Wednesday, November 28, 2012

BOLIVIA

Does the crisis in Bolivia predicate a downfall of the so called Left bastion? A B&E inference...

Named after Simón Bolívar, the revolutionary who contributed the most for the independence of many South American countries, Bolivia – the land where Che was executed allegedly by CIA in 1967 – has stood as a bulwark of the Leftist ideology. But the recent spate of bloody anti-government violence seems to question that very ideology. Is the Axis of Left finally crumbling?

The last eight years have seen changes in South America that had never been seen in the history of this continent. To succintly underscore the point, in these years, as Mark Becker wrote in The Monitor a few years back, “while North America turned right, South America turned left.” If the Leftist Tabaré Vásquez came to power in Uruguay, then Brazil’s Lula da Silva’s, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, and of course, Bolivia’s Evo Morales symbolise the power with which the Left has grown in South America where now, more than 75% of its 350 million people are ruled by left-leaning presidents, with the Cuban Castro totem pole intact since ages.

Cut to September 9, 2008. In bloodied clashes with the military, anti-government protesters take over many buildings and public offices in eastern Bolivia ranting against the Leftist fav Evo Morales, [leader of the Movement for Socialism party, elected President of Bolivia since 2006 with a majority seen rarely in Bolivian history]. In Chaco, one of the richest in natural gas, protesters take over a natural gas pipeline control station that supplies gas to Brazil [Bolivia is Brazil’s largest gas supplier] and try to destroy the same. If Santa Cruz and Chaco are symbolic, anti-Morales protests rip across now in five of the nine Bolivian regions ruled by the rightist opposition. The demands are simple, yet critical. Protestors wanted Morales to roll back nationalisation reforms particularly of gas companies, wanted more autonomy and clearly a bigger share of State revenues.

Cut to Cuba. Various reports comment that Fidel Castro is on his last leg, suffering ailments that’ll see him passing away sooner than later; and with Fidel gone, his brother Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz – Cuban President since Fidel’s 2006 illness, and himself 76 years old – would not be able to hold the Left fort much longer. Cut to Venezuela, 2007! Chavez’s historic Constitutional referendum proposing unlimited Presidential powers is defeated by a majority. Nationwide protests occur against Chavez before and after the referendum. Similar, though smaller protests have been going across many of the Leftist South American countries, with Spain, Mexico and Colombia already ‘fallen’ to the right a long time back. Bolivia, despite being second richest in gas resources, is the poorest South American country. Is that proof enough that Leftist rule has not given what it was supposed to provide, namely, social security? Deafeningly, is the Left seeing its last leg? Is the way the US has dealt with South America since allegedly knocking off Che – namely, targeting individuals instead of nations – finally succeeding?


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
at