Latinnews Archive

Latin American Weekly Report - 2 August 1985

Bolivia: the ADN's proposals;AN INTERVIEW WITH EUDORO GALINDO

Eudoro Galindo, Hugo Banzer's running mate, is known for the tough anti-union stance he took durinG the March COB strike. He is perhaps better known for the controversy surrounding his candidacy, when it became known that he had received his libreta militar -- one of the requisites for standing for office -- without having done military service in Bolivia (WR-85-Z7). In the run-up to the election the military high command asked the electoral court to enforce this ruling.


He gave us his own insight into what a Banzer-Galindo administration would set out to do:

* On mining: 'Bolivia has always been a mining country and has lived off the mines for many years. But since the nationalisation of the mines in 1952, bureaucracy and corruption have reached such a stage that the mines are now living off Bolivia.

'The tin mines are now producing at almost twice the market price, which is draining the treasury and contributing to the country's hyper-inflation.

'We feel the country cannot afford Comibol and that it has to be transformed. We aim to divide Comibol by mines, taking each as a single productive unit capable of covering its own costs.

'We feel attention should be paid to the country's gold reserves and we would try to give investment incentives for their exploitation.'

* On trade: 'We are a country rich in potential but poor in the resources to exploit this potential. We will therefore try to create a climate where investment will come. We feel the Andean Pact contains certain limitations which may discourage foreign investment. If we indeed find barriers of this nature, we will probably choose to break them.'

* On the COB: 'We will merely apply the law. No-one has the right to forbid you to work by declaring strikes.'

* On inflation: 'We feel inflation is a psychological and political phenomenon: political decisions can create certain market conditions which in turn lead to speculation and a spiral begins. We will pay the social cost to eradicate inflation. The poor will be hurt least, because they have been hurt so much already. Speculators will be hurt. The state has to reduce its expenses on state-owned companies and on subsidies. We must also cut the number of public employees -- something which has got totally out of control. We will tax peasants who are not taxed at present. They will benefit from better health and education services.'

* On drugs: We regard this as the most serios problem confronting Bolivia. Our policies fall into five categories: (1) Coca plantations: growing leaves must remain legai but we have to develop policies that will stimulate peasants to grow other crops; (2) Trade: we will want to know who buys and who sells and the purposes to which leaves are to be put; (3) Paste manufacture: this is a criminal activity; (4) Laws: we need to develop the legal infrastructure to administer these intentions; (5) Education: we feel drugtrafficking creates a series of distortions on the scale of values of Bolivian society. A young man sees no need to study and work hard if his friends are making a lot of money selling coca.

'We want serious talks with the USA if they really want the problem resolved. We want studies into the effects of cocaine with a view to its possible legalising; if cocaine were turned into a legal export prices would plummet and the attraction of growing coca would diminish considerably.'

* On a coalition: 'We will not make any deals ( . . . ) costs. If this means we cannot be the government, we would rather go into opposition.'


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