Current Bolivian president stepped in office with a higher percentage of votes and most of the citizens voted for him, unfortunately over the last six years and two terms of his presidency, he managed to have all Bolivians fight among each other. Unlike Mandela he promoted racist and class segregation… and he intends to run for a new term… Bolivian republic had bad presidents but this one has failed at creating the economic conditions for growth. Despite the debt swap from international donors and the fabulous high prices on our raw materials, we haven’t generated new jobs nor have brought investment capitals to give added value to our raw materials.

This cartoon is from El Diario, March 18, 2012. It shows the crude and sad reality. When he assumed the Bolivian Presidency, he kept his functions as the coca grower leader of the six federations of coca in the Chapare.

The duality of his functions prevent him from being objective and considering long-term macro policy decisions. For example, the TIPNIS struggle faced him to lean more onto the electoral promises to expand the coca land frontier and as result damages the environmental protection; and the image he was building for himself as protector of mother earth. He signed over a ‘short’ law protecting the TIPNIS, after a 66-day protest march by indigenous people and later on opened up the can of worms so that the threat to cut in half the indigenous territory and our national park remains dangerously latent.

Had he realize that his current political power could be used to appease Bolivian society, enforce the law and bring over foreign capital investment, he could undo all the damage he has caused to our beloved country.