Dark clouds gather around MAS and the new Bolivian constitution

Today Bolivia enacts the most participatory and democratic constitution in its history. This, however, does not guarantee that the immediate future will be trouble free.

Kepa Artaraz

In a clever play on words on the famous slogan Evo cumple, Bolivia cambia (Evo meets his promises, Bolivia changes) the main headline in this month’s Le Monde diplomatique, Bolivian edition, added a question mark to the end.

Is Bolivia really changing?, goes the argument, when, a top member of MAS and president of the nationalised oil company YPFB, Mr. Santos Ramirez, is embroiled in a corruption scandal brought to the surface when a ccompany employee was assassinated whilst carrying $450,000 in a suitcase?

Details of this event are yet to be clarified but the symbolic impact of a scandal that includes assassination, missing millions, corruption and bribery cannot be underestimated. If Bolivia is one of the most corrupt countries in the world according to Transparency International, current government efforts to refound the country with higher moral standards than in the past, appear to have come unstuck with this incident.

It is a shame because today marks the beginning of Bolivia’s new period in history with the enactment of the new constitution approved on 25th January. As the president, accompanied on the stage in the city of el Alto by representatives from all the social movements – true protagonists of Bolivia’s process of change that delivered the presidency to Evo Morales in 2005 – opposition forces were hard at work, not to contribute to the creation of a new Bolivia, but to derail the process of change as they have done since 2005.

The day was suitably grey and rainy and although this did not dampen the spirits of the many tens of thousands gathered to witness the beginning of a new era in Bolivia’s history, dark clouds are already gathering ahead.

Now begins a battle for the presidency and control of the two chambers in the new plurinational assembly in the new December elections that can in turn deliver the detailed legislation needed to make a reality of the aspirations enshrined in the new constitution. It will be a bumpy ride.

El cambio avanza…..Change is in the air

20 October is a historic day for La Paz , not only because it is the 460 anniversary of the city but because this day will be remembered as the day when the biggest ever political march descended on the city from every corner of the country. The social movements mobilized hundreds of thousands who came from the Yungas, from the altiplano and from the farthest reaches of a vast country, to demand that Congress approves the law that will put to the national vote the new political constitution of the country.

This is a constitution that is being regarded as necessary to re-found the state because it guarantees the equality and inclusion of all Bolivians, including the historically marginalized majority that belongs to the indigenous community. The constitution also recognizes various types of economic activity (community-based, cooperative), various forms of autonomic government - including autonomies that will guarantee the cultural reproduction possibilities of indigenous groups - and a number of economic and social rights that protect vulnerable groups in society and upholds the state ownership of key natural resources.

After a march of more than a week, the president himself joined his supporters and led their entrance in La Paz to the seat of government in Plaza Murillo where they sang, cheered and stood in preparation for a long vigil until congressmen and women inside approved the required law. In the event, they had to stand there for more than 24 hours until 1pm today Tuesday 21 October when finally the two thirds support necessary was reached after last minute concessions. Of them, and one that demonstrates the political stature of the president, the biggest was the acceptance by the President to seek only one reelection in December 2009 instead of the two that affords him the new constitution.

It was a long and painful wait and one that tested the patience of miners who, armed with dynamite, threatened to enter Congress and take it by force. In the event, the President himself had to appeal to the civility of all those congregated who, as if choreographed, would break in spontaneous shouts of cambio, cambio, cambio…(change, change, change...).

In the end, by 1 pm local time, the vice president Alvaro Garcia Linera was able to emerge on the square holding in his hands the document that calls for a referendum on the new constitution. And as befits a government of social movements, the president signed the document in front of the thousands who at that time cheered in the plaza ushering a new political phase of peace and equality in spite of the last minute attempts to derail this process of democratic change by the last remaining oligarchs with political representation.

Change…(we can believe in). Now, where have I heard this political slogan before?