ADDRESS BY VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC, ALVARO GARCIA LINERA, AT THE INAUGURAL SESSION OF THE CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY

Bolivia is living through a revolution in which majorities previously excluded from political power, now claim their legitimate historical right to be a part of political power.

Bolivia is living through a revolution because those that had been marginalized from well-being and wealth, demand their share from those who privately possessed the riches, demand the right to distribute these riches; we are in the midst of revolution today because the marginalized indigenous majorities, peasants, workers, women and youth, ever considered second and third class citizens, today demand from the elites the right to be citizens, to have their share of power and wealth.

And what is fortunate about this revolution is that we are doing it peacefully and democratically; what is virtuous of this historical moment is that those excluded during 514 years, those marginalized through 514 years, hidden in the basement for 514 years, today claim their right to equality, to citizenship and well-being, not with bullets but with votes, with words and with leadership.

Problems that in other countries have cost deaths by the thousands, today Bolivians are seeking to solve with ideas, with proposals, through consensus, and you, esteemed constituents, are the product of this, of the will of a people that assumes its errors, assumes its conflicts, assumes its debts, and will seek to solve them through agreements, through consensus, through reasoning.
 
You are the best example of the deeply democratic spirit of nine million Bolivians, you are the synthesis of that capacity for consensus, of that ability to unify criteria,  which is what the Bolivian people has charged us to do.

And the question is, how is this possible? What happened?

How come we assume today the historical challenge to solve centenary debts that bled and divided our country? And it must be said, it must be recognized, that this is only possible because of the presence, because of the leadership of the popular indigenous movement which assumed the head position and extended open arms to summon everyone, indigenous or not, mestizos, professionals, business people, to build together a country for all.
It is the indigenous movement, the same that was never considered but always vilified, that today opens its arms generously, summoning us to walk ahead together.

If we were not before the leadership of the indigenous peoples, Bolivia would go on dragging its debts, dragging its conflicts, dragging its confrontations, such is the generosity of this indigenous and popular movement that even some who never wanted a Constituent Assembly are now seating here, as constituents.

What do we face? To seek, to solve the great debts of a motherland that has been maltreated for 181 years. What are the pending subjects that lead us to assume this historical challenge?

We can say there are four great challenges throbbing in the hopes of the people and its representatives, the constituents: the political inequality in the coexistence between peoples, when throughout 181 years, 500 years, there hasn’t been equality amongst peoples, when a white face, a mestizo family name has always been valued over an indigenous face, over an indigenous family name, that is colonialism and must not continue.

The great challenge before Bolivia is that we all be valued equally, that an aymara be valued the same as a guaraní, a mojeño the same as a quechua, a mestizo the same as a sirionó, that we all have equal opportunities to become president, or ministers, masons, professors, cooks, parliamentarians and constituents.

That equality is the great challenge you must solve through your deliberations.

That is what we have called a country that is inter and multi national. Bolivia has 36 peoples, and its 36 peoples must have the same rights, not more, not less, but what Bolivia will never accept again is that somebody be valued less than a mestizo or less than someone with a non indigenous family name. That kind of country we don’t want, from today on the motherland we all seek is one with equality and justice amongst all of its peoples, one great inter and multi national country like Bolivia really is, an inter and multinational, multicultural state like Bolivia is in fact. But never more a monocultural, monolingual, monoethnic state, which has been the worst injury done to us.

The second great challenge ahead is to recognize our own vernacular strength. During 180 years our elites wished to be, or thought themselves to be, liberal and modern, but we won’t be liberal and modern in 500 years.
Bolivia is, has been and will continue to be communitarian. Our strength is not in the imitation of other countries’ laws, we will never be like other countries, our strength before the world is that we recognize our virtues, our inner strength, and our inner strength is the communitarian, the organizational, the syndicate, the union, the tenta, the ayllu, that is our strength.

We won’t be able to compete in the world in technology, we won’t be able to compete in the world in financial capacity, but we will be able to exert leadership in the world in communitarian capacities, in associational capacities, that is our strength and it is communitarianism which must be elevated to the institutions, its norms, and consecrated in the national Political Constitution. Never again any more simulations, today we must look at ourselves and be proud of what we are, tell the world this is what we are, and if the world wants to learn from us, so be it, we are generous (enough) to teach the world, and what we can teach, and also export, is this communitarianism, this popular, indigenous, rural and urban associational experience.

The third great challenge we face as a generation, as a people, as leaders and constituents, is to change the unjust structures of our economy.

Since 1538- 40, when the riches of Potosí and Porco were being exploited, Bolivia has been a country that has exported raw materials, that has transnationalized and privatized its natural riches, providers of wealth for only a few and of poverty for many.

During 500 years, it was first silver, then rubber, then quinine, then tin, today it is oil, and we continue to be an exporter of raw materials, a country where some wanted to continue to privatize its natural riches.
 
The economic strength of this country, the break from colonialism and dependence, from the condition of mendicancy that shames us so deeply, will only be attained by industrializing our natural riches, by recuperating the social, national and communitarian property of those riches.

If during 513 years we have tread a faulty road, we have the right to try another path, if through 513 years of privatization and exports of our raw materials we are the poorest country, today we have the right to seek another way, recuperate the communitarian and state control of our riches and industrialize, only thus will we be a nation respected in the world, a nation that counts, and not like now, when we are remembered only to give us alms.

We don’t want alms, we don’t want to beg, we have people who work, we have land, we have minerals, we have oil, we only need political will and leadership to break with (the old practices) of the traditional elites, to assume responsibility and give our children a country with work, a country with industry, a country with well-being and wealth.

Lastly, constituents, people, leaders, we must put an end to the Republic’s colonial centralism. First it was one department which used to live off the remaining eight; then three departments got all the attention, while there were six that always remained marginalized. Centralism also harms us, centralism hinders the equitable distribution of wealth.

But let it be understood, we will advance towards a political and administrative decentralization that will in no way question national sovereignty and unity. We want autonomy, we want self-determination for departments, peoples, provinces, communities, ayllus and tentas, but all of it within a common home, that common home is Bolivia and let nobody try to dismember our beloved motherland, because we will stand ready to face them, to not allow her destruction.
 
Esteemed constituents, a Constituent Assembly is fundamentally a stage for pacts, a stage for encounters.

In order to be successful a Constituent Assembly must be widely representative, and we see this, we see indigenous peoples from the low lands, indigenous peoples from the high lands, professionals, business people, students, young people, quechuas, aymaras, sirionós, guaraníes, the whole of Bolivia is represented here.

This is the most representative Constituent Assembly in all of our history. This is no more about four oligarchs, or four generals, coming together to decide Bolivia’s destiny. Today all of Bolivia is present to assume the challenge to build our nation.

But the success of the Constituent Assembly also lies in the capacity
to build consensus, to build alliances, to set up agreements, and that is done, compañeros and compañeras, with reasoned arguments; never again with blakmail, never more the black valise to buy your conscience, here we will build our nation with ideas,  with proposals, with the will to talk things  through, the will to reach agreements, and in agreements one gains something and must give in something, that is the idea of an agreement.

If one tries to go towards an agreement meaning to gain everything, it will fail. The indigenous peoples have taught us how to build dialogues, you give in something to get other things, you accept an argument but you ask that your argument be also accepted, and this way a new synthesis is attained, that enriches everyone.

We  fully trust that you will give Bolivia and the world a master lesson in consensus building, because that is what the people expects from you, that is what the leaders expect, that is what the social movements expect, those that placed you here and charged you with the responsibility to build our country’s new institutions.

Thank you very much compañeros.

Source: http://www.abi.bo - Photo credits : Fernando Molina Cortes