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 News from Around the Americas | January 2006 
Morales Vows to Nationalize Bolivian Natural Gas
 Associated Press
| | Indigenous people arrive Saturday at the archaeological site at Tiawanacu, Bolivia, where President-elect Evo Morales asked Andean gods for help and guidance on the eve of his inauguration. (Victor Caivano/AP) |
La Paz, Bolivia - Bolivian President Evo Morales used his inaugural address to renew his pledge to nationalise the country's vast natural gas reserves, but said he is open to the idea of a U.S.-sponsored trade zone that he criticized during his campaign.
The country's first Indian leader did not specify how the cash-strapped nation could reverse a 1990s privatization wave that left its gas industry in the hands of big foreign oil companies.
He suggested seeking loans from Latin American lenders, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, and repeatedly vowed to "recover our natural resources" at his inauguration before Congress and later while addressing 100,000 supporters at an open air plaza.
"They told us 15 years ago the private sector was going to resolve our problems of corruption and unemployment, but years have passed and we have more unemployment and more corruption," Morales said in his inaugural speech Sunday.
While he accused foreigners of looting Bolivia's national resources since the country was colonized by the Spanish in the 16th century, Morales said he would respect property rights, repeating a pledge he made after winning the presidency last month in a landslide.
He also promised his administration would treat all sectors of society fairly.
Analysts say it will probably take months to determine how Morales will govern and what that will mean for foreign investment, but that his speech showed that he does not want to be perceived as a socialist prepared to seize control of Bolivia's economic sectors.
"Those words must have been welcome to anxious business groups, who feared a fiercely confrontational tone," said Michael Shifter, a Latin American expert at the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.
"He hit some conciliatory notes."
Bolivia has the second-largest natural gas reserves in South America after Venezuela.
Petroleum companies have invested US$3.5 billion (euro2.9 billion) in Bolivia since the mid-1990s; the biggest players include Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA, Britain's BG Group PLC, France's Total SA and the Spanish-Argentine Repsol YPF SA.
During his campaign, Morales also blasted the proposed 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas, saying the idea would enslave Latin America.
But in his inaugural speech, Morales softened his position toward the U.S.-backed bloc, which would slash tariffs and other trade barriers from Canada to Chile.
He also said his administration would study the benefit of joining a zone linking the United States with Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, and would consider becoming a member of the Mercosur trade zone which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
If any one of the trade zones "guarantees markets for the poor, well, welcome," Morales said.
The statement suggests Morales is thinking practically about how Bolivia can develop closer ties with the international economy to create jobs in a country where most live in dire poverty.
Financial players are very interested in who Morales will name to his cabinet on Monday, but should feel somewhat soothed by his speech, said Riorden Roett, director of Western Hemisphere studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
"All in all, a reasonable inaugural that may signal a search for a center," he said.
Morales, a former leader of Bolivia's coca growers union, rose to power leading protests as Bolivia's poor became disillusioned with free market reforms and the privatization of everything from oil to water.
Roett and Shifter said Morales' comments were not detailed enough to pin down whether he'll turn toward a free market path, take a radical approach or try to fashion some sort of combination.
"It remains unclear how pragmatic Morales will actually be once in office, and whether he'll be able to strike the formula of accommodating both his base and national and foreign capital that have a strong stake in Bolivia's economy," Shifter said.
"Finding that balance will pose the most severe test of Morales's political skills."
For Bolivian Majority, a New Promise
Monte Reel - Washington Post
Nation's first Indian president vows to reverse history of social injustice.
La Paz, Bolivia - The streets of this colonial city erupted in song and fireworks Sunday to celebrate the inauguration of Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, who promised to begin reversing centuries of social injustice, insulate the country from U.S. influence and reclaim natural resources that he says have been exploited by international capitalism.
Morales, 46, broke into tears before addressing Bolivia's Congress and the presidents of many neighboring South American countries, a gathering that illustrated the region's ongoing political shift toward socialism. The former coca grower likened his historic rise to power in Bolivia, where people of Indian descent make up more than 60 percent of the population, to the end of apartheid in South Africa.
"This morning I was very happy to see my brothers and sisters singing in the historical Plaza Murillo and Plaza San Francisco," said Morales, referring to the celebrations attended by thousands of indigenous citizens in the city's main squares. "Forty or 50 years ago, we didn't even have the right to enter the Plaza San Francisco or the Plaza Murillo."
Morales won the election riding a wave of discontent against the elites who have traditionally ruled the country. Massive protests have become a regular part of Bolivian life in recent years, helping to oust two presidents since 2003. But the atmosphere of celebration in the streets that lasted deep into the night was a reflection of the widespread support Morales enjoys upon entering office. An opinion poll released this weekend by the Bolivian firm Apoyo said that support for Morales stands at 74 percent, an unprecedented level in the country's recent history.
"All of the other governments we have had in this country have been corrupt and have stolen from the people," said Felix Flores, an unemployed 60-year-old Quechua Indian who traveled to La Paz from Cochabamba to celebrate in Plaza San Francisco with thousands of others. "With all of that money they robbed, they could have created sources for jobs. Now Evo will."
A big part of Morales's message has centered on the idea of self-determination, and he has frequently criticized the United States as an "imperial power" whose interests often run counter to those of Bolivia. The United States is Bolivia's leading provider of development aid, contributing about $655 million from 2000 to 2004. But Morales contends his country has been hurt by "neo-liberalism," a term commonly used in the region to describe Washington-backed economic policies that encourage free trade and a minimum of national commercial intervention. Morales on Sunday labeled the policy a failure that has impoverished Bolivia while enriching wealthy foreign interests, and he vowed to protect the country from its influence.
Bolivia, with 9 million citizens, remains the poorest country in South America, but it has the second-largest reserves of natural gas on the continent. Morales has pledged to nationalize the country's fuel industry and woo investment from Latin America, Europe and Asia to industrialize the sector.
Expectations for change run high among his supporters, and Morales promised Sunday to convene a representative assembly to rewrite the country's constitution to more equitably distribute political power. He has tried to mollify concerns of international investors by promising not to seize private property when nationalizing the fuel sector. He has also said he wants to decriminalize the growing of coca plants and refocus the fight against drugs on those who turn the crop into cocaine.
"The fight against narco-trafficking, against drugs, against cocaine, cannot be an excuse for the government of the United States to dominate our communities," Morales told the crowd, a number of whom chewed coca leaves, reflecting a long Bolivian tradition.
Many analysts suggest that Morales's frequent jabs at the United States are rooted specifically in his experience as a coca farmer and - unlike Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro - less to a specific political ideology. But many of his supporters already are linking Morales to those two leaders, whom Morales labels as inspirations. In Plaza San Francisco, vendors enjoyed brisk business selling T-shirts with the names of a socialist icon and three presidents printed in simple block letters on the front: "Chι, Fidel, Chavez, Evo."
"Evo professes a deep and close friendship with Chavez and Castro, but he's more of a product of American policy than his relationship with those two," said Eduardo Gamarra, a Bolivia analyst at Florida International University. "He's a product of the coca wars, and he should be understood in that context."
Bolivia is the latest in a line of South American countries that have elected presidential candidates that come from socialist or unionist backgrounds. Chile last week elected Socialist Michelle Bachelet to succeed Ricardo Lagos, another Socialist who embraced free trade as a way to fund increased social spending in his country. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay in their most recent elections have also elected presidents with backgrounds in social activism.
In Peru, elections this year will replace outgoing President Alejandro Toledo, who became the first South American president of indigenous descent when he was elected in 2000. A front-runner is former colonel Ollanta Humala, a socialist.
Morales was born in a thatched-roof shack in Bolivia's western highlands, and he worked as a shepherd as a young boy. As a teenager, he was a brick worker, baker and trumpet player in a traveling band. After settling in the tropical Chapare region to grow coca, he became involved in politics as the head of the Federation of Coca Farmers, which often pitted him against U.S. officials who wanted to reduce cocaine traffic by reducing the harvests of coca leaves, which must be chemically processed to produce cocaine.
His criticisms of the United States are widely admired among his supporters, such as those who waved banners throughout the day in Plaza San Francisco. To them, such comments prove Morales's courage to stand up for himself and his country.
"This is our day," said Pablo Mercado, 48, a city worker in La Paz who waited for the new president to parade through the streets of the city after his speech. "Finally we have something to celebrate." |
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