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Update from alternative development in the Chapare.
(alternative
development means that you the taxpayer pay me
and 600 other people to convince coca farmer to grow bananas,
pineapples, palm heart and so on instead of coca. The Chapare
is the only place in Latin America where its actually working,
but the social and economic cost to Bolivia, and to the
stability of its "democracy" are another
story)
Yesterday at 9:00 a.m. I got a call from a
co-worker saying the cocaleros were threatening to kidnap our
personnel, take us to Cochabamba and parade us nude in the
main plaza. Naturally I had to report this to the embassy, and
they are investigating. The day before I had a very cordial
meeting with cocalero leaders to talk about road maintenance,
they were happy with our help and I am sure they would treat
us well.
Recalling advice from my mom from the 50's, I
sent word to all our people to wear their best underwear. I
also passed this on to the embassy and their typically droll
response: good idea. I made some points there for
leadership.
In order to make a good impression we are
thinking of sending out for some stylish underwear for
everybody. The internal debate still rages over...boxers or
briefs.
(OK trivia fans, name that Woody Allen
movie)
Thank God this is not Colombia. To the extent
that any social demand gets met here, it is done via the
street theater of marches, road |
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blockades and hunger strikes with some regrettable
violence around the edges, but nothing like Colombia).
Downtown Cochabamba is called the Marchadromo.
The one
thing that seems to hold this country together is dancing in
the streets in innumerable festivals and parades. Protest
movements respectfully arrange protest marching calendars
around festival dancing season, and all social classes dress
up in expensive costumes, practice after work all year, and
dance in the street till they drop, from the poorest and least
educated to cabinet ministers. There is a movement to change
the name of the country to
Bailivia.
Political
cartoon from Los Tiempos (Cochabamba from last week): "If we
Bolivians are so orderly, socially integrated, cooperative and
respectful to each other during our festivals, and our
festivals are so many and so long, why doesn't the Congress
declare Carnival is year round, every day?"
I have had
a chance to meet the new ambassador a couple of times, and he
is good guy, David Greenlee. He was here in the peace corps 63
to 65, his wife, Clara, is Pacenia and they have 4 kids. He
would like to find a way for us to be able to work directly
with the cocaleros, which is a good idea since they have used
the coca issue to organize the first ever indigenous political
juggernaut, the MAS party led by Evo Morales. He got 21% of
the presidential vote, while Goni got 22%. The other
indigenous presidential candidate, El Mallku Felipe Quispe,
got 3%, but |
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Evo and Mallku, both Aymaras, were not talking to each
other at that point. The old elite and the embassy have done
the math on this one, and this looks to some people like the
situation in South Africa before Mandela took over. At some
point Uncle has to get on the bandwagon of majority rule, even
if it is an unwashed and unlettered majority. They are
counting the Latin America dominos in Washington, and the
count is up to around 4 and rising.
Of course, this is
not the middle east, and Bolivia is not on too many maps these
days. The question to the poor folks in the campo is not who
governs but when will we get some attention to our local
needs. Yesterday Charania, the municipality out beyond Viacha
on the Chilean border, announced they are petitioning to
become part of Chile. This causes great national consternation
and accusations of high treason, but their question is,
when
will we get electricity, schools and hospitals? And
the answer from the
Bolivian Congress is nothing better
than "we are looking into it." The
silent but clear, via
actions, response from the US is if you don't have coca to
eradicate, we don't have anything for you. This has to
change.
Steven Huffstutlar
Bolivia
1968-70
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