Nearly 16 months after the election of indigenous President Evo Morales, vice-president Alvaro Garcia Linera is an authorised spokesperson on the strategic objectives of the unfolding process. In this role, he affirms that his government aims for "a capitalism with a big state presence". The vice-president spoke to Pablo Stefanoni.
What type of state is your government aspiring to?
When we assumed power, we received a state that did not own a single enterprise. Our aim is for the state to assume an active role. In one year we have recuperated state control over hydrocarbons, mining and telecommunications. From 6% of the GDP, the state now controls 19%, and is today the principal economic actor in Bolivia. The objective is to reach, at least, 30% or 40%.
Is this a return to the developmentalism of the 1950s?
No. We are thinking about a pluralist modernisation, not that of a single road like in the '40s and '50s. There exist different dynamics of modernisation: that of the modern industrial economy, of urban family micro-enterprises and that of the communitarian campesino economy.
And how do you achieve that?
Widening the working-class base, with the state playing a very strong role in the development of new industries, and in supporting communitarian economic forms. I don't believe, like the archaic and vanguardist left do, that socialism can be imposed by decree or by pure voluntarism; rather, it comes through the real movement of society. That is what I mean by the concept of "Andean capitalism" as a stage of transition. It might be something frustrating for those with a radical and idealist discourse, but it is being theoretically honest.
What changes have occurred for the indigenous peoples so far?
There is an image that sums it all up: recently, in Pocoata, Evo Morales asked an indigenous child what he was going to do with his Juancito Pinto bonus [aimed at tackling the problem of children not finishing schooling]. The child responded with a ferocious forcefulness: "I am going to prepare myself to be like you." Before, the indigenous people viewed themselves as bricklayers or easy targets for the police.
But certain sectors continue to talk of the same old government of the blancoides [white] middle classes ...
It is clear that the star programs of this government are directed towards the indigenous and campesino sectors. But it is true that the predominant colonialism in our country left indigenous people out of the areas necessary to run the state. Decolonising the country means to reverse this. Evo recently told rural professors: "teach our brothers mathematics, physics and chemistry, it is your fault that I do not have indigenous functionaries in my government". The indigenous peoples, in their own way, are searching for modernity and social inclusion. I don't agree with the romantic and essentialist discourse of some intellectuals and NGOs about the indigenous world.
[Translated by Bolivia Rising. Visit .]