Concerned Families of Westchester Newsletter
November 25, 2019
Hello All – Two weeks ago a military coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Bolivia. The Trump administration immediately supported this coup, as did most of our mainstream media. This is a great tragedy, both for Bolivia and for the USA.
The coup has resulted in a government take-over by the leaders of a Christian-fascist party that used gangs of armed thugs to force the members of the government to flee the country. Bearing a large Bible and denouncing Bolivia's indigenous people as "Satanic," the new political leaders entered the halls of government after winning only 4 percent of the vote in the November 10th election.
The military coup in Bolivia overthrew a government led by Evo Morales. Morales comes from Bolivia's indigenous community, which includes 40 percent of the population of Bolivia. During his 14 years as President, the poor people of Bolivia have achieved a large increase in their standard of living. And this was a problem for the white descendents of the Spanish colonizers – the rule of the indigenous. In the eyes of the richer "white" people of Bolivia, to give preference to the needs of the poor was wrong.
Like many poor countries, Bolivia is cursed with a plethora of natural resources, greatly needed/desired by multinational corporations and, in this as in so many cases, located on the lands of a poor, indigenous population. Lithium, the key to making batteries, has been in the news; and the day after the coup Bolivia's new "government" signed a contract with a German company to mine Bolivia's lithium deposits, which the mining company had been unable to do with Morales' government. Another example is indium, a key component in liquid crystal displays (LCD); the world's largest deposits are found in Bolivia. Researcher Vijay Prashad reports on a dozen similar rare metals found in Bolivia. There is no evidence that corporate interests were responsible for the coup, but "regime change" will have many corporate beneficiaries.
Similarly, we do not know the role of our government in this coup, but there are signs that the traditional tools of "regime change" were operating. For example, the head of the armed forces was trained by the USA, and the millionaire leader of the fascist gangs received funding and support from our government. At least six of the coup leaders are known to have passed through what used to be known as the US Army's School of the Americas (whose reputation as the birthplace of Latin American military coups got so bad that it changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.)
Another foundation of Bolivia's coup that needs some research is the Organization of American States. It was the OAS that disrupted the vote counting after the election with a false report that there were "voting irregularities," helping to spark the protests against the Morales government that were then militarized into a coup. Whether the OAS acted thusly on purpose or by accident, and whether the US played a supporting role in the OAS election intervention is still unknown, but given the outcome the question is of considerable interest.
On Friday, 14 US congressional representatives, among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, sent a letter to Secretary of State Pompeo expressing their concern "that recent statements and actions on the part of senior Trump Administration officials are contributing to an escalating political and human rights crisis" in Bolivia. Sadly our Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey were not among the signers of this protest. If this disappoints you, please call Eliot Engel (202 225-2464) and Nita Lowey (202-225-6506} and ask them to speak out against the military coup in Bolivia.
Useful reading on the coup in Bolivia
"They're Killing Us Like Dogs"—A Massacre in Bolivia and a Plea for Help
By Medea Benjamin, Code Pink
---- I am writing from Bolivia just days after witnessing the November 19 military massacre at the Senkata gas plant in the indigenous city of El Alto, and the tear-gassing of a peaceful funeral procession on November 21 to commemorate the dead. These are examples, unfortunately, of the modus operandi of the de facto government that seized control in a coup that forced Evo Morales out of power. The coup has spawned massive protests, with blockades set up around the country as part of a national strike calling for the resignation of this new government. One well-organized blockade is in El Alto, where residents set up barriers surrounding the Senkata gas plant, stopping tankers from leaving the plant and cutting off La Paz's main source of gasoline. Determined to break the blockade, the government sent in helicopters, tanks and heavily armed soldiers in the evening of November 18. The next day, mayhem broke out when the soldiers began teargassing residents, then shooting into the crowd. I arrived just after the shooting [Read More]
What's Happening In Bolivia Is a Violent Right-Wing Coup
By , November 20, 2019
---- Regime change in Bolivia was long planned by the right and the U.S. government. Years ago, the conservative "civic committees" based in the white, wealthy area of Santa Cruz began a strategy of separating from the nation ruled by a very popular indigenous, leftist president. The U.S. embassy supported the civic committee of Santa Cruz and other opposition groups, betting on the balkanization of the country. When that strategy failed, they began to develop a plan to foment conditions for a military coup. A November 2007 Wikileaks cable from the U.S. embassy in Bolivia noted encouragingly: "There are strong indications that the military is split and could be quite reticent to follow orders." As for General Kaliman, he was trained at the infamous School of the Americas. The police chief who betrayed the government the day before also received training in Washington. Luis Fernando Camacho, leader of the Santa Cruz civic committee and the emerging leader of the 2019 coup, has also received direct funding and support from the U.S. government. [Read More]
News Notes
A new study from a think tank that studies these things finds that "America has spent $6.4 trillion on wars in the Middle East and Asia since 2001." The report also finds that "more than 801,000 people have died as a direct result of fighting. Of those, more than 335,000 have been civilians. Another 21 million people have been displaced due to violence." [Read More] Imagine how the world/the USA would be different if we had avoided this madness! For another perspective on cost of these wars, read this useful article by Marine combat veteran Matthew Hoh.
Scott Warren is free! Warren faced 20 years in prison for the alleged crime of giving two men from Central America food, water, and a place to sleep. To read out what he did, why the Border Patrol wanted to put him behind bars, and how a jury took just two hours to find him not guilty, go here.
While the Democrats and much of the mainstream media are taking a victory lap in the wake of two week's worth of impeachment hearings, I can't help raising a note of caution, as I have done in previous newsletters. For openers, what did we really learn from the testimony of US Ambassador to Europe Gordon Sondland? According to Nation writer Aaron Maté, much less and quite different things than the media tells us that we did. Similarly, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern has some interesting insights into the outdated Cold War frameworks of State Department experts such as Fiona Hill.
Pope Francis was in Japan this weekend, speaking in Hiroshima and Nagasaki against nuclear weapons and regretting the failure of the world's nuclear weapons states (including the USA) for their/our failure to ratify the UN Treaty abolishing nuclear weapons. This morning Democracy Now! has an excellent report, including an interview with one of the Kings Bay Ploughshares 7, Catholic peace activists who are awaiting sentencing for their symbolic protest at the Trident nuclear base in Georgia. For an excellent update on the Ploughshares 7, read "Can the Religious Left Take Down Nuclear Weapons?" by Sam Husseini.
We are everywhere! Last weekend hundreds of students attending the Harvard-Yale football game in New Haven occupied the field at half-time to protest climate chaos and the failure of their schools to divest from fossil fuels, delaying the game for an hour.
Finally, it's time for our annual update to the Myth of the First Thanksgiving.
Things to Do/Coming Attractions
Sunday, December 1st – CFOW meets (usually) on the first Sunday of the month at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, from 7 to 9 pm. We review our work of the previous month and make plans for the month to come. Everyone is welcome at these meetings.
Friday, December 6th – The next youth-led climate mobilization will take place across the USA. It coincides with the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference. There will be a demonstration at City Hall Park in NYC from 12 to 3 pm; and the Rivertowns students will be rallying in Ardsley at Pacone Park from 3 to 4 pm. More news when we get it.
Saturday, December 7th – WESPAC'S annual "Margaret Eberle Fair Trade and Crafts Festival" will be held from 10 am to 4 pm at the Memorial United Methodist Church, 250 Bryant Ave. in White Plains. Fair-trade crafts and good food for sale; suggested admission $5, but no one wll be turned away. Live music through the day; always an enjoyable visit/event.
Sunday, December 8th – Dr. Elizabeth Rosenthal of the New York Metro chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program will speak about "Universal Healthcare: The Road Ahead," at the Riverfront branch of the Yonkers Public Library, 1 Larkin Center in Yonkers, from 2 to 4 pm. The program is sponsored by NYCD-Indivisible, Indivisible Westchester, Indivisible White Plains and BlueBlast! Free. To register (necessary), go here.
CFOW Nuts & Bolts
Please consider getting involved with Concerned Families of Westchester. We meet for a protest/rally each Saturday in Hastings, from 12 to 1 p.m., at the VFW Plaza (Warburton and Spring St.) Our leaflet and posters for our rallies are usually about war or the climate crisis, but issues such as racial justice or Trump's immigration policies are often targeted, depending on current events. We (usually) meet on the first Sunday of each month, from 7 to 9 p.m., at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society. Our weekly newsletter is archived at https://cfow.blogspot.com/; and news of interest and coming events is posted on our CFOW Facebook page. And if you would like to support our work by making a contribution, please send your check to CFOW, PO Box 364, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY 10706. Thanks!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME USEFUL/INTERESTING FEATURED ESSAYS
Noam Chomsky: Democratic Party Centrism Risks Handing Election to Trump
From Truthout [November 21, 2019]
---- I find it psychologically impossible to discuss the 2020 election without emphasizing, as strongly as possible, what is at stake: survival, nothing less. Four more years of Trump may spell the end of much of life on Earth, including organized human society in any recognizable form. Strong words, but not strong enough. I would like to repeat the words of Raymond Pierrehumbert, a lead author of the startling [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report of October 2018, since replaced by still more dire warnings: "With regard to the climate crisis, yes, it's time to panic. We are in deep trouble." These should be the defining terms of the 2020 election. [Read More]
India: Intimations of an Ending: The rise of Modi and the Hindu far right.
By Arundhati Roy, The Nation [November 23, 2019]
---- While protest reverberates on the streets of Chile, Catalonia, Britain, France, Iraq, Lebanon, and Hong Kong, and a new generation rages against what has been done to their planet, I hope you will forgive me for speaking about a place where the street has been taken over by something quite different. There was a time when dissent was India's best export. But now, even as protest swells in the West, our great anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements for social and environmental justice—the marches against big dams, against the privatization and plunder of our rivers and forests, against mass displacement and the alienation of indigenous peoples' homelands—have largely fallen silent….. In India today, a shadow world is creeping up on us in broad daylight. It is becoming more and more difficult to communicate the scale of the crisis even to ourselves. [Read More]
(Video) "In Defense of Julian Assange": Why WikiLeaks Founder's Case Threatens Press Freedom
From Democracy Now! [November 22, 2019]
---- This week Swedish prosecutors dropped an investigation into sexual assault allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, stemming from 2010. Assange, who has always denied the allegations, took refuge inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden on the charges. British authorities dragged him out of the Ecuadorian embassy in April and he has since been jailed in London's Belmarsh prison on charges related to skipping of bail in 2012, when he first entered the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over the now-dropped sexual assault charges. The United States is still seeking Assange's extradition to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years in prison on hacking charges and 17 counts of violating the World War I-era Espionage Act for his role in publishing U.S. classified military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. A full extradition hearing will take place in February. [See the Program] Democracy Now! reported today that more than 60 UK doctors have written an open letter to the British government warning that Assange's health is so bad he could die inside his high-security prison. They called on the British government to move Assange to a hospital.
The War on Words in Donald Trump's White House
By Karen J. Greenberg, Tom Dispatch [November 21, 2019]
By Karen J. Greenberg, Tom Dispatch [November 21, 2019]
---- These days, witnessing the administration's never-ending cruelty at the border, the shenanigans of a White House caught red-handed in attempted bribery in Ukraine, and the disarray of this country's foreign policy, I feel like I'm seeing a much-scarier remake of a familiar old movie. … Sadly, words are more important than we as a nation seem to believe. They are the bedrock on which facts are built and facts are the bedrock on which nations stand in order to make decisions. The Trump administration has little respect for the integrity of words, no respect for educating the public with the facts, and every intention of clouding the space between fact and fiction, certainty and uncertainty. Perhaps the best strategy for finding our way forward is to hold one another accountable, first and foremost, for the very words we use. [Read More]
Trump's New Policy on Israeli Settlements Is Illegal and Self-Serving
By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout [November 20, 2019]
----Thumbing his nose at the Geneva Convention, the Rome Statute, the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the International Court of Justice, Donald Trump decided that Israel's unlawful construction of Jewish settlements in occupied Palestinian territory is lawful. This policy change is part of Trump's pattern of seeking to legalize illegal Israeli practices. It panders to Israel at the expense of the Palestinians while aiming to burnish Trump's bona fides with his Christian Zionist base. … Walking in lockstep with Netanyahu, Trump also illegally declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. And three months after he illegally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Netanyahu named a new — and illegal — settlement under construction, "Trump Heights." On November 18, Pompeo announced the end of the United States' 41-year policy of considering Israeli settlements to be unlawful. "The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law," Pompeo declared. [Read More]
Useful reading on the USA change of course re: settlements – "New U.S. Stance on Israeli Settlements Is Akin to 'Thou Shalt Murder'" band "Pompeo Scorns the Law Because He's Never Had to Follow It," by Robert Fisk, The Independent [UK] [November 24, 2019] [Link].
