Posted on 07/29/2006 8:08:05 PM PDT by A. Pole
COCHABAMBA, Bolivia — The sun sets golden on the small town of Anzaldo, deep in the Bolivian countryside. On a recent evening, Lolita Antezana took a 90-minute taxi ride from Cochabamba to Anzaldo, her freshly purchased table and 10 chairs lashed atop the roof. With its dusty streets, quiet tenor and predictable routines, the town has always been her home. At 79, Antezana said she's "too old to get involved in politics."
But even she finds herself excited about Bolivia's new president, Evo Morales. She saw him on television, playing soccer with some kids in La Paz, a decidedly unpresidential act, she said.
"He's paving roads and says he'll provide food and services for the elderly," she said, seated at her new kitchen table. "Bolivia is very poor. I think he'll make things better for us."
That's the hope of many in Bolivia, an Andean nation marked by grinding poverty, ethnic schisms and failed economic policies.
Morales, an Aymara Indian, was ushered into office earlier this year on a platform of radical change, together with his Movement Toward Socialism party. His election was historic and a clear mandate. He garnered an unprecedented 54 percent of the vote and became Bolivia's first indigenous president in this majority-indigenous nation.
By Bolivian standards, this is a watershed moment, a time many see as a new era of equality and opportunity. But in the United States, it's cause for alarm among those who see Morales as the latest polarizing leftist in a rising tide of South American leadership that threatens U.S. interests.
[...]
Tucked in the center of South America with no access to the ocean, Bolivia is the poorest nation on the continent with a per-capita annual income of $869. It has the largest percentage of indigenous people of any nation at about 62 percent, according to World Bank figures. The indigenous, principally the Aymara, Quechua, Chiquitano and the Guarani, speak different languages, dress differently and live in distinct parts of the country. Historically, they've been the most marginalized Bolivians. Today, they are the poorest, least healthy and least educated citizens in a country where power has been concentrated among the wealthy, mestizo ruling class.
"The government has relegated the indigenous to a place of invisibility, biologically, economically and culturally," said Pablo Mamani Ramirez, a sociology professor at the University of El Alto, near La Paz.
Bound ethnically for centuries by their lot, the indigenous are now bound politically by a president who looks like them, dresses like them and, they say, listens to them.
In that sense, Morales' election represents a seismic shift, precipitated by indigenous-led political clashes in recent years, including the much publicized "water wars" in Cochabamba in 2000 and the so-named Gas War of 2003.
[...]
In 1985, Bolivia adopted a package of neoliberal economic reforms promoted by Washington economists as the route to stability. Many governments in Latin America bought into the model, including privatization, trade liberalization, increased foreign investment and the unrestricted flow of capital, says Jim Shultz, director of the Democracy Center, a nonprofit human rights organization based in Cochabamba.
"Governments believed in this ideology of 'just adopt the free market and the free market will set you free,'" Shultz said.
The new direction, called "shock therapy" worked, lifting Bolivia out of an economic crisis marked by skyrocketing inflation of up to 24,000 percent per year.
[...]
Morales' broad appeal lies in his ability to connect with the common Bolivian. His trademark alpaca sweater sets him apart from the suit-wearing presidents of yore. One of his first acts in office was to cut his salary in half, to about $1,700 a month; his Cabinet was expected to do the same. He is said to begin his workday promptly at 5 a.m. and keep to a rigorous schedule.
"He understands us and our lives," said Tomas Calle, a barber in La Paz. "The others didn't think about Bolivia. They only thought of themselves."
[...]
Efforts to transfer a fifth of Bolivia's land to the poor within five years have met with scorn from angry landowners who see the redistribution as unfair. Upper- and middle-class Bolivians are up in arms, particularly in the wealthy Santa Cruz area, where most of the country's natural gas reserves are found. In a recent election, four of Bolivia's nine states — the wealthiest — voted for autonomy from the federal government.
Morales' nationalization of hydrocarbons threatens to alienate U.S. corporate interests, as well as countries such as Brazil and Spain, two of the largest investors in Bolivian gas. The decree holds that the largest firms — those that produce 100 millions barrels or more a day — must give the Bolivian state a 51 percent stake. Previous contracts gave Bolivia an 18 percent share.
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And another south american country gets suckered by the left. Say goodbye to whatever wealth you had Boliva.
Another country we'll be expected to feed and send tons of foreign aid to in less than a decade.
Apparently a majority of the humans alive today do not know that
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