Category: 08 Wild Cards

Dear Friends:

See the below [December 2010] article from our old friend, Chellis Glendinning, now living in Bolivia, that she did on the administration's recent anti-eco projects, and the following sent from a friend of a friend also living there now.

Sad to hear the other side of the story…JAS

“Need to tell you that this is all bull.  Mr. Morales turns out to play to the international audience (you) — while at home he's got something else going on: industrial development up the kazoo, dams many times bigger than Hoover, nuclear power plants, uranium mining, lithium mining,  new oil wells, pipelines through indigenous lands, new highways that tribes are fighting.  Every time the people rise up against his plans — which happens constantly now (a friend just lost his eye to the police in the streets) — the administration dismisses them saying they are in the hands of the capitalists or are trying to tear down the state. Plus, public opinion has been cut via new laws that minimize the voice of journalists with heavy fines and perhaps closing papers, radio stations,  etc. if
convicted.  It is commonly said that EM says one thing but does the other.

“So, here at ground level,  we don't take this law very seriously.  It's nice,  a nice collection of words. Sorry to tell you this.  Non-democractic socialism, it turns out, is no picnic.

“The challenge begins now, as the people were too afraid to protest for the last years due to the assault by the right.  But that's not a threat just now, so the people are rising up.  It's a whole new ballgame at this point.
No one knows what will happen.  Today's news is that El Evo liberated a bunch more millions to spend on further industrialization!”

See Also:

The Consequences of Modernization: The Techno-Fantasies of Evo Morales, Counterpunch, Christmas Weekend Edition, December 24-26, 2010