Upside Down WorldMay 10, 2006
Those who have followed US and European press coverage of Bolivian President Evo Morales haven’t been surprised by mainstream coverage of Morales’ move to re-nationalize Bolivia’s natural gas fields, just disappointed.
The Financial Times’ Hal Weitzman kicks off his review of Morales’ action by lamenting: "Since Evo Morales took power in Bolivia at the end of January, his government has often seemed like an administration in search of an economic policy."
Weitzman later quotes an unnamed "Western diplomat" who said, "What the government does is driven by political ideology. The instinct of nationalism has trumped any economic plan."
The FT knows that the best way to discredit an opponent's strategy is to deny that one exists. Bush and the mainstream media are involved in a massive effort to paint the ideological roots of Latin American resistance to US-imposed free trade policies as "populist," haphazard, "nationalist," and now, unplanned...
(click here to view entire report)
6 comments:
The coverage is vastly different than the left press. Even Alan Woods group referred to it as a small reform.
Yes, how dare Latin American countries try to take control of their own resources. The nerve!
Morales pledges to nationalise mining industry in Bolivia I linked to my blog instead Financial Times because it requires registration.
Thanks for the link, Brandon. If it weren't for the opening line about how the nationalization of mining "could affect foreign investors such as Coeur d'Alene and Apex Silver of the US," I'd run the piece too. For the Financial Times, only the interests of investors --not popular interests-- are important.
yeah, I agree. I added " Poor foreign investors :( " to the article. Justin are you familar with the Marxmail Mailing List?
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