I learned from Bolivian culture (which is usually quite formal) that sarcasm and irony are not always understood and, therefore, welcome.
Nevertheless, I will once again run the risk of sounding offensive and declare in no uncertain terms that the current government is the best in 40 years. What happens – as a famous Bolivian “oceanographer” said – is that “you don’t visualize it” or you don’t understand the deep meaning of the revolutionary policies that are being carried out.
Remember the joke of the traumatologist who promised his patient that he would walk again after leg surgery? And so it was, because the patient had to sell his car to pay the doctor. Although he was luckier than another patient who, after the amputation of both legs, received the good news from the doctor that some nurses were interested in buying his shoes. Both jokes could be metaphors for the current exchange rate policy or the hydrocarbon policy.
Some incredulous readers might argue that recent measures such as IATA’s, which requires airline tickets to be paid for in dollars, will restrict Bolivians’ freedom to travel abroad. Nothing could be further from the truth. Take the example of Venezuela, where the same currency problems have not prevented 7.7 million people from going abroad.
Justice is criticized because it would have worsened under the current government, when the reality is that justice has saved many souls, increasing faith in divine justice. Or don’t you remember the story of the drunken driver and the village priest who died the same day and showed up in front of Saint Peter? The driver went straight to heaven, while the parish priest was “sent to purge”. Faced with the protest of the parish priest, Saint Peter explained the criterion of efficiency he had applied: when the parish priest preached, people fell asleep, while people prayed when the drunk driver drove.
One can criticize all the quibbles invented by the government and its magistrates in order not to carry out the judicial elections, but no one appreciates the result of demonstrating, beyond any doubt, how useless the Constitution drafted by Evo and his Spanish partners in Podemos was.
It is true that Bolivia, thanks in part to this government, is a little behind in the development of the lithium economy, but think about how much lithium will be needed to carry out the colonization of the planet Mars. We will be there with our intact and immaculate reserves of the Uyuni Salar.
The lack of gasoline and diesel must also be framed in the noblest objective of the fight against climate change: even without having planned it, Bolivia contributes by keeping thousands of vehicles stationary and lined up at gas stations that stop polluting the environment and the atmosphere for hours and even whole nights.
Public companies are widely criticized for being uneconomic and squandering the state’s scarce resources. But, listen to people (70%, according to a poll): “What do we want? More public companies!” It is not easy, gentlemen libertarians, to soil the brains washed by decades of nationalist and socialist chatter. What else can be criticized about the best government in the “next” 40 years (if the current politicians continue to govern)? To have located the large agrochemical factories in the town of a former president? That it has more than fulfilled its promise to replace imports, ceasing to import half of the goods the country needs? That it has replaced gas exports with fuel imports? To have promoted a competitive economy between the regions? To have received a country on the brink of the abyss and to have taken a small step forward?