I knew Bolivia through several projects more than 2 decades ago: in the Quechua valleys of Cochabamba and Chapare cochabambino, in the Aymara Highlands of La Paz and Oruro, in the basin of the Titicaca and Coipasa lakes and along the Desaguadero river.
I also learned the testimonies of the ancient civilization of Tiwanako, the sacred island of the Sun in the great lake, the potato and quinoa crops, the paths of the llamas, the coca plantations in the Chapare. And finally, the agricultural business expansion in Santa Cruz, a department strongly influenced by the proximity of the Brazilian giant.
At that time Bolivia was a poor country. Organized and hardworking people but very poor.
Above all the indigenous communities were poor. The towns of the barren highlands, the Quechua populations of the Sierra, the coca growers of the Chapare and the indigenous immigrants who had been arriving in Santa Cruz due to the lack of work in the mountains.
All that changed with the MAS and with Evo.
The country began to grow, it stopped being poor. The natural gas was nationalized and channeled to the homes to Bolivian cities.
The Pachamama, banned for centuries, re-entered the Presidential Palace. The Aymara, Quechua and Guarani communities were able to govern themselves.
The quality of life improved substantially.
It was another Bolivia.
But it could not be, a new mestizo and European Creole oligarchy could not allow it. Nor could the Creole oligarchies of neighboring countries allow it, it was a bad example.
And finally, the pressure of the North American empire that relocates the mining resources, the maneuvers and manipulations of the multi-income officials of the Washington OAS, the so-called Lima Group, in short all of them.
Bolivia's resources had to be recovered, now in state and popular hands.
Quasi-colonial authoritarianism has returned,
Tupac Amaru will be dismembered again.
D.A.
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