A Growing Crisis in Polarized Bolivia
De New York Times para Grandes Montañas
Septiembre 14/2008
LA PAZ, Bolivia — President Evo Morales is facing the most acute crisis of his presidency as deaths from violence in rebellious northern Bolivia increased to almost 30 over the weekend after several days of fierce clashes between antigovernment protestors and supporters of Mr. Morales.
Relative calm returned to the northern department of Pando on Sunday after Mr. Morales declared martial law there, and troops dispatched from La Paz seized control of the airport and other facilities in Cobija, the provincial capital. But the unrest has spread to other parts of Bolivia, and political leaders in the tropical lowlands threatened to resume protests there if killings in Pando continued.
Mr. Morales said the violence was a massacre carried out partly by “Peruvian and Brazilian mercenaries” hired by the governor of Pando, Leopoldo Fernández, who went into hiding to avoid arrest. In comments to local radio, Mr. Fernández denied that accusation and vowed to resist being taken into custody.
The violence points to renewed tension over Mr. Morales’s attempts to redistribute petroleum royalties and to overhaul the constitution to speed land reform and create a separate legal system for Bolivia’s indigenous majority. Most of Bolivia’s natural gas and food is produced in the lowlands, and provincial governments there have chafed at the president’s proposals.
The polarization of the country intensified after Mr. Morales in August won 67 percent approval in a nationwide referendum over his policies, even though voters in three prosperous lowland provinces rejected those policies by wide margins. Governors in eastern departments who urge greater political and economic autonomy from Mr. Morales’s government were reaffirmed in their posts with similar margins.
“You have a conflict between a constitutional national power and a de facto regional power that can only be resolved by constitutional force,” said Heinz Dieterich, a Mexico-based political analyst who writes widely on leftist movements in Latin America. “If Evo does not use the judiciary and the military, there is no way he can govern.”
Loyalty within the Bolivian military itself, however, has also been called into question.Luis Trigo, the top commander of the armed forces, bristled at an assertion by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Mr. Morales’s top ally, that Venezuela could intervene militarily in Bolivia if Mr. Morales were toppled.
On Saturday, Mr. Chávez taunted the Bolivian military further, saying it seemed to be on strike while instability reigned in some areas. Mr. Chávez said that he hoped a meeting of South American leaders convened for Monday in Santiago, Chile’s capital, could alleviate the tension.
The crisis also illustrates waning American influence. Last week Mr. Morales expelled Philip S. Goldberg, the American ambassador here, accusing him of supporting the president’s political opponents. In a show of solidarity, Venezuela expelled the American ambassador in Caracas and Honduras declined to approve the arriving American ambassador.
Bolivia’s government and its neighbors are increasingly looking to Brazil to mediate, even though leaders in the eastern lowlands are irked by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s support for Mr. Morales. Shipments of Bolivian natural gas to Brazil were interrupted last week after saboteurs caused a pipeline explosion in the southern department of Tarija.
Mr. Morales said the violence was a massacre carried out partly by “Peruvian and Brazilian mercenaries” hired by the governor of Pando, Leopoldo Fernández, who went into hiding to avoid arrest. In comments to local radio, Mr. Fernández denied that accusation and vowed to resist being taken into custody.
The violence points to renewed tension over Mr. Morales’s attempts to redistribute petroleum royalties and to overhaul the constitution to speed land reform and create a separate legal system for Bolivia’s indigenous majority. Most of Bolivia’s natural gas and food is produced in the lowlands, and provincial governments there have chafed at the president’s proposals.
The polarization of the country intensified after Mr. Morales in August won 67 percent approval in a nationwide referendum over his policies, even though voters in three prosperous lowland provinces rejected those policies by wide margins. Governors in eastern departments who urge greater political and economic autonomy from Mr. Morales’s government were reaffirmed in their posts with similar margins.
“You have a conflict between a constitutional national power and a de facto regional power that can only be resolved by constitutional force,” said Heinz Dieterich, a Mexico-based political analyst who writes widely on leftist movements in Latin America. “If Evo does not use the judiciary and the military, there is no way he can govern.”
Loyalty within the Bolivian military itself, however, has also been called into question.Luis Trigo, the top commander of the armed forces, bristled at an assertion by the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, Mr. Morales’s top ally, that Venezuela could intervene militarily in Bolivia if Mr. Morales were toppled.
On Saturday, Mr. Chávez taunted the Bolivian military further, saying it seemed to be on strike while instability reigned in some areas. Mr. Chávez said that he hoped a meeting of South American leaders convened for Monday in Santiago, Chile’s capital, could alleviate the tension.
The crisis also illustrates waning American influence. Last week Mr. Morales expelled Philip S. Goldberg, the American ambassador here, accusing him of supporting the president’s political opponents. In a show of solidarity, Venezuela expelled the American ambassador in Caracas and Honduras declined to approve the arriving American ambassador.
Bolivia’s government and its neighbors are increasingly looking to Brazil to mediate, even though leaders in the eastern lowlands are irked by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s support for Mr. Morales. Shipments of Bolivian natural gas to Brazil were interrupted last week after saboteurs caused a pipeline explosion in the southern department of Tarija.
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