Loving and Hating Evo

All over the country I´ve been soliciting people´s opinions of Evo Morales, who was elected in 2005 as the first indigeonous President of Bolivia. Evo, a former Coca farmer, has controvercially said that "the worst enemy of humanity is US capitalism" and has been closely with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela to pursue a more socialist vision for the continent. He has made moves to nationalize the Bolivian gas industry to bring more revenue to the state and re-write the consitution so that the country´s indigenous majority (which has been oppressed for years) has more power. There are people who think he´s a saint. There are people who think he´s the devil. The only sentiment Evo doesn´t inspire is apathy.


In La Paz, particularly in the San Pedro Prison, there is pro-Evo graffiti everywhere. It wasn´t until we got to Potosi, one of the country´s poorest cities, that we began to hear desent. Generally, the people working in the mines (most of whom are indigeonous) think of Evo as on of them. But the guy who worked for the tour company that took us through the mines told us that although Evo himself was a good man, the government continued to be corrupt: it was ¨the same woman, just wearing a different skirt." For example, he said, the guy given a job as minister of tourism for Bolivia was a farmer didn´t know a thing about foreign visitors. Though Evo had claimed things like this would change when he gained power, everything stayed the same. It wasn´t clear if the man thought Evo was the perpetrator of the victim of the system.

But Efra, our guide in the Potosi mines, was much more scathing of Evo - he called him a son of a bitch who talked about improving education (such as offering classes in the indigenous languages which most of the populations speaks), but who actually had done nothing to actually improve access to good teachers and schools. Efra said that before he started giving tours, he thought that Evo was great, just like the other miners. But in talking to foreigners and hearing about what other goverments did, he felt duped and no longer trusted Evo´s rhetoric.

In Sucre, which is still officially Bolivia´s capital (that´s the government Building, right) , the antipathy against Evo was deeper and more wide spread. After a civil war 100 years ago, the executive power for the company was moved from Bolivia to La Paz. Evo opposes consitutional change that would shift power back to Sucre. A few months ago, three students were killed by police during a protest of Evo´s opposition to the consitution. The policeman responisble was never found or prosecuted. Now the city is covered with posters saying "Evo es un Asesino" (Evo is a murderer).

And then, just last week, the Department (Province) of Chucisaqa, which contains Sucre, elected a new Governor (the first woman to be elected a Governor in Bolivia!) with over 50% of the vote in a field of 3 candidates. Evo´s handpicked candidate lost badly - and it was apparently a stinging defeat.who won with 55% of the vote out of 3 candidtates. She was installed this past week, and we actually saw the Departmental Band playing at her inaguration in the main plaza of Sucre (though we didn´t know what was actually going on until the next day.)

After a 16 hour bus ride, Nate and I arrived in our last city in Bolivia: Santa Cruz . . . the heart of the opposition to Evo´s power. Ironically, it´s also the part of the country that, because of its nearly tropical climate, most resem like Cuba (or how I imagine Cuba would look). Santa Cruz is the most oil-rich part of the country (a lot of the land is owned by foreigners) and its business center. Evo has threatened a program of wealth and land re-distribution (nationalizing the gas industry, using revenue from the Department´s gas taxes to fund projects in poorer Departments, redistributing land to indigenous people, etc) and the people here are not happy.

The anti-Evo sentiments are scrawled everywhere on the on walls (left). In May Santa Cruz voted to be an autonomos region not subject to control by the central Bolivian goverment. There were protests and the police got violent. The date of the next big showdown is August 10: a national referendum/recall election that will decide whether Evo and the Congress stay in office. Evo has said that August vote will give him a new mandate to pursue his agenda. While the political currents here absolutely fascinating, lets just say I´m glad I´ll be long gone from this region by then.

Update: When I said Santa Cruz looks as I imagine Cuba to look, I spoke too soon. I had seen Santa Cruz on a Sunday, when it´s fairly quiet and sleepy. Come Monday, it´s a bustling metropolis. Amazing what a difference a day makes.