Bolivian Referendum

Evo does sales pitch on new Constitution. In the background, a Bolivian Rahm Emanuel imitation. Photo by Sacred Sites.

I owe you folks an update!

I wrote here and here on the divisive buildup to the referendum on Constitutional amendments in Bolivia. So let’s look see how things turned out.

In general terms Evo made a killing at the polls: with over sixty percent of the vote the new constitution is a yes. Evo continues to be insanely popular; after being ratified by the population in an earlier referendum that the opposition crafted in order to oust him, Evo has used the same tool to exact from the old establishment land reform, religious and political equality for indigenous groups in Bolivia. The elections have been considered free and fair by international observers (.pdf in Spanish, güey).

At the regional level the nation’s divisions are becoming more acute, (Spanish again, híjole) Evo lost with approximately the same 40 to 60 ratio in all of the four Eastern separatists regions, and is up for a tie in a fifth region that borders the four media luna prefectures. The political climate is increasingly polarised. The media luna governors are all crying electoral fraud despite the opinions of observers, and the violence is still present in the media luna band.

If you want to understand how dangerously charged the political climate is at the moment, check out this piece from Reporters Without Borders, highlighting editorials read over the radio waves by a wealthy separatist, (who owns said radio station). Here’s a taste:

I am not proud of being a Bolivian, as the collas would say. I am proud of being a camba, of being a Santa Cruz man to the core. I want to be an Amazonian. I want to take advantage of this piece of Latin America without having to keep the company of these ignorant brutes, these animals in human form. I will never stop calling them that, these drugged, alcoholic maniacs who yesterday or the day before tried to demonstrate their ferocity in La Paz like poor animals. When a human being takes the form of a two-legged animal, when a human being loses his rationality, when we listen to these brutes and imbeciles who govern us, each day we lose a bit, or a lot of what we aspire to become.

I was listening to this imbecile, this ignorant cretin who represents us on the international stage, I was listening to him say he was not satisfied with the ambassador’s statement but would consult lawyers. Obviously, it is a man with knowledge of international law who can maintain relations between peoples, and not this stupid donkey, this animal, this stone llama freak.

A bit too RTLM, don’t you think? If the translated bits leave room for doubt rest assured that the untranslated slang terms are just as hateful. This is open racism stewed to a perfection that would make Dave Chappelle cringe, yet it is not coming from a random dude on the street, it is professed over the radio waves by the people who run political parties and private enterprises.

In the end Morales launched a state-run newspaper to fight the media attacks. It is probably the first time I’ve felt sympathy for a state-run propaganda vehicle, but I’ll take that uncomfortable communications instrument over explicit racist editorials any time. Evo’s new paper is called Cambio, or Change. Not very original, but maybe he’s stealing from Obama to make up for Obama’s earlier theft (The Axis of Can is getting stronger).

Levity aside, the referendum went down as expected no matter what the media luna separatists claim, and tensions continue to run high. US reception has been cold, but no surprise there since US foreign policy towards Latin America is always absurdly right wing no matter who is in charge. The hate is now spilling across borders, through the internet. A Facebook group openly calling for the assassination of Evo Morales was recently shut down by the networking site.

Despite Evo’s sane progressive policies and his popularity, one cannot help but worry about this developing story.

(Aside, you should all be reading Otto. He makes coverage of South American issues not boring.)