From Catholic News Service

New Bolivian president wants church help

By Paul Jeffrey,Catholic News Service

LA PAZ, Bolivia (CNS) -- Bolivia's first indigenous president said the church plays a critical role in supporting the revolutionary changes he seeks for South America's poorest country.

"The participation of the church is important in the transformations we're fighting for. Be they Catholics or evangelicals, it's important that they apply Christianity," said President Evo Morales.

"I am a Christian. I understand Christ as a man who struggled against injustice, who gave his life for humanity. Christ struggled for justice and life. Whatever the church, its mission should be applying Christianity, which means working for justice and equality and community," Morales told Catholic News Service during a mid-April interview in the presidential palace.

Morales, an Aymara indigenous leader who took office in January after winning a December election, has quickly shaken up Bolivian politics. Morales has vowed to end corruption and inefficiency. He has appointed Cabinet ministers from Bolivia's indigenous and poor communities, angering many of the country's traditional elites. He is working to preserve the right of Bolivian farmers to continue to cultivate coca, as well as to nationalize Bolivia's reserves of gas and oil, both measures that worry many in the Bush administration.

"We've gained a lot of political and social rights, and we're struggling to recover our economic rights. In Bolivia, if we don't liberate the natural wealth, we'll never liberate ourselves. We need to nationalize all our natural resources. This doesn't mean expropriation or the expulsion of investors. We need partners, but we can't let them be the owners of our natural resources," Morales said.

The new president is sponsoring a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the country's constitution. Delegates to the assembly will be elected in a special election in July.

As leader of the coca growers federation, Morales spent years on the streets protesting government policies and was a key player in bringing down administrations in 2003 and 2005.

Bishop Jesus Juarez Parraga of El Alto, secretary-general of the Bolivian bishops' conference, suggested that now that Morales sits on the other side of the desk he must adjust to the new role.

"At this time it's difficult to judge a president who came from the union movement, who has indigenous roots, and who needs, as he has admitted, help in learning how to be president," Bishop Juarez told CNS. "Yet I believe he has good will, that he's interested in defending the most excluded and the poorest, and that, above all, he wants justice and an end to corruption. He's not interested in exclusion or revenge, but in promoting reconciliation and forgiveness."

"The president has the great challenge of keeping the promises he made to the people. He needs to convince them that he's the president of all Bolivians, and in this sense gather them all in. And he needs, perhaps, to talk a bit less and listen a bit more," Bishop Juarez added.

Throughout this country's troubled past, Bolivia's bishops often have been power brokers, stepping in to mediate between powerful social movements and a weak state. Morales has faced increasing protests in the streets about a variety of issues, but Bishop Juarez suggested that the times have changed and the new government is capable of dealing directly with protesters.

"I think that we've come to the moment when the institutions of the state can comply with the role they've been assigned. The church will continue with its role of orientation and illumination, and we'll always be present in moments of difficulty and conflict," he said.

As Bolivia prepares for the assembly, Bishop Juarez said the country's social movements must exercise patience.

"There is a lot of hope right now, but also a lot of uncertainty," he said. "Because one more time the social movements appear with their just demands, but at times without taking into consideration the economic reality of this country. The government has to try to satisfy these demands so that people have a better quality of life, with work and a salary which are just and dignified and stable. But at the same time, these movements cannot ask for more than the government can afford to give them."

Morales, asked about warnings from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and other administration officials that the United States should fear his brand of populism, said Bolivia was not a security threat to anyone.

"Why should they be afraid of us, if we defend life, if we defend the sector that's been historically condemned to extinction, the original peoples?" Morales asked.

"We're involved here in a process of democratic change, a cultural revolution. We're not living in a time when people rise up in arms against the empire, but rather it's the empire that rises up in arms against the peoples. We have differences and they will continue insulting us. Those who see us as a danger are the people who've always seen indigenous peoples as savages, as animals, and when we organize in unions or communities or electorally and we win, they can't stand it," Morales said.

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