We know alot about democracy

A peasant leader from the Santa Cruz whom I met in the waiting room of a government office asked me what I was interested in about Bolivia. I told him I was interested in how we can democratize our societies and that I thought Bolivia had some things to teach the rest of the world. He responded, “We know a lot about democracy here. In our unions we are very democratic. The problem is that our government has not represented us. Now we are hopeful it will change.”

And therein from what I have learned so far is the secret of what is happening in Bolivia and it is extraordinary. It is not only that Evo Moralis is the first indigenous president in the Americas in 500 years; it is also that campasinos (peasants) and indigenous leaders are running pretty well all the government departments. As the assistant to the minister of agrarian reform told me, “we have taken the movement leaders and made them directors of our departments.” Who knows better than the Cocaleros, the problems of Coca and who better to solve them. The problem,” he added, “is technical and legal issues. So we hire technical people to assist these leaders but it is the movement leaders who are in charge.” When I asked him how the transition is going, after all it is a big leap to go from leading a movement to running a government department. He answers, “bien.”

His job is as he puts it, is to make friends, with the various social movements who are probably better organized in Bolivia than anywhere I have seen. Everyone is in a union from the street vendors to the elementary school children. Campasinos have always had traditional collective organizations and they moved easily from those into unions. Most extraordinary, they are all in the same union federation.

Yesterday I met the first indigenous president of that union, Juan de la Cruz Villca. He also founded the MAS with Evo Morales. That’s him in the pic. He says simply that what has happened is that the majority, the Quechua and the Aymari have taken control of the government. In that sense what is happening is very like the election of the ANC in South Africa. An oppressed and marginalized majority (they are 70% of the population) takes power and like the ANC, the MAS is more like a social movement than a political party.

Of course it is not so simple. Juan says that he understands even though they have taken control of government doesn’t mean they have power. Remberto Cardenas, a left-wing journalist says the problem is that while the MAS (Evo’s party) is changing the personel of government, the structure remains the same and he doesn’t see what they are doing to change the structure. And of course the opposition is organizing. The agrarian reform they are proposing is quite extensive and almost everyone I have spoken is concerned that the big land owners will defend their land possibly with arms when the land distribution starts..