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Assassination Plot Foiled? In Bolivia, Truth is Elusive
I had the immense pleasure of visiting Bolivia in December 2007. The country is absolutely beautiful, and not just the landscape. The people are also pretty amazing, well the ones who are educated, young, and open-minded that is. Most Bolivians when I went there turned the other cheek to me as I passed, because I was white. I had one taxi driver wag a no finger at me when I tried to hail his cab, even though he was obviously waiting for a fare. Despite the prejudice though, I would still never say people shouldn’t go visit Bolivia.
My point here is not to recount a wonderful trip I had two years ago, but this talk of escalating tensions between the two very ideologically separated regions of La Paz and Santa Cruz in Bolivia is something which I was all too familiar with while I was there. While I was in the country there was constant “whispering” of a civil war. And by “whispering” I mean the newspapers were constantly reporting on the rallies being held by Santa Cruz for Autonomy from Bolivia. And, in the streets the concrete walls were covered with graffiti tags reading “Viva Autonomia”, “Viva La Revolucion”, “No Evo!” , and “Morales“. Now, talk of violent conflict in Bolivia is like talking about stocks in America. People there are used to protests flaring up into all out street warfare, especially in La Paz which lies directly below the Bolivian mines where miners constantly will cut off supply routes into the capitol in protest of working conditions. However, actually talking about a national split was something else entirely, at least for the friends I was with.
Considering that Bolivia is the poorest third world country in South America, a national split would be devastating for the western half of Bolivia where La Paz is located. Someone explained the difference between La Paz and Santa Cruz to me in terms of teenagers, “La Paz is like free-loving hippies and Santa Cruz is like tight-assed preppies.” Even though it’s obviously heavily laden with stereotyping, when taking into consideration the current political conflict, it is not that far off base.
Essentially, it is the labor class of miners and farmers fighting against the high-powered industrialists and bankers. However, even though much of the conflict is warranted (Morales is a puppet leader, not only to his cabinet, but also to leaders like Hugo Chavez), the very small percentage of “elite” Bolivians that make up the country would not be enough to hold their own against the rest of the base population. By “elite” I mean non-indigenous, about 20% of the population has spanish ancestry and these are the light-skinned Bolivians, the remaining 80% are indigenous people of Bolivia, part of either Aymaran or Quechuan descent. Aymaras were the very first “indiginos” to occupy the region over 2000 years ago. Of course, like every South American country, the Spanish conquest completely squashed any power the indigenous people had.
Currently, Bolivia is an interesting place though, because Evo Morales is the very first indigenous president to be elected to office. This has reignited a faith in indigenous power to rule, but it also has sparked a great deal of ignorant policy and heavy criticism from political afficianados who believe that Morales was appointed as a distraction for the people. This is one of the strongest factors for inciting the Civil War in Bolivia.
Whatever the true deal is here, it seems clear that some progress is being made between Chavez and American relations, so possibly the same could happen if Obama tells Morales a few jokes. Then, before we know it, America can occupy Bolivia and pacify the impending national war. Then we can use Bolivian resources how we see fit by handing over the government to the most obedient politician, or I guess that is what we have been doing for quite a while anyways. We might just be able to come clean with it now that we have such an agreeable foreign-relations savvy leader.
So, don’t let impending Civil War stop you from traveling to this beautiful country, at least they don’t have swine flu there.
