Overview of Land and History 29the gringo infl uence. The extent of this resentment could
be measured in the 2002 presidential elections when the
US ambassador, Manuel Rocha intervened directly in the
campaign. If candidate Evo Morales, accused of being a narco
cocalero (narco coca grower), were to be elected president, the
ambassador insinuated that Bolivia could lose its US aid. The
ambassador had made an assumption: that Bolivians would
automatically rally against anyone and anything associated
with coca.
But incidents like the above case of Fidel Flores and the fact
that the United States could impose draconian repression, as
symbolised by Law 1008, had created a nationalistic backlash
among Bolivians.
In the days immediately following Rocha’s declaration, his
bogeyman Evo Morales zoomed up in the polls and missed
fi rst place in the election by a mere two percentage points.
It was common to joke that Morales’ best campaign support
had come from the US Embassy.
Such imagery should not even suggest that Western visitors
would be the target of anti-gringo sentiment. There is a
pervasive civility in Bolivian culture, a painstaking cordiality,
even between opponents.
Nevertheless, if you hang out in bars long enough to get to
know folks after they’re plastered, you may be privileged to
get verbally blasted for the abuses of the gringos. If you are
Australian, British or French, you may be labelled as a gringo,
even after you’ve stood up and sung La Marsaillaise.
Among the working poor, however, greater resentment is
reserved for the local oligarchy. The outpouring of sympathy
for Fidel Flores, the airport dog handler, just before the turn
of the 20th century, was one of a thousand hidden variables
that accumulated in the psyche of a nation and set the stage
for the monumental events and transformations of the fi rst
decade of the 20th century.
Economic Realities
Economic disparity nurtures the corrupt network of
underlings who support white collar drug lords like Amado
Pacheco. Exemplifying this disparity is a stunning statistic: