Facing an opposition formed by the local oligarchs, the neo-liberal ex-presidents, the conservative Comités Civicos, middle and upper class sectors of the accommodated and privileged, the media and instruments operated by imperialism, Evo Morales Ayma of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) has won the national elections to continue as the head of government for 2000-2025, with the challenge of deepening the revolutionary and anti-imperialist process begun 16 years ago with the uprising of October 2003.

Nevertheless, the conspiracy continues because the policy of the United States, that, through the Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Michael Kozak, threatened those who attempt to “subvert democracy”, joins with the actions of violence especially in Santa Cruz with the Comité Civico Cruceño and campaigns on the internet and certain media against the government and the Electoral Tribunal.

The vote and the mobilization of the popular sectors of campesinos, indigenous people, campesina women, habitants of villas and peripheral zones of the cities, colonizers and unions grouped in the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), was a determining factor in obtaining a vote of nearly 47% of support, with over 10% difference from the Comunidad Ciudadana (CC), which, according to the Political Constitution of the State, assures him the presidency.

The rallies and marches of opponents in rejection of the results presented by the Electoral Tribunal have led to burning public buildings in various cities of the country, although the so-called regional strikes have failed, while the followers of MAS have undertaken massive rallies of support for their candidate.

Strengthening Bolivian Democracy

The strengthening of the democratic process in Bolivia has become more evident this October 20, with the general elections that renewed the Legislative Power and will determine the course of internal and international policies and strategies, and without doubt it will be impossible to return to the past of social exclusion against the popular majorities, indigenous people, regional and urban sectors, because the vote is only a political act that should be tied to the sustained advances of economic, cultural and social democracy acquired by the Bolivian people.

Having acquired, in the last eighteen years, dignity and national sovereignty on the fundamental decisions of national life, since the popular uprising of October 2003, the nationalization of hydrocarbons in May 2006 and having established a new Political Constitution of the State from February of 2009, are not, in a country such as Bolivia, superficial acts since they represent the national-popular front and self-determination against imperialist domination and its allies the internal oligarchs.

Concentration in the Plaza San Francisco, La Paz, in support of Evo Morales (23-10-2019)

Therefore, it is a question not only of defending, maintaining and strengthening the advances obtained such as the nationalizations and recoveries of strategic enterprises, the beginning of the industrialization of natural resources, territorial integration with roads and highways to all corners of the country, the redistribution of wealth favouring the most impoverished, marginal and relegated sectors, providing cheap energy to all Bolivian households and to small, medium and large industries, ensuring participative and deliberative democracy of workers, campesinos, women, indigenous people, neighborhoods, informal workers and popular sectors and sustaining a diplomacy of integration and unity of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Deepening the process of national liberation

Hence the national popular drive consolidated to date should prevent the rise of conservative neo-liberalism and the intrusion of imperialist forces such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (BM), USAID or the US Military Mission, so as to advance along new paths that imply the strengthening of the National State, the Internal Market and Participatory Democracy.

This implies the reversion of lands of the big landholders and granting them to campesinos and colonisers , the application of nationalisation with the fiscal control of the oil and mining transnationals that operate in the country, the control of private banks and the strengthening of the State Bank and social and fiscal control of strategic enterprises such as Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), Yacimientos de Litio Boliviano (YLB), Empresa Nacional de Telecommunications (ENTEL), Empresa Nacional de Electricidad (ENDE) Empresa del Mutún, Agencias Nacionales de Supervision and other state institutions that risk falling into the logic of bureaucracy and corruption.

In order to maintain economic stability in aspects related to foreign trade it will be necessary to apply greater controls and tariffs on the import of sumptuous products to reduce internal consumerism and reduce and control the balance of trade and payments, developing strong actions against contraband in both illegal entry and exit of merchandise, especially of hydrocarbons, and protecting economic success in the face of the ups and downs of the global capitalist crisis,  Also, actions must be developed to control the budgetary current expenses so as to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Bolivia should also contribute to strengthening the processes of regional integration, and the unity of Latin America and the Caribbean, with closer diplomatic relations with the government of Manuel López Obrador in Mexico, Alberto Fernández in Argentina, Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and of Diaz Canel in Cuba, under the Bolivarian and Chavist principles.

24/10/2019

(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop)

- Eduardo Paz Rada, Bolivian Sociologist and teacher with UMSA. He writes in publications of Bolivia and Latin America