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"You know, all of our comrades who are holding power now have to be very careful. They have to understand that the poor people who voted them in, or who supported them when they were taking power, have only one thing left in their life, and that is hope. You take away their hope, and they are left with nothing. Robbing them of hope is like killing them. That is why, whenever I encounter our left-wing leaders, and I do it very often, I always tell them: 'Comrades, careful, Do not play with hope! Never promise to people what you cannot deliver. Always keep your word."
Juan Evo Morales Ayma, the first Bolivian indigenous president, understood Galeano and his work perfectly well. He and his Movement for Socialism(MAS), never betrayed the trust of the poor people. That is why he was never forgiven by the West, and by many individuals coming from the treasonous Bolivian elites and the military.
*
After my meeting with the indigenous leaders, I asked Carlos to drive us around Altiplano, without any particular plan. I wanted to talk to people; to the poorest of the poor of Bolivia.
At one point, we arrived at a tiny hamlet. A dog with a broken leg welcomed us with loud but innocuous barking. There were two sheep near the entrance to the house. An elderly farmer, his blind wife and a daughter were working in the field.
They were not afraid to speak, even to be recorded and photographed, as long as I promised not to reveal their names.
The farmer had half of his teeth missing, and he was leaning to one side, but his thoughts and words were clear:
"Thanks to Evo for everything. There is his work, and it speaks for itself; that road, infrastructure. Even this little house that we have is because of him."
"Here we don't want that so-called President AÃ �ez. She wants to mislead us, she lies to us. We are with MAS; all of us up here are strongly supporting MAS. We are supporting our brother Evo. We have always been suffering here, but Evo came with excellent projects" but now all progress will stop."
The daughter is perhaps 14 years old. She is a product of Evo's government. Neatly dressed, with nice glasses, she speaks fluently. Her words are well formulated:
"Those coup leaders have no pity on us. They have been shooting at us, beating us, gassing us. They have been violating our women. Lately, our mothers, our fathers suffered tremendously in La Paz. People were injured, people died, and the military and the coup leaders have no mercy. We don't want to be slaves, like before. After the coup, the new government said terrible things about our president; things that we don't like at all. We don't want to be slaves, nor to be dammed by that new lady-president and by her people. She is a racist. The truth is that she is too racist. They call us 'Indios', and say things about us that make us furious. They are discriminating against us in all possible ways."
"But you don't lose hope?" I asked.
"I don't," she smiled. "I am with MAS. And MAS is going to be victorious. We will defeat those who are behind the coup."
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