• Listen to this segment

Bolivian troops arrested the Governor of Pando yesterday in connection with a massacre of up to 30 people last week. Pando is a northern province in Bolivia. Its governor, Leopoldo Fernandez, has been accused of genocide after a paramilitary-led massacre took place on September 11th that killed between 15 and 30 supporters of President Evo Morales heading to a mass meeting in El Porvenir. This is the deadliest instance of violence to occur during the term of Bolivia’s first indigenous president, and has dramatically increased tensions in the nation. Some opposition leaders of dissident provinces in Bolivia have since agreed to formal negotiations with Morales to explore resolutions to the political crisis. Meanwhile as both Venezuela and Bolivia have expelled their respective U.S. Ambassadors on the grounds of supporting Morales’ opponents, an emergency meeting of South American heads of state was called on Monday in Santiago, Chile. With the 35th anniversary of the coup that toppled Salvador Allende as the historical backdrop, the leaders of Unasur declared “their full and decided support for the constitutional government of President Evo Morales.” The Bolivian President has likened the secessionist minded opposition governors’ actions and the unrest in his country to an attempted coup. Morales decidedly won a recall election just last month gaining 67% of the vote, while seeking to reform his nation’s constitution in the future to broaden indigenous rights and land reforms.

GUESTS: Forrest Hylton, co-author of “Revolutionary Horizons: Past and Present in Bolivian Politics” and the author of Evil Hour in Colombia. He is a frequent contributor to NACLA and New Left Review. Dr. Annabelle Conroy, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Central Florida.