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| Latin America |
| Revolution Looms in Bolivia |
| 2003-10-15 |
| Thousands took to the streets Monday to chant anti-government slogans even after President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada announced he will shelve controversial plans to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico. The choice for Bolivia is simple; export natural gas to the United States and Mexico, or don’t export at all. The protestors want the gas processed in Bolivia, by non-existent chemical plants. The government had estimated that revenues from the gas exports would bring about $1.5 billion a year to Bolivia, South America’s poorest nation. That’s a good thing, right? But union leaders and the nation’s poor Indian majority, which has frequently led protests against government attempts to privatize the country’s state industries, argue the economic benefits won’t reach them. I guess I was wrong. Union and Indian leaders would rather keep the natural gas in Bolivia than let foreign capital come in. They would rather starve than watch other people prosper. On Monday, public transportation workers went on strike, and shops and banks closed in the city. Sanchez de Lozada’s own vice president criticized him. President Sanchez de Lozada is being pounded by all sides for trying to lift the country out of its economic hellhole. Unbeliavable. He vowed "to defeat the sedition and restore order," and called the massive protests, "a plot encouraged from abroad aimed at destroying Bolivia and staining our democracy with blood." He did not elaborate. He means the protestors are being financed by Brazilian money. He’s right. The president said his government "is the result of a popular election," and has the support of the armed forces and the police. Sanchez de Lozada, a millionaire businessman who grew up in the United States, was elected in 2002 to a five-year term. Sanchez de Lozada knows how to eliminate poverty--Capitalism--but the poor remain in love with the ideas that made them poor in the first place--Tribalism, Unionist Collectivism, Nationalism. Opponents are especially upset the government might pick a port in Chile to ship the gas. Bolivia has been a landlocked nation since it lost its coastline in an 1879 war against Chile, and resentment against its neighbor is still strong. As I said, Nationalism. Bolivians should dig deeper into history, and remind themselves they started that foolish war. They should resent their past leaders instead of Chile. Americans may not care what happens to Bolivia, but we should. Another Communist dictatorship means another terrorist base, (see Venezuela.) |
| Posted by:Sorge |
| #9 When you consider all the natural resources in South America, it's disheartening to see their total lack of advancement in the fields of individual rights to property, and even in many instances, to life itself. One of the primary reasons for that lack of advancement is the frequent and often fruitless revolutions, counter-revolutions, and just plain old wars. Until the average Jose gets enough of an education to know that the only way he can get ahead is to have stable government that recognizes the rights of the individual, and that socialism kills all incentive to improve, it will go on, slowly grinding down the majority in poverty, disease, and filth. Unfortunately, I see large areas in Europe heading in the same direction. The revolutions there are bloodless (so far), but just as real, and just as destructive. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2003-10-15 10:25:08 PM |
| #8 Things are picking up in South America: Reuters has an article about the swing voters in Venezuala. Reuters has an article on Outlaws in Brazil that covers the supply lines for the FARC. Also Newsday notes that anti-government protests continue in Haiti - not really news, though. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2003-10-15 2:59:05 PM |
| #7 About Brazil it's currently ran by a president that is Socialist who stands by while drug and guerilla groups take refuge in the country so they can regroup and resupply.Also his follewers have in their agendas have seized property and rioted without much constraint |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-10-15 12:24:29 PM |
| #6 Angie Schultz; The Brazilian president, Ignacio "Lula" da Silva is a former Union leader and committed communist. He helped Hugo Chavez break the massive strike last year, and is now inciting and helping the Unions in Bolivia. |
| Posted by: Sorge 2003-10-15 12:17:56 PM |
| #5 He means the protestors are being financed by Brazilian money. Brazilian?? What dog do the Brazilians have in this fight? And is it Brazilian government money, or private money? |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2003-10-15 11:36:14 AM |
| #4 Thousands took to the streets Monday to chant anti-government slogans even after President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada announced he will shelve controversial plans to export natural gas to the United States and Mexico. Something worth mentioning is that Bolivia is a landlocked country. Exporting natural gas would mean that a pipeline would have to be built to the coast. Whichever country that the pipeline would have gone through also loses. But union leaders and the nation’s poor Indian majority, which has frequently led protests against government attempts to privatize the country’s state industries, argue the economic benefits won’t reach them. "Why bother with the complications of prosperity, when we can stay simple and impoverished?" |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-10-15 11:19:57 AM |
| #3 "Instapundit linked to a story saying one of the major instigators just got back from Libya." Here it is: Evo Morales, a member of Congress and the main opposition figure, recognized that the strike had failed to achieve its goals. ''I said it was a little early to call it,'' he told reporters. ``If you're going to organize a strike, you have to be able to carry it out.'' Nonetheless, Morales added, if Sánchez de Lozada decides to export the gas through Chile, ``his government won't last 24 hours. The people will rise up against it. So will the military and the police.'' Economists have said Bolivia's salvation in the coming years lies in a $5 billion plan to export the huge gas reserves -- the largest in Latin America after Venezuela's -- through the Chilean port of Patillos and then on to the United States, another sore spot for leftists here. Morales, who just returned from Libya, on Monday called the United States a ''terrorist nation'' for the Iraq war. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-10-15 10:46:34 AM |
| #2 Instapundit linked to a story saying one of the major instigators just got back from Libya. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2003-10-15 9:45:53 AM |
| #1 One wonders how much of a hand in this assorted good buddies in Colombia and Venezuela have? |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-10-15 8:08:33 AM |