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href="https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/Bolivia-Under-Evo-Morales-13-Years-of-Reclaiming-Sovereignty-20190123-0017.html">https://www.telesurenglish.net/analysis/Bolivia-Under-Evo-Morales-13-Years-of-Reclaiming-Sovereignty-20190123-0017.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Bolivia Under Evo Morales: 13 Years of
Reclaiming Sovereignty</h1>
January 23, 2019</div>
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<p>“Mr. Evo Morales, it’s easy to make speeches about
sovereignty and independence....come and govern, then
you’ll see what it’s really like to administer the
state” - Carlos Mesa, former president, and current
opposition candidate said in 2005 in his resignation
speech.</p>
<p>Bolivia has lived 13 years of the ‘process of change’
under the leadership of Evo Morales and the MAS
(Movement Towards Socialism). Morales and the MAS were
forged in a climate of radical street movements against
privatization of natural resources. The MAS grouped
together Indigenous social movements, with
self-organized movements of the urban slums and what
remained of the traditional Marxist left in the trade
unions and the academy.</p>
<p>By 2005 this coalition came to represent the
crystallization of the deep-seated resentment, not just
at privatization, but of 500 years of colonialism,
social exclusion and a neoliberal democracy that wasn’t
able or willing to meet people’s basic needs.</p>
<p>Bolivia’s social movements and non-sectarian left
grouped around the MAS and won at the ballot box in
2005. In January of this year, they face primary
elections than presidential elections in November of
this year. They’ve won every election since 2005 with
larger majorities each time, this despite a constant
manipulation of public information from private media,
and right-wing attempts at destabilization.</p>
<p>Why? What has 13 years of the ‘process of change’ meant
for the country beyond greater representation for the
Indigenous? On the questions of economic development,
health and education, foreign policy the critics of the
MAS have predicted disaster but instead been met by the
undeniable policy success.</p>
<h4><strong>Economy </strong></h4>
<p><strong>"These actions against foreign investors really
dampen the investment climate in Bolivia” - U.S.
State Department said in 2012.</strong></p>
<p>Markets were jittery as the left took power in Bolivia.
The Washington Consensus stated that only free markets,
‘flexible’ labor markets and monetarist policies could
pave a path to economic development. Bolivia’s political
class was determined to follow this religiously. Over
200 public companies were privatized, sold to foreign
corporations at knockdown prices, this alone is thought
to have damaged the economy to the tune of $22bn. What
followed was a catastrophic fall in GDP and
hyperinflation running at over 8000% by the end of 1985.</p>
<p>Despite this clear policy failure, many investors left
the country as the left took power in 2005, fearing that
“socialism” would bring economic ruin.</p>
<p>Though, over 13 years the left has presided over an
economic miracle that even the IMF has had to admit that
Bolivia is a clear cut success story. The economy has
more than tripled in size, Bolivia is on course to be
South America’s fastest growing economy for yet another
year despite falls in the price of key exports.</p>
<p>Annual Inflation is running at a paltry 1.5 percent,
whilst their neighbor Argentina sinks further into
hyperinflation since adopting the neoliberal model that
earned them praise from successive U.S. administrations.</p>
<p>Most important of all, the reduction in poverty has
been the most impressive achievement of the MAS. When
Morales took office, Bolivia was facing a humanitarian
crisis with 60 percent of the total population living
below the poverty line, that figure has been slashed in
half by the MAS government.</p>
<p>This economic model that has produced these results is
defined as a rejection of IMF recipes. Instead, Morales
proceeded to nationalize Bolivia’s large strategic
industries. Now that profits of those industries
provided revenue for the state, those profits were used
on capital spending, most notably on a massive
integrated infrastructure plan that has been a crucial
factor stimulating wider growth. State transport and
manufacturing initiatives have also kick-started
economic development in areas the free-market had never
reached.</p>
<h4><strong>Health & Education</strong></h4>
<p><strong>“[The government] neglects health and
education, while ignoring calls for austerity”-
Monsignor Gualberti, Catholic Church</strong></p>
<p>A common refrain amongst Morales’ critics is that
they’ve made little progress on health and education and
that those vital services continue in state disrepair.
One can expect this line to continue in the right wing
media, even as the government is registering citizens
for free universal healthcare. </p>
<p>It is true that Bolivia still until recently had lacked
a comprehensive and public health system, as exists in
Cuba. However, the situation in health and education has
vastly improved, it’s just that it has mostly benefited
the rural poor whose voices are not and have never been
represented in the mainstream urban press.</p>
<p>Between 2006 and 2018, the ‘Mi Salud’ program,
operating with the help of Cuban doctors, has provided
16.4 million free health appointments, including 700,000
free eye surgeries in what's known as ‘operation
miracle’. These programmes involve reaching the poorest
and most isolated, often going to their homes in far out
areas of the Amazonian and Andean regions. </p>
<p>In education, the changes have been transformative too,
not that it garners much coverage in private media. In
the year 2000, amidst the firesale privatizations, just
35,73 percent of primary school age children were
enrolled in school, after 10 years of the MAS in power,
that number more than doubled, and continues to grow.</p>
<p>Again, those benefiting are mostly the rural poor, an
inauguration ceremony for a public school in isolated
communities is an almost weekly occurrence, though only
covered by state media outlets.</p>
<p>Implementing the universal health care system will
nevertheless be a serious challenge in Bolivia. The
Doctors Association is vehemently opposed and already
protested and gone on strike against the plan for free
health. Most doctors would stand to lose as business for
their private clinics dries up. </p>
<h4><strong>Sovereignty </strong></h4>
<p><strong>“In our </strong><strong>view</strong><strong>
this was a grave error. Blaming others for your
internal problems is not the way to cultivate
bilateral relations.” - Former U.S. ambassador Philip
Goldberg on being expelled from the country</strong></p>
<p>The year 2003 was one of Bolivia’s worst years in
recent history, not only was it the year of the ‘Black
October’ massacre, but it was also one of the most
brazen transfers of sovereignty to the U.S.. In 2003 an
agreement was signed to give legal immunity to all U.S.
soldiers and citizens in Bolivian territory, they had
free reign to violate national laws and would not have
to face justice unless it was at the request of the U.S.
government.</p>
<p>The U.S. presence in Bolivia, through military advisors
and bases, was part of Washington’s “War on Drugs”
policy in the region that has historically allowed it
access and interference in the internal affairs of Latin
American countries.</p>
<p>In a rejection to such practices by the United States
and in a clear signal that the people and their
representatives will have full sovereignty over their
country’s affairs and resources, Morales expelled the
U.S. military bases in Bolivia, as well as the presence
of the DEA and USAID along with the U.S. ambassador.</p>
<p>The country’s strategic industries were nationalized,
therefore bringing back key decisions over development.
Conventional wisdom would dictate that the size of U.S.
investments in Bolivia mean that good relations must be
maintained despite abuses and violations of sovereignty.
Though, Bolivia has thrived since clawing back its
independence.</p>
<p>The reactions in Bolivia to Brazil’s far-right
President Jair Bolsonaro gives a glimpse of how the
country risks slipping back into a foreign policy of
dependency. Bolivia sells large amounts of natural gas
to Brazil and needs cooperation with them to combat
trafficking and other issues on the border. Morales will
have to maintain relations and has done so. However, he
has been quick to stand up for Bolivia’s interests when
there has been a lack of respect, like when one of
Bolsonaro’s deputies made racists comments about
Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>Evo publicly denounced the attack and demanded an
apology. Whereas opposition candidates and activists
claimed ‘we have to get on with our neighbors’. The
deputy Rafael Quispe, an Indigenous deputy for the
right-wing opposition claims to ‘not be offended’ by
anti-Indigenous racism because ‘we have to get on with
Brazil’. Opposition candidate to the presidency, Victor
Hugo Cardenas (also Indigenous), actively celebrated
Bolsonaro’s victory and seeks to replicate his
ultra-conservative populism.</p>
<p>Submission to unequal foreign relations, whether that's
the U.S. or Brazil, does not represent ‘good relations’,
it represents a defeat and humiliation of a government's
foreign policy.</p>
<p>Since taking power at the ballot box, the MAS has made
profound changes to a country that had been in a state
of ruin for a number of years following ‘structural
adjustment’ (neoliberalism), and if Morales wins again
this year then the process will have to deepen to
overcome the challenges Bolivia still faces.</p>
<p>The role of the social movements and Morales’
government in recuperating a sense of cultural pride is
recognized all over the world, as is the achievements on
greater social inclusion for the country’s historically
excluded communities.</p>
<p>Though, as the ‘process of change’ enters its 13th
year, wider changes are worth analyzing. The process of
recuperating economic and political sovereignty,
together with the economic success that's been sustained
despite the crisis across the region and the low prices
of its key exports.</p>
<p>The model of nationalizing strategic sectors and using
its revenues for big capital spending for the common
good can serve as a model for the rising left globally.
Whether for Jeremy Corbyn in Britain, or Jean
Luc-Melenchon in France, studying the Bolivian model
will be crucial in building post-neoliberal economies. </p>
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