It may be a New Year, but will there be a New Constitution?

The New Year is off to an exciting start down here in Bolivia. Yesterday morning on my daily stroll through the central plaza I was greeted by exploding dynamite set off by groups of supporters for the current municipal council president, Fidel Herrera Ressini. It was the day of Sucre's municipal election and so people were crowded around outside of the government offices waving bright, lime green flags that said ‘Todos con Fidel’ (Everyone with Fidel). It was much like the pomp and pageantry that goes on back home during Canadian municipal elections... Wait, when are those again? We do have municipal elections, right? Just checking…
I don’t know anything about this Fidel character, and when I first saw the demonstration I thought that they were referring to Castro (because he'll always be the only Fidel in my life), but I do dig this Fidel’s lime green flags. Canada usually sticks to red and blue. I guess there is the Green party, but I would say that the orange NDP’s are about as daring as things get in the motherland.
These colorful municipal elections aren’t even the tip of the iceberg though, and I wasn't even aware of them or going to mention them until the dynamite interrupted my pleasant morning jaunt.

On January 25th Bolivians will vote on the government’s proposed, new constitution and although that is still a couple weeks away, tensions are rising. All the polls in Bolivia’s highly reliable and objective newspapers predict that the constitution will be approved, but I find this hard to believe because I live in a highly concentrated ‘No’ area. The opposition has launched a substantial campaign, ‘NO A LA NUEVA CONSTITUCION’, and their posters are in restaurants, stores and homes all over Sucre. My particular favorite is one that is a take-off of the more common ‘no a la nueva constitucion’ poster, but instead says ‘NO A LAS DICTADURAS’ and displays a photo of Pinochet, Chavez and Morales. I think this one appeals to me because it’s like a little riddle for me every time I see it. I try to figure out what these individuals have in common (other than male body parts) and then I try to figure out why the creators of these posters chose these 3 humans to represent the idea of dictatorships.
Chavez and Morales were both democratically elected by large majorities. Pinochet, on the other hand, was the leader of a military junta and ruled as a dictator in Chile from 1973-1989, until the country returned to democratic rule. So yes, they’ve got one thing right, Pinochet most definitely qualifies as a dictator, but I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how Chavez and Morales fall into the category of military dictators.

In the ‘No’ campaign office they also have a large t-shirt that is available for ‘No’ supporters to sign. It is apparently the largest t-shit in the republic. Other opposition states may be running their own ‘No’ campaigns, but only Chuquisaca has the biggest t-shirt. Watch out!

The text on the t-shirt reads: Come and sign 'No' on the biggest T-shirt in Bolivia!

Morales was supposed to come to Sucre this week because this is where the Supreme Court is and every year there is a ceremony to ring in the new judicial year. He refused to come however, saying that some of the judges have been blatantly supporting the opposition and sketchy special interest groups (there is no direct translation for ‘sketchy’, but I’m sure that’s what he meant). In turn, the four opposition governors refused to attend a meeting with Evo on Monday because they don’t want to talk about matters of the state until the referendum on the 25th.
Instead, they had a meeting in Sucre where they prayed to the Catholic Church to watch over them and their country during these next few weeks. The day of prayer was led by the Archbishop of Chuquisaca, Jesús Pérez, and an evangelical pastor, Charles Suárez. This has added a religious sentiment to the 'No' campaign and a new sub-slogan: 'Dile sí a Dios, vota No'. Meaning: 'Tell God yes, vote No'.
The opposition believes that the constitution is against the faith of all Bolivians because it removes Catholicism as the country's only official religion and changes some clauses so that the door is now open to legalize abortion. The fourth article of the new constitution reads: "el Estado respeta y garantiza la libertad de religión y de creencias espirituales, de acuerdo con sus cosmovisiones. El Estado es independiente de la religión"- The state respects and guarantees the liberty of religion and spiritual beliefs according to one's cosmovision. The State is independent of religion.
Pastor Suárez referred to the new constitution as 'Antichrist and abortionist'. To be even more blunt he added, 'antes de honrar a la Pachamama (deidad andina), prefiero honrar a Dios y mi voto será por el No', which means: 'Before honoring the Pachamama (the Andean earth goddess), I prefer to honor God and so my vote will be 'No' (to the new constitution)'.
Putting the Pachamama second basically symbolizes putting Bolivia's indigenous roots and indigenous people second.

Commenting on this religious gathering, the vice-president of decentralization, Fabián Yaksic, said that the opposition’s choice not to attend the meeting with Evo was an act of treason and that if they really want autonomy then they should do a whole lot more than pray. (Crazy talk). Below is a picture stolen from BBC Mundo showing the gathering in Sucre, which was dubbed: 'Defiende tu fé'. Or, 'Defend your faith'.

Issac Ávalos, a prominent leader of the campesino movement, spoke out and said that the Catholic church is interfering in an important political event and that this is a colossal error on their part.
Personally, I think that they are sort of shooting themselves in the foot because this perfectly exemplifies why the government might want to diminish the power that the Catholic church still has in Bolivia, but that's just me.

Things took another interesting turn on Monday when Evo and his comrades announced that they are going to reconsider autonomy as part of the new constitution. Evo declared that he understands that autonomy may be a necessary process in order for the country to stabilize and therefore he would like to include it in the new constitution. This has made things very confusing... Now that the government is coming around to the idea of autonomy (or at least pretending to) and even including it in the new constitution, the opposition will essentially be voting against autonomy (which they want very badly) if they vote against the new constitution.
The governor of the state of Santa Cruz, the heavy-weight state in all the autonomy talk (Bolivia’s Alberta- they’ve got gas), has said that if the government really wants to show their willingness to negotiate on autonomy then they should return the IDH (Impuesto Directo a los Hidrocarbunos/Hydrocarbon tax), which he claims was unfairly redirected from the state of Santa Cruz. Evo ceased this tax money in September in order to create a pension fund however, now with the global recession and low gas prices, the IDH may not even be enough to fund the pension plan. Oh geez....

Most Bolivians think that either way, whether the constitution is approved or not, tensions will escalate after the referendum later this month.
The government says that the wealthy folks don’t want to share the money earned from the country's petroleum and natural gas reserves, and the opposition claims that Morales is nothing more than a puppet of Hugo Chavez trying to impose an indigenous, socialist experiment on the country.

Speaking of Chavez... have you ever heard of the Citgo Low-Cost Heating and Oil Program? I hadn't until Venezuela was thinking of canceling it earlier this week due to low gas prices, but luckily they've decided to stick with it and it's pretty cool. Chavez refers to it as humanitarian aid, but some think it's just his way of embarrassing Bush. In any event, after Hurricane Katrina and Rita, Hugo Chavez and Citgo, a US incorporated, Venezuela state-owned gas company, decided to donate gas to low-income US citizens. Last year the program benefited 200,000 households.
Learn more here: http://www.citgo.com/CommunityInvolvement/HeatingOil.jsp

Back to Bolivia- I see no reason why this all shouldn't be sorted out in a timely and orderly fashion.
It's child's play really.