For those who want a good, insightful account of the events in Bolivia, here’s a link. On the left, we were all very hopeful that Evo Morales would be a positive force in Bolivia. I taught about him as a positive development in Bolivia for a while. But then he promised to respect the will of the people and said that if the majority voted “no” in a referendum, he’d respect that and stop changing the Constitution to create new terms in office for himself. The people said no. And he couldn’t care less.
He also turned to be completely neoliberal, and his extreme attachment to the extraction economy (Latin Americanists know what I mean) is devastating the environment.
But he mouthed the right slogans about the evil US imperialism once, so we don’t care about the damage he’s doing to the indigenous communities in Bolivia, it doesn’t matter that he’s stripping the country bare of trees to send wood to China and pay for a harem of soap opera starlets. He flattered our wounded narcissism, so we love him.
