Bolivian soldiers guard the Senkata Gas Plant in El Alto. Juan Karita/Associated Press.(Photo from the New York Times)
Boiling Point In Bolivia -- Christian Science Monitor
Internal conflict could destabilize the region. Here's what Washington can do.
Riverdale, N.Y. - While America's foreign-policy debate centers on the Middle East and Russia, unrest is mounting in South America. Bolivia is teetering on the brink of conflict, threatening to destabilize a region much closer to home and further damage our troubled economy.
The crisis represents what the United States might increasingly face: waning power and rabid anti-Americanism, limiting Washington's options in trouble spots. In this case, the best the US can do is help support efforts led by Brazil and other South American states.
Bolivia is synonymous with political and social strife. Long known for its deep social inequities and political turmoil, this country of 9 million people has increasingly been divided geographically, economically, and even culturally. Two groups now fight for control of the state: those in the lowlands, mostly capitalist mestizos (people of mixed European ancestry) who support globalization and benefit from Brazil's booming economy, versus the indigenous groups in the Andes, the anti-American Aymara and Quechua, who prefer state control of the economy.
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My Comment: Bolivia's history has been one of discrimination, exploitation, and social inequality. To remedy this history, the new policy is now confiscation of personal property, limitation of human rights, the jailing of political opponents, and the involvement of foreign powers in your internal affairs. This dispute is going to be very messy between Bolivia's two main cultural groups.
The best that the United States can do in the region is to lend support to its allies in the region. This includes Chile, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru .... countries that have no interest in the socialist utopia that Venezuela, Ecuador, and Bolivia are now peddling.