Trick or Treat? Nationalisation next year: Look - a parade!

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I spent Halloween afternoon in Huanuni, Bolivia, where the government was to announce the nationalisation of the the country’s mines. Instead, they announced that they were going to postpone the nationalisation and give salaried jobs to all the 4000 private miners in Huanuni.

Naturally, this made everyone very happy, including the riot police waiting in the side streets who cheerfully chatted to me before they made their way back to La Paz. “No trouble today, all good”.

A great victory for the miners at Huanuni, who get job security as well as access to the excellent deposits at the state mine. But what of the other 35,000 cooperativistas in Bolivia? The government admitted it had no money to make any investment into the mines even if they were ‘nationalized’ and I’ve heard the same sentiment from dozens of miners I’ve talked to.

But postponing at this moment is an astute political move from Evo Morales’ government which is still riding high in public opinion from the sucessful re-negotiations (read nationalization in MAS lingo) of the gas contracts just days ago. Morales is hoping that the political capital gained in the gas negotiations has given him time to keep the miners in the rest of the country from revolting. Meanwhile, the government continues its investigation into the partial sale of the largest mine in Bolivia by ex-President of Bolivia Sanchez Gonzales to the Swiss-registered company Glencore. No doubt, Morales’ government hopes to find information which will give it leverage to increase government control or taxes. Expect another several months of Morales performing a delicate balancing act between private investors, cooperatives and unions.

That evening I headed back to the nearby mining centre of Oruro where the town is celebrating 400 years since it was founded. Thousands lined the streets watching a parade of military, police, miners, bands, school children, their mothers, their grandmothers, their pets. Who was left to watch you ask? Teenagers and tourists who played a great game with each other involving fireworks and chared boots. You can guess what I’m talking about.

The centre of Oruro is run down, utilitarian and almost completely devoid of restaurants. I had a princely pick of three, my friends, after almost an hour of wandering half starved around several city blocks. Let me spare you the suspense, I chose the one that had a menu and charming punctuation, ‘d’Sergio’s’. The pizza was terrible, the beer warm, but the parade was right outside and bought in the evenings entertainment.

Yes, my highlight of the evening was watching a table of four middle ranking military officers with identical, heavily waxed mostaches, who flirted outrageously (much twirling and re-waxing) with four middle aged women sitting at the ajacent table wearing identical flower patterned dresses. What can I say, when you travel alone you get laughs wherever you find them.

I am missing autumn for some reason, perhaps because its spring here. I just want a handful of days of that time in the evening when its not light and not dark, the not warm and not cold. Just some time in a place that isn’t really anywhere in particular.