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NPR Reports on "Autonomy" for Santa Cruz

Submitted February 16, 2005 - 12:09 pm by Sean Donahue
In a typically muddled and shallow story yesterday, National Public Radio reported that President Mesa has agreed to devolve power to provinvial authorities in a move to appease seperatists in Santa Cruz.

In its typical fashion, NPR's Brian Ellsworth, paints a picture of a conflict betwen people in Santa Cruz to the East who want more regional autonomy in order to be able to bring in foreign investment, and indigenous people in the West who want more national control of natural gas resources.  He tells us that Bolivia has been rocked by a series of major demonstrations, failing to differentiate between the mass mobilizations against gas privatization and the orchestrated media events designed to bring attention to the ruling class demand for autonomy in Santa Cruz.

He goes on to explain that the indigenous communities are linked to the anti-globalization movement, but of course he never hints at the fact that the "autonomy" movement in Santa Cruz is linked to the oil and gas industries and to narcotraffickers.

But, I will give NPR credit -- Reuters and the Associate Press have ignored the story.  And Ellsworth did at least explain that Mesa was making concessions to the seperatists in Santa Cruz in order to gain their support to cushion him against the popular movements that threaten his presidency.

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