Bolivia's Present Gassiness, Day 3

A very brief update on the aftermath of the gasoline and diesel price hike announced Sunday in Bolivia (see previous two posts): The public transport strike seems to have failed. I think they were more interested in being allowed to raise their fares, and the government has now said they can, but only 30% - they can't double fares like they've been doing the last couple days. At any rate, while the drivers would seem the most directly affected by the price hike, they've been looking for an excuse to raise fares, and it looks like they're getting theirs, so it doesn't look like they'll be at the fore in fighting the new prices anymore.


The central labor union is planning protests still. Civic and neighborhood groups may join them. The teachers union, too, has called for inter-union cooperation in opposing the measure. 

On the street, people are a little freaked. Angry. Disappointed. Frightened. Generally unhappy. Morales is saying that this won't hurt anybody, and that he would never forget the workers. But anyone who's taken a bus or tried to buy rice or sugar or watched the news today sure gets the feeling it will hurt them. 

A lot of name-calling is happening. Morales will speak to the nation Wednesday evening to explain himself. Thus far he is not budging, and is defending the price hike, saying it is not a "gasolinazo," which I suppose he's defining strictly to mean a new and oppressive tax on gasoline, but instead a "leveling," because it's the end of a subsidy that was keeping prices artificially low, not the addition of a tax. He's also saying that the subsidy itself was part of the failed neoliberal policies of previous governments, and trying to make a connection between the historic pattern of profits from Bolivia's natural resources going to foreign powers (something he has prominently fought to end) and the recent loss of subsidized gasoline and diesel to neighboring countries via the contraband traffic his government has admitted being incapable of stopping. And this is where the name-calling comes into play: he's already referring to critics of the move as "neo-liberal" and "right-wing," even as many critics from the left (and some - in a strange turn of opportunism - from the neo-liberal right) are accusing him of implementing what amounts to a right-wing, neoliberal policy by decreeing this price increase. He's a poopy pants. No HE'S a poopy pants.

I don't think the people whose basic expenses just skyrocketed overnight give much of a damn right now whether neo-liberalism, socialism, patriotism, or cubism is to blame. They blame Morales, and he better have a better rap by the time the cameras start rolling.

PS: In an effort to ease the pain of workers, the government today sent the army around in trucks to drive people in some of the big cities from outlying neighborhoods to jobs in the city center. They did this during a transit strike. Interesting move for a president who is also a union leader. Socialist public assistance? Or (presumably armed) government scabs?