Between freedom and fear is one of the many books that came from the beautiful pen of German Arciniegas. In its first three chapters, it describes the Latin American dictatorships and revolutions of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s.
Arciniegas quite wisely defines Juan Domingo Perón, Emiliano Zapata and General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo not as politicians, but as caudillos. However, the problem is not, in itself, the leadership, since humans always look for role models with leadership capacity, but rather that these snake charmers used the needs and demands of the population – very valid, by the way – to reach the can. But once mounted on the throne, they dedicated themselves to destroying their opponents, outlawing political parties, blowing up the independent press and eliminating freedom. For the author, authoritarianism supplanted politics in the region, or perhaps we never knew the latter.
Seven decades have passed since the publication of the book. However, things in this neighborhood have not changed, they even got worse. But let’s focus on the Bolivian case.
With the overthrow of Bolivian President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada in October 2003, Castrochavism scored two important victories. First, get a strategic point to expand his dictatorship to the neighboring countries of Bolivia. Second, position in public opinion that street terrorism and the destruction of public property are forms of social protest. Yes, gentlemen, they made us believe that gangsters were social fighters and statesmen.
The conspirators, with Evo Morales at the head, and Carlos Mesa, the great traitor during the Sánchez de Lozada administration, designed a mechanism to blow up the institutional pillars of Bolivian democracy. They began with the call for a Constituent Assembly. They also created new educational, banking, and tax laws, and squandered the gas rents hand over fist. Nothing was left standing. Everything served to keep the cocalero and his henchmen happy.
After almost two decades of MAS governments, Bolivia registers the highest foreign debt in its history. A World Bank document explains that, after the boom in raw materials in 2014, Bolivia resorted to internal and external indebtedness to maintain high economic growth, although in reality it was only the fattening of the bureaucratic apparatus.
These measures resulted in an increase in public debt and a reduction in international reserves. In other words, the government of national “dignity” condemned several generations to pay for the drunken power of the dictatorship. As Arciniegas would say: «The caudillos remain in power by spending what is not theirs and eliminating those who question them».
The care of the Pachamama was another of the flags used by the Movement for Socialism to come to power, Morales himself staged theatrical scenes on the subject.
However, the country suffers from massive deforestation. The 2.2 million certified hectares, which made Bolivia an example of forest management at the dawn of the 21st century, have fallen to 800,000. Many specialists assume that this massive deforestation, especially in the east of the country, is the product of the need to expand the coca frontier.
Alcides Vadillo, regional director of Fundación TIERRA, in an interview with the newspaper Brújula Digital (08/25/2022) stated the following:
96% of state land in the east was handed over to Bartolinas, interculturalists, also known as “colonizers” and to the Bolivian Peasant Confederation, allies of the MAS government. The objective is not only to hand over the land, but to have political control of the territorial space.
It is obvious that the government is also using the land to infiltrate people in the areas in which it has a minority. These settlers are then used as shock groups and blockers to destabilize mayors and prefects who do not submit to masismo.
The duck test tells us, “If it walks like a duck, it has a duck’s bill, swims like a duck, it’s a duck.” Ergo, if they threaten like gang members, they attack like gang members, they exercise violence like gang members, because they are gang members. It doesn’t take much science to prove it.
poor country!
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