Bolivian Vice President: "Bolivia Marked the Start of a Major Indigenous Awakening"
Bolivian Vice President: "Bolivia Marked the Start of a Major Indigenous Awakening"
Monday, 21 April 2014 09:25
By Marianela Jarroud, Inter Press Service | Interview
SANTIAGO - He describes himself as someone who was drawn to Marxism as a result of his commiseration with the plight of indigenous people in his country, and he is considered one of the most influential Latin American thinkers of the 21st century.
Álvaro García Linera, 51, is seen as the “right hand man” of Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales.
Bolivia’s 51-year-old vice president took part in the foundation of the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army, whose aim was to support the indigenous insurgency. In 1997 he was released after five years in the San Pedro prison in La Paz.
He is also one of the main forces behind the lawsuit against Chile that Bolivia filed at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to reclaim access to the Pacific Ocean, which his country lost in the 1879-1883 War of the Pacific.
Bolivia has not had diplomatic ties with Chile since 1978. But during Chilean President Michelle Bachelet’s first term (2006-2010), relations warmed with Morales – in office since 2006 – although they cooled again under the government of Chile’s right-wing former president Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014).
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/23204-qa-bolivia-marked-the-start-of-a-major-indigenous-awakening
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