Working in Bolivia 251international business community in order to cushion the
fi nancial blows that may sweep in from the north. There’s
always a chance that pragmatists from the north may realise
that no truly free trade instrument can be institutionalised
between Bolivia and the United States until both sides are
equally enfranchised. The model of countries like Portugal
and Greece being subsidised by Europe until they were able
to stand equally with their northern partners is more likely to
be accepted in Bolivia than the slumming models that have
been offered, in which foreign investors reap and run.
Until now, no one has been able to create a model
that could harness the vast informal economy into a law-
abiding job-creating mechanism. Orthodox free market
policy (neoliberalism) was given two decades to dynamise
the country, with shameful results. One could say that the
neoliberals have 20 years of business experience, but in fact
they only have one failed year repeated 20 times. They’d love
to continue on the same worn tracks, but it appears as if the
majority of Bolivian people would like to give a fair chance
to new models.
The Bolivian social movements that led to the election
of a revolutionary president will not sit tight for long if old
economic models prevail.