I arrived yesterday, very early in the morning, in La Paz. Coming down from the airport, I did what I frequently do: sound out taxi drivers for the political scuttle but. It’s not “scientific” certainly, but cabbies tend to have a pretty good knowledge of the political goings on (they are organized in very active sindicatos & they spend a lot of time listening to the radio). So I decided to ask, as innocently & naively as I could, if he could explain to me why El Alto didn’t vote for MAS in April the way they did in December (in December Evo won 90% of the vote in El Alto, but his party’s mayoral candidate managed less than 40% only four months later). The answer floored me.
First, the cabbie began to discuss how he was a masista—and had voted for Evo in December—but that he had become embittered by the government’s over-reach, trying to take over everything. He argued that too many new laws were hurting him & people he knew (primarily taxes, a universal refrain in politics anywhere you go). But his anger seemed broader than just the fact that new laws were raising his personal household taxes. He had been offended at what he saw as Evo’s government being manipulated by certain entrepreneurial interests. He then pointed out that all the key actors in October 2003 (Abel Mamani, Felipe Quispe, Filemon Escobar, etc.—all of whom broke w/ MAS at various times) were going to gather together to oppose Evo’s government.
So far that made sense; I’ve become accustomed to critiques of Evo’s government from the traditional Bolivian left. But what came next took me by surprise: the El Alto cabbie gave a brief report of a story praising Rubén Costas, the current governor of Santa Cruz & leader of the region’s autonomy movement.
Costas had arrived in La Paz the day before for a meeting w/ Evo, in a mutual effort to mend fences & move forward now that all the elections were behind them. According to my cabbie, Costas (who arrived w/ a few advisors) looked very sad & worried. There was also no one from the government there to meet him and/or take him to the presidential palace. So (and this is where things get surreal) my cabbie tells how the El Alto cab drivers began to cheer “Rubén! Rubén!” applauding the cruceño leader. At that point, apparently, Costas cheered up, gave a brief little speech about how he was fighting not just for Santa Cruz, but for all Bolivia, and that he would be a constructive opposition, but a staunch opponent when the situation merited. The cabbie was very clear that he was happy to have shaken Costas’s hand, and that the cabbies cheered him on as he & his advisers got into their cabs & drove down to the city to meet the president.
Let me be clear: I wasn’t there, this is hearsay. But I have no reason to think the cabbie was deliberately lying to me. The whole tale was entirely surreal, but the rest of the 40 minute cab ride he spoke knowledgeable about national politics, making me think he was telling the truth. If the cab drivers—or anyone!—in El Alto cheered Rubén Costas, something has fundamentally changed politically.
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