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Front Page » Archive » Vol
2 No 57 » here
The Two Green Colours War
Bolivia has become the flashpoint in the clash
between IMF neoliberalism and indigenous culture, and the
result could lead to a continent-wide Vietnam.
by L Jara Diaz
The Republic
"Big headlines accompanied the tragic death of one compañero
in the Genoa [2001 anti-World Trade Organization]
demonstrations, but when dozens of humble Bolivians are killed,
only oblivion reigns." These were the words sent to this year's
World Social Forum by Evo Morales, the indigenous leader and
coca leaf grower who lost the June 2002 Bolivian presidential
elections under dubious conditions.
Morales could not attend the World Social Forum in Brazil
due to a massive popular uprising shaking his country since the
middle of January. The latest accounts report 30 deaths,
hundreds wounded, and an unknown number of arrests. There
hasn't been a peep in the Canadian- nor international media
about these latest events. Oblivion indeed.
During the last two years, there have been 520 deaths in
Bolivia caused by state repression, including those that
occurred in the 2000 Cochabamba's Water War, that succeeded in
reversing the privatization of the water system. This past
January, the administration of Gonzalez Sancho de Losada
("Goni" for short), a former Pepsi Incorporated CEO, deployed
300 policemen and 150 soldiers for each 50 kms of road to stop
blockades by peasant and indigenous coca leaf growers who were
widely supported by popular organizations.
This uprising echoed others in April and November last year,
and were a consequence of Goni's unwillingness to settle the
coca leaf grower's long-standing demands for negotiations to
put an end to the US-led coca plant eradication programs.
Aside from the fact that the US aid for crop substitution
hardly ever reaches growers, the absence of a proper rural
infrastructure to bring other crops to market makes any
substitute a ticket to destitution.
Meanwhile, coca leaf buyers go to wherever the product is,
and pay fair prices. Chewed or brewed like tea, the coca leaf
is a sacred plant in the Andean region (which includes Bolivia,
Peru, and Ecuador), and it is legally harvested in the Bolivian
Chaparare region. Through intermediaries, Coca Cola is one of
the region's largest customers.
It is the demand for cocaine, chemically derived from coca,
and the IMF-imposed neoliberal economic model that fosters
greater coca production. According to Bolivian economist Mario
Muñoz Mayorga, the 1985 imposition of an IMF plan by the Victor
Paz Estenssoro administration brought under control rampant
inflation--but fiscal restraint, privatization, and market
liberalization also brought factory closures, reduction of
government jobs, bankruptcies in small business, and record
unemployment. Bolivians were driven to the informal economy and
"to a product with large demand: coca leaf production."
A temporary truce was reached between the government and the
coca producers in early February, following an agreement to
form multilateral working groups to negotiate issues such as
coca leaf production, regional and sectoral budgets, housing
funds, and the Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, among
others. The peace did not last long.
In a move that can only be seen as obtuse neoliberal
arrogance, the Bolivian administration announced on February 9
new economic measures, following to the letter the IMF commands
handed down last November. Pressured by this financial
institution to reduce the fiscal deficit, which shot up
dramatically after the government took over private pension
plan schemes, the Goni administration announced steep tax
increases, cancellation of GST returns, and a sharp government
budget reduction. The move poured gasoline on the embers of
social unrest.
The explosion this time was led by the police, demanding an
annulment of the new tax and a 40% salary increase, among other
demands. The striking police occupied the streets and
confronted the army who were filling in for the strikers,
leaving 12 policemen dead. Soon Bolivians from all walks of
life, including industrialists and small business owners,
joined in the protest. Demands for the government to step down
became louder.
On February 13, the presidential administration withdrew its
economic plan and quickly settled with the police, but only
after rioters burned down both political party headquarters of
the governing coalition, the ministries of development and of
labour, and the Vice President's office. On the eve of the
crisis, Argentinian president Eduardo Duhalde gave belated
advice to his Bolivian counterpart: do not follow the IMF, it
only leads to violence.
A Bolivian peasant named the present conflict the "Two Green
Colours War," meaning "the green of the coca leaf representing
the Andean culture, and the green of the US dollar representing
the Western culture." Osvaldo Peredo, another leader, explained
that their agenda is "about survival, about rights over water,
natural gas and land; and about coca, the sandwich generation,
the retirees, and the small land and business owners. At the
end, it's about the inability of governments to recover our
dignity and sovereignty."
The FTAA, when translated to the Spanish, becomes the ALCA.
Evo Morales, now an MP for the Movement Towards Socialism
party, calls the trade treaty the "Agreement for the
Legalization of the Colonization of the Americas." He warns
that a Vietnam is brewing in South America unless neoliberalism
is eradicated, and complains that political parties are only
following social movements instead of leading them.
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