Monthly Archives: July 2004

Bolivia Could Explode in the Next 60 Hours: Peaceful Resolution or Internecine Strife is the Question, With the Issue Still in Doubt

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Bruno Gitnacht
July 16, 2004

Sunday’s All-Important Natural Gas Referendum in Bolivia The memoranda presented below relate to the political and social turmoil affecting Bolivia. The first focuses on the upcoming July 18 natural gas referendum and its implications on President Mesa’s political mandate and on his vocal indigenous opposition. The second broadens this analysis by examining the socio-economic problems that have engulfed Bolivia over the last several decades. A referendum on gas export issues is scheduled to take...

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Sunday’s referendum could provide needed impetus to Bolivia’s beleaguered economic development, but at a cost

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Mark Scott
July 16, 2004

Sunday’s All-Important Natural Gas Referendum in Bolivia The memoranda presented below relate to the political and social turmoil affecting Bolivia. The first focuses on the upcoming July 18 natural gas referendum and its implications on President Mesa’s political mandate and on his vocal indigenous opposition. The second broadens this analysis by examining the socio-economic problems that have engulfed Bolivia over the last several decades. A pivotal moment in President Mesa’s search for a political...

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The International Republican Institute: Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Fellow Jessica Leight
July 15, 2004

The International Republican Institute’s (IRI) ostensible democracy-building mission serves only as a screen for its energetic and unscrupulous promotion of an ultraconservative Republican foreign policy agenda. The IRI is more a cloak-and-dagger operation than a conventional research group. Over the past five years the organization has aligned itself with the most pro-U.S. and some of the most antidemocratic factions in both Venezuela and Haiti and contributed to the fomenting of coups against leftist presidents...

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Otto Reich: A Career in Disservice

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associates Will Conkling and Sam Goble
July 13, 2004

On Wednesday, July 14, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs will issue a lengthy report entitled, “The International Republican Institute (IRI) Promulgating Democracy of Another Variety.” In this report, Yale Researcher and COHA Fellow Jessica Leight contends that the IRI is not just another bland U.S. government- funded research institution, but a lethal rightwing ideological mobilization that feels more at home plotting the destabilization of such governments as that of Jean Bertrand Aristide and Venezuela’s...

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Trinidad’s Dirty Little Secret

This analysis was prepared by COHA Research Associate Valencia Grant
July 9, 2004

COMING MONDAY, JULY 12: “Otto Reich: A Career in Disservice” • Port-of-Spain, the “cultural capital of the Caribbean,” appears to be importing a dangerous kidnapping culture from neighboring countries such as Colombia and Venezuela. • Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his administration consider restructuring the national police force in an attempt to curb the spike in abductions and murders. • Will Manning be as indecisive on fighting crime as he has been on...

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