Stuart Munckton
When he issued the decree nationalising the gas industry on May 1, fulfilling the main demand of the popular movement that overthrew the two preceding presidents as well as the key promise in his election campaign, Bolivian President Evo Morales insisted "this is just the start". Bolivia's energy minister, Andres Soliz Rada, stated in an interview with Argentinean newspaper Pagina 12 on May 14 that, with the gas nationalisation, "the process of a national revolution has been restarted" in Bolivia.
The Financial Times reported on May 8 that Morales had vowed to follow up the nationalisation of the gas industry by nationalising the country's mining industry, insisting: "Our mineral resources, our forests and our water resources should be returned to the hands of Bolivians."
Morales said that if he didn't succeed in extending the gas nationalisation to other key industries before the elections to the Constituent Assembly in August, which is tasked with drawing up a new constitution, then that body should set such nationalisations as a key priority.
CNN.com reported that the Morales government had set May 31 as the deadline to begin an ambitious program to distribute land to poor farmers. The government plans to redistribute land equivalent to the size of Greece in the province of Santa Cruz, claiming the land to be redistributed was obtained illegally by large landowners and is being left idle and/or underutilised.
With assistance from Cuba and Venezuela, Bolivia has also begun introducing social missions in health care and education. A literacy campaign, modelled on Venezuela's, is attempting to eliminate illiteracy with the aid of 30,000 TV sets plus workbooks and videotapes for Bolivian volunteer teachers donated by Cuba, according to a May 6 Washington Post report.
Cuba has also helped equip 20 rural Bolivian hospitals, is providing free eye surgery in three new ophthalmology centres, and is offering to pay for 6000 Bolivians to study in Cuba. Venezuela offered US$130 million to assist with various social programs.
The Wall Street Journal has reacted with alarm at the way Morales is attempting to change the composition of the personnel in the Bolivian state to ensure they identify with the poor. A May 25 article reported, "In addition to purging the military of high-ranking officers, Mr. Morales decreed that every public official had to accept a pay cut of almost 50% and stipulated that no bureaucrat could earn more than his own wage of about $22,000 a year. Since then, five out of 12 Supreme Court justices, the country's top election judge and top bureaucrats in a clutch of key ministries have left their posts. They have been replaced by officials from the president's Movement Toward Socialism party with little or no experience."
From Â鶹ӳ» Weekly, May 31, 2006.
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