By Cory Morningstar
“Al-Jazeera, which started out as a credible news agency, has become the whore of international journalism and is as credible as the scrawlings of a demented simpleton on the walls of a football stadium. What is really happening in Syria, we shall be reporting in the forthcoming days. Meanwhile let us tell the story of Libya, which you will not see on Al-Jazeera, nor indeed on the British Bullshit Corporation, its friend and bedmate.” —Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, Pravda.Ru, from the article The West, Syria and Libya.
It is no secret that Al Jazeera has become an instrumental tool of propaganda (Wadah Khanfar, Al-Jazeera and the triumph of televised propaganda by Thierry Meyssan), serving the Imperialist powers in the expanding destabilization campaigns taking place at unprecedented speed across the globe. What is perhaps less known is the destabilization campaign staged against the Bolivian President Evo Morales, which Morales successfully circumvented and over-came in late 2011. (Media reported several deaths including a baby – all which proved to be complete fabrication.)
Today, the campaign to remove Morales appears to be heating up again. The “news coverage” by Al Jazeera, below (in the midst of Al Jazeera “news” on the Syrian “uprising”), lends evidence that this destabilization effort (being led by U.S.-funded CIDOB) is being re-ignited as does recent correspondence on an international “climate justice” listserv with U.S.-funded NGOs whereby activists are again urging support for anti-Morales protesters. The destabilization campaign has strategically zoned in on an issue commonly referred to simply as “TIPNIS” (El Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Sécure), an ecologically sensitive area where the majority of inhabitants wished for a road that would have provided access to health care, schools, and the expansion of slow yet steady liberation and autonomy.
Liberation and autonomy for the people of one of the poorest countries in Latin America – all while struggling through the process of change. Under pressure from a minority group under the CIDOB banner (funded by U.S. interests), Morales gave in to their every demand, which upon announcement, resulted in one protester stating in disbelief, “We’re screwed.” Today, groups representing the majority are demanding the legislation be reversed.
Destabilizations Under the Guise of Humanitarian Intervention
Appearing live on Al Jazeera, author Juan Carlos Zambrana sets the record straight. Zambrana spells out in no uncertain terms the destabilization campaign against Evo Morales being led by U.S.-funded NGOs (including Democracy Center, Amazon Watch and Avaaz). Funders of the NGOs leading this destabilization effort include USAID, NED, Open Society Institute (George Soros), and Rockefellers just to name a few. Further, these funders are heavily invested in REDD (a false solution to the climate crisis that breeds climate racism – a mechanism that Morales and ALBA countries continue to vehemently oppose), promoted by Avaaz and a slew of other corporate greens.
Morales’s leadership, based upon a vision that serves the Bolivian people by breaking free from the claws of Imperialism, is a model that threatens the entire global industrialized capitalist system and the oligarchy it serves. The corporate-funded NGOs are devised and funded (at times merely co-opted) as an integral instrument to protect the system … similar to the role of corporate media. Imperialist powers use this same strategy over and over – Libya is a prime and most recent example. The NGOs were absolutely instrumental in the destabilization/invasion of Libya – a country with no debt and the highest standard of living in Africa. Few are aware that Gaddafi was invited, as an esteemed guest, by Columbia University in 2006, to speak about and share knowledge of Libya’s vision of “direct democracy” (based on The Green Book), a lecture that was streamed live.
“Capital is more than happy to enlist the mainstream [environmental] movement as a partner in the management of nature. Big environmental groups offer capital a threefold convenience: as legitimation, reminding the world that the system works; as control over popular dissent, a kind of sponge that sucks up and constrains the ecological anxiety in the general population; and as rationalization, a useful governor to introduce some control and protect the system from its own worst tendencies, while ensuring the orderly flow of profits.” —Joel Kovel, 2002
Below are links for further reading on this destabilization campaign, including a link to correspondence with Jim Shultz from the “Democracy” Center, a U.S. funded “think tank” situated in Bolivia and funded by Rockefellers and other foundations (who serve as corporate front groups), most all heavily invested in promoting neo-liberal policies.
1) Dialogue with Jim Shultz from the U.S.-funded Democracy Center (based in Bolivia): http://wrongkindofgreen.org/2011/11/23/u-s-funded-democracy-centre-reveals-its-real-reason-for-supporting-the-tipnis-protest-in-bolivia-redd/. (Shultz’s comments follow the article at the link provided.)
2) Recent articles by Juan Carlos Zambrana. You can subscribe to updates on his website: http://juancarloszambrana.com/spanish/ (Spanish) or http://juancarloszambrana.com/ (English).
3) Excellent coverage on Bolivia is found on “Bolivia Rising” where you can also subscribe to updates: http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/
4) NEWLY DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS REVEAL MORE THAN $97 MILLION IN FUNDING FROM USAID TO SEPARATIST PROJECTS IN BOLIVIA: http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2009/05/newly-declassified-documents-reveal.html
5) Background: The Environmental “Movement” Versus the Bolivian Morales Government: Published September 30, 2011 on Bolivia Rising, Political Context and The Wrong Kind of Green: http://wrongkindofgreen.org/2011/09/30/who-really-leads-on-the-environment-bolivia-verses-the-movement-the-facts-speak-for-themselves/
6) Libya: Humanitarian war in Libya? There was no evidence! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9IzXsALwo&list
7) The War on Democracy | An award winning documentary by John Pilger: http://vimeo.com/16724719
8 ) George Orwell’s Guide to the News | The Seven Step Mainstream Media Country Destruction Guide: http://rt.com/news/media-lies-global-elite-447/.
Imperialists’ strategy: Employ corporate media and NGOs to create the legitimacy necessary for entry to undertake a strategic destabilization. Where existing dissent exists, infiltrate using corporate-funded NGOs to further the divide. Divide and conquer utilizing foreign-funded mercenaries, CIA and terrorist groups funded by Imperialist states to create conflict where/when necessary. Further employ corporate media and NGOs to ensure that the public views the destabilization campaign through the lens of/under the guise of a humanitarian intervention to bring “democracy” to the people. Where the opportunity presents itself, utilize the illusion of a spontaneous uprising. (This has become a favoured strategy thanks to U.S.-funded groups like Otpor! and others who exploit well intentioned vulnerable youth.)
Yes, the Imperialists are going to bring the white man’s illusion of “democracy” to a resource-rich country near you, all while simultaneously bombing them to smithereens, if that’s what it takes to seize control of resources or, just as critical if not more so, if that’s what it takes to simply crush a strengthening union of resistance to Imperialist/Colonial rule and that of the global industrialized capitalist system – a union such as what Libya, under Gaddafi’s leadership, was successfully leading for the unity and liberation of Africa nations. ALBA countries, with Bolivia and Venezuela leading the charge with the recent formation of CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States), while moving away from the U.S. dollar as their trading currency, represent the same such threat to the Imperialist powers. Gaddafi was working toward the introduction of the gold dinar, a single African currency, made by gold, which was to be a “true sharing of the wealth” for the African people before he was brutally murdered and a beautiful country devastated. Under the false pretext of a “humanitarian intervention,” as many as 100,000 Libyan men, women and children were killed, while foreign interests continue to steal and plunder every last drop of wealth from Libya – both monetary and cultural, as well as ecological.
Bolivia is and will remain a country of people who desperately struggle to resist Imperialism and fight for their autonomy – against all odds. The question is whether we, as citizens, will choose to serve the Imperialists by supporting their agenda, or respect the Bolivian people by trusting they can best work through the difficult process of change without foreign interference.
Above: Bolivia – A People’s Portrait