[R-G] Peasant leader sets terms for support to Bolivia president; criticizes new cabinet

[Fred Feldman]

Opposition chief ready to back Bolivia's new president
By Raul Cortes.

La Paz, Oct 21, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Evo Morales, leader of
Bolivia's political left and of the country's militant coca growers,
told EFE here Tuesday that he will back the efforts of new President
Carlos Mesa to overcome the social and economic woes that led to the
violent unrest which forced his predecessor to step down.

He made it clear, however, that the price of his support would be a
restructuring of the state and moves by the new chief executive to
redress some of the Andean country's glaring inequities.

Morales, whose Movement toward Socialism, or MAS, finished second in
last year's elections, told EFE that he planned to give Mesa and his
Cabinet some breathing room to allow them "to get organized."

Regarding the 90-day truce the CSUTCB farm workers federation
announced Monday, Morales said those three months "could serve for the
president and the Cabinet to give clear signals of economic policy
changes."

But he warned that once the 90 days were up, he would demand the
administration "construct a new state" including "an end to the
neo-liberal model," the label used by Latin American leftists for
laissez-faire, market-oriented economic policy.

The MAS leader predicted that Mesa's task will be a difficult one. The
erstwhile vice president was sworn-in last Friday amid violent
nationwide protests that forced President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada to
step down.

His fall came after a month of demonstrations encouraged and - to some
extent - directed by Morales and CSUTCB leader Felipe Quispe.

But though the two men agreed on the aim of driving the president from
office, they are now more like rivals than allies, as attested by
Quispe's recent comments to a Chilean newspaper referring to Morales
as a "fascist" and "neo-liberal."

Regarding Mesa's prospects for success, Morales said Tuesday that
"much will depend on grassroots groups having corresponding
discussions (and obtaining) proposals agreed by consensus with the
administration" to call "a constitutional assembly" in which Bolivia's
indigenous peoples would be amply represented.

The coca growers leader is demanding that these social sectors
"participate in a new founding of the nation, because in 1825 (when
Bolivia obtained its independence), these groups did not participate
in the founding of the country."

Morales described his model government as "a participative democracy"
that takes into account the experiences of Cuba, a country he admires
for its advances in "education and health care," and Venezuela, which
he praised for achieving transformation through its own constitutional
assembly in 1998-99.

The opposition leader also hailed the "mixed economy" of Brazil.

He expressed a willingness to meet with Mesa, but indicated he would
do nothing to arrange the encounter.

Regarding the Cabinet Mesa appointed Monday, which for the first time
ever does not include members of Bolivia's traditional political
parties, Morales dismissed it as "a group of technocrats linked to the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank."

He also expressed doubts concerning the validity of two other of
Mesa's initiatives, namely a revision of the hydrocarbon law and a
call for a referendum on the export of natural gas.

"The Bolivian people demand the total recovery of the hydrocarbons,"
because "the transnational companies have sacked the country for too
long" with the support of the "political mafia" that has benefited
from the partial privatization implemented in Bolivia since 1995,
Morales said.

"There is nothing to consult (in a referendum) when the uprising was
to recover the hydrocarbons," he added, alluding to the key role
played by opposition to gas exports in the protests that toppled
Sanchez de Lozada.

Morales cited unspecified reports showing that landlocked Bolivia
could earn much more by renationalizing the natural gas fields and
liquefying the gas itself than by implementing Sanchez de Lozada's
plan to locate the liquefaction plant at an export terminal in Chile
or Peru.

According to Morales' reports, under the current proposal, Bolivia
would obtain $50 million a year, whereas if the fuel is
renationalized, processed in Bolivia and then exported, the country
could reap a profit of some $1.3 billion annually.