SOCIALIST PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OFFERS TO ACT AS INTERMEDIARY FOR BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT IN AUTONOMY CRISIS
Tuesday, 6 May 2008

Socialist, who lived and worked for 2 years in Rebel Province of Santa Cruz, Sends Communications to Bolivian President Saying He Knows Businessmen There Well.

Moore Blames Some Leftist Groups for Undermining Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Spring Hill, Florida: Socialist Party USA presidential candidate Brian Moore e-mailed and faxed several communications today to Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ambassador Mario Guzman at the Bolivian Embassy in Washington, DC offering to act as an intermediary between Morales' national government and the leaders of the autonomy movement in the rebelling province of Santa Cruz.

Moore is empathetic to what he considers a fellow socialist, President Evo Morales, and the Indian leader's goals for helping the indigenous populations of Bolivia. Moore worked for almost three years in the U.S. Peace Corps as a volunteer in the poverty-ridden slums of Peru and Panama from 1969 to 1972. The presidential candidate also lived for two years in the heart of the city and province of Santa Cruz, Bolivia, working side-by-side with the Croatian-descendant Bolivian businessmen there and socializing with their families extensively in 1987 and 1988.

During his stay, Moore also toured the impoverished Potosi area and mines visiting with ethnic Aymara and Quechua descendant groups in the highlands, and also toured the lowlands and jungles of the Santa Cruz and Beni provinces populated by the Guarayo and Chiquitano Indians of Bolivia.

Moore also sent copies of his communiqué today to the business leaders via the local newspapers in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, offering a similar role on their behalf since he is known to some of them. Moore is familiar with Bolivia's diverse cultures and persons, and believes that both sides can emerge from this critical situation achieving some of their respective goals, while avoiding violence while reinforcing President Morales and his administration.

Moore supports President Morales recent nationalization of four energy companies and the country's largest telecommunications company, but he does not see why the local provincial government of Santa Cruz cannot reap a larger share of its natural resources.

Moore is highly critical of misleading information being released in the United States, by a competing American Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and its U.S. presidential candidate, Gloria La Riva, a competitor of Moore. The SL party put out a news release on Sunday, May 4th, labeling the Santa Cruz dissidents as "ultra-right-wing, racists forces and secessionists," who are taking "subversive actions [by their] oligarchic groups" who are involved in a conspiracy to overthrow the government of Morales.

Moore contends that the referendum movement in Santa Cruz is supported by all economic levels of its citizens; plus, the division is not based on race, but on ethnic and tribal origins---similar to what was seen in Bosnia and is now occurring in Iraq. Socialist presidential candidate Moore states that the "Cruceno" white businessmen are leading the charge, but are also supported by the brown Guarayos and Chiquitanos indigenous groups who are of color and rural origin as well. Moore acknowledges that the referendum does discriminate against the Aymaras and Quechuas, the two largest ethnic groups, from the highlands, many of whom now live in Santa Cruz, and Moore says this "should be corrected."

Moore also acknowledged that the vote was illegal, and "probably unconstitutional." However, the New York Times said the statute was "expected to be approved, but its legitimacy was weakened" because a significant numbers of citizens did not vote, supporting President Morales call to stay home. Several other provisions, such as allowing the provincial governor of Santa Cruz to sign international treaties or "take control" of the state's natural gas reserves "is far-fetched and difficult to fathom," said Moore.

However, candidate Moore said "the substance of some of the Santa Cruz dissidents' key provisions have merit," such as electing its own state legislature, creating a local police force and raising new taxes for public works. Even forming a new union or professional association locally have to be approved by the central government in the far-away capital, La Paz, Moore indicated. "These centralized federal government conditions Socialists do not support," Moore claimed. Socialism advocates that "citizens should control their own local communities and make decisions from the bottom up," and not be dependent on a controlling national government, "similar to the power of corporations in the United States who now control our lives," stated Moore.

According to a May 5th article on Bolivian autonomy in the New York Times, President Morales was elected into a "strong centralized [governmental] structure, built upon by previous authoritarian governments [possibly even right-wing] which still permeate the country's politics."

Moore also challenges the Socialists radicals who believe this is an effort to overthrow President Morales. Mount Saint Mary's University Political Science Professor Miguel Centellas, in Emitsburg, Maryland, was quoted by Voice of America News, that the autonomy movement was not directed at President Evo Morales, but has been "brewing for generations," which Moore said he personally witnessed firsthand in the 1980's in Santa Cruz.

If anything, Moore says he agrees with Professor Raul Madrid of the University of Texas at Austin who says that Mr. Morales is also "feeling pressure from leftist leaders calling for him to make even broader reforms." Professor Madrid further said that certain sectors of the population want him to "move much more radically" than he has done so far, and he is "reluctant to do that." It is the leftists who are "getting frustrated with him" stated Madrid. Moore blames statements by the Socialism and Liberation Party as contributing to undermining Morales, not supporting him!"

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