The New Bolivia

I have been lax in congratulating Evo Morales on his victory in the Bolivian presidential contest.  He is the first in what is expected to be a series of left-wing victories in Latin American democracies.  Linked with Cuba and Venezuela, this group will soon be a force to take on the imperialist Monroe Doctrine.

The movement in Bolivia is particularly interesting for me.  Vice President-elect Alvaro Garcia Linera contends that MAS, the Movement Toward Socialism party which he and Morales belong to, is not a party but rather "a coalition of flexible social movements that has expanded its actions to the electoral arena. There is no structure; it is a leader and movements, and there is nothing in between. This means that MAS must depend on mobilizations or on the temperament of the social movements."  Take away "a leader" and you have a series of anarchistic interests.

It will be an interesting path that Morales and MAS have to travel.  Bush and his minions will growl, loudly at times.  And there is always the threat of the U.S. troops stationed in neighboring Paraguay.

But it is certainly not just the Americans who will be taking a close watch on Bolivia's evolution. Brazil, for example, has enormous capitalist interests in Bolivia. Petrobras, the Brazilian state-owned oil giant, controls 25% of the natural gas reserves located in the Tarija district, owns the pipelines for exporting gas to Brazil and Bolivia's two petroleum refineries, and controls close to 40% of the livestock and agriculture business of Santa Cruz, much of which is run by Brazilian ranchers.

We'll keep a close watch.  In the meantime, we wish Morales and MAS the very best of luck in their fight against global capitalism.