[Marxism] WSJ's Mary Anastasia O'Grady: "Axis of Evo"

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(The tone of wild, hysterical desperation in this Wall Street
Journal assault on Evo Morales is very much an indication of
the fear his victory evokes in the halls of the privileged in
the U.S. Note her smarmy "sympathy" for black and indiginous
peoples. She never expressed such sympathies before Morales'
electoral success. Note the crude hostility toward democracy
also indicated here as the WSJ rails against the fact that 
Morales has a solid majority in his national parliament with
which to begin implementing the programs which brought him 
into office in the recent election. Notice, too, the latest
claim against Hugo Chavez, that the U.S.-endorsed April 2002
against him was, in fact, staged by him. Yes, O'Grady gives
chutzpah a bad name.)
================================================================

THE AMERICAS

Axis of Evo
By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY
January 27, 2006; Page A9
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

There was a time when Evo Morales deserved a chance to show his
democratic bonafides as Bolivia's new head of state. But 96 hours
into the presidency, time's up. Anyone still wondering what Evo has
in mind for his country qualifies for permanent disability -- or a
job at the Organization of American States -- on grounds of terminal
naiveté.

In just a few short days, the great Aymara hope has built a cabinet
of radical and Marxist militants, purged the Bolivian military and
signed a pile of "agreements" with his Venezuelan mentor Hugo Chávez.
There are reports that Cuban security agents are already working for
the new president much as they do for Chávez. If imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery, Evo is buttering Hugo up big time.

The most tragic aspect of Evo's decision to let Cuba and Venezuela
annex his country is where this all leads for the majority Indian
population in one of the region's poorest countries. Their hopes
soared on Sunday as they watched one of their own, from humble
beginnings, sworn into the highest office in the land. They no doubt
think that Evo -- who rose to power by leading coca growers against
crop eradication pushed by U.S. drug warriors -- will care for his
own in ways that the white, upper-class leadership never did. But
Fidel long ago destroyed underclass hopes for a better life and Hugo
is doing the same.

After six years of Chávez, Venezuelans, once ecstatic about their
Bolivarian Revolution, are sinking deeper into poverty. Fidel's
largely Afro-Cuban population is destitute after almost 50 years of
El Máximo Lider.

Most of the world has greeted the Morales presidency with romantic
optimism. His lack of experience and formal education, his fiery
rhetoric laced with old fashion Latin populism, his violent
background and his hard-line friends abroad -- all have been played
down in favor of a "give-him-a-chance" attitude. A Miami Herald
editorial Wednesday noted a few of Mr. Morales' more moderate
statements as "a sign of political maturity."

It's hard to find anyone not hoping that an Evo-led Bolivia, built on
equality under the law, property rights and healthy competition will
emerge. Sadly, though, white guilt is not likely to get off so
easily. The reality is that the Cuban model of totalitarian
"equality" is now the dominant force shaping the Morales government.

One reason this has been slow to dawn is that observers have been
assigning far too much importance to the question of whether foreign
investors will be allowed into Bolivia's rich natural gas industry,
or if, instead, Bolivia will go forward with full blown
nationalization. The answer is probably the former, but so what? As
both Venezuela and Cuba illustrate, such a policy does nothing to
ensure development and reveals very little about whether democracy
and liberty will survive.

Spain's socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is
already trying to elbow his way into Mr. Morales's Bolivia on behalf
of Spanish energy interests, as is Brazil's Luiz Inácio "Lula" da
Silva on behalf of Petrobras. Yet the presence of foreign business
interests in a dictatorship does little for the locals. Both Castro
and Chávez host foreign investors, recognizing them as perfect
business partners because they are politically indifferent as long as
they get their cut. The key to a dictator's control is ensuring that
local interests do not have economic power to challenge the political
status quo.

Mr. Morales has been riding an anti-foreigner wave of populism but is
suddenly warming up to the old Bolivian nemesis, Chile. Undoubtedly,
someone has explained to him that as long as Bolivia relies
exclusively on Brazil and Argentina as markets for its natural gas,
it has weak pricing power. It would not be surprising to see the
angry Bolivian nationalist make a deal with Chile so he could reach
the coast and tap into the rich market for liquefied natural gas up
north.

If that happens it should not be understood as moderation. It would
merely be a calculation about how to secure power. It explains the
first-ever attendance of a Chilean president at a Bolivian
inauguration and Evo's plans to travel to Chile for its inauguration
of Michelle Bachelet.

Better relations between Chile and Bolivia are much to be desired.
But as Venezuela and Iran have made clear, energy income in the hands
of the state does not make citizens better off. We'd be more
encouraged if Evo said something about changing Bolivian property
laws to permit Indians to sell their rural land or if he promised to
change the country's "capitalization" structure of privatized
companies so that shares held in trust for Bolivians by the state
would be distributed to the people.

The other facet of Bolivian reality that some observers expected as a
counterbalance to a presidential power grab is the opposition. Yet,
with a majority in the lower house and solid support in the senate,
Evo may be able to consolidate power "legally" à la Chávez. A
constituent assembly later this year will rewrite the constitution
and if Venezuela is any guide, the concept of limited government will
not be included in the document.

Finally, there is the matter of the military, an institution near and
dear to the heart of an "elected" president who has no intention of
leaving office when his term is up. Again, Chávez's Venezuela
provides the template. To this day, a number of Venezuelan experts
believe that the so-called "coup" of April 11, 2002 was a staged
event, designed expressly for the purpose of identifying high-ranking
Chávez opponents in uniform so they could be relieved of duty and
replaced by less-qualified, loyal soldiers.

On Tuesday, Evo fired 28 Bolivian generals -- essentially the entire
high command -- on charges of treason for allowing the U.S. to
destroy some two dozen Chinese missiles held by the Bolivian
military. He didn't mention that the missiles were obsolete and that
both parties acted within OAS conventions. He then reportedly passed
over the next generation of officers to replace the generals with a
young group of soldiers. There can be little doubt that these new
generals understand well that the president deserves credit for their
accelerated career success.

There are of course differences between Bolivia and Venezuela, the
biggest one being that Evo doesn't have the resources to purchase
influence the way Hugo has done. But that may also explain why he's
moving much faster to neutralize the military and protect his power
against future challengers.



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