It looks like the political situation is deteriorating rapidly in Bolivia. Evo Morales and his MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo) party have recently taken it upon themselves to authorize a draft of a new constitution, despite the fact that they did not have a quorum to do so – the opposition was boycotting the proceedings. Nevertheless, it appears that Morales is determined to take the unilaterally approved constitution through two referenda for ratification early next year.
In response, the eastern provinces of Tarija, Pando, Beni, and Santa Cruz have declared autonomy from the Morales government. There are indications that two other departments, Chuquisaca and Cochabamba, are also unhappy with the MAS-approved constitution, and could follow suit. State representatives have vowed to legitimize their declarations of independence through local referenda.
Allow me to recap the recent political trends in South America for those readers who have not been following the news from that part of the world. The region is currently going through yet another cycle of leftist stupidity, led by the Three Stooges – Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, and Bolivia’s Evo Morales (in case you’re wondering, Chavez is Moe, Correa is Larry, and Morales is Curly – or possibly Shemp). This triumvirate of pinheads is taking the region down the road to serfdom’s fast lane, increasing the power of the state and implementing ever-greater socialist controls over the economy.
In Bolivia, Evo Morales has promised the poor indigenous majority a “greater share of the nation’s resources.” By “resources,” he means mainly the natural gas fields that are located in the eastern departments. And by “the nation’s,” he means the mestizo or “white” minority. Even through Morales has nationalized much of the hydrocarbon industry, thus ensuring that the region produces far less than it is capable of, there is always room for further erosion of property rights. For example, Morales has also repeatedly threatened to expropriate large tracts of privately-owned land that he deems to be “underutilized.” In effect, he has promised the poor that he will take land from the rich and give it to them in order to make up for centuries of racist treatment suffered by the Aymara and Quechua majorities. Regardless of the racial element that runs through Morales’s grand socialist scheme to redistribute wealth from the less poor east to the dirt poor northwest, one thing is certain – it all depends on the eastern states remaining within Evo’s sphere of political control. Should Santa Cruz and the other departments follow through with full separation, there would no longer be any wealth for Morales to steal. God knows his economic ideas won’t create any!
As I sift through all of the news from my home away from home, I can’t help but be struck by the similarities between the current situation in Bolivia and the American experience with secession that led to the Civil War. After all, one of the reasons the southern American states seceded from the Union in the 1860s was the fact that the South was paying the bulk of the North’s bills through the Morrill Tariff. Since the southern states were primarily agricultural, they depended heavily on imported capital equipment. The Morrill Tariff drastically increased import duties on these goods, and the money raised by the tariff went to protect Lincoln’s favored industries in the north. At one point, revenues from the tariff accounted for over 80% of the federal budget. As Lincoln stated in his inaugural address, the tariff revenue was the issue over which he was willing to go to war, not slavery. In addition to the dispute sparked by the “Tariff of Abominations,” the states were also split over the fundamental nature of the Union itself. Lincoln wanted greater centralization and power held by a strong national government. The southern states, on the other hand, believed they had joined a loose federation of sovereign states, and wanted greater autonomy and decentralization.
Much like Americans in the 19th century, Bolivians today are split over issues involving federal taxation and regional sovereignty. Although I certainly hope that they can resolve their problems without the kind of bloodshed the U.S. experienced, I do have to wonder how just far Evo will go to keep the eastern provinces paying the bills for his programs. Lincoln was willing to sacrifice over 650,000 lives to force the southern states to remain in a union they no longer wanted. How many would Evo sacrifice to do the same?
