A View from the Chapare and Cochabamba

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/12/19/01427/982



Election Day in Bolivia 2005: A View from the Chapare and Cochabamba


The Bolivian people have made history. Never have they directly elected their President with more than 50% of the vote; no candidate has even reached 37%. But today, blowing away all polls and projections that placed his support around 35%, Evo Morales Ayma has officially won the Presidential election with over 50% of the popular vote and will head the next government of Bolivia. Scattered accounts of this monumental event are below.

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“Evo is like us,” she explained. “He knows what it’s like to live in poverty. He knows what it’s like work the land, to harvest crops. He understands our lives. That’s why I am going to vote for him.”

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Sunday 9pm: Evo is sitting in his living room watching the TV announcers make projections about his future. His takes certain calls—a representative of the Lula government, from Krischner himself, from his campaign heads in other regions of the country—and then goes back to the screen. He tells us (a few press and his close campaign staff) that he’s waiting to go over to his campaign headquarters until they reach above 50%, and that, jokingly, if they don’t reach that mark, “he’s not going.” Around 9:30, he makes his exit, shakes hands, squinting because of the cameras flashing and quickly jumps into his car, a white SUV with a wiphala hanging from the rearview mirror.

Sunday 11pm: There’s fireworks in the sky and people filling the streets, chanting “Evo, Evo, Evo!” Outside the MAS headquarters once again, I am surrounded by glowing faces and could feel the joy all around me. Evo’s victory is sealed and the people on the streets are elated.

Sunday, Midnight: “This day is not about Evo. It’s about the people that voted for him and it’s about what they were voting for,” my brother said to me a few hours ago. He’s right. In their eyes, Evo represents an alternative to a system long dictated by outsiders. “Evo” is hope and change, indigenous self-determinism and people’s sovereignty. Today is about the fact that people made that choice, that the majority of Bolivians want a leader with this message. Perhaps Evo’s proposed policies don’t do justice to these sentiments. Maybe he will have trouble reforming hydrocarbons law or standing up to the US backlash to his coca-decriminalization talk. But his ascendancy to the Presidency represents something unimaginable for the majority poor and indigenous across this country. One of them has arrived. And that’s what today is all about.
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will we ever be that happy again in our country?

wishing Bolivia all the best

(some advice: keep the criminal bushgang out of your country)

They're showing us how it's done. Nearly the whole Latin American map gone "blue"--with truly representative governments.

They are also banding together for political and economic strength, forming their own regional and overseas alliances, and are embarked on a common program, which Evo Morales summed up as follows, "I am the United States' worst nightmare." Brown-faced, indigenous, and very smart leadership, who oppose the U.S.' lethal and murderous "war on drugs" (read "war on poor people"), who are battling our predatory corporations (Bolivia threw Bechtel out), who are using their resources for the benefit of the poor and the common good (Bolivia has gas and oil): schools, medical care, community centers, small business loans and PEACEFUL land reform, and who approve of business and trade but oppose predatory capitalism (the only kind of capitalism we have ever shown them). They also oppose corporate (read US) mono-culture, and are encouraging local arts.

This revolution is sweeping South America.

It is based on (my guess--and I know it to be true in the case of Venezuela): ELECTION REFORM.

So, let's do that here, okay? Transparent election systems. Count all the votes. Then we'll see "miracles" here, too. The miracle of democracy.

It CAN happen here. I'm not underestimating the difficulties, in our case. But if it can happen in the most oppressed and battered countries in the hemisphere, we should take heart and learn from their example.

Election reform. Priority #1. All else will follow.

and the poor (the vast majority) in 2001, in reaction to IMF/World bank policies (crippling loans/repayments, and US/western corporate exploitation) but the movement seems stalled--with a compromise center/left (mostly center) gov't in place. I don't know that non-transparent elections were really the problem, or that election reform was the answer, there. It was a PROTEST movement--tens of the thousands in the streets--that brought down the government (a very corrupt one; toady of US/western interests). The lack of a unified and positive program by the left seems to be more of the problem. I don't know enough about Argentina to say what part US/western financial interests may be playing in dividing the left. Probably a lot. There are many good local groups and projects--but no national platform or unified power in backing good leaders--as we've seen in Venezuela and Bolivia in particular. One thing is certain: the great majority of Argentinians, like other South Americans, reject what is called "neo-liberalism" (translation, predatory capitalism, US-style). The potential is there for great and positive transformation, into a more equitable society, but is yet to be realized in a strong national program.