BOLIVIA:
ALBA Closes Ranks Around
Morales
By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS (IPS) - The
danger of Bolivia
"exploding" as a result
of the "separatist plan
behind the (May 4)
autonomy referendum" in
the eastern province of
Santa Cruz was warned of
Wednesday at a
Bolivarian Alternative
for the Americas (ALBA)
summit.
Bolivian President Evo
Morales received the
backing of the
alternative trade bloc
in a statement signed in
Caracas with his
counterparts Hugo Chávez
of Venezuela and Daniel
Ortega of Nicaragua, as
well as Cuban Vice
President Carlos Lage.
The leaders of Dominica,
the fifth ALBA partner,
were unable to attend
the emergency meeting
convened by Chávez.
The statement expressed
the presidents’ "staunch
rejection of the
destabilisation plans
that seek to undermine
peace and unity in
Bolivia" and the
"separatist attempt"
based on "a referendum
that clearly violates
Bolivia’s constitution
and laws."
Wealthier eastern
provinces where
Bolivia’s natural gas is
concentrated are
pressing for greater
autonomy and local
control over the
administration of
natural resources and
the taxies levied on
them.
Bolivia, South America’s
poorest country, is
basically divided
between the western
highlands, home to the
impoverished indigenous
majority, and the much
better off eastern
provinces, which account
for most of the
country's natural gas
production, industry and
gross domestic product
(GDP). The population of
eastern Bolivia tends to
be of more European
(Spanish) than
indigenous descent.
The ALBA leaders said
they would not recognise
any attempt by provinces
in Bolivia to break off
from the federal state
and hurt the country’s
"territorial integrity."
They also demanded that
the political crisis in
that country be resolved
by its citizens,
"without foreign
meddling of any kind."
The statement was an
allusion to alleged
involvement in the
situation by the U.S.
government of George W.
Bush.
ALBA called on "the
international community
and especially that of
Latin America and the
Caribbean to act in a
timely and decisive
manner in solidarity
with Bolivia."
"They demanded greater
attention to the matter
by the United Nations,
based on statements by
the special rapporteur
for indigenous peoples,
Rodolfo Stavenhagen,"
María Teresa Romero, an
international relations
professor at Venezuela’s
Central University, told
IPS.
The possibility of
appealing to the
Organisation of American
States (OAS) has been
left aside because Cuba
was expelled from that
regional body in the
early 1960s.
Stavenhagen said he was
"concerned by the
intention of the
authorities of Santa
Cruz to hold a
unilateral referendum on
regional autonomy, at
the margin of" the
Bolivian constitution.
The special rapporteur
called on regional
leaders in eastern
Bolivia "not to allow
the human rights of the
indigenous people of the
region of Santa Cruz to
be infringed in the name
of the legitimate
aspiration to regional
autonomy."
Santa Cruz and three
other of the nine
regions into which
Bolivia is divided have
adopted "autonomy
statutes" in open
defiance of the
government of Morales,
the country’s first-ever
indigenous president.
In early December, the
constituent assembly,
which is rewriting the
constitution with the
aim of giving greater
participation in
decision-making to the
country’s historically
neglected indigenous
people, met despite a
boycott by the rightwing
opposition, and the
pro-government majority
approved a draft
constitution.
But the governments of
Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando
and Tarija complain that
they do not feel
represented by the draft
constitution.
Analysts have warned of
the possibility of
clashes between
pro-autonomy sectors and
the social organisations
and trade unions that
back Morales, as
occurred in late
November in the city of
Sucre, when those
opposed to the new
constitution staged
violent protests.
Romero praised the
"prudent silence" kept
by some of Bolivia’s
neighbours, which she
said has helped "prevent
the aggravation of the
crisis by meddling in
such a polarised
question as regional
autonomy."
Morales said he
appreciated the
solidarity expressed in
Caracas, and said that
groups seeking regional
autonomy "have always
been enemies of us, the
social movements," an
attitude that he said is
"sometimes more hot air
and media coverage than
anything else."
Chávez convened the
emergency summit meeting
after Cuba’s ailing
former president Fidel
Castro warned of the
possibility of "another
Latin American tragedy
caused by the real
threat of disintegration
of Bolivia," which along
with Venezuela and Cuba
founded ALBA in 2004 as
an alternative to the
U.S.-sponsored proposal
for a Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA),
known by its acronym
ALCA in Spanish.
"What can we do?" the
Venezuelan leader asked
on Tuesday night, before
explaining that he had
come up with the idea of
"a special ALBA meeting
to try to prevent, from
the outside, what many
people at this point see
as inevitable: an
‘explosion’ in Bolivia."
On Wednesday, he said
the destabilisation plan
"is also against Brazil
and is aimed at
destabilising the entire
Southern Cone, because
if the empire (the
United States)
destabilises Bolivia,
the most likely outcome
would be that Bolivia’s
natural gas exports to
Brazil, Argentina and
Chile would come to a
halt."
"By targeting Bolivia,
the geopolitical heart
of South America, the
empire and its allies
are demonstrating that
they don't want the
integration of South
America."
Chávez wondered if it
was merely a coincidence
that U.S. Ambassador to
Bolivia, Philip
Goldberg, served as a
diplomat in Bosnia and
Kosovo.
"What the empire wants
is a Kosovo-isation of
Bolivia," he said,
referring to the Bush
administration’s support
for the former Serbian
province’s autonomy
moves followed by the
declaration of
independence, which has
gained weak
international
recognition.
The ALBA leaders also
signed a new agreement
on cooperation in food
security in which they
complained about the
high international food
prices and the use of
food crops to produce
biofuels.
The agreement encourages
the members of the
alternative trade bloc
to adopt measures like
the improvement of
irrigation systems to
boost the production of
food products like corn,
rice, beans, beef and
milk.
Chávez urged that
priority be put on
Bolivia in the design of
new projects aimed at
developing the member
countries’ potential for
food production. |
