Bolivia - A Cautionary Tale for FTAA

Bolivia Offers Cautionary Tale for FTAA Negotiators
By Adam Saytanides 11.16.03

http://www.inthesetimes.com/print.php?id=443_0_1_0

South American leaders participating in November talks on the Free Trade
Area of the Americas should look to recent events in Bolivia as a
cautionary tale.

After six weeks of massive protests calling for his ouster, Bolivian
President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada fled to Miami on October 17. Vice
President and ex TV-journalist Carlos Mesa took over the presidency, but
he may not hold the reins for long.

In Mesa’s inaugural speech he pleaded with indigenous leaders and union
organizers who orchestrated the demonstrations to give him time to
govern-and promised to hold presidential elections after organizing a
referendum on who will control gas exports and convening a
Constitutional Assembly. Evo Morales likely would win if elections were
held tomorrow. Morales, an Indian congressman and presidential hopeful,
heads the Movement Towards Socialism party (MAS) and the powerful
coca-growers union. He lost to Lozada in the 2002 disputed presidential
election by 1 percent of the vote: Lozada received 22 percent to
Morales’ 21 percent. "We will give him a chance," Morales said of Mesa.
"He has a good message, but I don’t trust him too much. We will see if
he keeps his word. But it will be very difficult for him in the face of
pressure from the U.S. government."

Lozada’s demise began in the arid, inhospitable altiplano region of
Bolivia, land of the Aymara Indians, where a roadblock had been erected
to protest the privatization and planned export of the country’s natural
gas reserves. When the army was sent in September 5 to clear the road,
six people were killed, sparking rioting and a general strike in La Paz.
As the weeks wore on, poor coca growers were joined by poor miners, who
carried dynamite to battle military vehicles. The protests gained
momentum on October 12 after the army killed several demonstrators in El
Alto, a marginalized neighborhood of miners and campesinos on the
outskirts of the capital. Hundreds of thousands of protestors-poor and
middle-class alike-clogged the streets of La Paz, bringing the city to a
standstill. When the dust finally settled, roughly 80 Bolivians had lost
their lives, and Lorzada was out of power. Morales and other indigenous
leaders for months had warned of civil war if the government pushed
ahead with plans to privatize Bolivia’s gas reserves. At the same time,
Coca growers in the Chapare region were nearing a state of open
rebellion over U.S.-sponsored eradication of coca, their staple crop.

Morales rose to prominence in the international anti-globalization
movement during the April 2000 "water war" against U.S. corporate giant
Bechtel, when he foiled plans to privatize the drinking water supply of
his hometown of Cochabamba through organizing popular protests. His
international profile was boosted further by the recent "civil coup."
Just one week after his rival’s resignation, a triumphant Morales
traveled to Mexico City to speak before a left-leaning think tank and to
address the Mexican Congress.

In that forum, Morales suggested that eventually Bolivia will export its
natural gas for much needed economic development. But he said the
back-room deal Lozada struck only benefits foreign corporations and the
privileged few. As a result, he lamented, proprietary rights to the gas
no longer belong to the Bolivian people. "The fight is now to get the
rights to the gas back," Morales said. "If we can get control of the
hydrocarbons back, then we can industrialize and export under better
conditions."

The Mexican Congress received Morales like a head of state, punctuating
his speech with hollers and applause. In the Legislative Palace of San
Lazaro Morales warned that more insurrections will follow if global
financial institutions do not allow Third World countries to control
their own destinies. "The representatives of the World Bank had better
listen to us," Morales declared. "The World Bank and IMF and the
transnationals must stop looting our natural resources, and stop
privatizing basic services. … They must respect human life."

By pushing forward with a plan to re-nationalize Bolivia’s natural gas
industry, Morales may be asking for a showdown reminiscent of Fidel
Castro’s sugarcane coup in Cuba. While speaking before Mexico’s
Congress, he seemed to relish the idea of confronting the United States
with the growing chorus of leftist South American presidents who now
stand in open defiance of U.S. foreign and economic policy: Hugo Chavez
of Venezuela, Lula de Silva of Brazil, and to a lesser degree, Nestor
Kirchner of Argentina. "Anti-imperialist thinking has grown around the
world with Bush’s mistaken invasion of Iraq-and this thinking we should
strengthen," Morales said. "I dream of boosting this anti-imperialist
message with a great summit including Fidel, Lula and Chávez, to show
that we are united, and to make the North American imperialists think
twice."

Adam Saytanides is an independent radio and print journalist based in
Mexico.