Racial tension abounds in Latin America
DIANE ABBOTT
Sunday, February 22, 2009
AS I write, I am over 12,000 feet above sea level in La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, which is the poorest and most isolated country in Latin America.
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| DIANE ABBOTT |
Poor as it is, Bolivia is a beautiful country and La Paz is an extraordinary city. It is the highest capital city in the world with remarkable views of the foothills of the Andes Mountains all around.
The main streets swoop up and down those hillsides like a series of roller coasters, and anyone driving a motor vehicle needs nerves of steel and brakes in the very best condition.
This is my very first trip to Latin America. I have come with a group of fellow British MPs to spend the week meeting our Bolivian counterparts.
The first thing that strikes me about Bolivia is how much more multicultural Latin America is in reality than the image that it likes to project. Latin American countries such as Brazil, Bolivia and Chile have always tended to present themselves as essentially European countries. Occasionally, a Latin American of obviously African descent, like the legendary Brazilian footballer Pele, will gain prominence. But light-skinned elites have clung to power in the region for so long (often supported by Washington) that the rest of the world might be forgiven for thinking that Latin America was indeed largely populated by Europeans with just a hint of 'coffee' in their skin colour.
So it is startling to come to Bolivia and realise that the majority of the people are nut brown. Many of them are darker than me.. And the peasant women "strut their stuff" in traditional dress of full frilly skirt, colourful shawls and a bowler hat stuck onto their heads at a rakish angle.
The majority of people in Bolivia are these nut-brown indigenous Indians. They are the descendants of the Incas who ruled the central and southern Andes before the white conquerors and settlers arrived. But for centuries they were treated as little better than animals by the wealthy white land-owning Bolivian elite. On this trip a Bolivian politician explained to me that, as recently as four years ago, newly elected indigenous Indian members of the Bolivian parliament were barred from the building by policemen who refused to believe that indigenous people could actually be elected members of parliament.
But centuries of racism and oppression were overturned when, in 2005, Evo Morales was elected as the first indigenous Indian president of Bolivia. He described himself as the candidate of "the most despised and discriminated against". And the white Bolivian political establishment went into shock. A shock from which they have yet to recover.
Morales is usually discussed by journalists and commentators in terms of his left-of-centre politics. And it is true that he is part of a social-democratic tide that has swept across Latin America. Morales, Luiz Lula da Silva in Brazil and (of course) Hugo Chavez in Venezuela are all a new breed. But what has startled white Bolivians about Morales is not just his leftist politics, but the fact that someone of his ethnicity can be president of the country.
Sections of Bolivia´s power elites refuse to be reconciled to his election and he faces the constant threat of civil unrest. Having won the presidential elections in 2005, he won the elections for a new assembly and weeks ago won a referendum for a new constitution. (This new constitution would give more rights to indigenous people.) But his political enemies show no sign of being willing to accept his string of electoral victories. The problem lies not just in his policies, but also his ethnicity.
For now Evo Morales is hugely popular with the Bolivian people. But whether he can maintain his popularity in the face of a global recession, which will inevitably bring down living standards, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia has brought to the surface racial tensions in Latin American politics which have long been concealed.
Comment: We all need to better understand our neighbors south of the U.S.-Mexican border all the way down to the tip of South America in the belief that understanding will foster better humane relationships and deeper understandings of the oneness of humankind.
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