Statement on the current political situation in Bolivia

bolivia/peru/ecuador/chile | the left | opinion/analysis Thursday September 18, 2008 18:16 by Organización Comunista Libertaria de Chile - OCL - Chile ocl.chile at gmail dot com

by the Chilean Organización Comunista Libertaria

Latin America is at a crossroads. Like what is happening in Venezuela, imperialism - in collusion with the Bolivian bourgeoisie - is trying to destabilize the process of political and economic reforms led by President Evo Morales Ayma, a process that is disrupting the political scene in a continent which until not so long ago was "pacified" by the use of military coups. [Castellano]

Statement on the current political situation in Bolivia

by the Chilean Organización Comunista Libertaria

Latin America is at a crossroads. Like what is happening in Venezuela, imperialism - in collusion with the Bolivian bourgeoisie - is trying to destabilize the process of political and economic reforms led by President Evo Morales Ayma, a process that is disrupting the political scene in a continent which until not so long ago was "pacified" by the use of military coups.

This process is undoubtedly a contradictory one and at the moment it is increasingly clear to the masses that there are no half measures that do not mean sacrificing the interests of all the people and the workers to the oligarchy that is seeking to regain its lost ground with assassinations and coup attempts. Concern about the consequences that may arise from the current political crisis in Bolivia has attracted the presidents of the member states of the Union of South American Nations, who on the one hand, have to condemn destabilizing events, but who on the other have called on the Bolivian government to seek an understanding with the Bolivian Half Moon oligarchy. The magnitude of the fascist rebellion, the apparent intervention of U.S. imperialism, as well as the overwhelming popular support for the government simply go to confirm the absurdity of such an understanding.

At this time, with the Movimiento al Socialismo and President Morales having won themselves some time, there is no alternative but for them to assert themselves strongly among the mobilized masses and that section of the military that is loyal to the government, in order to widen the scope of the "October Agenda", which is an expression of the revolutionary process that the people have been building for many years on a growing wave of accumulated forces. On the other hand, the vacillating policy of seeking an understanding with fascism has clear implications, eloquently demonstrated by the Chilean experience of "Unidad Popular". This experience not only highlights the limits of the bourgeois democratic framework, it also demonstrates that there is no possibility of dialogue with the putschists: it simply enable the bourgeoisie and imperialism to align their forces to make the decisive blow, which would lead the Bolivian popular movement into butchery of untold proportions. That is why it is so urgent to take forceful measures against the paramilitary groups operating in the "Half Moon" and against any coup-inclined, middle- and high-ranking officers in Bolivian Armed Forces.

But beyond the possibilities offered by reformism, it has become essential for there to be unity among those sectors of society of a more revolutionary bent so that a common path that goes beyond the narrow framework of bourgeois legality can be mapped out. Indeed, there is an urgent need for the wise Bolivian popular movement to expand the revolutionary process without hesitation, to win over soldiers, the working class, anti-putschist and socialist NCOs and officers to the side of the people, to develop the embryos of popular power and immediately take on the tasks of defending working-class interests, to come up with a revolutionary program that will bring socialism, once and for all, to the heart of Latin America.

Moreover, we would like President Chavez - with the same force with which he condemned the murder of 30 Bolivian peasants at the hands of Bolivian "Cambas" (lowlanders) in the province of Pando - to condemn and prosecute those responsible for the treacherous murder earlier this month of four combatants of the Bolivarian Forces of Liberation (FBL) on the border with Colombia at the hands of "pitiyanqui" troops from the Bolivarian State's security forces; four revolutionaries who joined 300 farmers, two comrades of the Coordinadora Simón Bolívar, a Tupamaro councilor and a member of the Colectivo Alexis Vive from the January 23 Parish in Caracas, killed by paramilitary gangs operating with impunity under the noses of the government and in full complicity with the imperialists, the "escualidos" and sectors of the Bolibourgeoisie.

Lastly, the imperative need to push ahead with the revolutionary tasks is not only a guarantee for the happiness of our people, but the only way to defend the lives of and win freedom for millions of human beings.

Organización Comunista Libertaria de Chile

16 September 2008

Translation by FdCA-International Relations Office