Posted on 08/12/2025 5:54:50 AM PDT by Redmen4ever
For most of Renan Aliaga’s adult life, a single name dominated the politics of Bolivia: Evo Morales.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
While the AP says former long-time president Evo Morales had a successful reign, the truth is heavy borrowing and redistributing the wealth are not sustainable policies. Those policies only appeared to work. Eventually, the economy collapses, as has happened in this country during the prior several years. And, as will eventually happen in any country that adopts radical left policies.
As for the AP saying Bolivia had a right-wing economy back in the 1990s, that depends on the meaning of "right-wing." Bolivia, like almost all Latin American republics, had a corrupt and heavily taxed and regulated economy. It did not have a free-market economy.
We will soon see if Bolivia shifts from the Cuban model of economic development to the Chilean model, or if it returns to the old-style Latin American model.
The furthest right “right-wing” party is named, “the Revolutionary Party of the Left.” But at least they actively reject the really really really left-wing parties, unlike Europe’s “center-right” parties.
EVIL morales
You can vote your way into Socialism. You will eventually have to shoot your way out. I’d be surprised if Bolivia can vote their way out of this.
In the 90s, I was sent to La Paz and the Oruro mining regions to put together a geological compendium. It was like stepping into the movie EVIL THAT MEN DO. It was heavily policed by the Fed military, and they had Soviet style surveillance of me, detaining me at one point, triggering intervention with the consulate. I did spend a lovely evening of dinner at the Mining Secretary’s opulant mansion, hidden behind 20 foot walls with dark mohagany wood carvings, at a long table with my client and crew. There was no “middle class”; strictly the elites and the poor or working poor. The best part were the children of the small isolated mining towns - where they are born, educated in a small catholic school, then put to work until they die there. Most never leave or live to see anything outside their town. No television or radio. The cute, uniformed kids saw my white skin and camera and circled me in curiosity. I told them “Yo soy Americano feo!” They all laughed. (I have it on video somewhere and need to transfer it.) I developed my sleep apnea in La Paz and Bolivia from the extreme altitude. Unforgettable weeks.
I have the same view as you.
Thanks, Little.
To the AP, there’s no difference between the traditional Latin American model and a free market. To them, it’s all Nazi, Nazi, Nazi, all the time.
My father had a similar experience to yours. On a vacation, he went to Mexico, staying in a beach resort fenced off to the local population. While he enjoyed the beach, he thought something had to be wrong that the beach was reserved for foreigners. Of course, the Mexican elite coveted the Yanqui Dollars and did not care much for the Mexican peasants.
During that time, it seemed like politics in Latin America involved a see-saw between radical left-wing revolutionaries spouting Marxist doctrines versus corrupt oligarchs, with no idea of a middle-class dominated and market-oriented economy.
Bolivia needed a Pinochete.
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