[Marxism] FWD: Another Chavez or another Lula?

[dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

Two articles on Evo, one from Clarin from Buenos Aires, the other from the web
site of Econoticiasbolivia.com in Bolivia that functions as a sort of left news
agency, not unlike boliviapress.com. There should be a lot of discussion points
related to these articles.

One quote from the article that is worth commenting on:
?The Bolivian oligarchy, landowners and faithful allies of the foreign
oil companies, applauded yesterday at the feet of the president elect
of Bolivia, Evo Morales, after receiving from him the official
commitment to privatize the deposits of iron and the richest manganese
deposits in the world, guaranteeing the regional autonomy and giving
total security to the investments and properties of industralists and
large estate owners.?

If true, this sucks. There is no ?good? side to this, in my humble opinion. If
this is what is in store for the ?Bolivian Nation?, heaven help them because
the MAS certainly isn?t?it is exactly these sorts of moves, taken behind the
backs of the mass organizations that caused the last president to get ousted.

--David Walters
Pacifica, California

CLARIN, Argentina,
29/12/05
SIGNALS FROM THE PRESIDENT ELECT OF BOLIVIA TO THE ELITES OF THE
EAST (SANTA CRUZ)
Evo Morales defended in Santa Cruz the private property and was
applauded in a meeting with industralists of the richest zone of the
country, their main political adversaries. "I do not have
professional formation. I want to learn of the industralists ", said
the elect president to them.

Evo Morales met one of the greater challenges as the elect president
of Bolivia. In Santa Cruz of the Mountain range, he managed to gain
the unpublished powerful support of civc elites and industrialists,
his greater political adversaries, when expressing his endorsement of
the order of regional autonomies, main flag of the that zone, richest
and developed of the country.

The encounter -- "historical" according to Morales himself -- finished
with applause and mutual promises. The future president met Tuesday
night with the leaders of Comite' Ci'vico Pro Santa Cruz (CCPSC) and
in little more than one hour he managed to break the ice with the
organization that came it attacking with hardness.

There, accompanied by the elect vice-president, Alvaro Garci'a Linera,
he defended private property. In conciliador tone, Morals guaranteed
the accomplishment of an autonomy referendum, the Constituent Assembly
to reform Constitution, the private tenders for the iron and steel
project, it assured legal guarantee to the investments and promised to
govern with transparency and ethics.

"We are going to guarantee the autonomy and the Constituent Assembly",
assured, with the clear objective of conciliating positions between
the powerful east and the backward West of the country. "It is
necessary to recognize that Santa Cruz took the baton to create
conscience on this subject", said to the leader coca grower who on 22
of January will become the first indigenous president of Bolivia.
The leader of the Civic Committee, Germa'n Antelo, agreed for the
first time with Morals and he requested aid to him for "creating
social conscience" for referendo autonomic, anticipated for July.
Santa Cruz headed the demands for autonomy, in which the departments
of Tarija, Beni and Pando were united.

>From those rich regions came the most ferocious critics of the leader
from the Movement to the Socialism (MAS) that from the West led the
social protests that brought the fall of president Gonzalo Sanchez de
Lozada, in October of 2003, and Carlos Mesa, last June. But after the electoral
campaign, Morales moderated his speech and sent clear signals of confidence to
the international oil companies that operate in Bolivia.

His speech in Santa Cruz reaffirmed this position. "I do not want to
harm nobody. I want to neither expropiate nor confiscate anything. I
want to learn from the industralists. I do not have professional
background so it will be an important complement to us.
You have the professional capacity and I the social conscience ", he
affirmed. Although he made clear that the legal security that the
companies demand to invest in the country will obtain only "when the
social problems are solved".

The leader of the MAS also ratified his support for the international
tenders for investment in the Mutún hill, a rich iron deposit on the
border with Brazil. The process was put on hold last week last by the
current president, Eduardo Rodriguez, something that generated strong
protests.

In addition, he invited "one or two representatives" of the civic
committee to participate in a commission of transition of the specific
government for the mining area, to make a investigation of the
prospects of Mutún. That hill contains about 40,000 million tons of
iron, and 10,000 million tons of magnesium (70% of the reserves of
the world, according to the experts).

The intervention of Morales left the regional leaders satisfied. "He
gives a base for a relationship that can benefit the whole country",
the president of the Exporter Camera said, Rosendo Barbery. "We are
satisfied because (...) he assured that the existing rules will not
change, that is the system will continue", said the president of the
Association of Banks, Percy Añes. Morales, who is preparing for a
marathon tour of Cuba, Europe, South Africa and Brazil, visited the
coca growers zone of Chapare yesterday, his bastion, to celebrate
their forceful electoral victory.


EVO OBTAINS THE APPLAUSE OF THE OLIGARCHY
Econoticiasbolivia.com Santa Cruz, December 28, 2005. ?

The Bolivian oligarchy, landowners and faithful allies of the foreign
oil companies, applauded yesterday at the feet of the president elect
of Bolivia, Evo Morales, after receiving from him the official
commitment to privatize the deposits of iron and the richest manganese
deposits in the world, guaranteeing the regional autonomy and giving
total security to the investments and properties of industralists and
large estate owners.

Morals made these commitments in the rooms of the Committee For Santa
Cruz, bastion of the enterprise elites and lodges of the powerful,
which is struggling to obtain an autonomy that preserves them from the
wave of nacionalizadora that has been projecting for five years from
the plateau, and retaining therefore the total control that the
oligarchy and the transnational companies have on the land, the gas,
mining, forest and petroleum, the concentrated wealth in the east of
the country.

Morales, head of the Movement to the Socialism (MAS) and elected the
past Sunday with 54% of the votes, guaranteed to the civic and
enterprise leaders of Santa Cruz the completion of the autonomy
referendum, the Constituent Assembly and gave ample legal guarantees
to the private investments.

He said that the demands of the Santa Cruz elites were same that were
raised by his party and described the extreme right-wing president of
the Committee, Germa'n Antelo, as "one of the best militants of the
MAS", because of their simiar ideas and actions.
"We bet on our unity. I mean that we needed the Civic Committee and
its aid, its advising, its recommendations. We do not love a stone
guest (...) but rather that together we define policies to come out
ahead ", he added. [win-win!]

Applauded seven times by civic leaders and the industralists, who have
made the Committee for Santa Cruz an institution of the extreme right
with fascistoid characteristics serving the powerful petro - large
estate owners, Morales offered his endorsement to bids on the deposit
of the Mutún from the Committee, in spite of the opposition to the
project from environmentalists, unionists and militants of the
president elects own party, who fear that the deamage from the mining
of the natural resources by the transnational companies is being
repeated (to see: Evo gives via free privatizing the Mutún, in
www.econoticiasbolivia.com).

NEITHER EXPROPRIATION NOR CONFISCACIÓN
"I want to learn of the industralists. I do not have professional
background, so it was important that you complement us.
You have the professional capacity and I the social conscience ", said
Morales to them when assuring that when he takes formal possession of
the position, on 22 of January, he will give total guarantees to the
foreign investment, as long as the share of income for the State is
guaranteed as equitable.

"I do not want to harm nobody. I want to neither expropiate nor
confiscate anything", he said when guaranteeing the delivery of the
private concessions to Mutún for 40 years, where one anticipates an
investment of more than $500 million and exports of at least $250
million annually.

MORE PRIVATIZATIONS
"From January, in a cooperative and transparent way, it is necessary
to guarantee the tenders for Mutún. I do not only say it because I am
here, but as a commitment before the people, you, the department of
Santa Cruz ", said Morals, while ratifying that this project "is
urgent, necessary for the regional development and the development of
the Bolivian people."

"That the State and the region benefit, that Bolivia benefits. But
also the investors have all the rights to recover their investment and
to have their profit ", added Morales, who before winning the
elections promising the nationalization of the natural resources.
Officially a production of at least 1.5 million tons of metallic iron
industrialized and the consumption of 3 million cubic meters of
natural gas every day is considered in the Mutún. The income for the
State would be of $30 million in taxes and other $20 million for the
public region and institutions, a fifth part of the total, according
to the projections of the authorities that plan the privatization of
the deposit located in the border with Brazil.
Detractors of the project maintain, on the contrary, that the total
share for the State and the region will only be of 3% of the business,
since in the tenders other minerals of great value are not included,
which will generate huge profits for the transnational companies and
only breadcrumbs for the State, in addition to serious damages to the
natural environment and the economy of the region.

FREE STEP TO AUTONOMY
Another promise of Morales that won the applause of the Santa Cruz
oligarchy was his total acceptance of regional autonomy, without
making it conditional on the decisions of the Constituent Assembly, as
the social and popular organizations demand. The president elect
assured his endorsement to the autonomic process forced by Santa Cruz,
which will be reinforced with a referendum in July of the 2006.
"I say to them, members of the Civic Committee for Santa Cruz, to its
institutions, the department, to Bolivia, we are going to guarantee
the autonomies and the Constituent Assembly", affirmed Morals before
the applause of the meeting in the regional civic building.
"We needed an autonomous State and it is necessary to recognize that
Santa Cruz, evidently, took the lead in creating a greater conscience
on this subject". He added that the autonomies also must open a space
to the indigenous peoples, so that these can have the right to decide
on their future. "A shared, common autonomy", in summary, he concluded.

RESPECT FOR INVESTMENTS
The president elect also challenged the industralists to improve the
quality of life of their workers. "I know that the industralists want
legal security, but what better than solving the social problems. If
there is work, health and education, automatically there will be legal
security. No longer will there be more problems ", he affirmed.
Also, the President elect reiterated that certain principles of equity
in the investments made by private companies must exist. He assured
that his party at no moment was against foreign investment, as long as
these leave gains for the country.

SATISFACTION IN THE OLIGARCHY
After the words of Morales, the civic and enterprise leadership of the
east expressed its clear satisfaction. "He spoke more than what we
requested and spoke on the creation of work, legal security,
attraction of investments and other subjects. It is what we have been
planning in Santa Cruz and now we can hope that it is fulfilled. It
is necessary to work with him after his commitment to Santa Cruz.
Most important, it was than he has clarified which he is not against
the tendering for Mutún, that is satisfying", said to the rightist
Gabriel Dabdoub, president of the Chamber of $industry and Comerce of
Santa Cruz.

"I consider positive and conciliatory the position of the elect
President of Bolivia and in addition he requested our help to govern,
which I consider reasonable. Now it is necessary to see that his words
have a direct relation to the facts. The meeting was necessary for
Santa Cruz and for him, because it gives a basis onf which we can form
a relacionship in order to benefit to the country ", Rosendo Barbery
added, president of the exporters of the East.

"As advisor of the province German Busch I am in agreement with the
position of Mr. Morales and believe that he perceived that the iron
and steel project of Mutún has national importance, and will be of
benefit for the country and not only for a region. In addition, great
weight in particular is given to his request that the Committee for
Santa Cruz collaborates in the process of transition on this point",
said Jaime Even, departmental Advisor.

The satisfaction was also was manifest among the forest industralists.
"The position of Mr. Evo Morales seems to me coherent and for that
reason I am satisfied. I believe that he sent a clear message to the
people of Santa Cruz in the sense that he will support and consolidate
the project of Mutún and others, like the guarantee of the autonomic
process. His visit was fruitful because we know his views on those
and other subjects, which we must now wait to see fulfilled not only
in words ", assured Juan Abuawad, president of the Forest Camera.
www.econoticiasbolivia.com



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