Filed under: South America | Tags: Bolivia, Britain, Chile, Cochambamba, Crypto-Fascist, Democracy, Evo Morales, Falklands War, George Orwell, Gordon Brown, IMF, Indigenous, International Water Limited (IWL), John Major, John Maynard Keynes, Land Reform, Liberalisation, Margaret Thatcher, Naomi Klein, National Revolutionary Movement (MNR), Nationalisation, Neoliberal, New Economic Policy, New Labour, Nicaragua, Paramilitary, Pinocet, Privitisation, Salvador Allende, Sandinistas, Tomas Borge, Tony Blair, US-Sponsored Coup, Victor Paz Estenssoro, World Bank
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16 December 2008
Bolivia, a country used to being ignored by the western media, has hit the headlines in recent months due to the marked increase in violence among opponents and supporters of the government. Back in December 2005 Bolivia, a country in which 62 per cent of the population identify themselves as indigenous, elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales, on a mandate of radical reform. This has met with fierce opposition among Bolivia’s wealthy, predominantly white elite.
Particularly controversial has been the issue of land reform; Bolivia has one of the most unequal concentrations of land ownership in the world, with one per cent of landowners owning two-thirds of the country’s farm land. It is no surprise, then, that Morales’s proposed reforms have provoked the ire of Bolivia’s landed elites. In the richer provinces, these elites began orchestrating violence against indigenous people in alliance with crypto-fascist Continue reading