Racial Hatred In Sucre Province Bolivia – An Article By Damon Gerard Corrie

Editor’s Comment: Barbados Free Press publishes this article exactly as received from the author, with the exception of a few spelling corrections. We were concerned about two references in the article, the first being the statement that the current version of Coca Cola beverage uses coca leaves in its formula and that leaves are imported into the USA for the purpose. We thought this had long ago stopped, but a little research shows that Mr. Corrie’s references are accurate.

The second point is that Mr. Corrie’s article seems to declare that all Bolivians of Spanish descent are racists and involved in the abusive activities documented in the article. When we communicate that “all” people of a certain race or ethnic background act this way or that, we are actually adopting a racist perspective ourselves.

Nonetheless we will publish this article as it stands, but we would like to hear more from Mr. Corrie about what makes a “real” Bolivan. If, in this day and age, Mr. Corrie’s position in fact is that what constitutes a “real” Bolivian is based upon race, rather than shared commitment to country and national cultural values, then Mr. Corrie’s position is essentially racist – just a different flavour.

Over to you, Mr. Corrie…

Racial Hatred In Sucre Province Bolivia

I had intended to write about my roommate Esteban Urquizu Cuellar of Bolivia tonight, some kind of insightful look into his soul, but Esteban speaks very little English, and my Spanish is quite rusty.

I know he came here to the United Nations Permanent Forum thanks to Tribal Link as I have, but not too much else about the man, nevertheless I heard him talk at length (albeit in Spanish) about the plight of Indigenous Bolivians in Sucre Province, the only part of Bolivia that cringed at the thought of an ‘Indian’ becoming the President when Evo Morales Ayma won office.

In the west – the media (mostly American) leads viewers – especially those who have never travelled to Bolivia – to believe that what is going on in Sucre Province is nothing more than a ‘Socialist Coca promoting President trying to usurp the rights of the decent hardworking Spaniard descendant business community there’.

For clarity I will refer to the Oligarchy and Plantocracy in Bolivia as being ‘Ethnic Spaniards’, let’s call a spade a spade, they maintain homes and bank accounts back in the ‘old country’ (ie Spain) and are quite proud of their Conquistador ancestors, lastly they still look every bit the Spaniard biologically speaking, and as I am fond of saying “If I take an Indian Elephant to England and it gives birth – does the offspring then become an English Elephant?”
The answer is no – it does not, it becomes merely an Indian Elephant that was born in England. A word to the wise is good enough.

Ladies and gentlemen, no better a deception could have been engineered by the CIA themselves!  I have been to Bolivia twice, I have traveled around the country, and I was the ONLY person from the Caribbean region invited to be in the audience at the Presidential Palace when President Morales Nationalised the Natural Gas Companies in Bolivia in 2007; in any fair-minded person’s opinion it was quite justified, it is obscene for a company to extract the natural resources of a poor country and pay the host nation mere cents on every dollar they earn in the process.

Concerning Coca, I chewed Coca leaves and trust me – there is nothing more ‘sinister’ gained from it than the abation of hunger pangs, it saved me some money as I did not need to eat as often, also I was one of the few members of the OAS Indigenous Caucus invited to Bolivia who did NOT suffer altitude sickness during my stay over 9,000 feet above sea level there….I attribute this to the Coca leaves I chewed daily.