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NEWS & LETTERS, February - March 2009
World in View
Latin American Notes
Mexico--A massive demonstration in Defense of the Popular Economy was held in the center of Mexico City on Jan. 25. Tens of thousands of protesters from the capital and from many of the states of Mexico streamed to the Zócalo to hear López Obrador (the Presidential candidate from 2006 who most likely won the popular vote), present a program of actions for the next two months in the face of the deteriorating economic situation faced by Mexicans.
An increasing inflation rate and a meaningless minimal rise in the minimum wage, combined with the deepening impact of the U.S. recession, have intensified the already deep economic and social inequality Mexican workers, peasants and unemployed face.
Obrador proposed a series of protest meetings in the coming months both in the capital and in the states of Mexico. These will involve demands in housing, electricity, gasoline, and retirement funds.
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Bolivia--The Jan. 25 vote has finally given birth to a new Constitution, the first time Bolivian citizens have had a right to vote on their Constitution. Among its provisions:
- Recognition and a degree of autonomy for the country's 36 pre-Columbian indigenous nations and Afro-Bolivians. Article 289 in the constitution stipulates, "Rural indigenous autonomy consists of self-government and the exercise of self-determination for rural indigenous nations and native peoples who share territory, culture, history, language, and unique forms of juridical, political, social, and economic organization." Indigenous people did not have a right to vote before the 1952 Revolution.
- Education is mandated to be free, while health insurance is supposed to be universal.
- Crucial national resources are to remain in the hands of the state. Since 2000, Bolivians have carried out massive protests against the privatization of water and gas.
- Women are guaranteed equality in work, and discrimination based on sex is prohibited. However, abortion remains illegal.
- The constitution prohibits foreign military bases in Bolivia.
The key question now is whether and how these and other important provisions will be implemented.
--Eugene Walker
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