MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian democracy “on the verge of crumbling”

Bolivian democracy is “on the verge of crumbling” due to pressures from leftist populism, stated “The Washington Post” in its Monday editorial which also urges a more concerted support effort from neighbouring countries and the United States to the beleaguered government of President Carlos Mesa.

The influential daily says that anti-government demonstrations and highway roadblocks that have paralyzed much of the country for the past several weeks are designed to oust President Mesa, following the pattern which "drove one democratically elected president from office 18 months ago", in direct reference to pro-Washington Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

Leading the protests against President Mesa, who, as vice president, succeeded Mr. Sanchez de Lozada upon his resignation, is "former coca farmer" Evo Morales and leader of the Movement Toward Socialism, MAS, the main opposition party.

The radical insurgents he heads "claim to represent the country's indigenous population," says the Post which also claims that economic uncertainty is bound to drive away foreign investment from one of Latin America's poorest countries.

The Post argues that "the populists ride a leftist wave of momentum in Latin America and have the rhetorical and possibly material support, from the region's self-styled 'Bolivarian' revolutionary, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez", suggesting that to overcome the risky situation, Bolivian democrats must request foreign help not only from neighbouring countries but also from Washington.

In contrast to other political crisis in Andean countries, which "portray a poor and disenfranchised indigenous majority pitted against an ethnically European and mestizo elite", in Bolivia's case Mr. Mesa has the support of two-thirds of public opinion whereas Mr. Morales' MAS "has never received more than 21% percent of the vote in an election".

The editorial also notes that Bolivia's experiment with open-market policies in the 1990s which Morales seeks to "reverse", substantially helped the poor, with per capita incomes rising "by 20% in the second half of the decade". Because of private foreign investment, "significantly more Bolivians gained access to water, sewage systems and electricity". Mindful that it was the use of force against demonstrators in October 2003, with at least sixty people killed, that led to Mr. Sanchez de Lozada's resignation, President Mesa has promised he will not call in security forces to repress protesters.

However Mr. Morales, contends the Post, finds himself under no such restriction and in fact is "bent on using force" to push forward with his agenda. Already MAS and its supporters have virtually halted natural gas exports to the United States and the opposition inspired "current strikes are aimed at stopping further foreign investment in that industry through confiscatory taxes and reversing the privatization of other industries".

Two weeks ago, in a desperate effort to break the political impasse, Mr. Mesa handed in his resignation, but Congress refused to accept it. Then, last week he proposed that national elections for president and Congress be advanced two years to next August, but Congress also rejected the initiative.

But in spite of all the turmoil Mr. Morales and the Congressional opposition are still threatening to renew the blockade that has strangled the country, and there are renewed talks of "secession in Bolivia's relatively prosperous and pro-capitalist eastern provinces".

The Post writes that "all of this is good news for Mr. Chavez, who along with Cuba's Fidel Castro dreams of a new bloc of Latin 'socialist' - i.e., undemocratic - regimes that will join with like-minded states such as Iran, Libya and China to oppose the United States".

Bolivia's neighbours - Brazil, Argentina and Chile, in particular - "ought to be alarmed by this trend; but though their own leftist governments have expressed support for Mr. Mesa they have refrained from more concerted action ... such as demanding that Mr. Chavez cease his meddling", insists The Washington Post.

Finally the Post highlights that the US State Department last week issued a statement expressing its "support for the people of Bolivia and a peaceful democratic process". But the Washington daily concludes rather pessimistically that "if there is a deeper U.S. policy to head off the breakdown of democracy in Latin America, there isn't much sign of it".

Meantime in La Paz the Bolivian Hydrocarbons Chamber, made up of foreign corporations, warned that the controversial Hydrocarbons Bill to be debated in the Senate in the coming days is "regressive and counterproductive" and means a "confiscation of the investments made in the country".