Vol. 72/No. 33      August 25, 2008

Morales had ordered the vote in an attempt to undermine his opponents, who have blocked land reform, opposed nationalization of natural resources, and stalled proposals for a new constitution. Podemos, the main opposition group, also backed the recall, hoping they could deal blows to the central government. Two opposition governors lost the vote, as did one pro-Morales governor.

As candidate of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), Morales took office in December 2005 when he won 53.7 percent of the vote. Formerly a leader of Bolivian peasants, he is the first indigenous president in the history of Bolivia.

At least 55 percent of Bolivians are Quechua or Aymara and 30 percent are of mixed ancestry, known as mestizo.

Morales’s 2005 election came at a time of widespread mobilizations by peasants and workers resisting the plunder of the country’s resources by imperialist corporations and local capitalists and landlords.

Even though Bolivia has the second-largest gas reserves in South America, as of 2006 more than 75 percent of Bolivians lacked running water and only 15 percent had electricity.

Revenues to the national government boomed after Morales nationalized natural gas fields, renegotiated contracts, and took measures for energy revenues to go directly to the federal, not provincial, governments. Bolivia now keeps 85 percent of the profits. Combined with rising prices, exports have nearly doubled since 2005 to $4.7 billion last year.

Since his election, the Morales government has expanded cash payments to more than 2 million children and the elderly. Investment in roads and other public works has jumped from $629 million in 2005 to $1.1 billion in 2007.

“Other presidents put money in their pockets and gave none of it to us,” Isabel Quispe told the Washington Post the day of the vote to explain her support for Morales.  
 
Wealthy landlords infuriated
While some land has been distributed to landless peasants, Morales has vowed not to expropriate private property, with the exception of fallow land in the east. But even these limited measures have infuriated wealthy landowners who have so far successfully slowed or blocked land distribution.

When the deputy land minister visited a 37,000-acre cattle ranch in Caraparicito in February, amid claims of forced servitude of Guaraní Indians who work there, the rancher who owns the hacienda shot out the minister’s tires.

In December 2007 four eastern provinces—Beni, Pando, Santa Cruz, and Tarija, where most of the country’s natural gas is produced and the largest farms are based—approved symbolic autonomy statutes.

Leaders of the proimperialist Podemos charge that the Morales government is unfairly favoring the indigenous majority of the highlands against the more heavily white eastern provinces and is “an absolute satellite” of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Venezuela has provided millions of dollars in assistance to Bolivia.

The conflict heated up in the days before the recall vote. When Morales flew to the opposition-run city of Santa Cruz August 6, rightists surrounded the football stadium where he was to speak and blocked roads. The event at the stadium was cancelled.

The president then flew to Trinidad where about 100 opposition youth on motorcycles circled the airport to disrupt his arrival. Morales’ plane did not land in Trinidad, but returned to La Paz. Instead, two of his ministers addressed a rally in Trinidad of thousands of peasants and other working people.

Prior to the vote, Percy Fernández, the opposition mayor of Santa Cruz, openly called for the military to overthrow the “useless government.”  
 
Offers olive branch
After the initial results of the referendum, both sides claimed victory. Morales addressed several thousand cheering supporters from the balcony of the presidential palace in La Paz. Many in the crowd chanted “firm hand,” urging Morales to get tough with the opposition.

While he promised that his government would “continue to advance in recovering natural resources and state enterprises and in consolidating nationalizations,” he also held out an olive branch to the opposition.

Morales called for the unity of Bolivians, which he said could be achieved by combining a new “constitution with the autonomy statutes” approved in the four eastern provinces.

La Razón, a La Paz-based daily, lauded the “careful and cautious” speech by Morales and the moderate, conciliatory tone of the opposition “with the exception of Governor Rubén Costas.” The Santa Cruz governor called the outcome “a defeat for centralism” and said his province would create its own police force and tax department.  
 
Agreement with striking workers
Leading up to the recall vote, Morales also moved to reach agreement with striking miners, teachers, and health workers organized by the Bolivian Workers Federation (COB). The union is demanding bigger pensions and a lowering of the retirement age to 55. Two strikers were killed August 5 when police cleared a road occupied by unionists from Huanuni, the largest tin mine in the country.

The day before the recall a tentative agreement between the government and the COB was announced. The accord calls for approving a new pension law within 45 days, an investigation into the deaths of the two miners, and compensation for their families.  
 
 
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