Bolivia's Senate met in a surprise session late on Tuesday and quickly passed a controversial land redistribution bill after opposition unity collapsed in the face of marches for weeks by thousands of landless Indians in support of the measure.

The vote came after conservative legislators ended their week-long boycott of the 25-member upper house, as three opposition members established the necessary quorum for voting along with the ruling party's 12 senators.

The bill had been passed by the chamber of deputies two weeks ago.
The Senate about-face came amid political tensions between Morales and the opposition. Civil society leaders in eight of nine provinces have called for a general strike on Friday.

Government officials said that large landowners from the eastern region of Santa Cruz, the country's agricultural heartland and a bastion of the conservative opposition, had been behind the Senate protest.

Evo Morales, Bolivia's leftist president, told the protesting landless Indians this week that he would issue a presidential decree to redistribute idle land to poor peasants if the boycott continued.

Morales' "land reform", a key campaign promise, aims to redistribute some 48 million acres, or almost a fifth of Bolivia's territory, within five years.

The plan, which calls for redistribution of idle land to poor peasants, enjoys widespread support.

But estate owners in Santa Cruz, where vast cattle ranches and soy plantations abound, are fearful their land might be confiscated.

Morales has ruled out mass expropriations, saying only unproductive or illegally owned land will be targeted.

But, analysts say, some of his plans are fuelling economic and racial tensions between the European-descended minority of the eastern regions and the indigenous majority that populate the Andean highlands.

Landowners' protest

Earlier this week thousands protested in the city against against the measure. The protesters also called for more autonomy from the central government.

A former opposition presidential candidate is on a hunger strike, and opposition legislators walked out of the Senate to protest against Morales' drive to control an assembly that is rewriting the country's constitution.


Dozens of indigenous activists attended the Senate session and celebrated outside the legislative palace when the bill was passed.

Morales' drive to nationalise the energy industry has enjoyed widespread political support, but his plan to redistribute what he calls idle land to the poor, indigenous majority that forms his power base had been blocked by opposition senators.

"We are not afraid to issue a decree to put an end to large estates," Morales told supporters shortly after returning to Bolivia from a two-day visit to the Netherlands, and before heading to Nigeria for a summit of African and Latin American leaders.

At the rally in La Paz on Tuesday, the crowd called for him to close the Senate, but Morales ruled this out.

I cannot close down the Senate ... those that have [already] closed it are dealing a blow to democracy," said Morales, the country's first indigenous president who gained prominence as a protest leader and head of a nationwide coca leaf growers' group.

7th Mega March Turned Confrontation

Saturday, November 25th, had begun with the 7th Megamarch. Thousands had marched from the outskirts of Santa María Coyotepec to the Oaxaca City center. It was yet another incredible showing of support for the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). The march was calling for the removal of both the corrupt governor of Oaxaca, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, and the Federal Preventative Police (PFP) who have been in Oaxaca for almost a month now. The demonstrators were a highly diverse group, including people of all ages, from various indigenous groups, unions, social organizations and rural villages. People gathered along the streets applauding as the march passed. Many handed out tangerines, water and sandwiches to the crowd.

When they arrived in the city the plan was to encircle the center square for 48 hours. This is the square where striking teachers from all over the state of Oaxaca created an encampment which led to the beginning of the movement over 6 months ago. The federal police have occupied it since they entered Oaxaca on October 29th. As the people began the circle, the police in full riot gear, refined their formation at each of the entrances backed by a police officer armed with live ammunition on top of an armoured vehicle. Although APPO had made it clear that the plan was to remain completely non-violent, within half an hour street battles broke out between the movement and the police in at least two of the entrances. Some members of the movement, armed with rocks, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, faced off with the police who used an incredible amount of tear gas, rocks and marbles shot with slingshots. Also, according to LIMEDDH, the Mexican League in Defense of Human Rights, state government backed paramilitaries were seen on the roofs of buildings helping to provoke the confrontations. Earlier in the day the radio station affiliated with Ulises political party (Institutional Revolutionary Party or PRI) had called for people to dump boiling water and acid on the demonstrators.


Federal Police Advance

After awhile the police pushed the people north up the hill, at one point taking over the Santo Domingo plaza where the movement has been centered since the police forced them out of the main square. The police continued to fire teargas into the crowd and burnt the tarps and other belongings of the movement and vendors in the Santo Domingo plaza. The report from APPO's most recent Constitutive Congress were scattered all over the ground. During this time plain clothed police were detaining people in the streets. After the police retreated back to the main square, many movement members regrouped in Santo Domingo as night was falling.

Suddenly the police advanced over eight blocks forcing the crowd to continue running north of the main square. Paramilitary groups also arrived on the scene shooting into the crowd as people ran for their lives. Movement members attempted to set up barricades, I witnessed many women scrambling to gather rocks for defense, breaking stones off the fancy plazas were Ulises has squandered the states money. Cars and government buildings were lit on fire. Throughout the next few hours federal police and plain clothed gunmen continued to attack members of the movement who had taken cover in various locations. Three movement members were killed, 39 disappeared, 149 detained, and over 140 injured (20 with live ammunition), not including the hundred people the medics assisted who were overwhelmed by the gas and pepper spray. And this is just on November 25th.

The people of Oaxaca who are facing this fate are guilty of the crime of demanding justice and trying to organize a democratic alternative to the corrupt and repressive leadership that governs their state. The Mexican federal government's response, supposedly to restore order, has instead attempted to maintain the exploitive status quo through further repression and with no regard for the true root causes of this conflict, the extreme poverty and unjust government policies that benefit a few at the cost of the majority. According to Yessica Sanchez of LIMMEDH, "It is clear that the PFP are not interested in instilling peace, what they come to do is intimidate and try to criminalize the social movement in Oaxaca." If the federal police had come to Oaxaca with the true intention of restoring order, those who have committed the violence in the last 6 months of the struggle would be brought to justice. Nowhere are movement members safe from the threat of armed attack. Members of the movement have been killed while handing out coffee to late night barricades, while participating in a march, or while leaving a neighborhood APPO meeting. Their murderers still walk the streets, now with the added protection and assistance of the PFP.


Ulises Claims Victory

On the morning after the mass repression, standing in the very spot where hundreds had run for their lives less than 18 hours before, Governor Ulises claimed victory. It had been months since he had been able to show his face in the city. As helicopters flew overhead, Governor Ulises, surrounded by plain clothed police, explained that now Oaxaca belongs to the true Oaxaqueños. "We who love Oaxaca, its history and its traditions feel profoundly offended and attacked by the vandals' actions on Saturday. The responsible are being arrested and should be held accountable for their actions in the face of justice. Today with the help of the PFP and the state forces we have recuperated the heart of Oaxaca for the Oaxaqueños and for all Mexicans." For hours prior to this press spectacle workers had cleaned up the remains of the police repression, they has picked up the tear gas canisters, the graffiti and stencils had been painted over. A large water truck has sprayed away the dried blood and burnt remains of the movement from the square.

Since November 25th the federal police have surrounded the Santo Domingo plaza and most large parks in the city, they are routinely patrolling the streets of Oaxaca. Reports of people being taken out of their homes or picked up off the streets by armed gunmen are being called in to Radio Universidad regularly. The station has once again called for support in fear that the police will manage to ignore the autonomous nature of the university and destroy the station, the primary means of communication remaining for the movement. Students of the College of Medicine at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University organized a press conference to share their testimonies of witnessing municipal police kill three demonstrators during Saturday's repression, taking their bodies with them. During the press conference armed gunmen fired into the building and took one student. There were 60 more detentions on November 27th. The PRI radio station has called for the burning of EDUCA offices, a well respected social organization that operates throughout the state. The station has also been reading on the air the addresses where suspected movement members and internationals are hiding. Over 140 of the movement members detained by the police have been transported far from their families, out of the state of Oaxaca, to federal prison.

Those in power continue to try to suppress this movement with intimidation, with violence, with murder because change is in motion. According to Cesar Chavez, "once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours." On November 10th-12th, the movement held a Constitutive Congress where they elected 220 representatives from all seven regions, formalizing the popular governance structure of APPO. 3000 people attended the forum further defining their program of struggle and creating a true bottom up alternative to the corrupt political parties that run the state. I still fear for the people, how much suffering they will have to face. On November 20th there were an incredible number of actions worldwide in solidarity with the people of Oaxaca but there needs to be an even larger outcry. Please consider getting involved in solidarity actions. This is not simply to support the people of Oaxaca achieve self determination and social justice. They are providing a model for the rest of Mexico to also stand up in the face of poverty estimated at over 50 percent of the population, of losing their land and resources to foreign corporations, of having to flee to the US illegally to be able to provide for their families.

On the national level, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador held his own swearing in ceremony on November 20th as the "legitimate president" of Mexico in front of hundreds of thousands of supporters. Two days prior he told his supporters "Those neo-fascist reactionaries better not think they'll have room to maneuver, we're going to keep them on a short leash." Massive civil disobedience is planned for December 1st, the date of the inauguration ceremony for Felipe Calderon, who "won" the presidential election by less than one percentage point with clear evidence of fraud. The trend of electing leftist leadership continues in Latin America, confronting the injustice of neoliberal policies and beginning to unravel the exploitive policies that have left the majority of their population in immense poverty. At the same time, President Bush has quietly dropped the ban on training the militaries of Latin America. As our country readies itself to carry on our legacy of genocide to prevent the much needed changes the people are demanding, we must become active. Not only for the people of Oaxaca, or Mexico, or Latin America but for the global struggle that is taking root.

Rochelle Gause lives in Olympia, Washington. She can be reached at rochelle@riseup.net

The aircraft have been made by a firm in Komsomolsk-on-Amur that is part of the Sukhoi aircraft-building company.

"These two Su-30 MK2 airplanes are being airlifted in a Ruslan heavy transport plane. They are intended for the Venezuelan Air Force," a source in the Russian defense sector said.

The planes are expected to take part in a military parade in Venezuela on December 10.

Russian and Venezuela this summer signed a 1.5-billion U.S. dollars contract for the sale of 24 Su-30 MK2 airplanes.

Senator Álvaro García, the grandfather of Sucre politics, is facing charges of murder for allegedly planning the killing of 14 villagers in 2000 and ordering the murder of an election agency official.

Political analyst Vicente Torrijos, from Rosario university in the capital, Bogotá, said the claims could have a domino effect on the establishment as politicians implicate others to save themselves.

Senator Miguel de la Espriella from northern Córdoba province revealed in a Sunday newspaper that he was among some 40 politicians who signed a political pact with paramilitary leaders at the height of their power in 2001. On Tuesday the claim prompted a minor government official to quit after admitting signing the pact as a congressman.

"No one knows how high this goes," said Adam Isacson, who monitors Colombia for the Centre for International Policy, a Washington-based thinktank.

Senator Álvaro Araújo, who is among the six lawmakers called to testify before the supreme court and is the brother of Mr Uribe's foreign minister, María Consuelo Araújo, warned that if he went down other heads in the government would roll.

The former head of Colombia's intelligence agency during Mr Uribe's first term is also being investigated for collusion.

There is no evidence that the president is linked to the paramilitaries. In a recent speech Mr Uribe challenged the militia leaders to implicate him. "If any of those 30,000 paramilitaries can say that the president has been complicit, let them come forward," he said.

The paramilitaries were formed by wealthy ranchers, businessmen and drug mafias in the 80s to fight extortion and kidnapping by leftist guerrillas. The paramilitaries later turned into powerful armies involved in drug trafficking and extortion who used their power to control local politics and politicians.

Collusion between the militias and the military and police forces is well documented but the extent to which paramilitaries colluded with politicians and local officials was an open secret.

While some claims against lawmakers were filed, but not pursued, more than five years ago, the allegations resurfaced after their names were mentioned in files found on the confiscated laptop of a top paramilitary leader known as Jorge 40.

The files allegedly include detailed accounts and recordings of meetings between politicians and paramilitaries to ensure the election of chosen candidates, and describe scams in which militias stole state funds from local health services.

The former militia chiefs are awaiting prosecution under a controversial law that grants them reduced prison sentences in return for confessing their crimes.

Tuesday, parliamentarians from both organizations took the main hall of that facility in an attempt to facilitate Calderon s inauguration on Dec 1 and others to prevent it.

For their part, deputies of the Institutional Revolutionary Party suggested the investiture take place inside the Congress and not at the main hall.

They also insist that outgoing President Vicente Fox does not appear at the legislative headquarters to give the ceremonial sash, in an effort to guarantee peace at the investiture.

Faced with the current situation, the PRD said it will move to an alternative swear-in site to try to impede that Calderon takes office.

Representatives of the Mexican Human Rights Network, gathered at the State Indigenous Peoples Forum that ends Wednesday, stated the problems in Oaxaca are the expression of the non viability of this strategy, particularly in a state with great social marginalization.

Since June 14, when the local government used violence to disperse striking teachers, 307 people have been arrested, many of whose whereabouts are unknown, and more than 15 people have been killed, chiefly teachers and members of the supporting APPO (Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca).

Mexican Interior Minister Carlos Abascal justified the present actions and permanence of the Federal Preventive Police (PFP) in Oaxaca on Wednesday, declaring they were there to stop loss of human lives and denying the PFP was sent for further repression.

However, Miguel Alvarez, from Consultancy Services Office for Peace, said that there has been a drastic government change in the treatment of the Oaxaca conflict, with violent repression and transfer of prisoners to other Mexican states.

As part of the agenda to the State Indigenous Peoples Forum, its representatives demanded peace with dignity, and cessation of repression and aggression.