Overthrown president surfaces in Miami as
Bolivian people get ready for next round
By Alicia Jrapko
After a mass upheaval in Bolivia, Latin
America's poorest country, the president has fled to the U.S.
and the vice president has been sworn in as the new head of
state.
Ex-president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada found
immediate safe haven in Miami just days after he resigned, and
has since flown to Washington. His replacement, Carlos Mesa, is
another millionaire in a country where the average salary is $5
a week and 70 percent of the people live below the official
poverty line. However, Mesa claims to be politically
independent and distanced himself from the president when La
Paz, the capital, was surrounded by tens of thousands of
demonstrating workers and farmers.
Sánchez de Lozada has been a close ally of the U.S.
ruling class and implemented the policies of privatization,
"free trade" and austerity that have come to be known as
neoliberalism.
In Latin America today, there are no illusions that
neoliberalism is about modernization or improving the standard
of living of the majority of people. For the poor, it means
selling off their natural resources to make a handful of
rulers, foreign banks and transnational corporations
richer.
Sánchez de Lozada was one of the richest people in
Bolivia, with a fortune calculated at $220 million and
investments in South America, Asia and Africa. He represented
the Bolivian oligarchy and U.S. imperialist interests, and had
close ties to Enron.
When the former president announced he would sell billions
of dollars worth of Bolivia's natural gas to the United States
and Mexico, thousands of outraged people took to the streets.
Miners, students and Indigenous people marched miles on foot to
shut down the capital. More than 80 people were killed by the
U.S.-trained and -backed military before he finally
resigned.
The Bolivian people have a long history of defending their
natural resources. Between 1933 and 1935 Bolivia fought a
bloody war against Paraguay to defend its oil. In 1969, under
the presidency of Alfredo Ovando Candia, the government
nationalized the Bolivian Gulf Oil Co., taking control of 90
percent of its hydrocarbon reserves. But in 1972, under the
dictatorship of Hugo Banzer, a new hydrocarbon law opened the
doors to the multinational corporations.
This history of the Bolivian people has created strong
feeling against the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, which
the U.S. has been pushing.
So far Carlos Mesa does not seem to represent any threat to
U.S. imperialist interests. But the Bolivian people are in
motion, and things can change rapidly.
The new president will have to work with the masses, who are
invigorated by their recent victory, but will also face
pressure from those who want to maintain neoliberalism in the
country.
What interventionist plans is the Bush administration
drawing up? The U.S. government has been relatively quiet, but
on Oct. 17 dispatched a military team to Bolivia to "assess the
situation."
Mesa has promised to call early elections and to look into
the hydrocarbon laws. But the leaders of the mass opposition
are skeptical that he will make any changes because he is also
a fervent supporter of a "free market" economy. Mesa enjoys the
support of the traditional parties, which see him as the only
possibility to preserve a failed and archaic system.
The main leaders of the opposition are Jaime Solares from
the powerful Central of Bolivian Workers (COB), Felipe Quispe
Huanca from the United Confederation of Workers and Peasants of
Bolivia (CSUTCB) and Evo Morales, leader of the Movement toward
Socialism. In the last election, Morales almost became
president. He enjoys great popularity among the small farmers
who grow coca--which in leaf form is a mild, non-addictive
stimulant that has been grown in the Andes for hundreds of
years--as well as other sectors of the population.
The COB and Morales have a similar position: stop the
massive offensive against neoliberalism and multinational
corporations in order to give the new president a little break
to see if he is capable of fulfilling the demands of the great
majority of Bolivians.
Felipe Quispe, on the other hand, has taken a tougher
approach. He gave the new president 90 days to answer the
demands of Indigenous people--who make up 60 percent of the
population--or he will call a general uprising aimed at taking
power.
The situation in Bolivia is very volatile. The Bolivian
people have shown to the world a great deal of determination.
After a month of struggle, they defeated a project but not the
system. They won a battle but not the war.
The road to real and profound change is full of obstacles,
but the people of Bolivia and of Latin America sooner or later
will own and control their resources. Until then, the struggle
will continue.
Reprinted from the Oct. 30, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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