by Patricio Montesinos
May 21, 2013 (TSR) – GIVEN its lack of credibility and leadership, the Bolivian right, acting under instructions from the United States government, is banking on low intensity national conflict to wear down the government of President Evo Morales, and create an image of chaos in the run up to country’s 2004 elections.
For some time now, the Bolivian opposition parties and their leaders – who have neither leadership nor backing – have been using the strategy of undermining Bolivian unity in different parts of the country, instigating and exacerbating old territorial and ethnic differences.
Washington and U.S. subjects in Bolivia have no alternative other than to foment racism and fuel the fires of old divergences between city and rural inhabitants, inherited from Spanish colonialism and previous neoliberal governments.
The plan is to erode the Bolivian government and its leader in particular prior to next year’s elections, which Morales appears likely to win, given the lack of a rival with any real possibilities of standing up to him.
The U.S. administration and its destabilizing tentacles, directed at interrupting at all costs the revolutionary process of change taking place in the country and to overthrow its leader, are well aware of the damaged state of the traditional Bolivian right.
It is also aware that there is no candidate in the wings to rival Morales, despite unsuccessful attempts to create one.
On the other hand, it is well informed of the advances achieved by the Bolivian President in various sectors, which have promoted unity and given him merited prestige worldwide.
His victories include having placed in the international arena Bolivia’s reiterated claim against Chile for maritime access, an impact reflected on the national political stage, giving additional popularity to Morales.
His accomplishments also include United Nations recognition of acullico (the chewing of coca leaves) and the promotion by this international organization of quinoa, an ancestral cereal with exceptional nutritional properties cultivated in Bolivia.
Nobody is in any doubt, not even Washington, that Morales has become a Latin American leader, and de facto, a danger for U.S. interests of domination in the region, given his strong anti-imperialist stance and support of the Patria Grande (Greater Homeland).
On more than a few occasions, the Bolivian leader has condemned the U.S. government for its lack of respect for and interference in Latin American affairs, its flagrant violations of human rights and politics of imposition and oppression.
It is more than evident that Morales is currently an obstacle in the path of the U.S. administration, a man it will attempt to overthrow at any price.
First published in CubaDebate.
