the OAS and Carter screwed up and yet we were blamed, and yet it took us 5 years, the RCTV take over and the FARC support by Chavez for the world to finally figure out that we were right all along. Now it is too late to reverse this mess peacefully and people like me are reduced to write pathetic notes to congratulate you on your resolve.

I wish you the best of lucks in avoiding Evo taking away your hard earned prosperity so he can finance his populist demagoguery and help Chavez in his mad dream to make Latin America lose yet another generation.

PS: you can follow live blog coverage at MABB of the unfolding week end, another one of those blogs that hard circumstances in a country contribute to create.

-The end-