"From the Andes: New Visions, New Voices," with Bolivian President Evo Morales.
Evo Morales
Morales was born in October 1959 to a poor Aymara family in the town of Orinoca in the Bolivian highlands. As a young boy he worked as an agricultural laborer and llama herder. To pay for his studies, Morales later worked as a brickmaker, baker, and musician.
Having left his formal studies at the Beltrán Ávila de Oruro high school, Morales began his political career in 1983 when he was named sports secretary for his union. Advancing rapidly, he was named secretary general in 1985, executive secretary of the Confederation of the Region in 1988, and president of the Coordinating Committee of Six Federations of the Region of the Chapare in Cochabamba in 1996. Morales was also active in political issues in Cochabamba, such as the controversy over water privatization in the region, which threatened to make water inaccessible to most of the poor population.
Morales became active in the national government in 1997, when he was first elected as a representative to the National Assembly. In the late 1990s, Morales became leader of a left-leaning political party, which won an astonishing 36 seats in congress in the 2002 elections. When Morales ran for president in 2005, he won with 53 percent of the vote. He has made redressing the effects of centuries of discrimination and oppression experienced by Bolivia’s indigenous groups a top priority of his presidency. Approximately 60 percent of Bolivia’s population is indigenous.
The principle measures of his government have been the nationalization of hydrocarbons, redistribution of land to indigenous peoples, and the installation of the Constituent Assembly.
Like many in his country, Morales views the coca plant as an important part of indigenous culture. In its natural form, coca is used by many Bolivians for medicinal purposes and is considered sacred, but it can also be refined to produce the powerfully addictive drug, cocaine. Morales has been an outspoken critic of U.S. drug policy and of U.S.-backed coca eradication programs, in favor of a drug policy that he believes does not harm the livelihoods and cultural heritage of small farmers.
Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture
Since 1965, the Ogden Lectureship has presented the University and its neighboring communities with 77 authoritative and timely addresses about international affairs. The lectureship was established in memory of Stephen A. Ogden Jr., a member of the Brown Class of 1960, who died in 1963 from injuries he suffered in a car accident during his junior year. His family created the series as a tribute to Ogden’s interest in the advancement of international peace and understanding.
Dozens of heads of state, diplomats, and observers of the international scene have participated in the series, including Queen Noor of Jordan, former President of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev, President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, media mogul Ted Turner, astronaut Sen. John Glenn, and economist Paul Volcker.
Location: Sayles Hall.
Video from this event:
Video from this event:
Event Summary
"For the first time in my life I find myself in agreement with both the IMF and the World Bank," Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, told an audience during his recent delivery of the 78th Stephen A. Ogden Jr. '60 Memorial Lecture. "The development of biofuels is harming the world's poorest people," Morales said in his address, titled "From the Andes: New Visions, New Voices." Morales' lecture to the Brown community was filled with such combinations of passion and wit, as he led his audience through a personal and political history of human rights in Bolivia.Speaking in Spanish, his second language after the Andean language of Aymara, Morales spoke of having been raised by an illiterate mother and semi-literate father in "the most humble of Aymara families in Bolivia" in the highland growing region of Orinoca. Having been withdrawn from school at the age of 7 owing to his father's fear that the young Evo was more engrossed in playing sports than studying, Morales herded llama and worked on the family farm to grow coca, oranges, papaya, and bananas. Morales went on to join a union of coca workers in his mid-teens and despite eventually graduating from high school, never attended university.
In his address, Morales emphasized that his entry into the political arena and his championing of the rights of Bolivia's indigenous and economically disadvantaged communities was spurred by his firsthand experience of working the land. "At the age of 17 or 18 years old, I saw that the natural resources were being pillaged by the multinational corporations. The economic situation benefited just a few families," he said.
Recounting that, in fact, his early career interest lay not in politics, but in journalism, Morales spoke of how his consciousness of human rights increased under the dictatorship of Luis Garcia Mesa Tejada in the early 1980s. When, in 1981, a "brother" – a fellow coca farmer – was burnt alive by soldiers of the Garcia government, Morales was galvanized into defending Bolivia's campesino (subsistence farming) communities.
At the same time, Morales recalled that during his mandatory military service in La Paz at the age of 18, he had learned that "no uniformed armed foreigners were allowed in Bolivia." But the reality, according to Morales, was that there was a strong presence of US troops in Bolivia throughout the 1980s. "The DEA [US Drug Enforcement Agency] even exercised social control, including shooting demonstrators in 1988," Morales said.
Of his appointment in 1983 as sports secretary for his union of coca growers, Morales said: "In my country politicians are seen as thieves. ? Never in my life did I want to be a leader, much less president." Yet his election was to be the first in a series of political appointments in his path to the presidency. Before becoming president in December 2005, Morales went on to be named general secretary of the union in 1985, executive secretary of the Confederation of the Region in 1988, and president of the Coordinating Committee of the Six Federations of the Region of the Chapare in Cochabamba in 1996.
Since well before assuming the presidency, Morales has faced stiff opposition in Bolivia, most notably from the National Congress, to which he was elected in 1997 then expelled in 2002. Without hesitation Morales labeled it "the leading mafia in the state." Despite having founded the Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Common People (ASP) and the Political Tool for the Sovereignty of the Common People (IPSP) in March 1995, the National Electoral Court had refused to recognize the new political organization, Morales said. But with the pressing need for the creation of a "political instrument for the poor" especially in the defense of natural resources, the IPSP agreed to run for the National Assembly in coalition with four other left-leaning parties under the banner of the United Left (IU). But according to Morales, the National Electoral Council was given "instructions from above" and support by the US Embassy to recognize the IU over individual leftist parties, so as to "divide the movement".
Despite Morales' National Assembly election in 1997, the IPSP faced further legal barriers to its recognition as a political party. Consequently, Morales and members of the inactive Movement towards Socialism (MAS) agreed that the IPSP would assume MAS's credentials. Today, President Morales is the leader of MAS.
Reflecting on his expulsion from the National Assembly following his declaration that coca-growers in his constituency of Chapare had the right to defend themselves against armed troops supporting a government crackdown on ostensible drug trafficking, Morales said, "I actually feel they did Evo a favor by expelling me from the National Congress." For two presidential elections later, Morales was elected president in a landslide victory with a 54 percent majority in December 2005.
Morales' electoral opponents are now the same critics who oppose his bid to rewrite the Bolivian constitution and re-found Bolivia. A new constitution, Morales said, would rightly reflect that "the indigenous people mobilized for independence," not Bolivia's colonizers. However, the opposition wants to "wear down the Indian," by any means possible, Morales said, appearing visibly amused.
Fending off his challengers, Morales elaborated on the rewards of his domestic policies. According to Morales, Bolivia secured approximately $300 million per year in oil revenues prior to his presidency. Since nationalization, however, the country has reaped the benefits of $1.93 billion per year in revenues. Moreover, Morales claims, Bolivia's balance of payments has been strengthened since his inauguration as president. "1940 was the last Bolivian fiscal surplus," Morales said. As of March 2008, Bolivia has accumulated $6.2 billion in international reserves, a jump from $1.7 billion in January 2006, Morales said. In presenting Bolivia's economic strides, however, Morales stressed that such economic benefits were not born of "political scientists or intellectuals but of the struggles of the campesino movement."
With the earnings from increased oil revenues, Morales' administration has been able to implement two crucial welfare programs. First, the retirement age has been lowered from 65 to 60 and moves are being made to close the wide pension gap so that the cross-section of Bolivia's elderly may have a livable income upon retirement. Second, Morales inaugurated the "Bono Juancito Pinto" social program in October 2006, an annual subsidy awarded to families so that children can be enrolled in the first through the fifth grades. "It is not confiscation but redistribution," Morales said. The program's creation was no doubt a function of Morales's own short-lived formal education. Juancito Pinto, for whom the welfare bonus is named, was a 12-year-old military drummer during the War of the Pacific (1879-1884), in which Bolivia lost its last strip of sea access to Chile. During the Battle of Alto de la Alianza, Juancito famously exchanged his drum for a rifle and died in combat. His name has become a national symbol of tenacity, and in particular of Bolivia's ongoing efforts to regain access to the ocean.
"One thing that encourages me is that although Bolivians were poor, Bolivia is not poor," Morales said. "Mother Earth has given an abundance of resources. But we need partners, not owners." In concurrence with this credo, Morales is supporting a joint effort between Bolivia and Japan on the study of geothermal energy. Similarly, Morales said, France is working with Bolivia to harness its lithium reserves, which are the largest in the world. Spain, which Morales visited early in his presidential career, has also contributed to the improvement of Bolivian education by canceling a significant proportion of Bolivia's debts to Madrid.
When probed by audience members about his political relations with both Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and former Cuban President Fidel Castro, Morales said: "The names 'socialism' and 'communism' mean little. The main thing is life and humankind."
Morales came to lecture at Brown following an invitation from Watson Institute Distinguished Visiting Fellow Lincoln Chafee '75, who visited him in La Paz for the purpose.
By Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Fawzia Mahmood '08