MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolivian Indians feel they can win presidency

Socialist Bolivian peasants' leader Evo Morales is confident he can build an alliance, based on support from the country's indigenous majority, that this time will ensure him victory in December's presidential election.

"For the first time, we can win" said Morales in an interview published Tuesday by Buenos Aires daily Pagina/12.

Morales, who narrowly lost the last presidential election in 2002 has the support of his party Movement Toward Socialism, MAS, and has been endorsed by coca growers unions a strong movement originally formed to oppose U.S.-backed eradication efforts. Coca is natural to the Andes and is an important element in the lives of Indians, besides harvesting good cash if sold to drug dealers.

"Within the peasant movement there is a strongly rooted idea that the time has come for us Indians to rule ourselves. However, as we saw in 2002, it's important to establish alliances with other social forces" added Mr. Morales, who said he was "very optimistic" about an electoral agreement with La Paz Mayor Juan del Granado and the small businesses association.

Mr. Morales is also confident he can attract the vote of the rank and file of Bolivia's Armed Forces and Police forces since they are mostly "Quechuas and Aymaras", the country's two main Indian groups.

However who ever wins next December faces another crucial test in July 2006 when a convention will be chosen to address constitutional reform, giving Indians greater participation, and the controversial issue of regional autonomy for Bolivia's nine provinces.

Mr. Morales admitted that residents of prosperous provinces such as Santa Cruz, a stronghold of secessionist sentiment, fear the constitutional convention will unleash a "revenge" of the Indians on Bolivia's European minority.

"It's not about vengeance or submission to anyone, but rather that we must recognize unity in diversity" argued the Aymara leader.

The controversy is fuelled by the country's natural gas proven resources second only to Venezuela in South America. The lowland "half moon" region of the east, north and south of Bolivia want greater control over "their" mineral resources and support market oriented policies which opened the gas deposits to foreign oil corporations.

They reject pointblank the stance of the "radicals", mostly Indian grassroots and political movements from the highlands, who favour the outright nationalization of the oil and gas industry and expelling foreign investors.

The regional polarization, which has much to do with ethnicity, culture and economics, has created a strong secessionist movement in the east of Bolivia under the banner of the Movement for the Liberation of the Camba Nation.

Founded in 2001, it advocates a new nation called Camba comprising several provinces, including oil and agriculture rich Santa Cruz and Beni covering almost two thirds of Bolivian territory. The Camba Nation project enjoys support from the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

"What we should do is simply and smoothly separate ourselves from Bolivia" Chamber president Zvonko Matkovic said last year.

However in a recent interview in La Paz, Morales rejected the notion of a "confrontation between east and west" in the country.

"What east and west? It's between rich and poor" he said, accusing Santa Cruz separatists of wanting to "hoard" their province's hydrocarbons' riches.

"Why during the peak of tin mining in the west did these gentlemen not ask for autonomy?" said Morales in direct reference to an earlier period when the Andean highlands were Bolivia's wealthiest region.

"In 1825, we did not participate in the founding of Bolivia, in spite of the fact we were the absolute owners of this noble land" argues the Aymara leader recalling that the 2001 census showed Indians represent 62% of Bolivia's population.

"We want to rule ourselves, not to submit to anyone or take revenge on anyone; we want equal rights for all", highlighted Mr. Morales.