bolivia vs. the machine

In The Shock Doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism, Naomi Klein dedicates many pages to the description of U.S. involvement in the state affairs of Bolivia in 1985. She highlights in particular a secret economic plan involving Chicago-school acolyte Jeffrey Sachs, backed by the promise of U.S. aid in a country that was undergoing massive hyperinflation and a full-fledged economic crisis. This plan was secret because it was implemented as part of a power deal between former dictator Hugo Banzer, and the more popular Victor Paz Estenssoro, whose party was running on a platform of nationalization [pg. 173]. Despite being elected on this platform, Paz (who hid his dealings even from his own party) proceeded to implement rapid deregulation of the Bolivian market, as well as privatization of many of the nationalized services in Bolivia, silencing all opposition with force.

The story in Bolivia is continuing. Gradually, despite a U.S. intent on maintaining a completely unregulated market in Latin America, its grip on Bolivia has been slipping. A glaring manifestation of this was the 2000 "water war", in which the citizens of Cochabamba protested against the private control of the water system by the Bechtel Corporation, currently listed by Forbes as the 9th-largest corporation in the U.S. Facing rising water prices that denied access to Cochabamba's many poor residents, this culminated in public demonstrations which turned into riots when police utilized tear gas and other violent means of suppression. In the end, Bechtel pulled out of Bolivia altogether [see this CBC article, and this most recent development].

The tide has turned against the failed experiment of unfettered privatization in Bolivia. This has been marked by the rise of Evo Morales, the indiginous labour union organizer who was elected to the presidency of Bolivia in 2005 with an overwhelming majority, on the platform of renationalizing the failed Bolivian economy [see Time and Democracy Now; he's even been on the Daily Show]. However, it is obvious that the U.S. does not want to let go. This is outlined in this open letter to government, cosigned by many leading academics (including Klein).

The upshot of the situation is that the U.S. Administration is currently spending millions on projects in Bolivia, the details of which it refuses to make public. There is good reason to suspect, however, that these donations are going primarily to provincial governers and opposition organizers, who have increasingly been witnessed as participating in, or contributing to, violent opposition protests. Quite recently, Morales declared U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg persona non grata, effectively kicking him out of his country. As his rationale he declared:

Without fearing anybody, without fearing the Empire – I declared Mr Goldberg persona non-grata. We do not want separatist or divisionist people that conspire against unity or democracy.

This new opposition to economic imperialism is not excluded to Bolivia, of course. The anti-capitalist triumphs of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez are becoming legendary (but that's for another entry), and Brazilian President Lula da Silva responded to a question about Morales' decision to oust Goldberg by saying:

If it is true that the U.S. ambassador was meeting with the opposition to Morales, then Morales was right to kick him out. It is definitely not an ambassador’s role to engage in politics inside the country. He is there representing his country, in a relationship between one state and another, he is representing the State.

What is becoming clear is that the world is beginning to adapt to the classic tricks of capitalist imperialism. How this evolves is still anyone's guess, but it's certainly a story worth following...