For Bolivia, Neoliberalism is Not an Option

As the Organization of American States completes its three-day session debating the role of free trade and neoliberalism in fostering democracy for the continent, the country of Bolivia is on the brink of a civil war over that very question.

The sound of firecrackers and dynamite blasts punctuated the beginning of the fourth week of paralyzing protests in the Bolivian capital of La Paz, Wednesday. Tens of thousands of indigenous, miners, workers, students, and others once again flooded the streets to vocalize two immediate demands: a new constitution, and the nationalization of Bolivia's oil and gas resources.

'We want our oil and gas nationalized, so that our children can have them one day,' said Japth Mamani Yanolico, an indigenous leader from the Omasuyos Province near Lake Titicaca, as he stopped to take a break from the tear gas in the streets of La Paz. 'And we want a Constituent Assembly.'

Meanwhile, in Broward, Florida, George Bush addressed the General Session of the OAS Monday, advocating increasing free trade and neoliberal policies for Latin America through trade accords which would open markets and increase privatization in the region. Bush spoke of the benefits of free trade in buttressing fragile democracies and increasing living standards.

'In the new Americas of the 21st century, one of the surest ways to make opportunity real for all our citizens is by opening our doors to trade,'said Bush.

Bush's proposals, however, received a cold welcome from the majority of representatives of Latin American countries where, after two decades of neoliberal reforms, one in four people live in poverty.Bolivia, as many countries in the region, has been following International Monetary Fund (IMF) neoliberal mandates for the last 20 years, primary among these, the privatization of natural gas exploitation which occurred in the mid 1990s.

The current upheaval in Bolivia centers around the question of who controls, and who benefits from Bolivia's natural resources, one of the only economic lifelines of what is the poorest country in South America. The overwhelming majority of Bolivia