A Restless Bolvia

Bolivia is currently on the verge of a civil war, as a right-wing coalition of land-owners and businessmen have become disenchanted with President Evo Morales’ rule. They have launched violent demonstrations, massacred peasants supporting the government, and have looted many government buildings across the nation. 1,000 peasants were on their way to a pro-government rally in the city of Cotija, and were met with machine-gun fire from Para-military gangs on September 11th. As of September 18th the death toll stood at 25, with 106 peasants still missing. The very next day, Morales declared a state of siege and mobilized troops into the Pando province. As the troops tried to enforce the state of siege in Pando, they were met with gun fire which resulted in two deaths.

Bolivia has severe unequal distribution of both land and wealth. Only five percent of the population holds 91 percent of the land. 80 percent of the rural population is living on only three percent of the land. The wealth in Bolivia lie in the Low-lying Easter part of the country, and the more rural western part of the country is more indigenous and does not share the same wealth. Morales himself is indigenous, and comes from the poor Western part of Bolivia, and when he took office he amended the constitution to allow lands which are “lying fallow or for which there is no clear title to be transferred to the peasants.” This amendment to the constitution is the root cause for the violence and unhappiness in Bolivia. The Union of South American Nations has acted quickly to try and stop the potential civil war, and many are worried that if Bolivia does enter a full-scale civil-war the entire region could be de-stabilized. This could potentially lead to the cutoff of crucial energy and supplies which in turn could lead to a severe economic disruption in the area.

Morales has worked hard for the peasants of Bolivia, and it is disheartening to see such a negative response from the Wealthy members of Bolivian society. Hopefully in the coming months Morales and the wealthy landlords will be able to come to a compromise and the violence will come to a halt. If no compromise can be made, we will unfortunately see much more violence, and perhaps a huge economic crisis in South America.

Links for further reading:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/sep2008/boli-s16.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7615485.stm
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/world/americas/15bolivia.html