On October 22, 2010, Ambassador to the Plurinational State of Bolivia for the United Nations, Pablo Solon, spoke to reporters about Bolivia's participation and perspective in the UN Climate Change negotiations at an event hosted by CEPR. Ambassador Solon, having just returned from the latest climate change negotiations in Tianjin, China, offered a behind-the-scenes account of what the process has been and what can be expected at COP-16 in Cancun this December. He also discussed Bolivia's perspective and the crucial role of social movements in finding just and viable solutions to the climate change crisis.
Republished from CEPR
Bolivia: No Foreign Firm Fits Bill to Be Lithium Partner
LA PAZ – President Evo Morales said none of the foreign firms interested in mining massive lithium reserves at Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats complies with a government requirement to manufacture value-added lithium by-products in the Andean nation.
Morales told a press conference Thursday that “all the companies” that have expressed interest in lithium projects in Bolivia “want to invest just to buy lithium carbonate,” the raw material for lithium-ion batteries.
“And why do they want to buy only lithium carbonate from us? So the lithium battery industry remains outside Bolivia,” he said, adding that his government is looking for partners to produce that product on a large scale in the Andean nation.
Morales’ administration began building a pilot plant two years ago to produce small amounts of lithium carbonate at the Uyuni Salt Flats, a dried-up sea bed that is located in the Andean high plains of southwestern Bolivia and which, according to Morales, is the world’s largest reserve of the metal.
But the socialist president has consistently maintained that his government wants to promote the production of value-added lithium by-products, saying that merely exporting the metal as a raw material is a recipe for keeping Bolivia poor and underdeveloped.
South Korea’s LG, Japan’s Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, France’s Bollore, China’s CITIC Guoan, among others, have expressed interest in partnering with Comibol, Bolivia’s state-owned mining company, to exploit Uyuni’s lithium reserves.
Morales told reporters that investment proposals are “welcome,” as long as they emphasize the development of technology to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in Bolivia.
Although he did not mention it Thursday, Morales also has repeatedly stated that potential partners must present plans for factories to manufacture electric vehicles, which in the future will be the largest consumers of the metal.
The president said Thursday that his country is prepared to invest up to $870 million to manufacture lithium-ion batteries but that it needs technology from foreign partners.
Referring to Mining Ministry figures, the president said Bolivia’s nine salt flats contain 100 million metric tons of lithium, equivalent to 70 percent of the world’s reserves of the metal.
He added that Bolivia’s lithium reserves are sufficient to supply the planet’s needs “for 5,000 years” at a production rate of 100,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually – the current global demand for the metal.
According to the president, Chile has 30 million metric tons of lithium, while China and Argentina have 3 million metric tons and 2 million metric tons, respectively, although he did not cite a source for those figures.
The U.S. Geological Survey, however, puts the lithium reserves at the 10,000-square-kilometer (3,860-square-mile) Uyuni Salt Flats – the world’s most vast salt plain – at just 9 million tons.
Industry analysts have repeatedly criticized Morales for lacking a clear strategy for developing Bolivia’s lithium business, considering the metal’s importance for the incipient electric car industry and the use of lithium-ion batteries for electronic devices such as laptop computers, cell phones, iPods and digital cameras. EFE
Morales told a press conference Thursday that “all the companies” that have expressed interest in lithium projects in Bolivia “want to invest just to buy lithium carbonate,” the raw material for lithium-ion batteries.
“And why do they want to buy only lithium carbonate from us? So the lithium battery industry remains outside Bolivia,” he said, adding that his government is looking for partners to produce that product on a large scale in the Andean nation.
Morales’ administration began building a pilot plant two years ago to produce small amounts of lithium carbonate at the Uyuni Salt Flats, a dried-up sea bed that is located in the Andean high plains of southwestern Bolivia and which, according to Morales, is the world’s largest reserve of the metal.
But the socialist president has consistently maintained that his government wants to promote the production of value-added lithium by-products, saying that merely exporting the metal as a raw material is a recipe for keeping Bolivia poor and underdeveloped.
South Korea’s LG, Japan’s Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, France’s Bollore, China’s CITIC Guoan, among others, have expressed interest in partnering with Comibol, Bolivia’s state-owned mining company, to exploit Uyuni’s lithium reserves.
Morales told reporters that investment proposals are “welcome,” as long as they emphasize the development of technology to manufacture lithium-ion batteries in Bolivia.
Although he did not mention it Thursday, Morales also has repeatedly stated that potential partners must present plans for factories to manufacture electric vehicles, which in the future will be the largest consumers of the metal.
The president said Thursday that his country is prepared to invest up to $870 million to manufacture lithium-ion batteries but that it needs technology from foreign partners.
Referring to Mining Ministry figures, the president said Bolivia’s nine salt flats contain 100 million metric tons of lithium, equivalent to 70 percent of the world’s reserves of the metal.
He added that Bolivia’s lithium reserves are sufficient to supply the planet’s needs “for 5,000 years” at a production rate of 100,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate annually – the current global demand for the metal.
According to the president, Chile has 30 million metric tons of lithium, while China and Argentina have 3 million metric tons and 2 million metric tons, respectively, although he did not cite a source for those figures.
The U.S. Geological Survey, however, puts the lithium reserves at the 10,000-square-kilometer (3,860-square-mile) Uyuni Salt Flats – the world’s most vast salt plain – at just 9 million tons.
Industry analysts have repeatedly criticized Morales for lacking a clear strategy for developing Bolivia’s lithium business, considering the metal’s importance for the incipient electric car industry and the use of lithium-ion batteries for electronic devices such as laptop computers, cell phones, iPods and digital cameras. EFE
The Concept Of “Living Well” - A Bolivian Viewpoint
Bolivia Delegation at The UN
Article distributed in English by the Bolivia delegation at the UN. April 2010
We should live in a simple way for others to be able to live as well.
Mahatma Gandhi
He who is richer is not who has more, but who needs less.
Zapotec saying, Oaxaca, Mexico
We suffer the severe effects of climate change, of the energy, food and financial crises. This is not the product of human beings in general, but of the existing inhuman capitalist system, with its unlimited industrial development. It is brought about by minority groups who control world power, concentrating wealth and power on themselves alone.
Concentrating capital in only a few hands is no solution for humanity, neither for life itself, because as a consequence many lives are lost in floods, by intervention or by wars, so many lives through hunger, poverty and usually curable diseases.
It brings selfishness, individualism, even regionalism, thirst for profit, the search for pleasure and luxury thinking only about profiting, never having regard to brotherhood among the human beings who live on planet Earth. This not only affects people, but also nature and the planet. And when the peoples organize themselves, or rise against oppression, those minority groups call for violence, weapons, and even military intervention from other countries.
Living Well, Not Better
Faced with so much disproportion and wealth concentration in the world, so many wars and famine, Bolivia proposes Living Well, not as a way to live better at the expense of others, but an idea of Living Well based on the experience of our peoples. In the words of the President of the Republic of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, Living Well means living within a community, a brotherhood, and particularly completing each other, without exploiters or exploited, without people being excluded or people who exclude, without people being segregated or people who segregate.
Lying, stealing, destroying nature possibly will allow us to live better, but that is not Living Well. On the contrary, Living Well rather means complementing one another and not competing against each other, sharing, not taking advantage of one’s neighbor, living in harmony among people and with nature. It is the basis of the defense of nature, of life itself and of all humanity, it’s the basis to save humanity from the dangers of an individualistic and highly aggressive, racist and warmongering minority.
Living Well is not the same as living better, living better than others, because in order to live better than others, it is necessary to exploit, to embark upon serious competition, concentrating wealth in few hands. Trying to live better is selfish, and shows apathy, individualism. Some want to live better, whilst others, the majority, continue living poorly. Not taking an interest in other people’s lives, means caring only for the individual’s own life, at most in the life of their family.
As a different vision of life, Living Well is contrary to luxury, opulence and waste, it is contrary to consumerism. In some countries of the North, in big metropolitan cities, people buy clothes they throw away after wearing them only once. That lack of care for others results in oligarchies, nobility, aristocracy, elites who always seek to live better at other people’s expense.
Nobody says : I will only take care of myself
Within the framework of Living Well, what matters the most is not the individual. What matters the most is the community, where all the families live together. We form part of the community as the leaf forms part of the plant. Nobody says: I will just take care of myself; I don’t care about my community. It is as absurd as if the leaf said to the plant: I do not care about the community; I will only take care of myself. It is just as preposterous as if the leaf would tell the plant: I do not care about you, I will only take care of myself.
We are all valuable, we all have a space, duties, and responsibilities. We all need everybody else. Based on complementing each other, the common wealth, organized mutual support, the community and the community life develop their ability without destroying man and nature.
Work is happiness
Not working and exploiting our neighbors will possibly allow us to live better, but that is not Living Well. When one is living well, work is happiness. Work is learning to grow up, melting into the fascinating reproduction of life. It is an organic action such as breathing or walking. Within the Living Well framework, work is general, for everyone and everything, from a child to a grandfather. It’s for men, women and even nature itself. Among us, nobody lives to benefit from the work of others. Private accumulation is unknown and unnecessary. Community accumulation always fills the warehouse.
In our communities we do not seek, we do not want anyone to live better, as development programs tell us. Development is related to living better, and all the development programs implemented among different States and governments, starting from the church, have encouraged us to live better.
Development depends on an ever-increasing use of energy, primarily oil. We have been led to believe that development is the salvation of mankind and that it will help us to live better, but without oil there is no development. And for us, with or without oil, sustainable and unsustainable development means anti-development, which is the cause of major disparities in nature and between people.
Development can be a disaster
Consequently, Living Well is contrary to capitalist development and goes beyond socialism. For capitalism, what matters the most is money, making a profit. For socialism, what matters the most is the man, because socialism tries to meet the increasingly growing needs of man, both material and spiritual.
Within the Living Well framework, what matters the most is neither man nor money; what matters the most is life. But capitalism does not care about life, and the two development models, the capitalist and the socialist, need rapid economic growth, causing a dissipation of energy and an insatiable use of fossil fuels to boost growth.
Therefore, development has proved to be a failure, as evidenced by the crisis of nature and the severe effects of climate change. It is now the leading cause of global crisis and the destroyer of planet Earth, because of the exaggerated industrialization of some countries, addicted consumerism and irresponsible exploitation of human and natural resources.
The industrialization and consumerism of Western “civilization” threatens Mother Nature and the subsistence of the planet, to such a degree that it must not be spread to the whole of humanity, because natural resources are not enough for all of us nor renewable at the same pace in which they are being exhausted.
Living Well in the Global Crisis
The most important crises are:
> The exponential increase of human-induced climate change affecting all regions of Earth;
> The water crisis, where urbanization, industrialization and increased use of energy is lowering the level of groundwater resources;
> The crisis in food production by the impact of climate change and the increasing production of biofuels;
> The imminent end of the era of cheap energy (we are reaching the peak of oil production). In the lapse of 100 years we are finishing fossil energy created over millions of years, and this is bringing about dramatic changes in all the theories about the operation of society;
> The significant depletion of other key resources both for industrial production and for human welfare, including fresh water, genetic resources, forests, sea and wildlife, fertile soils, coral reefs, and most of the local, regional and global elements we have in common.
Unless they are reversed, this combination of dangerous tendencies may soon bring global environmental and social crises up to an unprecedented scale, and they may also cause the collapse of the most basic economic and operative structures of our society.
On the verge of catastrophic change
Climate chaos and global warming threaten the loss of much of the world’s most productive lands, physical upheavals in many places caused by storms and rising waters, desertification of many agricultural lands, and economic and social tragedy that will last for long in the future, with very severe problems for the most impoverished nations and peoples.
Without having found alternative sources of energy that can replace inexpensive oil and gas supplies in the amounts to which we have become accustomed to (and alarming new evidence regarding the limits of accessible coal), Peak Oil threatens the long term survival of industrial nations and industrialism itself, at its present scale. Long distance transportation, industrial food systems, complex urban and suburban systems, and many commodities basic to our present way of life —cars, plastics, chemicals, pesticides, refrigeration, etc— are all rooted in the basic assumption of an ever-increasing inexpensive energy supply.
Other scarce resources — fresh water, forests, agricultural land, biodiversity of many kinds, are dramatically decreasing in number due to the overuse of industrialized nations that every year surpass 30 percent of the resources that the Earth can regenerate, rendering the survival of humans and other species far more difficult than at any other time throughout the history of mankind. We also face the possible loss of 50% of the world’s plant and animal species over the next decades.
So the planet’s ecological, social and economic systems are on the verge of catastrophic change, and very few societies are prepared for this. Efforts by governments to respond to the impending emergency are thus far grossly inadequate. Efforts by corporations and industries to reform their behaviors remain largely enclosed by structural limits that require continued growth and profit above all other standards of performance.
Living Well Life to counteract against the Global Crisis
In this Global Crisis, all the problems have the same structural base, and can be faced using the same structural changes. The solution for each one is the solution for all. All the new models must begin by accepting there are fundamental limits to the capacity of the Earth to sustain us. Within those limits, societies must work to set new standards of universal economic sufficiency and a Living Well conception that does not depend on the excessive use of the planet’s resources.
The construction of a Living Well vision to counteract Global Crisis in this era of climate chaos and diminished resources in our finite planet, means ending consumerism, waste and luxury, consuming only what is necessary, achieving a global economic “power down” to levels of production, consumption and energy use that stay well within the environmental capacities of the Earth.
It also means stopping energy dissipation, i.e. bringing about a rapid withdrawal from all carbon-based energy systems, and rejecting large-scale so called “alternative” energy systems designed to prolong the industrial growth system. These include nuclear energy, “clean” coal, industrial scale biofuels, and the combustion of hazardous materials and municipal waste, among others.
Equally important is a dramatic increase in the practices of energy conservation and efficiency, i.e., powering down, decreasing the personal consumption in countries where it has been excessive, and reorienting the rules of economic activity — trade, investments, norms. It is also important to modify all of society’s main activities that are related to those norms (transport, manufacture, agriculture, energy, building design, etc). Our current dependence on export-oriented production, enormous amounts of long distance transportation, ever-expanding use of resources and global markets, cannot possibly be sustained in a finite planet.
Local production for local consumption
In order to adapt ourselves to the true reality of a post carbon era, we will have to satisfy our fundamental needs such as food, housing, energy, production, and means of support, from local systems and resources. This means encouraging regional and local self-sufficiency, sustainability and control; economic localization and community sovereignty, local production for local consumption, local ownership using local labor and materials.
Thus Living Well means redesigning urban and non-urban living environments, the restitution of the local, regional and national communal goods, and a quick transition towards renewable energy at a small scale, that must be oriented to the locality and also owned by the local community, without hampering the natural balance, and including wind, solar, small scale hydro and wave, local biofuels.
Living Well also means promoting an orderly reconstruction of the countryside and the revitalization of communities by way of an agrarian reform, education and application of eco-agricultural microfarming methods, based on our cultural and communal practices, the wealth of our communities, fertile land, clean water and air. All of these approaches are in preparation for the inevitable de-industrialization of agriculture, as cheap energy supply declines.
Furthermore, Living Well means reallocating the trillions of millions destined for war in order to heal Mother Earth who is injured by the environment issue.
Less will be more
Our Living Well proposal emphasizes on harmony between humans and with nature, and the preservation of “natural capital” as primary concerns. It is well known that the protection and preservation of balance in the natural world, including all its living beings, is a primary goal and need of our proposal, and that mother nature has inherent rights to exist on the Earth in an undiminished healthy condition.
Living Well also means unplugging the TV and internet and connecting with the community. It means having four more hours a day to spend with family, friends and in our community, i.e., the four hours that the average person spends watching TV filled with messages about stuff we should buy. Spending time in fraternal community activities strengthens the community and makes it a source of social and logistical support, a source of greater security and happiness.
For societies that now accept the images of “the good life” widely promoted in the media, this “good life” is based on hyper consumption of commodities, the new strategies to use less resources, to accumulate less, and to be ruled by modest standards of living also become arguments for greater personal fulfillment. Driving less and walking more is good for the climate, the planet, and our health. Buying less means less pollution, less waste, less time working to invest in shopping. Less stress, more time for the family, friends, nature, creativity, recreation and leisure which are activities on which people spend little time nowadays.
Among presently over-consuming societies, less really will be more. Basic compliance with Living Well conditions include sufficient food, shelter, clothing; good health and the values of strong community engagement; family security; meaningful lives; and the clear presence and easy access to a thriving natural world.
We are part of Mother Nature
In this context, Living Well means living a sovereign and communal life in harmony with nature, where we can work together for our families and for society, sharing, singing, dancing, producing for the community. It means living a modest life that reduces our consumption addiction and maintains a balanced production.
Rather than eroding the Earth, depredating nature and within 30 or 50 years ending with gas, oil, iron, tin, lithium and all other non-renewable natural resources required for a living better, Living Well guarantees life for our children, for the sons and daughters of our children and for those that will come after them, saving the planet using our rock, our quinoa, potatoes and cassava, our beans, broad beans and corn, our mahogany, coconut and coca.
In the construction of Living Well, our economic and spiritual wealth is tied directly to a high regard for Mother Earth and a respectful use of the wealth that she gives us. The only alternative for the world in this Global Crisis, the only solution to the crisis of nature, is that human beings acknowledge that we are part of Mother Nature, that we need to restore the complementary relationships, the mutual respect and harmony with her.
Boosting community energy with creativity and collective action
For this new experience of facing global crisis, for this new experience of Living Well to be successful, it will be necessary to boost local and international actions. We should follow the example of the millions of people on this Earth who are not waiting for official recognition of the global crisis, we should follow the example of the uncountable numbers of people and communities across the planet who, with creativity, enthusiasm and joint action are already actively trying to create or update a great variety of alternative practices at local, community and regional levels, in both rural and urban contexts.
Out of our own initiatives in our communities and also with help from governments that boost Living Well, with a broad unity of forces and social movements, we have to wake up community energy, boost community energy in our communities, which is the main capacity we’ve got to transform society and build a Living Well vision. We have to follow the example of these people and communities, starting to rebuild our communities and nations OURSELVES, with our own hands, our own hearts and our own brains, starting to take responsibility for the building of a Living Well Life for all within the limits of nature. We cannot rely only on governments and international movements to solve our problems.
Powering down
Out of our own initiatives in our communities and also with help from our governments, let us begin to regain our ancestors’ harmonious living, strengthen our own way of life, the identity and spirituality in our communities. Let us begin to organize our productive and community life in the countryside and in our neighborhoods, making education work, as well as communication and health, let us build our schools and roads, resolve between all of us our internal relations and the issues of land and territory, water, forests, and so on.
Let us build a Living Well vision and the sovereignty of our communities within the balance between man and nature, where we can rebuild our bonds, respecting everyone’s right to consultation when making our own decisions, where we can freely determine our own aims, our forms of organization, the joint planning of our communities, the designation of our authorities, all based on the knowledge we have of ourselves and with full awareness of the responsibility that this entails.
To start powering down, we can reduce significantly our energy use: driving less, flying less, turning off the lights, buying local seasonal food (food takes energy to grow, package, store and transport), wearing a jumper instead of turning on the radiator, use a clothesline instead of a dryer, going on holiday closer to home, buying second hand things or borrowing them before buying new ones, recycling.
We can also nurture a Zero Waste culture at home, within our school, workplace, church, community. This means developing new habits, such as using both sides of the paper, carrying with us our own mugs and shopping bags, making compost out of food leftovers, avoiding bottled water and other over packaged products, repairing and mending rather than replacing…
Our own health, learning and communication
Out of our own initiatives in our communities and also with help from governments that boost a Living Well vision, let us start to run our own health system taking after the ways that have always kept us healthy, where the health of the community is as important as that of our own body and where abundant healthy food free of chemicals is our medicine. Faced with the growth of increasingly manipulated consumption, let us rebuild the healthy domestic food production. Let us prevent diseases instead of looking for drugs to cure them, and let us use our own natural medicine which will not cure a disease by creating another.
Let us start to run our own education, or rather our own communication, learning in the way that we have always taught our children in our communities as part of the community practices and responsibilities, i.e. through community learning, through which we create communal energy and learn through daily work, within the social school that would be the community, where we learn that we cannot live outside of communal life. Rather than education, let us re-establish our own communication; strengthen the real communication between father and son, between students and teachers.
Let us protect our own seeds
Let us defend the women, traditional defenders of the seeds and food safety, custodians of natural variety and of local and quality food for our families, whose life revolves around fertility, child care, countryside, seeds, the care of water, trees and other resources, and whose farming practices in the communities are part of communal life in harmony with nature.
We do not solve world hunger with Terminator seeds from agricultural business, but bringing back and protecting our rich ancestral seeds, storing them and fighting against their usurpation by large transnational corporations that defend themselves through intellectual property, patents and the use of transgenic seeds having as an excuse productivity increase.
Let us protect the life of indigenous country communities, which allows the cycle of seed and inputs to be closed within the very same communities, freeing us from the need to import them. Let’s practice a small-scale production, which will protect natural resources for the present and future generations, and give us all healthy and varied food.
Let us build a Living Well vision, retaking our own appropriate technologies, which are not expensive and can be managed through community administration, monitoring and control, using our own funds from our own savings banks or credit unions. We can do our own self-training, which can mature if we bring together researchers and professionals who have a vision of sympathy, support and respect for reorganization processes of the communities and the peoples.
To strengthen all our procedures…
Living Well means giving back fertility to the planet, now in the hands of sterile corporations, reforesting the world, living a modest life close to soil in communities or small family farms, which are those that have preserved the trees and the harmonic variety of species, that have more water at their disposal and survive better.
Waking up the ethical and moral values of our peoples and cultures, we can make this new millennium, a millennium of life and not of war, a millennium for Living Well, for balance and complementarity. Together we can build a culture of patience, the culture of dialogue and fundamentally the Culture of Life, a way of life that is not dependent on excessive consumption of non-renewable energy that emit greenhouse gases but is based on the harmonious relationship between man and nature.
In order to strengthen all the procedures that may lead us to Living Well, we encourage a broad discussion and debate regarding this proposal, so we can find a common approach that will lead to a fundamental change in the way societies operate, and how we live, as communities, families and individuals.
Article distributed in English by the Bolivia delegation at the UN. April 2010
(Courtesy International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development).
Bolivia: Evo Morales Passes Law Against Racism And All Forms Of Discrimination
President Evo Morales yesterday passed the Anti-Racism approved by the Senate of Bolivia, in defense of 60 percent of the population of Indian origin, who still suffer from various forms of segregation by other sectors.
The owners of the dance clubs and bars can no longer deny entry to people who consider themselves "different", as happened with the Indians. With the new law will be required to display signs with the text: "All persons are equal before the law."
Evo said the law "is to decolonize Bolivia. This work will continue to decolonize Bolivia and nobody will stop this process, which is irreversible. "
Since January 2009, the new constitution provides for equality as a fundamental value of the Bolivian state, but there are no penalties against racist and that loophole is that the new law aims to fill.
Racism in the media
"We have to stop saying cursed race, that has to end. That is not freedom of expression, is offense, is humiliation, "said President Evo Morales.
Following the enactment lifted about 60 journalists who conducted hunger strikes across the country and announced that they will raise their international protest, believing that the new law contains two articles which violate various Conventions.
With the standard approved any media to authorize and publish racist ideas of economic sanctions and receive its operating license will be suspended.
Some media owners consider the reform as an obstacle to freedom of expression and do not want to budge, so called for protests and hunger strikes.
Several print media is seen headlines like "No democracy without freedom of expression."
It is recalled that in Bolivia, the most shameful episodes of exaltation to racism were promoted from the media, as happened with journalist Jorge Melgar who called from his radio program to prevent the arrival of President Evo Morales to the region.
"The Indian has no bloody footprints in these regions," he said then.
Source: Servindi
Republished from Indigenous Peoples Issues & Resources
Bolivia: ‘Never before have we seen such changes’
Alina Canaviri Sullcani is a Bolivian indigenous peasant now visiting Australia. Canaviri is active in Santa Cruz as a leader of the National Federation of Indigenous Peasant Women of Bolivia “Bartolina Sisa” and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party led by President Evo Morales.
Canaviri spoke at the Latin America solidarity conference in Melbourne over October 8-9 and will be a featured guest at the solidarity conference held in Sydney over October 16 and 17 (visitwww.latinamericasolidarity.org for details).
Green Left Weekly’s Federico Fuentes spoke to Canaviri on the process of change in Bolivia being led by Morales, the country’s first president from the indigenous majority.
* * *
What has the Morales government meant for Bolivia’s social movements and indigenous peoples?
In the context of the process of change under way, it is very important for us because it signifies that we are representing ourselves in government. Now, for the first time, we have an indigenous president that represents us and puts forward proposals that above all else are gathered from the social movements, from the grassroots.
And not just from the indigenous peasant bases, but from social organisations and intellectuals. That is why we, as peasant women now playing a key role in decision making, see this as a very important advance for us.
If we look at the new Plurinational Assembly and the cabinet, it is clear that different social organisations are represented there.
The minister of justice is part of the federation of peasant women. The minister of productive development and plural economy is also an indigenous peasant woman. There are many other social sectors represented in the different ministries.
In the assembly, we don’t just see ties and suits; now we see indigenous men and women, as well as gas workers and miners, bringing their proposals to approve laws together with the Bolivian people.
What has been the impact of the fact that these movements now feel part of the government?
Before, we used to carry out blockades, hunger strikes and marches. But now, social organisations have begun making proposals. Each sector has proposals.
I believe that we, as social organisations, have advanced a lot in the area of participation, above all else. We, as the indigenous peasant movement, had never taken part in the decision-making process; we were never taken into consideration by the laws, not even in the constitution.
The constitution didn’t even recognise us; now [due to a new constitution approved by popular vote] we are recognised.
Moreover, this government has nationalised companies, whereas previous governments privatised everything to make money off these companies for themselves.
And from the nationalisations, particularly of hydrocarbons, the people have received many benefits, such as social security payments for schoolchildren, pregnant women and the elderly.
There are many things that have improved the quality of life of the most disadvantaged. There has also been redistribution of land [to peasants to farm]. Never in Bolivia’s history had we seen a piece of land being given to a woman; today state policy prioritises women in regards to distributing plots of land.
Now that the MAS controls two-thirds of the Plurinational Assembly, what are the priorities for social movements in regards to laws?
Well, one of them is to do with social control. We are involving all the social movements in controlling the state’s budget and how it is used. Also the Law Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz deals with corruption. It aims to ensure that anyone robbing the Bolivian people is punished.
It is important to note these laws emerged from the social movements. These laws were discussed by the Eastern Bloc [which unites indigenous peasant organisations from Santa Cruz], the Unity Pact [involving the most important indigenous and peasant confederations at the national level] and the Conalcam [National Coalition for Change, which unites indigenous, peasant, women’s, urban and worker organisations, among others, that support the process of change].
As social movements, we took part by proposing laws and regulations for the new constitution. But the work of approving laws to regulate the new constitution has only just begun.
What can you tell us about the proposed law against racism that has been attacked in Bolivia and internationally as violating free speech?
Unfortunately, racism has always existed among all the capitalist elites across the world. Even though they are a minority, they have prohibited us as indigenous peasant women from being able to walk in the main plazas — even though we are entitled to the same rights as them.
Therefore, this law was proposed by those of us who have not been protected by laws, who have been victims of racism, of insults, in order to say no more racism, no more discrimination.
We know the media have been one of the key driving forces of this racism and of the fascist right, calling on the people to mobilise [against the government and indigenous peoples]. Many people fell into the trap of going along with some of the media outlets that will be affected by the new law.
And who are the owners of these media outlets that have so much power at the national scale? [Osvaldo] Monasterio, for example, is the owner of Unitel. And who is Monasterio? He is one of the largest landowners in the department of Santa Cruz.
What they are doing is simply defending their personal interests, forcing many journalists to print lies, and that is why they reject the new law against racism. At the same time, there are many journalists and broadcasters who agree with the law.
Do you have anything else to add?
Only to say that no doubt we will be debating issues such as these at the Latin America solidarity conference — issues such as how we are taking part in the process of change, how we as indigenous women are contributing to the process.
That is why I would like to invite all the brothers and sisters, particularly those young people who believe another world is possible, to take part in the conference.
BOLIVIA: Private Sector Gives Way Under Government's Public Push
Franz Chavez
LA PAZ, Oct 8, 2010 (IPS) - The decline in foreign direct investment and the increase in efforts to reverse privatisation processes are feeding debate in Bolivia about President Evo Morales's economic policies, which include the creation of more government- run enterprises.
Four years into the Morales administration, under the model of "communitarian socialism," the Bolivian government has made forays into sectors in which private companies have long dominated.
The leftist president created the airline Boliviana de Aviación (BoA), strengthened the passenger and cargo transport systems of the Bolivian Air Force, founded the Bolivian almond and byproducts company, established paper factories, and provided financial and marketing support for small farmers. Similar actions are planned for the dairy and sugar industries.
This model, inaugurated with the new Constitution, of February 2009, calls for reinstating the government in a leading role in previously privatised areas of the economy, including fossil fuel production, electricity, telecommunications and air transportation.
In addition to generating jobs, the government is trying to create the economic and financial conditions needed to drive the development of the small farms under cooperatives and syndicates -- the goal being to boost food production and balance the power of the exporting agro-industry located in the eastern department of Santa Cruz.
The government's presence in the production of food and provision of services is just beginning, and in this initial phase a total of 1,028 new jobs have been created, according to data that the Ministry of Productive Development provided to IPS.
A report from the private La Paz-based Fundación Milenio (Millennium Foundation) indicates that Bolivian state investment is displacing foreign private investment, which has dropped off dramatically in the last two years.
According to the foundation's calculations, foreign direct investment in 2008 in Bolivia reached 402 million dollars, but fell to 245 million dollars in 2009. In the first three months of this year, 156 million dollars were recorded -- a small sum with respect to a gross domestic product (GDP) of 17 billion dollars, states the report.
Meanwhile, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations regional agency, stated in its annual report on foreign direct investment that this figure for Bolivia was 507.6 million dollars in 2008, and 418.4 million in 2009, which is a smaller decline than what other countries suffered as a result of the international economic crisis.
For its part, the government reported that public investment under way totals about 2.2 billion dollars, the highest level from the Bolivian government, which until 2005 invested about 500 million dollars, said President Morales himself.
This public investment covers the costs of building roads, expanding social infrastructure like schools and health clinics, providing basic water and sewerage services, and technical support for small farmers.
Although the official discourse is to invite foreigners to invest in Bolivia, the Fundación Milenio notes that the lack of policies in this regard for sectors like fossil fuels, mining, electricity, telecommunications and transport seems to contradict that stance.
The think tank notes a distancing between the government and investors, citing the case of the recent nationalisation of 33.34 percent of the shares of Fábrica Nacional de Cemento S.A. (FANCESA), held by SOBOCE (Bolivian Cement Partnership), one of whose owners is the Grupo Cementos, of Chihuahua, Mexico.
It was in May 2006, during Morales's first term, that the nationalising effort began with the renegotiation of contracts held by foreign oil companies. The leftist government started charging them higher taxes, which was a boon to Bolivia's fiscal revenues.
"The State's displacement of private investment should come as no surprise," Alejandro Mercado, dean of economic sciences at the Bolivian Catholic University, told IPS.
He noted that in the 2008 referendum on removing the president, more than 60 percent of the electorate backed Morales's ideological project. The president believes in the efficiency of the State in producing goods and services and in redistributing wealth.
The head of the La Paz Federation of Private Businesses, Enrique García, said he is disappointed that the government has not kept its pledge to build strategic alliances with the private sector, and instead has taken such actions as expropriating the FANCESA shares.
But in professor Mercado's view, "It's legitimate for a government to apply its ideological vision after winning popular support at the ballot box."
In September, Bolivia's Authority for Monitoring and Social Control of Companies (AEMP) fined cement company SOBOCE about 56,000 dollars, and the private airline Aerosur approximately the same amount, after finding errors in the procedures for setting up partnerships, as stipulated under the Code of Commerce.
AEMP executive director Óscar Cámara told IPS that from a technical -- not political -- standpoint, the goal is to end monopolies in order to benefit consumers by lowering prices and rates.
Although Mercado doesn't believe government-owned enterprises are efficient in comparison to private firms, he questions the latter in Bolivia, because in his opinion they have sought government protection as well as preferential treatment in taxation, in a bid to boost profits.
According to ECLAC figures, Bolivia's GDP grew 6.1 percent in 2008 and 3.8 percent in 2009 in the middle of the global economic crisis. This year, growth is projected to reach 4.5 percent, and 4.0 percent in 2011.
Four years into the Morales administration, under the model of "communitarian socialism," the Bolivian government has made forays into sectors in which private companies have long dominated.
The leftist president created the airline Boliviana de Aviación (BoA), strengthened the passenger and cargo transport systems of the Bolivian Air Force, founded the Bolivian almond and byproducts company, established paper factories, and provided financial and marketing support for small farmers. Similar actions are planned for the dairy and sugar industries.
This model, inaugurated with the new Constitution, of February 2009, calls for reinstating the government in a leading role in previously privatised areas of the economy, including fossil fuel production, electricity, telecommunications and air transportation.
In addition to generating jobs, the government is trying to create the economic and financial conditions needed to drive the development of the small farms under cooperatives and syndicates -- the goal being to boost food production and balance the power of the exporting agro-industry located in the eastern department of Santa Cruz.
The government's presence in the production of food and provision of services is just beginning, and in this initial phase a total of 1,028 new jobs have been created, according to data that the Ministry of Productive Development provided to IPS.
A report from the private La Paz-based Fundación Milenio (Millennium Foundation) indicates that Bolivian state investment is displacing foreign private investment, which has dropped off dramatically in the last two years.
According to the foundation's calculations, foreign direct investment in 2008 in Bolivia reached 402 million dollars, but fell to 245 million dollars in 2009. In the first three months of this year, 156 million dollars were recorded -- a small sum with respect to a gross domestic product (GDP) of 17 billion dollars, states the report.
Meanwhile, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the United Nations regional agency, stated in its annual report on foreign direct investment that this figure for Bolivia was 507.6 million dollars in 2008, and 418.4 million in 2009, which is a smaller decline than what other countries suffered as a result of the international economic crisis.
For its part, the government reported that public investment under way totals about 2.2 billion dollars, the highest level from the Bolivian government, which until 2005 invested about 500 million dollars, said President Morales himself.
This public investment covers the costs of building roads, expanding social infrastructure like schools and health clinics, providing basic water and sewerage services, and technical support for small farmers.
Although the official discourse is to invite foreigners to invest in Bolivia, the Fundación Milenio notes that the lack of policies in this regard for sectors like fossil fuels, mining, electricity, telecommunications and transport seems to contradict that stance.
The think tank notes a distancing between the government and investors, citing the case of the recent nationalisation of 33.34 percent of the shares of Fábrica Nacional de Cemento S.A. (FANCESA), held by SOBOCE (Bolivian Cement Partnership), one of whose owners is the Grupo Cementos, of Chihuahua, Mexico.
It was in May 2006, during Morales's first term, that the nationalising effort began with the renegotiation of contracts held by foreign oil companies. The leftist government started charging them higher taxes, which was a boon to Bolivia's fiscal revenues.
"The State's displacement of private investment should come as no surprise," Alejandro Mercado, dean of economic sciences at the Bolivian Catholic University, told IPS.
He noted that in the 2008 referendum on removing the president, more than 60 percent of the electorate backed Morales's ideological project. The president believes in the efficiency of the State in producing goods and services and in redistributing wealth.
The head of the La Paz Federation of Private Businesses, Enrique García, said he is disappointed that the government has not kept its pledge to build strategic alliances with the private sector, and instead has taken such actions as expropriating the FANCESA shares.
But in professor Mercado's view, "It's legitimate for a government to apply its ideological vision after winning popular support at the ballot box."
In September, Bolivia's Authority for Monitoring and Social Control of Companies (AEMP) fined cement company SOBOCE about 56,000 dollars, and the private airline Aerosur approximately the same amount, after finding errors in the procedures for setting up partnerships, as stipulated under the Code of Commerce.
AEMP executive director Óscar Cámara told IPS that from a technical -- not political -- standpoint, the goal is to end monopolies in order to benefit consumers by lowering prices and rates.
Although Mercado doesn't believe government-owned enterprises are efficient in comparison to private firms, he questions the latter in Bolivia, because in his opinion they have sought government protection as well as preferential treatment in taxation, in a bid to boost profits.
According to ECLAC figures, Bolivia's GDP grew 6.1 percent in 2008 and 3.8 percent in 2009 in the middle of the global economic crisis. This year, growth is projected to reach 4.5 percent, and 4.0 percent in 2011.
UN's Talks in China on Climate Change Show Little Progress, Bolivia Says
Stuart Biggs
United Nations talks in China aimed at reaching an agreement to mitigate climate change are making little progress, according to Pablo Solon, the head of Bolivia’s delegation to the meeting.
Delegations are avoiding discussion over the content of the negotiating text by introducing new proposals, while there’s been no movement on the “insufficient” pledges by developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, Solon, Bolivia’s Ambassador to the UN, said today.
Officials from 177 governments are meeting in Tianjin, China to move forward on a climate treaty for when emissions targets set by the Kyoto Protocol expire at the end of 2012. Talks in Copenhagen broke down last year over issues including setting a global emissions reduction target and Solon said little progress is possible unless developed countries pledge bigger cuts.
“We don’t see any kind of movement from developed countries to increase the level of emissions reduction,” Solon said. “If we had a set of commitments that assured developing countries that the measures will cool the planet, these talks would be moving very well.”
The week-long talks are the last before envoys meet in Cancun, Mexico between Nov. 29 and Dec. 10 to try to reach an agreement that the UN climate chief, Christiana Figueres, has said is unlikely this year.
The climate summit in Copenhagen failed to produce a binding agreement even after leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama flew in to reach a deal.
Draft Proposals
Delegates this week are negotiating two draft proposals reached at a meeting in Bonn in August that need to be narrowed before Cancun, Figueres, executive secretary of the so-called UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, told reporters earlier this week.
“Very few paragraphs” have changed, Solon said.
Commitments remain insufficient to limit the average increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a target that was agreed Copenhagen last year.
The UN Framework Convention estimates that commitments amount to a cut of between 12 and 19 percent from 1990 levels, short of the range of 25 to 40 percent it says is needed.
The U.S. pledge to cut emissions by 17 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels remains a sticking point in the talks, Solon said. The pledge amounts to a 3 percent reduction from 1990 levels, less than the 5 percent required under the Kyoto Protocol, which the U.S. didn’t ratify, he said.
U.S., China
The U.S. and China, the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, have been deadlocked over issues including pollution- reduction goals and verification of emissions cuts.
A bill that would cap emissions stalled in the U.S. Senate this year after the House passed a measure in 2009. Todd Stern, U.S. special envoy for climate change, said in an interview on Oct. 1 there’s “no doubt” the U.S. will adopt legislation that will help reach its emissions reduction goal.
The U.S. and other developed nations should raise their targets for cutting emissions, Agence France-Presse reported yesterday, citing Su Wei, China’s chief negotiator on climate change.
Most countries accept China’s pledge to reduce carbon dioxide emissions intensity, measured as emissions per unit of gross domestic product, by between 40 and 45 percent by 2020, he said.
Bolivia and China are both in the so-called G77 group of developing nations, which act together at climate change talks.
Republished from Bloomberg
Bolivia’s Morales accuses Washington of encouraging “failed coup in Ecuador”
Bolivian president Evo Morales said that during the current decade United States intervened in four attempted coups against democratic governments in Latin America, but was only able to win in Honduras.
“Since 2002 there have been four coup attempts, in 2002 in Venezuela, in 2008 in Bolivia, Honduras in 2009 and now in Ecuador, but of the four attempts in three of them the peoples of Latin America defeated the US imperialism”, said Morales in a Sunday interview with the government financed media.
For this circumstance “I’m happy, very much encouraged because in this decade from 2002 to 2010 the peoples of Latin America on three occasions have defeated the dictatorships prepared by the administration of (George) Bush before and currently by (Barak) Obama”, underlined the Bolivian president.
Morales said he was disappointed because in Honduras “there’s a president born out of a coup” and announced that in the coming regional leaders’ summits “wherever this gentleman Porfirio Lobo is present, obviously I will not be present”.
Honduras former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted last year by a civilian coup, implemented by the military, who then called elections in November 2009 when Lobo was the winner.
Morales revealed that the coup occurred when Honduras had decided to become a member of ALBA, the regional trade and development mechanism which is contrary to the US sponsored Free Trade of the Americas Association, FTAA.
ALBA stands for Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas and is the brain child of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and its members include Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and several oil-short Caribbean islands.
“In ALBA member countries there are coup attempts but that is not going to happen in Colombia, no coup attempts in Peru, because of course these presidents are pro-imperialism, capitalists, free-market oriented, who sponsor the privatization of countries’ national resources: you can be sure that in these countries there won’t be any coup attempts” continued the Bolivian leader.
“Chavez, Morales, Correa (Ecuador), (Nicaragua) Ortega, we are accused of being totalitarian, dictators, non democratic, but all that comes and is promoted by the US State Departmen”.
Morales said that last week’s police mutiny in Ecuador against President Correa “was encouraged” by Washington.
“Since 2002 there have been four coup attempts, in 2002 in Venezuela, in 2008 in Bolivia, Honduras in 2009 and now in Ecuador, but of the four attempts in three of them the peoples of Latin America defeated the US imperialism”, said Morales in a Sunday interview with the government financed media.
For this circumstance “I’m happy, very much encouraged because in this decade from 2002 to 2010 the peoples of Latin America on three occasions have defeated the dictatorships prepared by the administration of (George) Bush before and currently by (Barak) Obama”, underlined the Bolivian president.
Morales said he was disappointed because in Honduras “there’s a president born out of a coup” and announced that in the coming regional leaders’ summits “wherever this gentleman Porfirio Lobo is present, obviously I will not be present”.
Honduras former president Manuel Zelaya was ousted last year by a civilian coup, implemented by the military, who then called elections in November 2009 when Lobo was the winner.
Morales revealed that the coup occurred when Honduras had decided to become a member of ALBA, the regional trade and development mechanism which is contrary to the US sponsored Free Trade of the Americas Association, FTAA.
ALBA stands for Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas and is the brain child of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and its members include Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and several oil-short Caribbean islands.
“In ALBA member countries there are coup attempts but that is not going to happen in Colombia, no coup attempts in Peru, because of course these presidents are pro-imperialism, capitalists, free-market oriented, who sponsor the privatization of countries’ national resources: you can be sure that in these countries there won’t be any coup attempts” continued the Bolivian leader.
“Chavez, Morales, Correa (Ecuador), (Nicaragua) Ortega, we are accused of being totalitarian, dictators, non democratic, but all that comes and is promoted by the US State Departmen”.
Morales said that last week’s police mutiny in Ecuador against President Correa “was encouraged” by Washington.
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