Massive Political Upheaval in Bolivia Signals the Decline of U.S. Influence in Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

Massive Political Upheaval in Bolivia Signals the Decline of U.S. Influence in Latin America
By Benjamin Dangl, AlterNet.
Posted October 24, 2008

After months of street battles and political meetings, a new draft of the Bolivian constitution was ratified by Congress on October 21. A national referendum on whether or not to make the document official is scheduled for January 25, 2009.

"Now we have made history," President Evo Morales told supporters in La Paz. "This process of change cannot be turned back...neoliberalism will never return to Bolivia."

If the constitution is approved in the January referendum, a new general election will take place in December of 2009.

Leading up to Congress's approval, Morales participated in sections of a march from Caracollo in Oruro to La Paz, a distance of over 100 miles and involving an estimated 100,000 union members, activists, students, farmers and miners.

The march took place to pressure opposition members in Congress into backing the constitution and referendum. When marchers arrived in La Paz they packed the center of the city to historic levels. Some media outlets said the march, which stretched 15 kilometers, was the longest one ever in the capital.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/audits/104349/massive_political_upheaval_in_bolivia_signals_the_decline_of_u.s._influence_in_latin_america/

[Peace Patriot]

1. Yes, it's interesting how the violence stopped after Morales threw the US ambassador out

of the country, and then UNASUR, the new South American "Common Market" (sans the US) was able to broker a peace agreement in Bolivia and a return to normalcy, in which Bolivia's democratic institutions can function.

No more fascist rioters, machine-gunning unarmed peasants, sacking government and NGO buildings, and blowing up gas pipelines. The fascists have to make their arguments, fair and square, in a political context, without violence and thuggery, and then the votes will be counted--no doubt under the watchful eyes of international election monitors--and we'll see what's what.

The calmer heads in the rightwing, separatist enclaves will have to prove that they are not the fools who disgraced their cause throughout South America, and that they have some common sense about Bolivia's economic and political future. Without the Bushwhacks funding them and organizing them, and networking them with the worst elements in South American society, maybe they and their more sensible constituents can benefit from the VERY GOOD Morales government, which, among other things, has DOUBLED Bolivia's gas revenues (from $1 million/yr to $2 million/yr) and which has the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela and other countries on Bolivia's side, as to development and future prosperity. Brazil and Venezuela have put up the money to build a new highway from the Atlantic coast in Brazil, through Bolivia, to Bolivia's new access to the sea (granted by Chile) on the Pacific coast, which means that Bolivia will become a major thoroughfare for global trade from Africa and Europe to all of Asia, and up and down both coasts. This is all happening for Bolivia because of the Morales government--because it truly represents all Bolivians, including the majority poor indigenous, and has achieved more political consensus in Bolivia than any previous democratic government. The rightwing minority were idiots to take direction from the Bushwhacks. And now those left standing will have to prove that they were not part of that idiocy and the evil that it resulted in.

I am very heartened by these developments. For one thing, this was the first demonstration of UNASUR's unity and potential strength as to economic/political integration, and independence from U.S. dictation. It clearly shows where the future lay for South America. It has been a huge rebuke to the Bushwhacks, but that is the least of what it is. It is a triumph for unified action, in a crisis, in support of democracy and social justice. It also raises Evo Morales to the level of a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King. He sacrificed his own second term to this compromise--in order to gain Bolivia's new, more just Constitution (which will likely win by a 60% to 70% margin). He has all along sought a peaceful compromise, and UNASUR helped him get it, when every other institution (the OAS, for instance--which has the U.S.-Bush as a member) and peace effort failed. It took the whole continent saying "No!" to the fascists and the split up of Bolivia (the Bushwhack scheme).

This bodes well for failure of the other Bushwhack schemes, in a similar vein, in Venezuela and Ecuador. And, above all, it bodes well for the success of democracy and social justice all over the continent and into the Caribbean/Central America. It's possible that we have not seen the end of Bushwhack plots, particularly as to Venezuela's oil (in the northern province, on the Caribbean) and as to still trying to topple the Chavez government and stop this overall leftist democracy movement. I'm sure they want vengeance on Venezuela, which has been a key player in South America's moves toward independence from the U.S. And they may be thinking they can control the Caribbean/Central American region if they can just grab Venezuela's oil on the Caribbean. Given the developments in Bolivia, I think their chances of success at such a plot just took a steep nosedive. South America will not sit by and let it happen.