MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Morales 'king' of Bolivia; his two thirds majority in congress open the way to reform the constitution
President Evo Morales swept to a third term with 61% of the vote, electoral officials said in confirming the result. The October 12 balloting was a massive vote of support and a strong mandate to expand his reforms which will have a swift legislative discussion since Morales party obtained two thirds of the Legislative Assembly benches. Read full article
Comments
Disclaimer & comment rulesLooks like another Latin American 'President for Life'. They do love a good old fiddle with the Constitution, don't they?
Oct 20th, 2014 - 09:00 am - Link - Report abuse 0Nice to hear the good news about the economy though. I hope that it continues.
Why mince words and say REFORM. It's ”change to constitution to be another dictocrat in a 3rd world dictoracy. Everyone in SA wants to be a Castro bother.....only this one is a coker. And what's with the chief's girlscout band around his chest?
Oct 20th, 2014 - 09:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0“... and could even reform the Bolivian constitution with no need to consult with the opposition, which fears he could approve the indefinite re-election and thus perpetuate himself in office.”
Oct 20th, 2014 - 10:33 am - Link - Report abuse 0So it begins... “I just need another four years to implement my policies for the benefit of the country, no, hang on, make that six years, umm.. probaly best make it eight... oh sod it! Look, I'm staying put, I like here!”
Depressingly familiar story.
It is just proof that South America is clueless as to what democracy is. Leadership without opposition and without critical review or checks and balances...........is what?
Oct 20th, 2014 - 11:30 am - Link - Report abuse 0You can lead them to the water and you CAN make them drink. Voters in SA just follow and never ever think for themselves.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 11:37 am - Link - Report abuse 0Kind of rather sad in that respect....but is explains why they never have working or a long running, functional economy.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 11:52 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 2 Captain Poppy
Oct 20th, 2014 - 12:07 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“And what's with the chief's girlscout band around his chest?”
He hasn't realised it yet, but the thing in the middle is the aiming mark.
It will come to that when his head and its' cowpat gets too big for his own and the country's good. It is always thus in SA.
lol
Oct 20th, 2014 - 12:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0While there is no perfect democracy, why does SA countries always seem to move the farthest from democracy?
8. Hacienda (plantation) mentality, they want a strongman in charge to tell them what to do.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 12:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I have never thought democracy is the be all end all for every nation. For it to work you must have an educated, hard working, low corruption society. That's not the Alba nations, that's not the Mid East, that's not a lot of places.
We are living in exciting times. It will be interesting to watch how the next couple of decades roll out.
9.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 01:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I agree. This is also known as 'caudillismo'. It's an actual thing. I remember years ago at University I took Sociology of Latin America for a year. One of the subjects was 'The Role of the Caudillo in Latin American Society'
It has a lot of parallels and connections to the 'messianic' or Saviour figure in Latin American Politics. Such as Evita, Chavez or even Bolivar himself. El Libertador coming to save infantalised people. The Strongman!
Also known as Daddy. ...
eurgh!
“ nationalized a broad range of industries, including oil, gas, mining, telecommunications and water; rolled out welfare grants for the elderly, children and expectant mothers”
Oct 20th, 2014 - 01:46 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Easy to appropriate other peoples money, freely hand it out and see an economic up tick as all this “free” money is spent.
The problem is two-fold. The 'free money” from the the theft is a onetime thing. Its gone.
Second, the nationalized industries that are now earning a profit will decline in efficiency and productivity and stop earning a profit and will actually become a drain on the economy as rates are repeatedly raised, and additional national resources are diverted to continue to keep the financial welfare benefits flowing.
Its not sustainable.
Giving away other peoples money makes the recipients happy for awhile. Then they come to believe that they are entitled to that continuous free flow of money. At which point you either continue to divert money to just keep them from rioting, or they riot.
Its not an IF, its a WHEN situation.
@11. Broadly-speaking, I agree with you.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 02:39 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Has Bolivia paid a fair and reasonable amount to the companies it nationalised? Anyone know?
These things can come back to haunt you...
”Venezuela must pay oil giant Exxon Mobil $1.6bn (£1bn) in compensation for expropriated assets, an international arbitration tribunal has decided.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29561345
There are a lot of other companies queueing up too. Just one, CONOCO, is looking for a further $4 billion. This is all from 2007, it can take sometime to get it all through the international courts/World Bank etc.
Is there a massive invoice to be paid at some point in Bolivia's future?
Again, hear this bunch of mediocres without anything coherent to say but wish failure to this successful president who has just been voted in by an overwhelming majority of Bolivians.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 04:22 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Come on people. Ditch your prejudices and try to understand the new realities. In any event, the world is going ahead without you. Go back and finish reading the article. Mercopress cannot be suspected of being a leftist medium, however it somehow did mention in the three last paragraphs the reasons Evo Morales has earned so much respect.
Ilsen: you started well at #1 but quickly succumbed to peer pressure and had almost to apologize for wishing well to Bolivia.
#13 Enrigue,
Oct 20th, 2014 - 05:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I certainly wish Bolivia well and I hope they have a great future. I fear of them however.
My concern for Bolivia's people is simply that too many other governments over the past 100+ years have taken this same path and it has never ended well for the people.
The “success” that was described is simply a short-term, non-sustainable result of the government appropriating billions of $$ in private industry.
And your statement about the “world going ahead”.... you see? That's the problem. You might think these are NEW and PROGRESSIVE ideas.
They are not.
The policies are old, and the patterns repeat. Short-term benefit, Long-term suffering (the people, not the politicos who NEVER suffer).
@13 I certainly don't need your approval, or anyone elses.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 05:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I do wish Bolivia well, and agree that this was a fair election. My worry is that the Bolivian people will one day wake up to a very nasty reality. I am pleased the economy is growing, now, in the short-term. My concern is that the bubble will burst and it will descend into the chaos that my beloved Venezuela is now embroiled in. Evo dedicated his victory to Chavez and Castro. You are saying that this is positive? Look how it has turned out for them.
Is it Evo's dream to take his country down the same path?
That is why I agree wholeheartedly with the poster @14
Try to understand the new realities.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 05:52 pm - Link - Report abuse 0There is nothing new about socialism. But to leftists who ignore realities and history that are contrary to their fantasies, socialism is eternally “the way of the future”.
Overwhelming majority? No kidding! That's what happens with overwhelming handouts.
The last three paragraphs clearly show why Morales is so successful?
1)sweeping changes - what were the sweeping changes? There is no substance in that one sentence paragraph. Change is automatically good? No need to mention what those changes were?
2)nationalizing businesses - That is automatically good too, to you at least. Why is appropriating private business an automatically good thing?
welfare grants? Those aren't even empowerment programs, they are blatant handouts.
moved to empower marginalized groups? That is indeed noble. What specifically were those moves and did they actually produce anything? Again a statement of no substance. If it has no substance, it can't be a reason for anything.
3) a well performing economy - This is indeed a credit to Morales' performance as it happened on his watch. No argument there.
Can you name a few other socialist economies with so many nationalized companies that have also exhibited this level of economic performance? Why would one success story indicate to you this system is the wave of the future. “The New Reality” or just the same old socialist fantasy.
Bloated government is only good for elitist politicians and bureaucrats, and ultimately a disaster for all the poor, hard working people of a country. That is a very old reality. Nothing new about it.
Venezuela is the “new reality”? Argentina is the “new reality”. Oh, great! Just bloody great!
Well,
Oct 20th, 2014 - 07:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Good or bad, one tends to think that CFK must be mighty envious of
Evo Morales ,
leader for life,
Bolivia is part of ALBA, not the PA. Which group is making the most progress?
Oct 20th, 2014 - 07:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“” Bolivia's economy grew 6.8% last year and is forecast to grow more than five percent this year, one of the fastest rates in the region.“”
Oct 20th, 2014 - 07:54 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Considering it had gotten pretty close to hitting rock bottom, suppose it can only go up.
But let's see what the “nationalization of a broad range of industries, including oil, gas, mining, telecommunications and water, plus the rolling out of welfare grants for the elderly, children and expectant mothers” is going to do in the medium term...my guess is that politicians (Evo's buddies) will be appointed CEO's of the nationalized companies - without a clue as how to run them, thousand of “Bolivarian” sympathizers will be taken on - to have a job, not work, corruption will become rampant, inefficiency will set in, productivity will go down the drain, prices and inflation will get out of control etc...we've all seen this film before, and while I would much prefer to see Bolivia go ahead - and in the RIGHT direction - I'm not so sure that they won't give into the temptation to eventually abandon orthodox economic policies and adopt the usual 'socialist /populist' style of government .....and the welfare grants, look like the first step in that direction....a bottomless pit, unless employment and productivity can grow enough to sustain the burden.
Tough choices ahead, now remains to see which ones Morales goes for.
I hope it doesn't develop into the usual scenario of the unions running the nationalised industries. With any incompetent workers or management becoming 'unsackable' as the the incumbent party is too dependent on their vote. Or the government plunderingthe nation's wealth on useless, mismanaged pet political projects and short-term handouts to boost their own popularity. Or the political elite siphoning off $millions for their mates.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 08:15 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry to be a cynic, but I just saw this horror movie in Venezuela, it is now turning into a 'snuff-movie'.
*shudder*
Good Luck Bolivia!
Eventually, one has to assume that Bolivia and indeed the majority of Latam will find a way out of poverty. Sadly, very few believe the Castro/Chavez/Morales model is one that will work...however, it is a democratically elected model and it is the duty of all those who believe in democracy to support it...however terrible it might appear.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 08:26 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Certainly there are Asian examples of where countries have “learnt the hard way”, thrown off the shackles of Socialism and now are relatively prosperous and growing economies.
Good Luck Bolivia....
@21 sadly we cannot assume anything.
Oct 20th, 2014 - 08:37 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Re: the posts @14 & @16, I think it was Einstien who said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” (but has also been attributed to both Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin, so forgive me).
Yes, I certainly do respect the democratic outcome but fear for the future of a country that has suffered much in the past. I fear they will get swept up in a foolish ideology and ultimately go the way of VeneCuba.
No-one can tell me those people are happy with their lot, can they?
@21 Monkeymagic
Oct 22nd, 2014 - 05:11 pm - Link - Report abuse 0What you wrote in yr first paragraph : “however, it is a democratically elected model and it is the duty of all those who believe in democracy to support it...” has some truth in it, BUT the problem lies in the fact that 'democracy' allows groups who have no interest at heart other than their own, to get elected....and once in power, attempt to change things to suit their needs...all under the guise of 'democracy' ....and this is only possible because the majority of the people have not yet learned to think for themselves, are easily manipulated by false promises. A true democracy would never allow a Decree-Law, such as the one drafted by the PT and signed by Dilma without Congress's knowledge (other than the PT members) - DL 8.243/2014, signed 23 May 2014 - to exist....If it is not revoked by Congress, which has already expressed its intention to do so, it is the fast-track to becoming Venezuela.
And regarding your comments on the Asian countries, the fact that they have recently been through civil strife and extremely hard times...'learned the hard way' as you correctly put it - which Latin America hasn't - has given them the chance to realize that this 'false' democracy by wannabe dictators, does not work... If the general public in Latam were smart enough and not kept in the dark, they could learn from the xperience of others, instead of having to bang their heads against the wall to find out that it hurts...
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