This is what a Non-Violent Revolution Looks Like. Non-Violent on our part anyway, not the neoliberal state's. I would like everyone to note the bravery of Bolivianos in the face of fire and what can be accomplished through unity of the pueblo (the people).

This is a short film showing two key parts of our revolution in Bolivia in 2003. I walk around a lot and know every square inch of the localities this was filmed in. I also have a stack of documentation concerned with the murder of 7 year old Marlene Rojas in Warisata. I have gathered information showing how both Clinton and Bush were up to their eyeballs in subverting Bolivia. But, I wanted to offer this video as a prelude so you understand what it looks like before I get to the next essay.

The first part February, 2003 started as a demonstration of the high school kids at the Ayacucho School which is just next to the Plaza Murillo where the Presidential Palace and Congress Building are. It turned into an armed battle between the striking Police Force, whose headquarters is just up the block from the school and plaza and the military, led by Carlos Sánchez Berzain (Minister)and Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (President). Most, if not all of the deathes and injuries were from military forces and snipers.

The second part is October, 2003. We blocked the roads for a month and put the capitol city, La Paz, under siege for weeks. Totally blocked. My family, who lived (still does) in one of the barrios ringing the city of La Paz was caught up in this on a daily basis. I was in the campo distributing coca to demonstrators on their way to the city, and blocking the road occasionally to keep food from leaving the Yungas to La Paz. Not that there was anyone in the area who wanted to break the blockade.

In the last minute of the film, while approximately 1,000,000 marchers gathered in the Plaza three blocks from the Presidential Palace, Sanchez de Lozada and Berzain escape to the United States. They have been tried and found guilty of genocide but are protected by the USA... Its another twisted tale.

9 YEARS PREVIOUSLY:

December 11, 1994. MIAMI — President Clinton and the leaders of 33 other Western Hemisphere nations agreed yesterday to create a free-trade zone stretching from Alaska to Argentina by 2005. "President Sanchez de Lozada of Bolivia enthusiastically agreed."