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A
latent civil war in Bolivia was defused temporarily by a holiday truce
and the Morales government's offer of "dialogue" with its right-wing
opposition. But the rightists continue to consolidate a regime of
reactionary and racist terror in the southeastern provinces, known as
the "Media Luna" (the “Half Moon”), and in some border areas,
notably Sucre, the country's judicial capital.
The
southeastern provinces, called "prefecturas," have a majority
Caucasian or mixed population, and have historically been dominated by
the right. The highlands, or "Altiplano," has a predominately
indigenous population, which forms the national majority and has a
radical tradition.
One
of the objectives of the rightists was to transfer the political
capital of the country from La Paz, which is in the highlands and
subject to the pressure of the radicalized masses, to Sucre, which is
in an intermediate zone. Pushing this demand, the rightists organized
riots in Sucre that forced the prefect of the province, a member of the
ruling party, to flee and plead for asylum in Peru.
The
opposition-governed "prefecturas" have in fact seceded from
the country for most practical purposes. (Formal secession would be
difficult because U.S. imperialism and
the neighboring bourgeois governments undoubtedly fear that the
breakup of the Bolivian state could create dangerous instabilities in
the region.).
It
is possible that the local conflict between a reactionary racist ruling
class in the Media Luna and a government that claims to represent the
indigenous majority has developed a dynamic of its own. But the
secessionist right is the pillar of bourgeois power in Bolivia and,
however reluctantly, in the last analysis U.S. imperialism will
continue to rely on it.
The
most important of the southeastern provinces has long had an important
fascist tradition represented by the Falange, as well as other groups.
Many of the local landowners are German and south Slavic refugees from
the defeat of Nazism in Europe. As it happens, the chairman of the
Santa Cruz Comite Civico is a Branko Marinkovic.
The
"Civic Committees" in the separatist provinces are parallel
government bodies, along with the newly formed Provisional Autonomist
Assemblies. The rightists have whipped a campaign of hysteria about a
possible influx into the lowlands of indigenous peasants from the more
densely populated Altiplano.
The "autonomists" are demanding that that the
royalties paid by foreign companies exploiting Bolivian natural
resources go first to the prefectural governments, which can then
decide how much they want to send to the national government, and that
the prefectures establish their own citizenship rules.
Most
of the available agricultural land and the most profitable resources
(oil and natural gas, as well as iron and magnesium) are concentrated
in the southeastern prefectures.
The natural resources on which the Bolivian economy was based in
the past – the silver, lead, and tin mines - are concentrated in the
highlands, and their profitability has been declining for a long time.
Thus,
Morales cannot allow the rightists to erect their own kingdom in the
southeast. But he has not shown any determination to fight them
effectively. From the beginning
of his government he has tried to make an accommodation with them,
initially even claiming to favor autonomy of the prefectures. He made
no attempt to mobilize the indigenous peoples of the lowlands, who
occupy many of the oil and gas-producing areas, to demand their own
rights.
He
says he relies on the army to defend the integrity of the country. This
is the same army that protected the former neoliberal presidents, who
were overthrown by mass upsurges, and the same army that was the basis
of the Barrientos dictatorship, which liquidated the gains of the 1952
Bolivian revolution and was rooted above all in the southeast. And he
is trying to reinforce his political authority by calling a referendum
to renew his mandate.
His
remedies are like trying to cure a disease with a paralytic poison.
They run directly counter to the only effective means of fighting the
right - that is, mobilizing the poor masses of the country to take
their fate in their own hands by establishing their own organs of
direct democracy and taking full control of the country's economy.
In
the last election, Morales and his party, the Movimiento al Socialismo
(MAS), won 54 percent of the vote nationally but lost the government of
key prefectures to the right, which are now the spearhead of the
right-wing uprising against his government. The right in the
southeastern provinces is not going to be impressed by an electoral
majority in the indigenous highlands. And in the southeastern provinces
and some other areas, like Sucre, all opposition to the rightists has
been driven underground.
It
is necessary for the workers movement and the poor and oppressed
population to oppose the attempts of the right to overthrow the Morales
government. But they cannot do this effectively if they subordinate
themselves to it. They need to mobilize independently and fight for
their own interests and their own demands.
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