Morales wins big, vows change

The indigenous peoples of Bolivia, dispossessed and poor, proudly attained the nation’s presidency for the first time ever on Dec. 18. After more than a century of their social and economic exclusion by U.S. transnational corporations, in cahoots with the country’s oligarchy, Evo Morales of the Movement Towards Social ism (MAS) was elected president. Morales, from the Aymara indigenous nation, won with more than 50 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff election. The final count is not in as of this writing, but with more than 85 percent of the votes counted, the MAS victory was certain.

Evo Morales, left, is congratulated by a leader of the mine workers, Walter Villarroel.

Morales’s triumph was jubilantly celebrated by the combative Bolivian masses—from his home city of Cochabamba to El Alto, a famous bastion of resistance to neoliberalism. The latter was proclaimed capital of the Bolivian Revolution of the 21st century during strikes last June that deposed former president Carlos Mesa.

In Cochabamba, residents warned current Parliament officials that they wanted Morales to govern and would not let them steal the MAS victory. They shouted, “Evo valiente, ya eres presidente.” (Brave Evo, now you are president.)

Morales responded to the people: “Thank you. We broke the record. No party had ever won before with more than 51 percent of the votes. Now what is left is to struggle for the unification of Latin America.”

This victory happened despite the removal of almost a million voters, mostly supporters of MAS, from the electoral listing. The National Electoral Court had ruled that people who did not vote in the 2004 regional elections were to be taken off the list. This prompted demonstrations and denunciations by thousands of people, who complained that even though they had voted, they were now being eliminated.

Morales also objected, saying, “Instead of the Electoral Court purging the Bolivian people, the Bolivian people should purge the members of the National Electoral Court.”

This conclusive victory and high voter turnout represents the determination of the indigenous, who make up 62 percent of the population, as well as the rest of the poor masses and even a sector of the middle class who want a different path for Bolivia and would like to see a sovereign nation free from foreign domination.

Bolivian writer Alex Contreras Baspi neiro spoke with Workers World after the elections. “For us,” he said, “the biggest surprise of these elections was that the MAS won more than 30 percent support in the region of Santa Cruz, where a campaign of fear, blackmail and dirty war has been waged.”

Santa Cruz, in the eastern lowlands, is home to the racist, white oligarchy allied to the U.S. It is in a region rich in natural gas. In recent years, a secessionist movement demanding autonomy has been supported by the U.S. Embassy and the transnational oil companies.

The voters dealt imperialism a slap in the face by supporting Morales over pro-U.S. candidates.

Washington’s favorites decimated

Morales, with no college degree, has been a representative to the National Parlia ment and organizer of Bolivian coca farmers. Washington’s favorite was Jorge Quiroga from the party Podemos, who was Bolivia’s president in 2001-02. A Texas A&M University graduate and former IBM executive, Quiroga finished a distant second with around 30 percent of the vote. His political platform was based on “free trade” as a way to supposedly eradicate poverty. He supports the U.S. coca-eradication program that has left farmers destitute.

Cement magnate Samuel Doria Medina, a candidate from the party National Unity and also the owner of Burger King restaurants in Bolivia, came in a distant third.

Morales campaigned on three main points. The first was nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves —the largest in South Amer ica, after Venezuela.

Second is the convening of a Consti tutional Assembly to lay the basis for a new Bolivia.

Third, Morales opposed neoliberal policies, including the U.S. program to eradicate coca in Bolivia. The coca leaf has long been used by Latin America’s indigenous population as a traditional medicine and is not addictive. It is also sold for use in the formulation of other medicines. Only after the coca leaf is chemically processed to make cocaine does it become dangerous.

Morales’s running mate, Alvaro Garcia Linera, has publicly explained the MAS position: raising the penalties for drug trafficking and involving the coca growers themselves in combating it, while ending the toxic chemical spraying of their fields.

Morales is opposed to the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which he calls “an agreement to legalize the colonization of the Americas.” This has not been received well by Washington.

In the Dec. 15-21 issue of Progreso Weekly, Saul Landau writes: “The pro spect of socialist peasant leader Evo Morales as Bolivia’s next president disturbed Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Charles Shapiro. ‘It would not be welcome news in Washington to see the increasingly belligerent Cuban-Venezuelan combo become a trio,’ he e-mailed on Oct. 21, 2005, to the Miami Herald’s Andres Oppenheimer.”

Several statements from U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, already show their hostility toward the elected Bolivian president. In an interview with CNN in Spanish, Rice arrogantly asked, “Will the new Bolivian government have a democratic behavior? Will it be ready to have good relations and maintain the economic aid it receives?”

Morales has already received death threats and is increasingly being demonized in the capitalist media. The Dec. 20 issue of the Washington Post quotes Ber nard Aronson, an international consultant in Washington and a former State Department official, as saying: “The old threat in Latin America was that of military coups. The new threat is that of authoritarian democracies—leaders who get elected and then use the state to repress opponents, push through social change and stay in power. That is what Chávez is doing, and what Lula is not doing. The big question is, which way will Evo Morales go?”

Imperialist danger roams throughout Latin America, trying to turn back the revolutionary tide spreading in the region. But as history has proven, the powerful people’s struggle for justice against hunger, misery and capitalist exploitation is often underestimated by the imperialists, as shown with the courageous insurgency in Iraq.

Baspineiro concludes, “We know that the challenge is huge. In Bolivia we are going through a difficult conjuncture, but we are hopeful, strengthened and motivated to write this new page in the history of our country. We know it will be a very difficult page, but we are convinced that if we do not make profound structural changes in the next few months, Bolivia will be at the edge of a cliff.

“And we, together with the overwhelming majority that voted for us, are convinced that from the first day of our government, we will try to put into practice the program that we have presented to the country, of which I would like to highlight the nationalization of the hydrocarbons [natural gas], the Constitutional Assembly and the overturn of the 21060 decree, which is the basis of the neoliberal model.

“We Bolivians have endorsed change and the rebuilding of Bolivia, and we cannot betray the hope that is not only national, but continental, for the construction of [Bolivar’s] big homeland, which is also a worldwide hope.”