Maravi

Bush has made my mandate more difficult, charges Morales

Bush has made my mandate more difficult, charges Morales
By Larry Moonze in Havana, Cuba
Friday May 09, 2008 [04:00]

THE Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult, Bolivian President Evo Morales has charged. And Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has said Latin Americans have an obligation to join forces with President Morales' administration to fight against attempts to divide Bolivia.

Addressing Nicaraguans at the Revolution Square in Managua on Tuesday on the eve of the Latin America and the Caribbean leaders’ emergency summit on food crisis, President Morales, led by his counterpart Ortega, said a lot had taken place in Bolivia in the first two years of his reign.

He said following the nationalisation of the oil industry, his country wiped out the fiscal deficit that had characterised the Bolivian economy since the 1940s.

President Morales said after he took office, Bolivia's international reserves increased from around US $1.7 billion to more than US $6 billion in just two years.

"In spite of these advances, it has been impossible to meet social demands that date back 500 years," said President Morales as quoted by Prensa Latina. "The (US President George W.) Bush administration has made my mandate more difficult. It has been conspiring against my government since the beginning. The oligarchy and the US government are always speaking about the need to topple the Indian (himself).”

President Morales is the first indigenous Bolivian to ascend to the presidency.

And President Ortega said Nicaragua fully supported President Morales in his effort to curtail separatist efforts promoted by the Bolivian oligarchy and the United States.
President Ortega called the attempts to divide Bolivia an open conspiracy.

"We have the obligation to unite in fighting this battle," said President Ortega. "The people have the strength of conscience to succeed."

Last Sunday, Bolivia's wealthiest province of Santa Cruz staged a referendum seeking greater autonomy from the central government in La Paz. However, Bolivia's Supreme Court ruled the referendum invalid. And President Morales called on all the prefects (governors) to work with his government to establish an authentic autonomy within the strictures of the new constitution.

Wealthy landowners, together with businesses and multinational corporations are banking on the referendum outcome to shelter themselves from the deep social and economic changes President Morales is pursuing to resolve high poverty and inequality.

Santa Cruz landowners are fearful of a far-reaching revolutionary process in Bolivia which includes President Morales' plan to redistribute land to the poor. He calls for spreading national wealth to the rest of Bolivia.

Bolivia has nine provinces with the four "gas reserves and oil-rich" eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando calling for autonomy.

Santa Cruz is the wealthiest province and the stronghold of the right-wing opposition. President Morales has dismissed the Santa Cruz referendum as illegal and an action by the oligarchy that was refusing to accept an indigenous president.

Under President Morales, Bolivia is reforming the constitution to eliminate marginalisation. However, the four eastern lowlands provinces home to some 35 per cent of Bolivia's more than 8.5 million people and contribute about two-thirds to the country's gross domestic product have opposed the new constitution.

Labels: DANIEL ORTEGA, EVO MORALES, GEORGE BUSH

posted by MrK @ 3:56 AM