The trigger of South America

The Indigenous Intifada of the Americas has won another victory.

Hamid Golpira

With 90 percent of the ballots counted, it seems that Bolivian President Evo Morales received over 60 percent of the vote in Sunday’s recall election, ensuring that he will stay in office until his term ends in 2011.

Morales, who is a member of the Aymara ethnic group, became the first indigenous leader of Bolivia in nearly 500 years after his inauguration in 2006.

The indigenous people of Bolivia and the rest of South America have suffered through five centuries of oppression, which began with the European invasion and conquest of the Americas.

In Bolivia, the situation has been terrible for the Native Americans, even though it is one of the few indigenous majority countries of the Americas.

The “white” upper class of Bolivia has monopolized power for 500 years while the indigenous people have lived under a caste system which places them at the bottom as virtual serfs.

The upper class of Bolivia identify themselves as descendents of the white European settlers, although many are actually light-skinned mestizos, so there is also an element of denial in the country’s racist caste system, which is often the case in racial caste systems.

The indigenous people of Bolivia were kept down, their rights were trampled upon, and they were given little or no access to social services, adequate health care, and higher education. In addition, they were rarely given the opportunity to acquire higher-paying jobs and most are still not even earning a proper living wage in Bolivia, which is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, despite its vast natural gas reserves.

The “white” upper class retained their privileged status through this caste system, which marginalized the Native Americans for centuries.

And these are the same people who are behind the efforts to oust Morales and the illegal autonomy referendums recently held in the provinces in the eastern lowlands of the country, where many of the “whites” live.

Morales’ victory in the 2005 presidential election struck fear into the hearts of the “white” upper class because they realized that they were beginning to lose power.

When Morales took office and began implementing his plan to restore the indigenous peoples’ rights, rewrite the Constitution, redistribute wealth to the poor, and renationalize the country’s hydrocarbon assets, the “white” community became even more desperate.

The illegal autonomy referendums were a part of their counter-revolutionary response to the threat to their power and privilege.

Che Guevara was killed in Bolivia and his remains were interred in a secret grave there for 30 years until they were discovered in 1997 and sent to Cuba for reburial in a more dignified grave.

It is said that the revolutionary sprit of Che lives on in Bolivia.

Indeed, in one of his first acts after taking office in 2006, Morales hung up a portrait of Che Guevara in the presidential palace.

Commenting on the importance of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Frantz Fanon once said: “Congo is the trigger of Africa.”

And across the ocean, in Africa’s twin continent, South America, which separated when Pangaea broke up millions of years ago, Congo has a sister country, Bolivia.

For today, Bolivia is the trigger of South America.

Bolivia is now the center of the Indigenous People’s Movement of the Americas.

The winds of change are blowing across the continent of South America, from Tiahuanaco to Ecuador and Venezuela.

In the early 1990s, the Native Americans decided that they could no longer tolerate the fact that an official holiday named Columbus Day was being celebrated on October 12 to commemorate the arrival of the European conquistadors and settlers, so they renamed the day Indigenous People’s Day.

On October 12, 1992, Native Americans across the hemisphere united from Kalaallit Nunaat to Tierra del Fuego to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, on the very same day the European settlers were celebrating the 500th anniversary of the invasion of the Americas. Many say it was the first time that the Indigenous People of the Americas had ever united for a common purpose.

Something really changed on that day and things will never be the same. The collective consciousness of Native Americans was reawakened.

At one of the many ceremonies held throughout the double continent of America on October 12, 1992, a traditionalist Native American made a speech in which he said that most of the Indigenous People of the Americas believe that time is cyclical.

He went on to say that Indigenous People’s Day 1992 marked the end of the 500-year cycle of oppression for Native Americans and the beginning of a positive cycle for the Indigenous People of Great Turtle Island, which is a very ancient name for the double continent of America first mentioned in the Walam Olum of the Lenni Lenape nation.

In addition, according to the Maya calendar, the current time cycle began in 3114 BC and ends on December 21, 2012.

Bolivia is the trigger of South America. And Bolivia is also the trigger of all of Great Turtle Island.

And what will happen when the trigger is pulled and the shot is fired? Changes that we can’t imagine.

As the I Ching says: “Change proves true on the day it is finished.”

Republished from Tehran Times