Bolivia: They are not going to halt it
by NIDIA DIAZ
The three horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping wildly through Bolivia. The national right, the media power that represents it and the empire have joined forces to destroy the project that, under the leadership of Evo Morales the indigenous president, aspires to ensure that the country is no longer the illiterate beggar of Latin America, subject to historical discrimination.
That malevolent trinity is doing everything it can to obtain its ends. From trying to demonstrate the alleged incapacity of the president to confront state problems to seditious attempts to divide the country into the rich and the poor, owners and dispossessed, the Hispanic and indigenous, the good and the bad.
This is an evil that was coming from when the people voted for the coca leader in the elections, but when on May 1 the president decided on the nationalization of hydrocarbons and announced the implementation of a real Agrarian Reform Act, the rich conservatives from the so-called half-moon in the east of the country – where oil, gas and mineral deposits are concentrated – were shocked rigid and sleepless.
Insomnia overcame them later, precisely on September 29 when, despite all their maneuvers and pressure, the Constituent Assembly declared its original nature and its capacity to work above the three powers: the executive, legislative and judicial, because as the text affirms, "the people’s will for change is invested in it as the head of the nation’s sovereignty."
It was those events that overtook them and surprised them, leading to complicity among them in terms of plotting to subvert the internal order, discredit the government and put it in checkmate by artificially creating a climate of political and social instability with the warning of the possibility of civil war.
These are the arguments that Washington is providing for its national hosts, the Cerberus hounds of its interests and those of the transnationals with their headquarters on U.S. soil.
It is within this scenario of confrontation that the governors of the wealthy departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija – the Bolivian half-moon in the east – have declared their insubordination to the Constituent Assembly and have threatened it with not recognizing the new Charter that is being prepared if the Assembly maintains its original and founding nature.
Under the threat of autonomy what they are demanding is that the edict of a two-thirds majority on decision-making prevails and the conversion of the minority and opposition PODEMOS Party of ex-president Jorge Quiroga into a sort of negotiating cradle against which the decisions of the majority would not have any possibility of success.
It is worth recalling that when the Assembly was first established the PODEMOS delegates threatened time and time again to abandon the debates with the objective of bogging them down and thus preventing any advance in the drafting of the new Constitution which, as opposed to all those that have preceded it, includes the majorities historically marginalized from any national decision.
They are trying to ignore – as is being re-floated in the press – that whereas the current decisions can be adopted by a simple majority vote, the final draft can only be approved by the vote of two thirds of the delegates.
What it is about is to prevent the rights of the Bolivian people from being duly expressed in the Constitution, including, of course, the control of natural resources and a just and equitable distribution of wealth, together with the passing of any other article that is not in line with their interests.
Despite the campaigns in the media discrediting the government and President Evo Morales in particular, in just eight months of his mandate he has succeeded in instigating the nationalization of hydrocarbons and their profits are reverting to the benefit of the people for the first time.
Historically, Bolivia received $539 million from the energy sector in terms of taxes and profits. After the new Hydrocarbons Act that figure rose to $1.107 billion and it is expected that by the end of the year the benefits will be in excess of $1.416 billion, to be directed to social programs.
In the midst of such pushes it has emerged that some of the media owners, specifically those most virulently against the president and his revolutionary process, are known landowners who perceive their interests affected by a genuine agrarian reform, against which they have begun to arm groups euphemistically called "land self-defense," but which are no more than paramilitary bands with the objective of sowing terror and panic in the Bolivian rural areas.
All of this is compounded by the existing societal impact of solidarity reaching the country from Cuba and Venezuela in spheres as important as those of health and education, and the growing international response of support for the process, including the possibility of egalitarian and respectful negotiations leading to Chile providing the sea exit that would so much benefit the economy of that Andean nation.
With these and other bilateral agreements the Evo Morales government is demonstrating that one does not have to renounce sovereignty to undertake actions in favor of the people because, as Bolívar stated, it is about giving the people the greatest sum of happiness.
Nothing or nobody can prevent that.
The three horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping wildly through Bolivia. The national right, the media power that represents it and the empire have joined forces to destroy the project that, under the leadership of Evo Morales the indigenous president, aspires to ensure that the country is no longer the illiterate beggar of Latin America, subject to historical discrimination.
That malevolent trinity is doing everything it can to obtain its ends. From trying to demonstrate the alleged incapacity of the president to confront state problems to seditious attempts to divide the country into the rich and the poor, owners and dispossessed, the Hispanic and indigenous, the good and the bad.
This is an evil that was coming from when the people voted for the coca leader in the elections, but when on May 1 the president decided on the nationalization of hydrocarbons and announced the implementation of a real Agrarian Reform Act, the rich conservatives from the so-called half-moon in the east of the country – where oil, gas and mineral deposits are concentrated – were shocked rigid and sleepless.
Insomnia overcame them later, precisely on September 29 when, despite all their maneuvers and pressure, the Constituent Assembly declared its original nature and its capacity to work above the three powers: the executive, legislative and judicial, because as the text affirms, "the people’s will for change is invested in it as the head of the nation’s sovereignty."
It was those events that overtook them and surprised them, leading to complicity among them in terms of plotting to subvert the internal order, discredit the government and put it in checkmate by artificially creating a climate of political and social instability with the warning of the possibility of civil war.
These are the arguments that Washington is providing for its national hosts, the Cerberus hounds of its interests and those of the transnationals with their headquarters on U.S. soil.
It is within this scenario of confrontation that the governors of the wealthy departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija – the Bolivian half-moon in the east – have declared their insubordination to the Constituent Assembly and have threatened it with not recognizing the new Charter that is being prepared if the Assembly maintains its original and founding nature.
Under the threat of autonomy what they are demanding is that the edict of a two-thirds majority on decision-making prevails and the conversion of the minority and opposition PODEMOS Party of ex-president Jorge Quiroga into a sort of negotiating cradle against which the decisions of the majority would not have any possibility of success.
It is worth recalling that when the Assembly was first established the PODEMOS delegates threatened time and time again to abandon the debates with the objective of bogging them down and thus preventing any advance in the drafting of the new Constitution which, as opposed to all those that have preceded it, includes the majorities historically marginalized from any national decision.
They are trying to ignore – as is being re-floated in the press – that whereas the current decisions can be adopted by a simple majority vote, the final draft can only be approved by the vote of two thirds of the delegates.
What it is about is to prevent the rights of the Bolivian people from being duly expressed in the Constitution, including, of course, the control of natural resources and a just and equitable distribution of wealth, together with the passing of any other article that is not in line with their interests.
Despite the campaigns in the media discrediting the government and President Evo Morales in particular, in just eight months of his mandate he has succeeded in instigating the nationalization of hydrocarbons and their profits are reverting to the benefit of the people for the first time.
Historically, Bolivia received $539 million from the energy sector in terms of taxes and profits. After the new Hydrocarbons Act that figure rose to $1.107 billion and it is expected that by the end of the year the benefits will be in excess of $1.416 billion, to be directed to social programs.
In the midst of such pushes it has emerged that some of the media owners, specifically those most virulently against the president and his revolutionary process, are known landowners who perceive their interests affected by a genuine agrarian reform, against which they have begun to arm groups euphemistically called "land self-defense," but which are no more than paramilitary bands with the objective of sowing terror and panic in the Bolivian rural areas.
All of this is compounded by the existing societal impact of solidarity reaching the country from Cuba and Venezuela in spheres as important as those of health and education, and the growing international response of support for the process, including the possibility of egalitarian and respectful negotiations leading to Chile providing the sea exit that would so much benefit the economy of that Andean nation.
With these and other bilateral agreements the Evo Morales government is demonstrating that one does not have to renounce sovereignty to undertake actions in favor of the people because, as Bolívar stated, it is about giving the people the greatest sum of happiness.
Nothing or nobody can prevent that.
posted by Alice at
Thursday, October 12, 2006
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