Some left trends regard the Evo Morales administration as part of the Latin American “anti imperialist field” in a fierce combat against imperialism, especially the American one, together with Chavez, Fidel Castro and others.
It is obvious that Evo’s administration differs from the ones headed by direct agents of imperialism, such as the Colombian Uribe or the Mexican Calderon. It even is different from the Lula or the Tabare Vazquez administration, which took over in the midst of great popular expectations but soon proved to be pro imperialist.
But we assert that the difference with Lula or Tabare does not stem out of Evo’s “vocation for anti imperialist struggle” but out of the different political conditions under which each one of them is to govern. Emerged out of a revolutionary process, Evo is compelled to combine the need of responding somehow to the claims of the masses while trying to affect the interests of imperialism, Bolivian bourgeoisie and of stronger bourgeoisies on the continent (e.g.: Brazil) as little as possible.
The weakness of his measures on the grounds of the hydrocarbons and mining are the result of this combination: they were made to press for just a slightly bigger slice of the produce of this wealth without affecting the main issue: the looting on the natural resources to which the country is submitted.
Actually, Evo is aiming at an economic pattern of an exporter of gas and minerals, which is compatible with the imperialist projects. What is under discussion and causes the war-of-tugs with imperialism and Brazilian bourgeoisie is the size of the slice that will stay in the country after the looting and how it is to be shared out internally and if Evo is the most reliable man to carry out this project.
The government’s lack of anti imperialist vocation has been mouthed clearly by the vice president himself, Alvaro Garcia Linera. In a last year’s address he said, “USA is, was, and will be a strategic ally for Bolivia”. And so as not to leave any room for doubt, he added, “relations with the USA are increasingly good.” (Clarin 20/10/2006)
If there is anything that shows this policy of “strategic alliance with USA” in full clarity (meaning: submission to imperialism) it is the presence of Bolivian troops in Haiti as part of the UN Blue Helmets. Just as several Haitian and international organisations have already exposed, this occupation, which represses and murders Haitian people, is in the service of keeping Haiti in a colonial situation in benefit of American imperialism.
Bolivian soldiers were sent originally in 2002 by the Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada administration. Since then the contingents have been renewed by the governments that followed. Last year there was a debate inside the Evo administration as to whether to keep the troops there or to bring them home. Evo defined the issue in favour of keeping them in Haiti as a message of Friendship towards the USA. The public explanation he gave was hard to believe. “The presence of these Bolivian peace troops allows the country to count on an income from 3 million dollars and create 215 jobs. (Quoted after www.lahaine.org. 16/09/06
The truth is that the “anti imperialist Evo administration is an accomplice, just as any other Latin American governments, of the colonial occupation of the country that, in the early XIX century, spawned the first free republic in Latin America. We must demand immediate withdrawal of these soldiers from Haiti!
