Below we publish a statement by London-based Bolivian activist organisation Bartolina Sisa Resistance, received 11 November 2019.
For many years the extreme right in Bolivia, based in the oil and gas rich east of the country and very much controlled by the local large landowners, has been seeking to undermine the government of President Evo Morales and the Movement towards Socialism (MAS). They see themselves as the only rightful rulers, being the wealthiest in the country. They also consider themselves as the true descendants of the Spanish conquistadors, untainted by “Indian” blood.
Their choice of these genocidal rapists as their forebears should be indication enough of their politics. But the persistence of the Monroe Doctrine which deems the whole of South America as “Uncle Sam’s backyard” has been strengthened by the imperialist demand for unrestricted access to all the world’s resources. This potent mixture of militarist fascism, racism and US imperialism has fuelled the latest events in Bolivia.
To the generally ignorant, Morales represents the “usual” despot overstaying his welcome and cynically manipulating the bourgeois “democratic norms” to stay in power for power’s sake. But Morales and the MAS represent much more than the parliamentary idiots of the “democratic west” and their suburban prejudices could possibly grasp.
Not just in Bolivia but in the whole of the “developing world” (as the western developers like to call it) there is a life and death struggle for just the right to have enough food, shelter, health and education provision. Whenever a leader or movement emerges to challenge the status quo of peonage and poverty, they are vilified and if possible overthrown.
The racism of the Carlos Mesa supporters is there for all to see. Their persecution of indigenous Bolivians (“indios”), especially in the areas of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz in the east, and now poisoning the capital La Paz, has largely gone unremarked by the “liberal” media. These outlets, rightly exercised by injustices such as the Windrush scandal, choose to sit on their hands when the same or worse happens in the “developing” world. Is it because it’s “only foreigners” involved?
In La Paz and other cities, the racists have been chanting “the Indian must go”. In Cochabamba, indigenous women had been violently attacked by paramilitary groups and they continue attacking. They are burning the homes of Evo’s supporters and threatening their families, Evo’s sister’s home has been ransacked and burnt and c. Evo’s home destroyed. The Mayor of Vinto c. Patricia Arce has been violently attacked by more than 500 fascists and forced to walk for miles barefoot, her hair cut off and red paint thrown all over her body and there are many more attacks happening right now.
Nobody is asking what happens to the poor, the working class, the peasants when or if the restraints on the wealthy, the military and the imperialist backed monopolies are removed and neo-liberalism lets rip.
The struggle is not over and Evo Morales and the MAS have lit a flame which will engulf not only South America but the whole of the world!!!
JALLALLA COMPANERO EVO!!!
HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!!!
