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<h1><b>Decolonization's Rocky Road: Corruption, Expropriation and Justice
in
Bolivia</b></h1><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20898" eudora="autourl">
http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/20898<br>
</a>March 17, 2009 By <b>Ben Dangl</b> <br><br>
Over 3,000 Bolivian and Peruvian indigenous activists recently marched in
El Alto in commemoration of the March 13th, 1781 siege of La Paz, Bolivia
launched from El Alto by indigenous rebels Tupac Katari and Bartolina
Sisa. The siege was against Spanish rule and for indigenous liberation in
the Andes. At a gathering the night before the recent anniversary
mobilization, Eugene Rojas, the mayor of Achacachi, said, "We, the
indigenous, organized a siege of La Paz in the past, and we will do it
again if we need to." Rojas alluded to the long-postponed
decolonization that Katari and Sisa dreamed of over two centuries ago.
Today, those dreams of liberation are at once alive and in
jeopardy.<br><br>
After the nationalist confetti of the January 25th constitutional
referendum blew away, and the busted water balloons and foam of Carnival
washed down the streets with the rain, political scandals filled the
Bolivian airwaves. Besides the challenges of applying the changes in the
new constitution, recent cases of government corruption, shaky relations
with Washington and political unrest show that the road to the December
general elections is likely to be a rocky one. <br><br>
<b>The Corruption Scandal<br><br>
</b>In late January, Santos Ramirez, a key architect and member of the
Movement Toward Socialism party, (MAS, the political party of indigenous
president Evo Morales) and director of the YPFB - the state oil and gas
company - was hauled off to jail on corruption charges. Investigations
showed that Ramirez asked for a bribe in order to provide an $86 million
contract to Argentine-Bolivian Company Catler Uniservice for a natural
gas plant. The investigations started when a manager at Catler was
murdered and robbed of $450,000 - money that was apparently going to
Ramirez's aide, according to
<a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN1248997420090213?sp=true">
Reuters</a>. Ramirez is now in San Pedro jail in La Paz, the same place
former Pando governor Leopoldo Fernandez is currently held after being
implicated in a massacre of MAS supporters in Pando in September 2008.
<br><br>
Ramirez's arrest struck a harsh blow to the MAS administration which has
always pledged to put an end to the country's legacy of corruption. The
difference this time around however, compared to what was the norm in
previous administrations, is that Ramirez actually was actually sent to
jail; under past governments some of the most corrupt politicians
remained free.<br><br>
After the Ramirez scandal blew up, Morales said, "It's been totally
proven that foreign agents, CIA agents, were infiltrated (in YPFB) ...
Maybe that's the way the (U.S.) empire has to conspire against the
policies that we're pushing forward."<br><br>
Alfredo Rada, the Minister of Government,
<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iRkyzn6OnvLWQkVu79QDCrmt1uUw">
accused Francisco Martinez</a>, a US diplomat, of being a CIA agent and
helping to infiltrate the YPFB.
<a href="http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=88414§ionid=351020706">
Morales accused</a> Martinez of "coordinating contacts" with a
Bolivian police officer that the government says infiltrated the YPFB,
following orders from the CIA. Morales
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/03/200939191319258758.html">
explained that</a> "deep investigations" had proved Martinez
was also "in permanent contact with opposition groups" in
Bolivia. The Bolivian president then kicked Martinez out of the country.
The expulsion of Martinez follows that of former US ambassador to Bolivia
Philip Goldberg in September of 2008. Goldberg was also accused of
collaborating with the right wing opposition to undermine the Morales
administration. (See
<a href="http://www.progressive.org/mag_dangl0208">Undermining
Bolivia</a> for more.)<br><br>
"There is clearly a connection in the activities that the former
ambassador Philip Goldberg, USAID, the DEA and now Martinez have been
doing here in Bolivia," an anonymous official in Bolivia's
Government Ministry said to
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/12/AR2009031203524_pf.html">
Josh Partlow of the Washington Post.</a> "These are suspicious acts
that have nothing to do with diplomacy or foreign aid. ... This conduct
of interference, and it cannot be called anything else, is not tolerated
here anymore." <br><br>
"We reject the allegations," the US state department said in a
statement regarding the events. "We can't understand how the
president can assure us that he wants better relations with the United
States and at the same time continue to make false accusations,''
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/03/200939191319258758.html">
said Denise Urs</a>, a US embassy spokeswoman.<br><br>
In a
<a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/14/content_11008988.htm">
press conference</a> on March 13, Tom Shannon, the US assistant state
secretary for Latin American Affairs, commented on the expulsion of the
US diplomat from Bolivia. "We need a full diplomatic dialogue and a
high-quality dialogue... And regrettably, up to this point, as we have
sought to engage the Bolivians around the issues that have provoked their
own actions, we have yet to receive what we would consider to be a
coherent or a consistent response." <br><br>
Meanwhile, the Santos Ramirez corruption case is
<a href="http://www.finanzas.com/noticias/empresas/2009-03-13/100444_presidente-petrolera-boliviana-acusado-corrupcion.html">
far from closed</a>. On March 13, Ramirez demanded that he be let out of
jail because he says no evidence has been produced that proves that he
harmed the Bolivian government with his actions, as the supposed
irregular contract with Catler has not yet been terminated. <br><br>
<b>Cárdenas' House Occupied<br><br>
</b>On March 7, 350 people took over and occupied the country home of
Victor Hugo Cárdenas. Cárdenas was vice president in the Gonzalo Sanchez
de Lozada administration of 1993-1997 and a harsh critic of Bolivia's new
constitution. The group of angry locals forced Cárdenas' wife and three
children to leave the house, while reportedly beating them. <br><br>
Mario Huaypa, a representative of the group that occupied the house, told
the
<a href="http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090313220322&k=">
Agencia Bolivian de Información</a> that a general meeting was held
within the community in which it was decided that the house should be
expropriated because the land it was built on was illegally acquired by
Cárdenas. The group said they will continue the occupation until the
official Bolivian justice system looks into the case. The people who
occupied the home introduced the supposedly
<a href="http://www.fmbolivia.com.bo/noticia9590-comunarios-de-sanka-jawira-expropiaran-la-casa-de-cardenas.html">
eight legitimate owners</a> of the land, who said that the land and house
should be taken over and converted into a retirement home for the area's
elderly. <br><br>
Cárdenas, an Aymara intellectual, governed in the 1990s with Sanchez de
Lozada speaking on behalf of the indigenous population and their rights,
while at the same time pushing through repressive and neoliberal policies
that led to economic depression and state violence against indigenous
people. To this day, public appearances by Cárdenas are regularly met
with protests. The locals who occupied his house were also protesting the
fact that Cárdenas campaigned against the new constitution. It is rumored
that Cárdenas will run as a possible presidential candidate for the
general elections in December. <br><br>
The occupation of Cárdenas' home has rightly been condemned throughout
Bolivia, as the act only worsens the polarization in the country and
pushes aside much-needed peaceful dialogue between opposing political
factions. Unfortunately, violence has been even more extensively used by
the Bolivian right wing since Morales took office in 2006. A right wing
youth group in Santa Cruz has regularly attacked indigenous people in
that city (see
<a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/603/1/">The Dark
Side of Bolivia's Half Moon</a>.) In 2007 alone, there were approximately
eight political bombings in Bolivia, most of which were against leftist
unions or MAS party officials (see
<a href="http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40629">String of Bomb Attacks
Prompts Hunger for Truth</a>.) In 2008, right wing thugs destroyed
various government and human rights offices across the country, and
murdered some 20 pro-MAS farmers in the Pando, injuring dozens of others
(see <a href="http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1478/31/">The
Machine Gun and The Meeting Table</a>). While the violence against
Cárdenas' family members and the house occupation should be condemned, so
should the widespread violence unleashed by Bolivia's right wing against
indigenous and pro-MAS citizens.<br><br>
<b>Misinformation and Decolonization <br><br>
</b>In other news, the US State Department recently released a
<a href="http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/wha/119149.htm">human
rights report</a> on Bolivia which did not even mention the Santa Cruz
Youth Group and similarly violent right wing groups, or the repression
they have let loose on Bolivia's indigenous majority. The report does
mention the charges against former Bolivian president Sanchez de Lozada,
but does not mention that the country in which this criminal is currently
enjoying refuge is the same one that issued the human rights report. The
report explains, "On October 17, the attorney general's office
formally indicted former president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and former
defense minister Sanchez Berzain on criminal charges in connection with
the deaths of up to 60 persons in October 2003. In November the
government submitted a request for Sanchez de Lozada's extradition from
the country to which he fled." (For more on the irony of the US
issuing such human rights reports, see the recent article,
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/mar/11/state-department-human-rights">
Who is America to judge?</a>)<br><br>
On the media front, Bolivia has recently witnessed the all too common
bias and misinformation from various US press outlets. A
<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200904/bolivia">recent piece in
The Atlantic Monthly</a> by Eliza Barclay was particularly egregious. The
title itself - "The Mugabe of the Andes?" - alludes to the
article's suggestions that most political violence in Bolivia comes from
Morales and his supporters - not a racist right wing. In the article,
Barclay fails to quote a single MAS supporter, or anyone offering a more
nuanced view of the country's political landscape. She focuses on how
Morales' "rhetoric studded with racial references aimed at his
opposition" has created divisions in the country, and then goes on
to mention the September 2008 violence in Pando without saying that right
wing governor Leopoldo Fernandez, not Morales, was behind the massacre.
She mentions that US ambassador Goldberg was expelled, but doesn't say
why. Barclay also writes that Bolivia's "highland regions remain
stuck in a poverty trap that Morales has shown little flair for
unlocking" but fails to mention that, as the website
<a href="http://casa-del-duderino.blogspot.com/2008/11/turning-world-upside-down.html">
Abiding in Bolivia</a> pointed out, the Bolivian government is
"<a href="http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20081112175717&l=200708070040_Desde_el_2006_el_pa%C3%ADs_registr%C3%B3_super%C3%A1vit_%28ABI%29.">
running a surplus</a> and
<a href="http://incakolanews.blogspot.com/2008/11/no-austerity-for-bolivia-2009.html">
massively expanding</a> its budget and infrastructure
spending."<br><br>
Though the MAS has made plenty of mistakes and Morales is far from a
perfect president, Barclay's article leads the reader to believe that the
country is brimming with people who hate the MAS government. The fact is
that Morales, in his 2005 election, August 2008 recall referendum and
recent constitutional vote, received significantly more support from the
population than Barack Obama did in the 2008 US elections. Luckily,
photographer <a href="http://www.evanabramson.com/">Evan Abramson</a>
offered a much more accurate view of Bolivia in
<a href="http://podcasts.theatlantic.com/2009/03/evo-morales.php">this
excellent narrated photo essay</a>, which was posted on the Atlantic's
website to accompany the article. (For more media analysis on coverage of
Bolivia see <a href="http://www.borev.net/">Borev.net</a> and
<a href="http://casa-del-duderino.blogspot.com/">Abiding in
Bolivia</a>.)<br><br>
One example of the positive policies of the MAS government was
demonstrated on March 14, when
<a href="http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090314153402&l=200812270014_El_presidente_Evo_Morales_%28Archivo%29">
Morales redistributed</a> some 94,000 acres in the eastern part of the
country to small farmers. The land of
<a href="http://www.upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1254/1/">US
rancher Ron Larsen</a> was among the acres redistributed. Bolivia's new
constitution, which limits new land purchase at 12,400 acres, has
empowered the MAS government's plans for land reform. "Private
property will always be respected but we want people who are not
interested in equality to change their thinking and focus more on country
than currency,"
<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE52D26E20090314">
Morales said</a>, upon officially redistributing the land. Many of the
Guarani farmers in the area that received the land, including various
<a href="http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/global/40295747.html">families
on the Larsen ranch</a>, had been living in conditions of slavery.
Morales explained that, "To own land is to have freedom, and if
there is land and freedom, there is justice."<br><br>
While the Atlantic Monthly misled their readers, on March 14th, the NY
Times did publish an Op-Ed by Evo Morales on his demand for
decriminalizing coca, a
<a href="http://ain-bolivia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=4&id=13&Itemid=28">
leaf widely used</a> throughout the Andes for medicinal and cultural
purposes. At a recent UN meeting in Vienna, Morales called for the
legalization of the coca leaf, and even chewed coca at the meeting. Some
48 years ago the UN incorrectly classified the coca leaf as a narcotic.
In his
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/14/opinion/14morales.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">
NY Times piece</a>, Morales writes, "Why is Bolivia so concerned
with the coca leaf? Because it is an important symbol of the history and
identity of the indigenous cultures of the Andes." <br><br>
Indeed, symbolism, history and identity have taken center stage in
today's Bolivia. Just recently it was announced that a statue of Che
Guevara situated at the entrance to the city of El Alto will, after
outcries and protests from numerous residents, be replaced instead with
statues of Tupac Katari and Bartolina Sisa, as these two heroes more
accurately represent the city's legacy of anti-colonial, indigenous
rebellion. As Bolivia continues on its rocky road to the December general
elections, the process of decolonization, so often lauded by MAS
government officials, takes on many forms in this country in the midst of
historic transitions.<br><br>
***<br><br>
<i>Benjamin Dangl is currently based in Bolivia, and the Spanish edition
of his book
"<a href="http://www.akpress.org/2007/items/priceoffireakpress">The
Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia</a>,"
including a new epilogue on current events, will be published shortly in
Bolivia by Plural Editores. Dangl is also the editor of
UpsideDownWorld.org, a website on activism and politics in Latin America,
and TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events. Email:
Bendangl(at)gmail(dot)com.<br><br>
<br><br>
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