Ciao!

Miguel: It's a universal phenomenon, unfortunately. You've heard of this prosecutor being killed probably already. I have mixed feelings about the drug war. Wouldn't decriminalizing get the thugs/gangstars out of business?--scott

I'm not so sure about the decrimilization. I know the parallels often drawn to Prohibition. But they don't quite work for me. While I can accept the legalization of marijuana, I can't so easily accept the legalization of drugs such as heroin or cocaine. These drugs are much more damaging and should, at least, be controlled.

Someone made the suggestion of Bolivian legalization of coca growing. The problem w/ this is that it wouldn't put the gangsters out of business, but it would put them into politics. I still vaguely remember the dictatorship of Garcia Mesa (who's "security advisor" was Klaus Barbie), which was a government of narcotraffickers.

Part of the point of this post wasn't even actually dealing w/ the drug war, but w/ these two things:

A) Why don't Bolivian human rights watchgroups ever denounce these deaths? Why only when the government takes action? Shouldn't it condemn both?

B) Why don't more people admit that Evo Morales and MAS is tied to the international cocaine trade? Why only look at him as an "indigenous" leader?

C) The young man that was killed had an indigenous background. He was just doing his job (probably not being paid very well, but at least he was getting paid). That is very troubling to me.

Yes, most conscripts do have indigenous backgrounds. This is because most middle class kids either don't do the mandatory national military service (welcome to a corrupt social system) or do what's called "pre-military" service, which is a year of something like the US National Guard (i.e. minimal risk of injury). The "pre-military" service is rather prohibitive, since the recruits have to pay for their own uniforms and equipment (hence, limited to lower middle class and above).

Trafickers, and people involved in this illegal business indeed declared war a long time ago, but it seems the government wanted to act tactfully because all this issue has been politicized. It's sad to see some people concerned only about cocaleros casualties but no sad feelings for soldiers. The media portrays the situation in a simplistic way: "poor coca peasant, bad soldier entitled to use coersion"; it seems some media provide what people wants to hear, not what actually happened. Much ,ore investigative reporting is needed.

About human rights... they proclaim to fight for democracy but in a democratic election for the head executive of the Defensor del Pueblo their candidate lost (instead a female candidate won) and inmediate pressure started to invelidate that election, vote again, and who knows what else. What else con you say?.

Yes, I've little respect for Sacha Loretti and his Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos. Too much political finagling to be really an ethics-based organization.