Octubre 25, 2004
Hot Air in Bolivia
In Uyuni, Bolivia will be host to a giant hot air balloon festival. This will be an excellent launching point to focus Bolivia´s tourism to this unique salt plain. Even LAB airlines will begin service to Uyuni.
However, the hot air that I am most concerned about is coming from Santa Cruz, where the so-called elite leaders are whining just for the sake of whining. A recent headline in the Santa Cruz daily read "La ‘media luna’ declara guerra a Mesa y veta ley de hidrocarburos" (The word "war" was actually used by Zvonko Matkovic, head of CAINCO).
President Carlos Mesa and Congress are locked in a heated debate over the new Hydrocarbons Law. Congress, with the exception of some Tarijeño Congressmembers, voted overwhelmingly for the law recommended by the Comisión Mixta de Desarrollo Económico chaired by a MAS member from Potosi. The law created by the Executive Branch of the government has been called more conservative, but will not push foreign investment away.
This law is a major part of Mesa´s plan to reactivate the economy. There are dozens of projects waiting to invest in Bolivia and its huge natural gas reserves. However, without a law, no investment can be made.
One of the major criticism of these so-called leaders, has been Mesa´s inability to focus on the economy. Mesa-this, Mesa-that, it always is easy to criticize the Executive Branch of Congress. However, Mesa´s law conforms more closely with the desires of those Departments that hold the bulk of the gas reserves. Yet, leaders of the Comite Civicos (self-proclaimed businessmen from the upper-class) never mention or criticize the Congressional representatives from their own backyards, that voted for the Committee proposal, that would, as critics say, scare away investment and push Bolivia farther into economic difficulties.
Most of the gas is located in Tarija, and in the area called El Chaco. There is a movement that is calling for a 10th Department to be created. They argue, that Tarija and Santa Cruz are too centralized and a lot of the revenues from the gas reserves will never reach the rural countryside. These areas are behind economically and in development. The money always falls into the hands of the elite and powerful. Sound familiar? Would Santa Cruz and Tarija support this region in becoming autonomous and become a separate Department? Sounds like hypocrisy to me.
These "leaders" have autonomy as their rallying cry and have claimed this topic as their own. Mesa has repeatedly said that he supports local autonomies and it something that it would benefit all of Bolivia (which is something that these "leaders" never consider), and not just this fictional "media luna", an invention of these individuals hoping to divide Bolivia. Autonomy works only when it does not just create smaller centralized powers that mirrors what happens in La Paz. Centralism is a bad thing, but centralism in Departments does not correct this mistake.
Posted by eduardo at Octubre 25, 2004 06:38 PM