On May 4, an illegal referendum took place in Bolivia’s Santa Cruz department (state) to decide whether the region would become autonomous from the rest of the country.
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According to Bolivian president Evo Morales, the 39 percent abstention rate combined with “no” votes and blank ballots delivered a defeat to the separatist opposition. The Supreme Court ruled the referendum invalid due to its illegal nature. (Granma International, May 5)
From May 2 through May 4, the streets of the major cities and towns across Bolivia were filled as peasants, union members and youths protested the ploy to tear apart the country. On the day of the referendum alone, over half a million people in Cochabamba and another 200,000 in El Alto demonstrated. On the day of the referendum, protesters burned several ballot boxes.
“We will lift our flags against fascism,” said Pedro Montes, leader of the Bolivian Workers Central union. (TeleSUR, May 4)
The Organization of American States expressed support for Bolivia’s territorial integrity; however, the United States blocked a condemnation of the illegal referendum and their ringleaders. Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua all expressed support for Morales in his struggle against the referendum. Brazil and Argentina, which rely heavily on Bolivia’s natural resources, have also thrown their weight behind Bolivia’s territorial integrity.
Members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), the regional bloc for trade and cooperation headed by Cuba and Venezuela, expressed solidarity with the Morales government well ahead of the autonomy vote. ALBA leaders affirmed their “staunch rejection of the destabilization plans that seek to undermine peace and unity in Bolivia,” labeling it “a referendum that clearly violates Bolivia’s constitution and laws.” (Inter Press Service, April 23)
Within the state of Santa Cruz, several polling stations were closed by indigenous peoples who rejected the referendum. Alejandro Antezana, a local Aymara Indian, said, “We are going to fight to the death if we have to. We are not going to let them set up their ballot boxes this Sunday, even if that will lead us to confrontation and bloodshed. We have too much to lose.” (Washington Post, May 4)
With Morales’s support, a constituent assembly approved a draft constitution in 2007, guaranteeing the rights of the indigenous majority to their lands and tackling the country’s highly skewed wealth distribution.
A ‘Kosovo’ in Bolivia
The struggle over the new constitution served as the catalyst for the latest volley of attacks. The government of Santa Cruz led other departments in demanding control over the local revenues of their states. These demands have since escalated to calls for regional state autonomy—a step toward eventual independence from the Bolivian central government.
According to U.S.-Venezuelan lawyer Eva Golinger, the Bolivian opposition has been financed to the tune of over $120 million per year by organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Aid for International Development. (Venezuelanalysis.com, May 3)
The separatist scheme follows the classic imperialist strategy of divide-and-conquer. The vote was organized by Bolivia’s right wing with full U.S. support. Despite the opposition’s formal statements asserting that they seek only greater autonomy within the country, the vote is a step toward full secession. Following the referendum, Santa Cruz governor Ruben Costas claimed that the opposition’s alleged victory initiated a “path towards a new republic.” (BBC, May 5)
The Santa Cruz ruling class includes a number of fascist sympathizers who emigrated from Yugoslavia following World War II, and whose extreme-right ideology has found fertile ground in the recent crisis. The Bolivian Socialist Falange, an ultranationalist fascist organization active during the 1950s, was recently revived by Miguel Roda. The Union of Santa Cruz Youth, an ally of Roda’s Falange, is just one of a number of groups behind violent attacks against Morales’ supporters. (USA Today, Sep. 30, 2007)
At a recent summit in Caracas, Cuban vice-president Carlos Lage accused the United States of trying to create a “Kosovo” in the hydrocarbon-rich eastern provinces of Bolivia. Kosovo, a province of Serbia, declared independence in February 2008 after years of “autonomy” under a U.N. occupation. Kosovo is only the most recent chip carved out from the territory of the former Yugoslavia by U.S. imperialism. Washington’s recipe for Bolivia contains many of the same ingredients.
Philip S. Goldberg, U.S ambassador to Bolivia, is deeply involved in the separatist efforts. Goldberg has solid credentials when it comes to creating national divisions: From 1994 to 1996, he assisted Richard Holbrooke in engineering the breakup of Yugoslavia. With the blessing of the Bush administration, he has provided strategic advice to the Bolivian right-wing leaders.
Goldberg counts among his allies Branco Marinkovic, one of the key leaders of the separatist opposition. Marinkovic is a wealthy Croatian landowner and a member of the Federation of Private Producers, the Economic Bank and the Chamber of Exporters of Santa Cruz. He is also a major stockholder in Ashmore Energy International’s activities in Bolivia, whose nationalization was announced by Morales three days before the referendum.
Marinkovic helped form the Media Luna coalition, which brings together the ruling circles of the departments of Pando, Beni, Santa Cruz and Tarija, to fight back the progressive reforms of President Morales. Most of Bolivia’s natural gas and oil wealth is located in these states.
A battlefront in Latin America’s anti-imperialist war
Since the founding of Bolivia, a white-minority oligarchy of European decent has ruled over the 55 percent indigenous and 30 percent mestizo populations through an apartheid-like state apparatus. Morales is Bolivia’s first fully indigenous president, despite the country’s majority indigenous population.
Following his election victory on December 18, 2005, Morales has fought hard to steer the poorest nation of South America on an independent path, much to the displeasure of U.S imperialism.
The Bolivian ruling class has felt particularly threatened by Morales’s efforts at empowering the country’s indigenous majority—a challenge to Bolivia’s 500 years of white supremacy and racial oppression. His party, the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), has promoted redistribution of wealth, an end to racial discrimination, nationalization of key industries and land reform as means to address the disparities faced by the indigenous population.
On May 1, 2006, Morales declared that all natural gas reserves were to be nationalized. Now, exactly two years later, Morales announced that the Bolivian government would become the largest shareholder of British Petroleum, Ashmore Energy International and Compañía Logística de Hidrocaburos Boliviana. That same day he also announced the nationalization of Entel, the largest telecommunication company in Bolivia. Until now, all were controlled by foreign capital.
Morales has brought Bolivia into ALBA, fortifying his country’s ties to the growing Latin America anti-imperialist bloc. With the help of Cuban teachers, he has pushed through education initiatives aimed at destroying the high illiteracy rates in Bolivia.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have bogged down Washington and created an opening for progressive, left forces in Latin America to advance. In response, the U.S. government is now turning to the financing and arming of extreme-right elements—be they in Bolivia or in Venezuela—to reverse what it considers to be a dangerous trend.
Under Venezuela and Cuba’s leadership, Latin American unity against U.S. imperialism is on the rise. Morales has asserted his confidence in the people’s will to fight against the backlash of the oligarchy and their U.S-backers. The present battle in Bolivia is part of the war between U.S imperialism and the hundreds of millions of Latin Americans who are fighting for political and economic liberty.
