There is an alternative: Bolivia, Venezuela, and the struggle against neo-liberalism

Derrick O'Keefe

The reign of TINA, There Is No Alternative, is beginning to come to an end.

In Bolivia, Evo Morales has swept into the presidency after years of popular mobilization; the long-suffering indigenous and poor majority is demanding an alternative economic and social order.

In Venezuela, seven years after Hugo Chavez first won power, the Bolivarian Revolution is demonstrating an alternative path, powered by a people awakened to political action and in the process of transforming their society.

Part of the reason for the resurgent radicalism in Latin America is the fact that the United States government -- for all their efforts at sabotage and asphyxiation -- has never been able to fully eliminate the Cuban Revolution. Immediately following news of his massive election victory, Morales passed on this unsubtle message via Cuban television:

I want to tell the Cuban people, its government and its leaders: thank you, for showing how to govern, to Latin America and the rest of the world, and for defending its dignity and sovereignty. (‘Morales Praises Castro in Cuban TV Interview’, Agence France-Press, December 20, 2005)

I Believe Only In The Power Of The People

by Evo Morales (address given at the "In Defense of Humanity" conference, held in Caracas last December)

What happened these past days in Bolivia was a great revolt by those who have been oppressed for more than 500 years. The will of the people was imposed this September and October, and has begun to overcome the empire's cannons. We have lived for so many years through the confrontation of two cultures: the culture of life represented by the indigenous people, and the culture of death represented by West. When we the indigenous people together with the workers and even the businessmen of our country fight for life and justice, the State responds with its "democratic rule of law."

What does the "rule of law" mean for indigenous people? For the poor, the marginalized, the excluded, the "rule of law" means the targeted assassinations and collective massacres that we have endured. Not just this September and October, but for many years, in which they have tried to impose policies of hunger and poverty on the Bolivian people. Above all, the "rule of law" means the accusations that we, the Quechuas, Aymaras and Guaranties of Bolivia keep hearing from our governments: that we are narcos, that we are anarchists. This uprising of the Bolivian people has been not only about gas and hydrocarbons, but an intersection of many issues: discrimination, marginalization , and most importantly, the failure of neoliberalism.

Bolivian-Bolivarian Revolution!

It's official, Evo Morales will be the next president of Bolivia with the biggest majority since Bolivia's return to "democracy" in 1982. Check this article from Indian Country, the US's leading native newspaper.


Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales appearing together in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Venezuelan Warmth

By Vijay Prasad
Frontline, Volume 22 - Issue 26, Dec. 17 - 30, 2005

Meanwhile, in Quincy, Massachusetts, Linda Kelly and her family of five are happy to get their Christmas present early from Santa Chavez. "He's doing the right thing," said Kelly to a journalist from Seattle Intelligencer. "The people of Venezuela are lucky to have him. That's the way government is supposed to be taking care of the little guy." Kelly's town has already lost two of its residents to the Iraq war. Last year, a suicide bomber killed Army Private Norman Darling, who joined the forces to give his four-year-old daughter Camryn a better life. In September 2003, a roadside bomb killed Sergeant Todd Caldwell. His mother, Gladys, called upon mothers like her "to get up in arms and call Senators and say, `We want these guys home because they're getting killed off.'" Caldwell was the 285th U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. As Venezuelan oil at discount prices entered his neighbourhood, the 2,000th soldier was killed. The Bush plan in Iraq requires the pacification of the resistance before any oil company will be comfortable enough to invest its windfall profits into the laden oilfields. This means that more of the U.S. poor from places like Quincy will be out there securing the Iraqi landscape for oil companies who do not benefit them. Chavez' action not only helps people like Linda Kelly but also shows up the inhumanity of the war-for-oil policy that absorbs the White House and the U.S.-led oil firms.

Venezuela and subversive democracy

By Jesús Arboleya Cervera
Published by Progreso Weekly, 12/15/05

In the belief that they had seized power, the Venezuelan putschists in April 2002 proceeded at once to dismantle the democratic system of that country. They not only imprisoned President Hugo Chávez and persecuted his supporters but also dissolved Congress, abolished the Constitution and even reneged the Bolivarian nature of the republic. Evidently, that wasn't the kind of democracy they wanted.

Never mind that Chávez has won more elections than anyone else; the issue is not form but content. He is a "populist dictator" and the people have no right to impose a dictatorship on the oligarchy. Dictatorship is the patrimony of the oligarchy and, in the best of cases, democracy consists of packaging dictatorship in gift-wrapping paper.