Thereīs no propaganda barrage like a right-wing Bolivian one: "Evo admits he has doubts in the alteņas (the impoverished city dwellers)" reads one headline the day before the referendum - devilishly clever, itīs a goddamn masterpiece.
On TV, the commercials against Evo run endlessly: he is blamed for inflation that the capitalists are actually causing by witholding further production of goods as his reforms pump money into the economy; he is blamed for the violence that the Santa Cruz Youth are deliberately sowing; indigenous actors are enlisted to confuse and muddy what is clear as day because...
09/08/08
There is a quiet sense of determination in the streets of La Paz. These people have their own propaganda barrage, written everywhere on the old bricks and groaning concrete. In Bolivia, the walls scream out socialism:
BOLIVIA CAMBIA, EVO CUMPLE
"You see those disabled people protesting out there?"
"Uh, yeah, I think so - near the cathedral?"
"Yeah - theyīve been there like a week.\]"
"Shit - itīs cold at night."
"Yesterday they were tryin to block the road and I saw this guy with no legs fuckin launch himself at the police from his wheelchair - and then they all tried to help him and - "
I can barely imagine that wretched, cruel struggle. Like the slums crowding mere feet from the grandiose little parliament building in Asuncion, Paraguay - along that entire failure of a country - itīs a nasty little joke.
MORE THAN HALF A MILLION LITERATE FOR THE FIRST TIME
Bolivians have a tradition of voting drunk, so there is no alcohol allowed - or propaganda making - for three days before each election or referendum. We stocked up on Casa Real and weed, bought Commando, Predator and Collateral Damage on one DVD for less than 50p and settled in for an Arnie marathon at Adventure Brew Hostel - an expensive island of gringo sanity in the freewheeling, beautiful and horrifying madness of La Paz.
Anyone remember Commando? Itīs primal and well-shot, follows a classic 80s action movie plot and has for an enemy those fuckin South Americans! We drank at every death, every witty comment, every explosion and every time Arnie looked beautiful. I only made it ten minutes into Predator -
SUCRE: CAPITAL DEL RACISMO!
The bus ride from La Paz to Cochabamba is the best in Bolivia: itīs a good road, so kick back with a couple of valiums and watch the hills change colour as the sun sets - snowcapped mountains in the background - racing past peasants standing desolate on the roadside, broken-down shacks and indifferent llamas -
MIRA TU TRABAJO
LA NADA Y LA TORTURA
PARTICIPAN DE EL
10/08/08 - the day of the referendum
Weīre eating breakfast (lunch at a pricey restaurant in Cochabamba, where the usually packed streets are blasted dead and empty. Fissures of excitement tracing cries and calls spark and die in my head - theyīre almost certainly gonna kick out that fascist bastard Manfred, but what if the Prefect wonīt step down? what if he rigs the election? thereīs an occupation of the prefectura planned - the street-dogs wander about confusedly, wondering where all the people are.
"So thereīs Bolivian Hellīs Angels?"
"Yep - rode past in formation this morning - the leader had a real bike - American made -
"
I scribble a note down then say, "Diego, tell them about the mafia-restaurant in Bogota where no one ever pays - "
A truck-full of heavily armed cops rolls 1 | 2 NEXT |
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