It's all kicking off in Bolivia this week...
The Socialist/Nationalist credentials of the Morales government were further enhanced this week when they announced that they were taking over the country's majour telecommunications company along with a bunch of energy companies. Of course this was timed for the May Day celebrations. Given the rise in food prices, continuing inflation worries and the well documented autonomy aspirations of the gas-rich Eastern provinces, Morales must have been feeling quite hot under the collar. Things have definitely not been going to well for him of late.
Today's move towards autonomy in the Santa Cruz has been a long time in the making and will hardly help any move towards reconciliation between the 'poor' Western and 'rich' Eastern provinces. I may be biased - having lived in La Paz and genuinely wanting Evo Morales to succeed in his commitment to readdress centuries of discrimination toward the indigenous people - but as long as the Santa Cruz autonomy movement is founded upon a desire to reap the rewards of the gas fields for themselves I can't see them gaining much ground. Their case is further weakened by the inherent racial undertones that underlie much of the anti-Morales sentiment. The belief that he is merely a puppet of Chavez is also a weak one given how the MAS movement has been in force long before Chavez came to power.
Still it's been almost 3 years since I've been in Bolivia, so who am I to say what is really going on over there.
The Socialist/Nationalist credentials of the Morales government were further enhanced this week when they announced that they were taking over the country's majour telecommunications company along with a bunch of energy companies. Of course this was timed for the May Day celebrations. Given the rise in food prices, continuing inflation worries and the well documented autonomy aspirations of the gas-rich Eastern provinces, Morales must have been feeling quite hot under the collar. Things have definitely not been going to well for him of late.
Today's move towards autonomy in the Santa Cruz has been a long time in the making and will hardly help any move towards reconciliation between the 'poor' Western and 'rich' Eastern provinces. I may be biased - having lived in La Paz and genuinely wanting Evo Morales to succeed in his commitment to readdress centuries of discrimination toward the indigenous people - but as long as the Santa Cruz autonomy movement is founded upon a desire to reap the rewards of the gas fields for themselves I can't see them gaining much ground. Their case is further weakened by the inherent racial undertones that underlie much of the anti-Morales sentiment. The belief that he is merely a puppet of Chavez is also a weak one given how the MAS movement has been in force long before Chavez came to power.
Still it's been almost 3 years since I've been in Bolivia, so who am I to say what is really going on over there.
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