South America

EXPORT Bolivia ALREADY!

If you take a good look at the pillow above, you'll see that it's from Orgeon.

This picture illustrates a larger point, that Bolivia imports and uses too many foreign goods for it's position as one of the poorest countries in the Americas. At lunch, my knifes are consistently from Brasil. At the shop, my almonds and apples are from Chile, my crackers are always from Argentina, and of course, my parent soda company is Coca-Cola. Little of this money goes back into Bolivia. Even the leather bracelets on the street are made in Korea. Now that is just insane, this country is half populated by cows!

I'm not proposing a miracle, I just think that maybe Bolivia is putting all it's eggs in one basket by waiting for a favorable deal with oil companies on their texas tea. In the meantime, all those workers looking for jobs could easily be trained to help produce things like crackers, knifes, and of course woven pillows (as if they don't already do that).

Oddly enough, after complaining for a week to locals about this, the government came out in the press and basically said the same thing. This country needs to diversify it's income, to plan for the future and just to make sense. Yes, it may will take foreign investment to get industries off the ground, but accepting a little help to jumpstart industry is not the end of national sovereignity as some people here would argue. It's simply a way to generate money in a country that needs the cashflow.

On the other hand, there are deceitful companies like Del Valle and Pacena beer that claim all over to be proud Bolivian nationals, but are clearly owned by intl. parent companies. Click the link if you don't believe me! It's unfair to the people here to make those claims.

If I could suggest anything, it would be to produce and export products here with intl. help. There is an export program, but they don't spell check things in English, and you know how that goes. I would surmise that this country needs a strong push in the way of manufacturing and export, not only to dig itself out of dependence from other countries products, but to generate cash and jobs quickly for the people here without waiting for international oil companies to just hand the money over.

Just an observation, not meant to offend, leave me a comment!

MY fight to assume the presidency of Bolivia

Vote Austin.

This is my promise to all the indigenous English-speaking Bolivians who read this blog daily: I WILL represent you. Have faith in me. Vote for me. Viva Bolivia.

Sometime in the next two weeks, maybe sooner, Carlos Mesa is going to fold the cards on his presidency. He's calling for early elections, and if he's rebuked, he'll probably just let the country spin into a maelstrom of military coups. It's gonna really be fun, I promise!

I want to take full advantage of this, and make sure my views are clear so that I can power my run for the soon-to-be vacant position.

Here is the "Austin" 4-point plan for Bolivia:

• Sell all the national industry to American companies, immediately. Kick out the french water companies and put Halliburton in charge. We'll all make millions on the sale, even the Bolivians who happen to live in Bolivia.
• Sell all the oil to the US. They need the oil. We need the money. The US has a lot of money. They can pay us. I'm from the US and I speak a little English, so obviously I can make it happen. If I run into problems, I'll just ask for help from Paul Wolfowitz, who all of a sudden knows oh so much about banking and money!
• Enact laws to diffuse racism. It worked so well in the US. Plus, I can't be racist, because I'm Jewish. So, I'm a perfect candidate! I'll even throw in an Aymara word or two into a speech, just like my president does with Spanish words when he gives speaches in Texas.
• Give me lots of money, in my personal bank account, because I'm a nice guy. Don't worry, I'll do the right thing with it, because I will be the president of a South American country.

Man, I'm good. I think I've got at least a 10% margin of support already! I figure, if I'm elected president, I'll be marginally more safe travelling through Cochabamba than if I'm not president. Plus, like Carlos Mesa is about to show everyone, I can just leave the post whenever I feel like travelling on! Happy Days!!!!!

Vote for me, Austin, President of Bolivia.

Bolivian Politics: The POWER of MAS

Politics in Bolivia is painful, and visual. The current political deadlock between the government and opposition groups threatens to cause a nationwide humanitarian crisis. Ironically, the torture and social detriment of the political situation in Bolivia only seems to galvanize the population more towards political affiliation. Applied, this means that a child here is more likely to spraypaint a political party's slogan on a wall than that of a pop-music artist. Politics, which for many Americans (meaning USA'ers) amounts to a leap year oddity meant for water-cooler chat, has attained an almost religious significance in Bolivia, with no party signifying that status more than MAS.

MAS is the most influential political party in Bolivia right now. The direct English translation of the word 'mas' is 'more,' but like all the other political parties in Bolivia, MAS is actually an acronym (Thanks to Dad for that word!) which stands for the Movement To Socialism party. Careful observers, or weblog officianados, will note that socialism is only a small part of MAS' unique popularity and strategy in this country.

Much like the way the US Republican party is able to represent both the poor religious southerner and the Wall Street businessman, the MAS party represents indigenous peoples, coca farmers, and socialists alike. It's quite a stretch.

As far as anyone in La Paz will believe, MAS' power base truly exists with the coca growers. The party was formed by a group of angry coca growers in reaction to the 1988 law (law #1008 if you're counting) imposed by the US government, and agreed on by a military Bolivian government pandering for aid, that limits Bolivian Coca production to 12,000 hectares a year. Chances are, that's at least 11,990 more hectares than you'll ever see in your life.

The short story with coca is that it is a really profitable plant, and the farmers in Bolivia are quite poor, so they have taken to growing more as demand has increased. Coca leaves are not actually cocaine, but are in fact the primary ingredient used in its production. Coca does have many legal and traditional uses in Bolivia, and is still (yuh huh) used as an additive in Coca-Cola. Coke actually sources their coca leaves yearly from Bolivia, and you guessed it, they are exempted from US drug policy. More on that in another post.

It's safe to say that MAS' power base, and financial income, comes almost entirely from Cocaleros (coca farmers) in the area surrounding Cochabamba. Luckily for MAS, most of the Cocaleros are indigenous, and coca is heavily used by indigenous people, so the party was able to take up the flag of indigenous rights. The idea of socialism wasn't far behind, as the party claims that the US-allied government was giving away Bolivia's industries and resources to foreign companies, and that the Bolivian government should run them instead. This was also taken up as an indigenous issue, bolstered by the mismanagement of privatized water companies (especially in Cochabamba) in during the 90's. 

By 2000, MAS' political vision was complete: that of a coca growing indigenous movement poised to overthrow capitalism by forcefully nationalizing industry.

MAS succesfully painted the joint efforts by the US and Bolivia governments towards eradication of the coca plants as racist, capitalist manuevers, which gained them the support of other farmers and Bolivian nationalists. When the US ambassador openly threatened the people not to vote for MAS in the 2002 Bolivian election, it served to bolster the pro indigenous/coca/socialist/anti-imperialist stance of the party, and heavily increase its popularity.

MAS continues in rabid and vocal opposition to Bolivian government policy. They are the primary group responsible for the nationwide road blockades- convincing, paying, or threatening campesinos and cocaleros to take to the streets in protest of government oil policy. MAS' stance is to return to a 50% tariff on all foreign oil companies, who have already negotiated a contract locked in at 18%. If MAS' plan is enacted, foreign companies will most likely leave Bolivia and take the international aid packages that this country depends on with them. It's safe to say that if MAS where to seize power, Bolivia would soon lose ties with the US government.

With a large war chest of drug money, a significantly impregnable area of support in the Chapare region of the country, and a charismatic leader, MAS continues to refuse to enter negotiations with the government of Carlos Mesa in order to keep the country from ripping apart.

Santa Cruz is too cool for school, or, how can a city be its own country?

As you may have already read, or heard about from your friends at school, the political situation on the ground in Bolivia is a serious mess. Tensions had been eased by a semi-resigning President and a few midnight business meetings and congress sessions last week, but the country is 'scheduled' (isn't that hilarious?) to be completely blockaded by early tomorrow once again. The opposition political parties are continuing their vicious fight, and the government still faces some dire choices in the days to come.

All this, and the local movie theaters only have crappy films this week, the best of which was Sideways (which wasn't very good, but did have the guy from Wings [who was awful on Broadway in The Producers]). No relief from Hollywood for me, so I continue to rabidly follow the local papers and chat with the local peoples...

I know you're holding your breath to know how Santa Cruz fits into this! As of tomorrow morning, as far as anyone can tell, there will be no transport inside Santa Cruz, nor any commerce heading in or out of the city towards the rest of the country. More than ever before, the city will be totally cut-off form the outside world. Why would people do this to themselves?

Santa Cruz is fighting for political autonomy. In the Bolivian crisis of 2005, the one that I'm curently meandering through, one of the 4 main sticking points that is causing the country so many headaches is that those crazy kids in Santa Cruz account for a disproportionate of income, but receive no extra services, money, or Bob Esponja birthday balloons from the central govt. in La Paz for their efforts. They want out.

The leaders in Santa Cruz are willing to cost their city in order to get their point across to the leaders in La Paz. Their ultimate, and not very well disguised, goal is to achieve autonomy from the rest of Bolivia, and basically become their own West-welcoming country. They already have daily flights to Miami.

This is a pretty complicated issue. By most accounts, the people in Santa Cruz are racially 'whiter' than the rest of their Bolivian counterparts, and the there is an underlying issue of whether the city resents indigenous Bolivians, or whether indigenous Bolivia resents that city. Though it's hard to state it officially, Pacenos (La Paz folks) fully believe Crucenos (Santa Cruz folks) are racists.

One thing is for sure, Crucenos are rich. They export tons of products, and because they are a newly growing city without a history of cancelling foreign contracts, have fostered a better relation with trade partners including Brazil and the USA. Being geographically isolated in the west from the rest of Bolivia, they pretty much fostered their own culture.

It is tremendously ironic that Santa Cruz was the city that Che Guevarra, back in 1967, hoped would be the cornerstone of his South American Leftist revolution against imperialist Yankee control. There is no more Yankee-friendly city in all of Bolivia right now.

Shouldering massive economic losses from their own blockades, Cruceno leaders are showing their determination towards becoming their own separate entity. The only power the President has to stop them is military force, which has already been sparingly at the end of last week. The other option is to cave in, and let Santa Cruz move towards independence, costing the rest of Bolivia desparately needed income.

Santa Cruz is another example of how close Bolivia, as we know it, is to a total collapse. More on to come on the other problems here...

Carlos Mesa retains his Bolivian Presidency. WHAT HAPPENED?!!

Here's the quick and dirty on the state of Bolivian politics as of today, Thursday March 10th.

Carlos Mesa's presidential renouncement was rejected by Congress, in an act that smacks of both political connivance and brilliance at the same time. Since he gave up the presidency on Sunday night, Mesa has been on a non-stop publicity campaign, including public appearances, rallies, and meetings with business and opposition political leaders. By the time Congress convened late on Tuesday night (seriously, who makes such important national decisions after 10pm?) Mesa must have known that his plan had worked.

By throwing his hands up in the air and 'resigning', Mesa has kicked off a wave of super-strong national sentiment, and rode it straight into congressional approval of his presidency. Now that he has the backing of Congress (first time he's had it in his entire presidency), he can move forward with his moderately pro-business plans for the country.

Most political leaders have coalesced for now, but indigenous opposition leader Evo Morales has yet to fall in line, and road blockades are expected to continue in the near future.

To that effect, late in the day today Mesa leveraged his newly affirmed political power to do a '180', and send government troops to break the blockades and get the coutry moving. He also called for nationwide protests himself against the blockaders, and even led a massive one from the balcony of the presidential palace in Plaza Murillo, the main plaza of government in La Paz. I was there, and I'd estimate the number of pro-government protesters at no less than 3,000.

As the protest ended, the people danced and sang the national anthem.

Carlos Mesa - political genious or cruel foe of the Bolivian lower class, it seemd as though time will decide.

Why did the President of Bolivia Resign? March, 2005

I´m an expert on this, but please don´t quote me in your Latin American studies term papers. Instead, try the BBC.

On Sunday night, President of Bolivia Carlos Mesa announced his resignation on television. I bet everyone wants to know what happened, so I´ll try to explain using the least amount of pesky words...

Mesa took the presidency after former Bolivian Jeffe Sanchez de Lozada was forced to resign by violent nationwide protests. You see, Bolivia lost it´s coastline (now landlocked, duh) to Chile in a war a hundred years ago. Lozada wanted to export Bolivia´s oil by way of Chile under the auspices of foreign companies (think Shell). Not a popular idea with the people, so he sent in the military to kill a few of the ones who were protesting. Next thing you know, old man Lozada´s fled to America with his millions, and VP Carlos Mesa is running the country.

With Mesa at the helm, the problems continued. Firstly, he is blamed by some for the massacre of the protesters under Lozado. Yup, this is just the beginning of the madness...

Mesa is actually a moderate, which is nearly impossible in modern day Bolivia. He hopes to bring in some foreign business, help the poor, nationalize some industry, aid the US in destroying coca crops, etc, etc, etc. Also, Mesa is doubly screwed because he´s a former historian with no political party backing, in a deeply split country.

Opposition leaders in Bolivia, with clever 3 letter party name like MAS (coca growers) and MNR (miners), have been organizing everything from nationwide roadblocks to seccesion plans in order to undermine the government and seize power. The current situation, as of Monday evening the 7th of March, is that the whole country is basically blockaded by warring political factions, and the major city of Sucre is almost completely cut off from the outside world.

This brings us to Mesa, who found his position so untenable so quickly that he felt he needed to resign to the nation, in a surprising move on Sunday night. His resignation is basically a call for support. He´s publicly stated that he will not use force (about time a South American leader stepped up to the plate on that one, huh?) to break the blockades, but that in less than 4 days the country will be basically renderred lame by the strikers. The decision is now in the hands of congress, whether or not to accept his resignation, assuming that if he continues to be president the political factions will call off the strikes and the country can resume ´normal´ political relations.

There is much more to say on this story, especially about the strength of Evo Morales, leader of the Coca growers and indigenous groups. If he happens to seize power this week, which is a distinct possibility, it has grave ramifications for Bolivia´s international financial aid (this country depends on it, by the way) and it´s relationship with the drug-fightin´U S of A. For now, we sit and wait in La Paz.

I´ll follow with more posts on this as the story develops...

President of Bolivia Carlos Mesa drives, and has a dope SUV

MARCH!

At midnight, almost on the dot, Carlos Mesa made another appearance on the balcony of Bolivia´s presidential palace. This time, he said nothing, but held his clasped hands high in the air to the cheers of the crowd. Then, his growing press entourage and he disappeared into the palace.

Moments later, or maybe like 10 minutes, a police motorcade came round the side of the palace into the square. I was clever enough to suspect this little rouse, and was poised with camera to catch the Pres in all his glory. It was the closest I´ve ever been to any living president. Insane. He was sticking out of the sunroof of his SUV, doing a victory parade around Plaza Murillo, the main governmental plaza of La Paz. Needless to say, this kind of impromptu presidential publicity stunt would never happen in the states, and in fact I saw Carlos get his right hand nicked by some too-happy supporters. The police where scrambling to keep the people back, while Carlos was scrambling to shake hands.

Either way, Liz and I anticipated and outran the caravan, which we just knew was going to head down our street and out to The Prado, the main street of La Paz. It did, and it looked like this:

Bolivia´s president resigns, and I WAS THERE!?!?

Every once in a while, Bolivia will surprise you. On Sunday night, I had an authentic slice of NY pizza. Download CIMG1847.jpg Then, the President of the country announced his resignation on TV round 9 at night. Yup, next he took to his balcony to address 1,000 supporters. I was there, and this is how it looked and felt:

A half hour before midnight, President (or current sorta-president) Carlos Mesa took to the balcony of the presidential palace, a la Evita, to address the people of Bolivia. He basically said that he believes in a united Bolivia, and made an indirect plea to the people for support. He had already made it clear that he would submit his resignation to congress the next day, but congress holds the power to deny his resignation, and therefore rubber-stamp his strike-plagued presidency.

The people gathered in front of the presidential palace, which sits in the same square as the congress building, and chanted their support for Mesa and their hate for all the opposition political actors. Chants from the people included:

• you are not alone, mesa
• (insert other politicians name here) is a killer
• If we aren´t the people, who are?

Talking to the people, we got an earful of pro-Mesa commentary. Protesters ranged from college students and hippies to old ladies and newborn babies. There was a guy with a motorcycle in the middle of the fray, for some reason I can´t possibly understand. Lastly, there where Gringos like us, around to catch a little piece of Bolivian history.

Just before midnight, the people where demanding to hear from Mesa once again from the balcony, and he slyly returned...

Bolivia in Turmoil, The Movie

http://www.dragonballyee.com/etc/files/video/CIMG1905.AVI

My very first video. Be gentle with my bandwidth, and please use your gmail accounts to share. This was Sunday night at the Bolivian equivalent of the white house, with me, the prez (former?), and the ´pueblo´. Amazing.

Thanks to Albert, DRAGONBALLYEE, for hosting this badboy for me.

PROTEST! BOLIVIA!

Here�s a shot I just HAD to snap - from the computer I�m using to BLOG this entry!

Right past my window, a group of campesino protestinos in bowler hats and traditional garb hiked up the hill to tell the politicos up by my house what�s what.

Classic- computer screen and traditionally dressed Bolivian protest workers.