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ALBA summit condemns separatist forces in Bolivia (updated III)
by rahul | April 23, 2008 at 08:00 am | 690 views | 10 comments
Caracas, Venezuela, 23 April 2008. The Alternative Initiative for the Americas (ALBA) held a one day summit in Caracas today. Presidents of Nicaragua, Bolivia and Venezuela were joined by the vice President of Cuba to disccuss the impending crisis in Bolivia over the Referendum on 4 May 2008. The ALBA summit issued a joint declaration to back President Evo Morales and the peoples of Bolivia. It called on other Latin American and Caribbean countries to support the territorial integrity of Bolivia.
Alba also debated on the world food crisis and signed a cooperation agreement to jointly confront it. According to BBC, a US$100 million scheme was unveil to tackle the impact of rising prices on food. The Haiti food crisis was also mentioned during the summit.
PS: During the Summit, President Morales and Chavez questioned the US participation in the current crisis. They recalled that the US Ambassador in Bolivia, Philip S Goldberg, was precisely the same American representative at Pristina when Kosovo started to split from Serbia. In response to President Morales allegations of US involvement in the crisis, the American Embassy at La Paz issued a communiqué on 23 April 2008. It stated the US government did not approve nor rejected the referendum at Santa Cruz on 4 May, 2008. The OAS has warned over the attacks on the integrity of the Bolivian territory. It asked both parties to sit down and talk. However, the Evo Morales government inteds to file a report at OAS on the referendum initiative led by the Civic Committee and Prefecture of Santa Cruz. It also emerged the Bolivian government would not prevent people from participatiing in the Referendum. Even though it has considered it as boith illegal and unconstitutionall, as people participation in a private activity is on their own will. The government would only use its forces were there to be any violent event.
Sources: VTV, BBC Mundo, Telesur, Unionradio, El Comercio, EL Nacional, ABN, YVKE, Globovision, US Embassy in Bolivia, El Universal, AlJazeera, ABI,
Related story: Chavez calls for urgent ALBA summit on Bolivia, Venezuela Sending 364 Tons of Food to Haiti
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April 23, 2008 at 08:00 am by rahul, 690 views, 10 comments
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Comments (10)
at 08:09 on April 23rd, 2008
rahul, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 08:30 on April 23rd, 2008
rahul, you've convinced me you've done the work - it's authentic. I also think that you've been fair and thorough. I didn't get the sense that you were hiding your biases, or passing off other's work as your own. Or worse -- getting paid by those you cover -- so it's transparent and independent. I also think you deserve praise for being an eyewitness, and for your investigative efforts. Good stuff.
at 11:49 on April 23rd, 2008
Rachel, your comments sound like a 7th grade teacher commenting on a school assignment. How can you even comment when the author doesn't actually have anything to say? What work has he done? I see no evidence of having done any "work". Hiding biases? Other people's work? There is no work here. And what is the reference about getting paid?
And worse although the "story" is written in english the links (presumably to the original information) are in spanish? I must disagree. This is so weak and devoid of any real info as to be a non-story. Where is the backgroud? details of the vote in May? What did these leaders actually say or endorse?
at 18:39 on April 23rd, 2008
Eastvanray, I just uploaded a video with the interventions of ALBA presidents at the Summit. Even though it is in Spanish, it might be of help or answer your concerns. I rest assured you will understand it or make an effort to have it translated. You may also use a free translation tool over the internet to grasp the original information in Spanish. It is quite interesting. Finally, I would like to invite you to visit my page frequently as I usually update my stories with incoming and meaningful information. Being able to do updating is one of the beauties of citizen journalism!
at 18:41 on April 23rd, 2008
Rachel, Thank you very much indeed for your kind comments on my story. It is quite encouraging when one gets good stuff marks!
at 19:14 on April 23rd, 2008
rahul and eastvanray: to be clear, I gave this story a good stuff flag because rahul made the effort to draw attention to an important summit meeting, with careful sourcing.
The content of the actual good stuff comment is not what I intended to post - unfortunately we have an occasional bug in the system that brings back the old version of the text that goes with the good stuff flag. We don't use this any more - but it crops up every now and again. Nonetheless, I still do think the material is worthy of a good stuff - and thank you to rahul for making updates.
at 19:31 on April 23rd, 2008
Is it possible to, early on, or perhaps clearly at the end, provide a link to a resource in English? I apolgoize; my Spanglish isn't that good. I clicked on several links; and did finally get a link to your earlier material (but I don't know if this earlier material was the same thing as today's) and one prior posting by Moonwolf.
at 19:45 on April 23rd, 2008
PEP, thanks for asking such an important issue. Sometimes, local news are not covered at all by big media enterprises. On other occasions, it takes few days for articles to appear in English at one or two local newspapers. Thus, citizen journalism comes to fill the gap! Spanish links are given as soon as they are available on the web. English and French are sometimes given too. But this is after breaking news has become old. I do recommend frequents visits to my stories as I tried to give as many links as possible to various sources other than Spanish. I consider updating my stories an obligation to my readers. Besides, it also help me overcome the fact that English is not my mother tongue either. So I cover as many points of view as possible on a single event
at 20:00 on April 23rd, 2008
I agree--we must provide news from many outlets! I did see some newspapers/websites in your embeded links and others, but I need English! Just one, por favor! :)
Other members have, in the past. posted 2 versions: one in native language, one in English. What do you think of that idea?
I want to know more about this story! Help me to do that.
at 20:14 on April 23rd, 2008
PEP, besisdes reading my story, you may visit the BBC web site for your emergency. You may also surf the net. Two languages versions seem rather diffiucult. How could you ask members to write in Arabic when reporting on Iraq, Persian when commenting on Iran or French when citing Sarkozy?