Ciao!

Despite the calls about not selling the gas to extranjeros, i can't help but feel the real reason for the alteño uprising was WHO was selling the gas and who would profit from it.

It seems they have no problem exporting the products of cocaleros to earn hard currency. :-)

The real issue is clearly poverty and the apartheid like system of class/ethnic divides. If that can start to be resolved then Gas can be exported. I doubt Mesa will do that, my guess is that he's going to go to the rallies, talk to the Quespe y Morales. Remember he won the vice-presidency with Goni.

I suspect all the talk about a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution will lead to anything real, as that would potentially restructure the political and economic power base of the country.

Did you see the campesinos have started occupying Goni's haciendas? :)

I don't think I'd go as far as to call the class/ethnic cleavages in Bolivia "apartheid like." Apartheid was a specific system that used legal mechanisms to enforce things such as where ethnic groups could live, work, who they could marry, etc. Apartheid's more than just "racism" or other social prejudices.

There's no law in Bolivia that says who indigenous can and can't marry. There's no law that requires them to live in certain ghettos. They're allowed to vote. So. No. This isn't apartheid.

Are there deep cultural, ethnic, and class divides? Yes. Is this a problem that needs to be overcome? Absolutely. But making analysis based on faulty analogies doesn't help.

It's also important to note that (in keeping w/ your South Africa analogy) neither Mallku, Solares, or Evo fit the description of a Desmond Tutu, Stephen Biko, or Nelson Mandela. Mallku, Solares, and Evo are simply caudillos in the most negative sense of the word. My friends who work in El Alto and the Altiplano verify that none of these leaders is popular (or even respected) among the actual people.