Bolivia on the Brink

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia on the Brink
Manuel Rozental interviewed by Justin Podur
March 06, 2008 By Manuel Rozental
and Justin Podur

Bolivia is on the brink of civil war. With a popular government attempting to put forward a new constitution and an elite intent on blocking change, or failing that separating the resource-rich part of the country from the rest, events are moving rapidly and will culminate in May, when the constitution and the autonomy proposal are to be decided by referendum. Manuel Rozental, a Colombian activist, recently visited Bolivia with the Hemispheric Alliance of Social Movements.


Justin Podur: Can you talk about what is happening in Bolivia?

Manuel Rozental: The first point is that entire Bolivian state, government, all of Bolivia’s institutions and resources – tin, gas, biofuels, soy, sugar cane, water - were in a constant process of being systematically delivered to transnational corporations and neoliberal interests and their local allies among the tiny and wealthy oligarchy up until the end of 2005.

Massive protests and mobilizations ended up forcing the resignation of Gonzalo (“Goni”) Sanchez de Lozada (in October 2003) and forced elections in 2005. Even though Goni left in 2003, the entire process kept going until the very minute when the new President, Evo Morales, took office in January 2006.

So in January 2006, Evo takes over a government that isn’t his and a state that’s already been kidnapped. That’s the challenge they give him. The right knows that he will not be able to run the country under existing conditions. But they also know that he won’t be able to transform it in a revolutionary way, because he was elected to those institutions. So he has a double problem. He has to rule within a rotten, rat-filled house about to fall, constructed to work against the people. But he was elected by the people to demolish that house and build another one.

So what he does – he has an agenda, which is an advantage, an agenda that the popular movements delivered to him, known as the October agenda. That’s October 2003 when they managed to kick out Goni. The agenda includes:

The nationalization of Bolivia’s resources and/or the recovery of sovereignty (it’s the same thing to Bolivians)

A major agrarian reform, a land reform, based on the recognition of the ancestral, collective ownership of the land. Not just redistribution, but a different use of the land altogether.

Re-founding of the nation. That’s the term they use. The current institutions don’t work. We want a new nation, a new house, as they call it.

So he came to power stating that’s his agenda and he’s going to follow it. His first move was a symbolic one. He had the army take over the major gas deposits of the country that have been in the hands of transnationals. This was done almost immediately, in May 2006. Then he called a constituent assembly to draft a new constitution, called the ‘constitucion politica del estado’ which is supposed to lead to the re-foundation of the country. Evo’s proposal is the new constitution will feature a massive agrarian reform project to return the land to the traditional collective ownership of the people.

More:
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/16788

[magbana]

1. MOST EXCELLENT!! This is a keeper

This is an article to file away for reference. Manuel Rozental is right on top of this issue With my Bolovian solidarity work, this interview comports well.

Many, many thanks for posting this..

[Judi Lynn]

3. magbana, you are unbelievably informed in so many areas. I can only wonder how you've had time

to learn so much!

It was a great day when you posted your first article over in "Editorials" which you authored, yourself.

There's so much going on now, isn't there? I think _Bush is going to strike violently somewhere again in the Western Hemisphere, just can't figure out which country's poor people will be the next victims.

[magbana]

5. The only reason I know a lick about anything is because of

my African husband who got a Cuban education and is an encyclopedia on Africa, Latin America and Middle East. When I retired four years ago, I finally had time to study this stuff in depth. Being in Washington, the Cuba solidarity folks are the same folks who do solidarity with Venezuela, Bolivia, El Salvador (FMLN), Nicaragua Network, etc. etc.and I learn fascinating tsssss
stuff from people every day and that includes YOU!

Yes, these last ten months of the Bushies will be nerve racking -- they are bound to do something that will leave the Democrats with a hell of a mess so that the Dems don't see the White House again for another 20 years

[Judi Lynn]

6. You bet! I've thought about that, too, like you. I'm sure that's the plan!

You remember that _{George H. W. Bush} started the problems with Somalia, and Haiti, and Bill Clinton inherited them when he went to the White House. Then, as he struggled to deal with solutions, they kicked in their White Water investigation to drag him down. Who knows what far better results he could have gotten if he had only had the opportunity to concentrate 100% on his job.

The circle you know and have been working with sounds like a group of very committed people: must be terrific, and a complete departure from ordinary life among people who don't know, don't care.

Hope you will all be able to reach your individual and group goals. Time has never been more important for people of good will.

[Mika]

2. Never forget that DLCers James Carville and Bob Shrum ran Goni's campaign.

They stooped so low that they smeared Evo Morales by claiming that he was connected to Bin Laden. :puke:


Great doc on this..

-Our Brand is Crisis-
http://www.kochlorberfilms.com/Theatrical/infopage.aspx?Id=16


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492714/


:hi:

-

[Judi Lynn]

4. Hi, Mika! I SAW that documentary. My God! So hideous I was sickened for days afterward.

I could see a right-winger helping the elitist, European theives, murderers, racists in Bolivia. To know that JAMES CARVILLE pitched in, himself? Bob Schrum?

The only answer has to be they're both such heavy alcoholics they have been in the bag most of the time and didn't have enough consciousness left to make a moral decision about how to conduct themselves. They could not fall lower.

After they got him re-elected, as you recall, there was only bloodshed, and terror ahead for indigenous Bolivians.

I saw the documentary on cable tv, I think on the Sundance Channel which airs documentaries.

It looks as if the candidate was simply unequal to the task, but the decisions he made were fatal, and couldn't have been worse. It would have been worse, of course, if that right-wing sociopath from Santa Cruz had won, but NEITHER of those guys should have been allowed anywhere near a campaign in which the lives of decent people are affected.

I think I want to watch it again, as there was so much in it when I saw it which I hadn't learned about, yet! Does that happen with you: you learn more AFTER reading a book or seeing a documentary which you wish you had known earlier?

Thanks for the reccommendation. I believe I have to see this one again. It's not a "feel good" story, either!