POLITICS-BOLIVIA:
Morales Reaches Two-Year
Milestone
By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, (IPS) -
Exalted by the success
of his social programmes,
but harassed by
opponents who are
threatening to declare
de facto autonomy in
four of Bolivia’s nine
departments (provinces),
indigenous President Evo
Morales completes two
years of his mandate on
Tuesday, a milestone the
country’s three previous
presidents failed to
reach.
The model of democratic
and cultural revolution
set in motion by Morales
and his Movement Towards
Socialism (MAS) appears
to have the stamina and
strength to last for a
long time to come. It
does face a multifaceted
opposition movement in
the east of the country,
which is rich in fertile
land, oil and gas,
timber and other natural
resources.
Morales -- an ethnic
Aymara who has the
support of President
Fidel Castro of Cuba and
President Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela -- celebrates
the end of the second of
the five years of his
term of office on
Tuesday.
This marks his
attainment of 10 more
months in government
than rightwing former
President Gonzalo
Sánchez de Lozada,
overthrown on Oct. 17,
2003 by a social
rebellion led by
indigenous people and
campesinos (small
farmers).
Carlos Mesa (2003-2005)
-- who as vice president
took over the
presidential sash from
Sánchez de Lozada --
remained in office for
one year and seven
months.
Mesa’s successor --
president of the Supreme
Court of Justice --
Eduardo Rodríguez
(2005), only served
seven months as
president before
transferring power to
Morales, who won an
absolute majority with
53 percent of the vote
in the elections on Dec.
18, 2005 and was sworn
in on Jan. 22, 2006.
How much has the country
changed since then? This
question is frequently
asked by visitors to
Bolivia -- the poorest
country in South America
-- who are interested in
the changes instituted
by the first president
in 26 years of democracy
to stand up to local and
trans-national private
capital.
As the central
achievement of his two
years as president,
Morales can point to the
country’s income in 2001
of 188 million dollars
from sales of natural
gas and oil, and the
quantum leap of that
income to two billion
dollars in 2007.
Income from natural gas
and oil now represents
just under one-fifth of
gross domestic product
(GDP), estimated at 11
billion dollars a year.
Brazil and Argentina are
Bolivia’s main customers
for gas, and their
demand is growing.
Just as the price of
crude was approaching
100 dollars a barrel,
the Morales
administration
nationalised its energy
resources and
renegotiated contractual
terms with 12 powerful
trans-national companies
-- including Brazilian
oil giant Petrobras and
others originating in
Spain, the U.K., the
U.S. and Argentina.
In spite of the
remarkable increase in
state revenues, Morales
has come under fire from
some leftwing analysts
who complain that he did
not fulfil the original
demand of the social
movements for the oil
and gas installations to
be confiscated, and the
companies expropriated
without compensation.
The president has
tempered the demands of
the radical left by
using improved gas
revenues to start social
programmes to help low
income families.
For the second
consecutive year, 1.4
million school-age
children received an
annual payment of 26
dollars as an incentive
to stay in school, and
from the end of January
a universal old-age
pension of 26 dollars a
month will be paid to
676,000 people over 60.
Another of the social
plans implemented by the
MAS government is
medical care. Since
2006, some 100,000
people have had free eye
surgery performed by
Cuban eye specialists.
In the educational
field, a hundred
advisers sent by Havana
organised a campaign
which taught 600,000
people to read and
write, using the Cuban
"Yes, I Can!" literacy
programme. Illiteracy,
which still prevails
among 200,000 Bolivians,
is expected to be
eradicated by September.
For the second year, GDP
grew by four percent,
while the balance of
payments showed a
surplus of 2.2 percent,
the first time in 40
years that government
accounts have been in
the black, according to
Morales.
However, Morales is
criticised for
maintaining the economic
policies of previous
rightwing governments.
The statistics fall
short of being the
harbinger of the
expected economic policy
reforms, and there are
no concrete measures,
the head of the Centre
for Research on Labour
and Agrarian Development
(CEDLA), Javier Gómez
Aguilar, told IPS.
Apart from the change in
the tax regime imposed
on trans-national gas
companies, and the
modification of the
agrarian reform law to
expropriate idle land,
there has been no
economic policy reform,
he said. "There is
continuity in economic
policy but the
government lacks a
strategy of its own,"
said Gómez.
In December the
Constituent Assembly
that had been meeting
for 16 months finished
its work with the
approval of a new draft
Bolivian constitution,
which will be submitted
to a referendum in 2008.
Opposition members of
the Assembly boycotted
its proceedings in the
final months.
The text approved by the
Constituent Assembly,
backed by government
authorities and with a
MAS majority, creates a
unified, plural and
decentralised state.
However, at the same
time, the departmental
(provincial) governments
and the civic committees
in the eastern provinces
of Santa Cruz, Beni,
Pando and Tarija created
autonomous statutes of
their own, claiming
independent
administration of their
income, natural
resources and form of
government, disregarding
the constitutional text.
In the midst of
celebrating the second
year of his leftwing
government, Morales held
talks with the governors
of all nine provinces to
seek a political
solution to the
differences between the
government and the
eastern provinces.
He has an ace card in
reserve: he may call a
separate national
referendum if the talks
fail.
This referendum would
serve as a vote of
confidence in Morales
and the nine governors.
Those who obtain a lower
proportion of the vote
than that which elected
them to power would
resign.
While Gómez demands an
independent economic
policy, the head of the
Federation of Private
Employers of La Paz,
Enrique García, told IPS
that his members are
anxious to obtain
government backing to
attract local and
foreign private
investment.
"The government should
provide legal guarantees
for these investments,
in order to create a
climate of trust among
investors. This would
improve the
competitiveness of
products with added
value in the exports
markets," he said.
Gómez is hoping for a
favourable response from
the government at an
"extraordinary time" for
the Bolivian economy,
characterised by GDP
growth, a satisfactory
level of exports, and a
favourable balance of
payments because of the
reduction of the
external debt and the
rise in remittances from
abroad.
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