Celebrating the Gains, Confronting the Challenges

Last Saturday I attended the Solidarity Conference with Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela and had the pleasure of experiencing the enthusiasm and momentum behind signs of progressive change in Latin America.

In keeping with the topic of rights, I wish to describe some of the conference proceedings. Rights are an integral part of the notion of place and the connection between people and land is strongly exemplified by the indigenous communities of Latin American. Many of the guerrilla fighters in Chiapas are direct descendants of those who first resisted Spanish colonialism and the same is true of other countries, in areas where the indigenous communities were not totally erased from existence. These people have such real and enduring links to their histories, ones that demonstrate the power of place and the insatiable thirst for justice and equality.

I found the conversations on Bolivia particularly interesting, especially since an indigenous Bolivian woman, whose father fought with Che Guevara during the late 60s, rose from the crowd to speak of past attempts at revolution and brought a human face to the long-endured struggles of the impoverished Bolivian majority.

Opinions on the transformations within Bolivia are naturally divided based on systemic paradigms. Proponents of free enterprise in the form of the FTAA and US-assisted democracy might condemn Morales’ decision to nationalize the gas and mining industries, espousing the archaic rhetoric of a fundamentally flawed Socialist system. This assumes that any change with socialist principles is bound to suffer the same fate as past attempts at communism, but there’s an enormous futility in imposing current models, regardless of their success in one nation, to the unique conditions of another. On the other hand, many see the changes in Bolivia (and Venezuela), however radical they seem at first, as being historically appropriate given the sustained political and economic exploitation by a ruling elite married to aggressive foreign powers. Although Morales is not the ideal candidate to emerge as the newest ally in the struggle against imperialist meddling in Latin American affairs, the significance of his rise to power overshadows any lacking in his political intellect. Bolivia is the poorest, most divided nation in Latin America, with the highest percentage of indigenous people. Morales is the product of class struggle and has come to embody the right to self-determination and the return of power to the have-nots.

In an interview with Spiegel, posted on Spiegel Online click here for interview, Morales reinforces the egalitarian principles and constitutional nature of Bolivia’s ‘indigenous revolution’, by emphasizing the historical and moral importance of Latin America’s indigenous communities. According to Morales: “We Indians are Latin America’s moral reserve. We act according to a universal law that consists of three basic principles: do not steal, do not lie and do not be idle. This trilogy will also serve as the basis of our new constitution.”

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