Looking back to the future in Bolivia
November 23, 2019
Over the years, Bolivians dreamed of and struggled for a better world alongside, against, and beyond Evo Morales. But it was not supposed to end like this.
AUTHOR
Ben Dangl
It was not supposed to end this way.
A white supremacist president and her right-wing allies were not supposed to replace Evo Morales in a coup earlier this month. A de facto regime was not supposed to absolve military and police of their crimes as they shot peaceful protesters. The wiphala flag, a symbol of Bolivia’s many indigenous nations, was not supposed to be burned and torn down by racists seizing power. The new minister of communication was not supposed to threaten to round up “seditious” journalists. And the blood from the more than 25 dead and hundreds wounded from military and police bullets was not supposed to flow in the streets.
The days of Bolivian right-wing dictatorships were supposed to be over.
I remember the dream before this nightmare. I remember the street barricades against neoliberal tyrants in the early 2000s, when people fought for and envisioned a Bolivia free of corporate looting, free of the military violence of the drug war, and free of racist presidents ruling over an impoverished majority. I remember the euphoria of Evo’s impossible rise to the presidency, when an Indigenous union leader arrived at the presidential palace to “govern by obeying” the people.
I remember the street fights to defend the new constitution against the violence of the right, the long meetings and marches against feminicides, environmental disasters, and government corruption. I remember talking with Morales supporters who cried when casting their votes for a president who finally, they said, cared about the poor and indigenous people, a leader who made concrete advances in empowering marginalized sectors of society.
More:
https://roarmag.org/essays/looking-back-to-the-future-in-bolivia/
Found a couple of videos showing the Aymara Hip Hop artist and friend mentioned in the article, Abraham Abraham Bojorquez, with his band:
