House of Cards: Bolivia's polticial situation

After 7 months in Bolivia I got the feeling of the political situation in the country. True conversations with taxi-drivers and others I got an image of the situation, the obstacles for the country, the way they are heading etc. I actually also met an earlier minister (financial affairs) at a Sunday lunch party, it was totally random, but that gave me the feeling that a lot of people over the last decades have been ministers in this country, which is true, Bolivia has had a lot of governments throughout the 20th century. But what is the situation today?

Evo Morales, the first Indian to ever have the president title in Bolivia, had the title my whole stay in the country. He never passed 4th grade in primary school, and rose to the politics true his role as a union leader for coca leaf farmers in the Cochabamba region. Apparently (based on polls) he is up for all the years (5 years alltogheter) after the recall referendum this august, and this is exiting in many ways. In the east he has never been a popular fellow, and three times a week there was a demonstration in the main streets of La Paz. In January 2007, a clash between middle class city dwellers and poorer rural “campesinos” (“campesino” is a Spanish language term referring to a farmer or farm worker) killed 2 people and injured over 130 in the central city of Cochabamba. Situations like this doesn't paint a picture of a calm political situation. Therefore it’s plausible to make arguments for Evo Morales staying another period, Bolivia, more than anything, needs stability. Maybe Mr. Morales can reach his goals as the country’s leader with more time.

But what are his goals? He himself claims that he wants more equality in the country, and calls himself a socialist (his political party is called MAS, "movement towards socialism"). Togheter with Venezuela, Dominica, Cuba, Nicaragua (and from the 30th of august also Honduras, a tradionally ally of the USA) Evo Morales and his Bolivia forms the anti--American club called "Boliviarian Alternative for the Americas". After he stepped into the office, he, among other things, threw out the Brazilian oil companies and made most oil and gas exporting a national affair governed by the state. He’s also active in sharing the wealth of the country, evenly between the regions.

Through what I saw, the country absolutely needs a social “direction” in the governance. It is big differences inside the country Santa Cruz (east of La Paz), a region that wants self-governance) is a very rich part of Bolivia because of their oil reserves. Of natural reasons they have a higher income (you make more money on selling oil than making ponchos to tourists in La Paz) but the people in Santa Cruz, simply put, doesn’t want to share of their goods, they don’t see why they have to, and at the same time they feel that Evo Morales just helps “his people” (from the highlands).
But even just in-between the people from La Paz and the ones from El Alto (the cities has grown together, actually El Alto recently received city status of its own) there exist racism, “the people from El Alto is stupid and take over jobs” a taxi-driver from La Paz told me during my stay.

Bolivia, its leaders and people have huge problems to solve, from small things like removing garbage from the streets to the bigger issue they will get when the fresh-water reserves (from the mountains) will stop in the years to come..

LA Times on this years recall referendum towards Evo Morales:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-bolivia11-2008aug11,0,2039796.story?track=rss

Evo Morales on The Daily Show: