After weeks of violent protests and several marches on the capital by miners, peasants and coca growers the
President of Bolivia has resigned.
No big deal... Except Bolivia is just the latest neo-liberal government to fall in Latin America.
Bolivia may be seen as a rather insignificant country in isolation. It's not a powerhouse in global politics, trade, diplomacy or pretty much any other measure of influence. But it's the latest government to fall in the western hemisphere to a social reaction against "neo-liberalism", "globalization" or "global capitalism".
Venezuela and Brazil have both regional hegemons have elected populist/socialist governments in recent years. President Chavez in Venezuela (which is/was the #2 supplier of oil to the U.S.) so concerned Washington that the CIA sponsored a coup. Washington was none too please with Brazil's elections but have yet to take Decisive Action.
Colombia is in a brutal civil war... which has lasted 50-odd years. The government (such as it is) was originally formed of a Conservative/Liberal compact with the agreement that socialist/populist parties would be excluded. Neither side is any closer to a Decisive Victory than 20 years ago.
Argentina is still picking up the pieces from a financial melt-down that took it from the glory and darling of market neo-liberalizism to a case study in what can go wrong. In the height of the financial crisis the poor and middle class marched on the capital and had pitched street battles with military troops right up to the steps of the Presidential Palace.
While Peru seems to be recovering politically from Fujimori, there is evidence that the Shining Path is re-grouping, coca growing is spreading and the economy is... unenviable.
Ecuador's government has been dealing with strikes and marches of armed peasants, miners and coca growers for several years now. While no President has been driven from power with pitchforks, it's not for lack of trying. Military road-block on highways throughout the country probably play some role in keeping the peasants from reaching the capital.
So it seems to me that Bolivia's domestic turmoil is part of a larger pattern in Latin America over the last four years. US client political parties follow the advice (or orders) of Beltway groups (White House, DOS, World Bank, IMF, etc) and the masses subsequently marching out of the mountains with sticks of dynomite. The parties are driven from powre and populist/socialist governments replace them. Those governments then cozy up to Communist Cuba and tell Washington to go diddle itself.
Are we losing the War On Communism 15 years after we declared victory?