Bolivia Slipping?

The Washington Post reports that all is not well in Evo Morales' attempted socialist workers paradise. Things are not going - at all - in the direction that Morales promised. And people, both Morales supporters and those who oppose him, are increasingly taking to the streets in protest over what is (or isn't) happening in Bolivia.

As President Evo Morales celebrates his first year in office Monday, he remains determined to launch what he calls a "democratic revolution," built on the traditions of the country's indigenous population. But the rising public unrest — by his opponents and supporters — has forced the government to come up with new ways to try to get there.

Morales, and the slight majority of assembly members aligned with him, initially had hoped that the assembly, created last year, would enable them to grant indigenous communities more institutional power and a bigger share of government revenue.

But long-simmering regional conflicts have interfered, with opposition assembly members insisting on more autonomy for local governments in regions that produce the bulk of the country's export income. The deadlock over voting procedures is merely a reflection of the much deeper fault lines running through Bolivia.

"Our meetings always end in insults," said Oscar Urquízu Córdova, an assembly member for the Podemos party, which opposes Morales, the former leader of a coca growers union. "Their side accuses us of 500 years of oppression against the indigenous class, and they say we represent a repressive oligarchy. Then we say things back to them, like calling them 'narco-traffickers.' "

Meanwhile, the rifts left unaddressed by the assembly have worsened.

Last month, about a million people filled the streets of Santa Cruz to demand greater autonomy from the central government, which the protesters accuse of taking their region's wealth and unfairly distributing it elsewhere. Recently, when the regional governor of the central district of Cochabamba said he would seek greater regional autonomy, Morales's allies took to the streets to demand his resignation. Two people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the resulting clashes.

There are plans being floated in Bolivia to force recall referendums on regional governors. These plans are being pushed by, surprise, Morales supporters. Does this sound at all familiar? *Cough* Venezuela *cough*.