{"id":27801,"date":"2022-07-31T21:18:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-31T19:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=27801"},"modified":"2022-08-01T10:20:37","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T08:20:37","slug":"evo-morales-an-economic-model-that-belongs-to-the-people-not-to-the-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=27801","title":{"rendered":"Evo Morales: “an economic model that belongs to the people, not to the empire”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .<\/p>\n

Excerpts from an article by Matt Kennard*, 14 July, in Declassified UK<\/a><\/p>\n

The President of Bolivia from 2006-19 invites Declassified to his house deep in the Amazon rainforest for an exclusive interview \u2013 on the UK role in the coup that overthrew him, how he reversed 500 years of history and industrialised Bolivia, and the efforts of the US and its British ally to bring him down.<\/p>\n


\n\"\"
\nVideo of interview<\/a><\/center><\/p>\n

When Evo Morales, Bolivia\u2019s first indigenous president, was overthrown in a\u00a0British-backed\u00a0<\/a> coup in November 2019, many believed his life was in danger. Latin America\u2019s history is littered with liberation leaders cut down by vengeful imperial powers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Legendary resistance leader T\u00fapac Katari, like Morales from the Aymara indigenous group, had his limbs\u00a0tied\u00a0<\/a> to four horses by the Spanish before they bolted and he was ripped apart in 1781.<\/p>\n

Some 238 years later, Bolivia\u2019s self-declared \u2018interim president\u2019 Jeanine \u00c1\u00f1ez appeared in Congress days after the coup against Morales brandishing a huge leatherbound Bible. \u201cThe Bible has returned to the government palace,\u201d she\u00a0announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Her new regime immediately forced through\u00a0Decree 4078\u00a0<\/a> which gave immunity to the military for any actions taken in \u201cthe defence of society and maintenance of public order\u201d. It was a green-light. The following day, 10 unarmed protestors were\u00a0massacred\u00a0by <\/a> security forces.<\/p>\n

When the coup was looking inevitable, Morales had gone underground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His destination, with his vice-president \u00c1lvaro Garc\u00eda Linera, was El Tr\u00f3pico de Cochabamba, a tropical area deep in the Amazon rainforest in central Bolivia, and the heartland of his Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) party and its indigenous base. . . .<\/p>\n

Days after Morales and Linera arrived in El Tr\u00f3pico, Mexico\u2019s left-wing president Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador sent <\/a> a plane to rescue them, flying them out of Chimor\u00e9 airport again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obrador later said that the Bolivian armed forces targeted the aircraft with an RPG rocket <\/a> moments after it took off. It appears the UK-backed coup regime wanted the deposed president \u2013 who had served for 13 years \u2013 dead. Morales credits Obrador with saving his life<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Villa Tunari<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morales is back in El Tr\u00f3pico now, but in very different circumstances.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a year of \u2018interim government\u2019 democracy was eventually restored <\/a> in October 2020 and Morales\u2019s MAS won the elections again. The new president Luis Arce, formerly Morales\u2019 economy minister, took power and Morales made a triumphant return from exile in Argentina.<\/p>\n

After a tour of much of the country on foot, Morales settled back in El Tr\u00f3pico.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has recently moved into a house in Villa Tunari, a small town that sits just 20 miles down the road from Chimor\u00e9 airport. It has a population of just over 3,000.\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n

I got the interview because of an investigation <\/a> I wrote in March 2021 revealing the UK\u2019s support for the coup which deposed Morales.\u00a0. . .<\/p>\n

Local journalists told me that Morales often mentions the article in his speeches, so I start with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust last year, through the media, we were informed that England had also participated in the coup,\u201d he tells me. This, he continues, was a \u201cblow against our economic model, because our economic model has produced results.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cIt is an economic model that belongs to the people, not to the empire. An economic model that does not come from the International Monetary Fund. An economic model that comes from the social movements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales continues: \u201cWhen we came to government in 2006, Bolivia was the last country in South America in terms of economic and development indicators, the penultimate country in all of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the next 13 years of his government Bolivia experienced its most stable period since it declared independence in 1825, and achieved unprecedented economic success, even\u00a0praised\u00a0by the IMF and World Bank. Crucially, this success was translated into unprecedented\u00a0improvements\u00a0<\/a> for Bolivia\u2019s poor.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first six years we had the highest levels of economic growth in all of South America and that was because of those policies that came from social movements based on nationalisation,\u201d Morales tells me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was part of the \u201cpink tide<\/a> \u201d of left-wing governments in Latin America in the 2000s, but his model was more economically radical than most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On his hundredth day in office, Morales moved to\u00a0nationalise\u00a0<\/a> Bolivia\u2019s oil and gas reserves, ordering the military to occupy the country\u2019s gas fields and giving foreign investors a six-month deadline to comply with demands or leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Morales believes it was this programme of nationalisation that led to the Western-backed coup against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI continue to be convinced that the empire, capitalism, imperialism, do not accept that there is an economic model that is better than neoliberalism,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThe coup was against our economic model\u2026we showed that another Bolivia is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added value<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morales says the second phase of the revolution \u2013 after nationalisation \u2013 was industrialisation. \u201cThe most important part was lithium,\u201d he adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bolivia has the world\u2019s\u00a0second-largest\u00a0<\/a> reserves of lithium, a metal that is used to make batteries and which has become increasingly coveted due to the burgeoning electric car industry.<\/p>\n

Morales remembers a formative trip to South Korea he made in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were discussing bilateral agreements, investments, co-operation and they took me to visit a factory that produced lithium batteries,\u201d Morales says. \u201cInterestingly, South Korea was asking us for lithium, as a raw material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales said he asked at the factory how much it cost to build the facility. They told him $300m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur international reserves were growing,\u201d he adds. \u201cI said at that moment, \u2018I can guarantee $300m dollars\u2019. I said to the Koreans, \u2018let\u2019s replicate this factory in Bolivia. I can guarantee your investment\u2019\u201d. The Koreans said no.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when I realised that industrialised countries only want us Latin Americans so that we can guarantee them their raw materials. They don\u2019t want us to give us the added value.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that point, Morales resolved to start industrialising Bolivia, reversing half a millennium of colonial history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The traditional imperial dynamic which had kept Bolivia poor was that rich countries would extract raw materials, send them to Europe to be made into products, industrialising Europe at the same time, and then sell them back to Bolivia as finished products, at a mark-up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(article continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\nQuestions related to this article:<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n
\n 
\nCan Latin America free itself from US domination?<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n

(article continued from left column)<\/p>\n

With the country\u2019s lithium deposits, Morales was adamant this system was finished. Bolivia would not just extract the lithium. It would build the batteries, too. Morales calls it \u201cvalue added\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started with a laboratory, obviously with international experts that we hired,\u201d he says. \u201cThen we moved on to a pilot plant. We invested around $20 million, and now it\u2019s working. Every year it produces about 200 tonnes of lithium carbonate, and lithium batteries, in Potos\u00ed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Potos\u00ed is a city in southern Bolivia that became the centre of the Spanish empire in Latin America after gargantuan silver deposits were discovered there in the 16th century.\u00a0Called <\/a>\u00a0\u201cthe first city of capitalism\u201d, it is estimated up to\u00a0eight million\u00a0<\/a> indigenous people died mining Potosi\u2019s\u00a0Cerro Rico\u00a0(Rich Hill) for silver, all of it destined for Europe.<\/p>\n

Morales continues: \u201cWe had a plan to install 42 new [lithium] plants by 2029. It was estimated that profits would be five billion dollars. Profits!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s when the coup came,\u201d he says. \u201cThe US says China\u2019s presence is not permitted but\u2026having a market in China is very important. Also in Germany. The next step was with Russia, and then came the coup.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cJust last year, we found out that England had also participated in the coup \u2013 all for lithium.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Morales says his people\u2019s long struggle for control over their own riches is not unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a struggle not only in Bolivia, or Latin America, but throughout the world,\u201d Morales says. \u201cWho do natural resources belong to? The people under the control of their state? Or are they privatised under the control of transnationals so they can plunder our natural resources?\u201d<\/p>\n

Partners or bosses?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Morales\u2019 nationalisation programme put him on a collision course with powerful transnational companies who were used to the traditional imperial dynamic.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the 2005 campaign, we said, if corporations want to be here they do so as partners, or to provide their services, but not as bosses or owners of our natural resources,\u201d Morales says.\u00a0 \u201cWe established a political position with regards to transnational companies: we talk, we negotiate, but we do not submit to transnational corporations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales gives the example of hydrocarbon contracts signed by previous governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous contracts \u2013 contracts made by neoliberals \u2013 it literally said \u2018the title-holder acquires the rights to the product at the mouth of the well.\u2019 Who is the title-holder? The transnational oil company. They want it from the mouth of the well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cThe companies tell us that when it is underground it belongs to the Bolivians, but when it comes out of the ground it is no longer the Bolivians. From the moment it comes out, the transnational corporations have an acquired right to it. So we said, inside or outside, it all belongs to Bolivians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales continues: \u201cThe most important thing now is that of 100% revenue, 82% is for Bolivians and 18% for corporations. Before it was 82% for the companies, 18% for the Bolivians, and the state had no control over production \u2013 how much they produced, how they produced \u2013 nothing\u201d. . .<\/p>\n

Placing conditions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the formation of the\u00a0Monroe Doctrine\u00a0in 1823 \u2013 which claimed the Western Hemisphere as the US\u2019s sphere of influence \u2013 Bolivia has been largely under its control. This changed for the first time with the advent of the Morales government.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a state, we want to have diplomatic relationships with all the world, but based on mutual respect,\u201d Morales tells me. \u201cThe problem we have with the US is that any relationship with them is always subject to conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morales continues: \u201cIt\u2019s important to have commerce and relations based on mutual benefit, not competition. And we found some European countries that do that. But above all we found China. Diplomatic relationships with them aren\u2019t based on conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWith the US, for example, their economic plan, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, if you wanted to access it you had to, in exchange, privatise your natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MCC was a\u00a0project\u00a0<\/a> of the George W. Bush administration which sought to run aid more like a business. Headed by a CEO, it is funded by public money but acts autonomously, and has a corporation-style board which\u00a0includes\u00a0<\/a> business people expert in making money. The aid \u201ccompacts\u201d it signs with countries come with attached policy \u201cconditionalities<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina doesn\u2019t place any conditions on us, same as Russia, and like some countries in Europe,\u201d Morales adds. \u201cSo that is the difference\u201d . . . .<\/p>\n

Morales believes that information and communication for the \u201cpeople who do not have a voice\u201d is the most important issue today. He is currently working on building independent media in Bolivia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people without many means of communication are faced with a hard struggle to communicate,\u201d Morales says. \u201cWe have some experience, for example in El Tr\u00f3pico. We have a radio station, we don\u2019t have a national audience, but it is listened to and followed a lot by the right-wing media.\u201d They follow mainly to find attack lines on Morales.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow nice it would be if the people had their own media channels,\u201d Morales continues. \u201cThis is the challenge the people have. This media we have, which belongs to the empire or the right-wing in Bolivia, that\u2019s how it is in all Latin America. It defends its interests\u2026and they are never with the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds: \u201cWhen, for example, the right-wing makes a mistake it is never revealed, it\u2019s covered-up and they protect themselves. The [corporate] media is there to defend their big industries, their lands, their banks, and they want to humiliate the Bolivian peoples, the humble people of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I have a lot of hope\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Latin America has long been the world\u2019s home of democratic socialism. I ask Morales if he has hope for the future. \u201cIn South America, we are not in times of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, Lula, [N\u00e9stor] Kirchner, [Rafael] Correa,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Together these progressive leaders pushed for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean, through organisations such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2008 and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) in 2011.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came down, but now we are recovering,\u201d Morales adds.<\/p>\n

Recent events point to another left-wing resurgence in the continent. Morales points to recent victories in\u00a0Peru,\u00a0Chile\u00a0and\u00a0Colombia\u00a0and Lula\u2019s\u00a0expected return\u00a0to the presidency in Brazil soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose times are returning,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to again consolidate these democratic revolutions for the good of humanity. I have a lot of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cIn politics we must ask ourselves: are we with the people or are we with the empire? If we are with the people, we make a country; if we are with the empire, we make money.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we are with the people, we fight for life, for humanity; if we are with the empire, we are with the politics of death, the culture of death, interventions, and pillaging of the people. That is what we ask ourselves as humans, as leaders: \u2018Are we at the service of our people?\u2019\u201d . . . .
\n_________<\/p>\n

* Matt Kennard is chief investigator at Declassified UK. He was a fellow and then director at the Centre for Investigative Journalism in London. Follow him on Twitter @kennardmatt<\/p>\n

____________<\/p>\n

(Thank you to Joe Yannielli for sending this article to CPNN.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . . Excerpts from an article by Matt Kennard*, 14 July, in Declassified UK The President of Bolivia from 2006-19 invites Declassified to his house deep in the Amazon rainforest for an exclusive interview \u2013 on the UK role in the coup that overthrew him, how he reversed 500 years of … Continue reading Evo Morales: “an economic model that belongs to the people, not to the empire”<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77,10],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-27801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latin-america","category-sustainable","tag-latin-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27801\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}