*http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id... <http://upsidedownworld.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4907:raul-zibechi-latin-america-today-seen-from-below&catid=30:international&Itemid=60>* *Raúl Zibechi* *Latin America Today, Seen From Below* by Raúl Zibechi, Thursday, 26 June 2014 Here Raúl Zibechi offers a wide-ranging look at the geopolitical reality of the continent from the perspective of social movements, touching on the organizing model of the indigenous Chilean Mapuche and Mexican Zapatistas, conflicts occurring over the extraction industries in many countries, and the increasingly dominant role of Brazil in the region. Raúl Zibechi is a Uruguayan writer, professor and analyst whose newest book* The New Brazil: Regional Imperialism and the New Democracy* was just published in English by AK Press. Original interview published in the June 2013 issue MU Magazine, from the* La Vaca popular* media collective in Buenos Aires. Translated by Margi Clarke. Reprinted with permission.* {Brian's note: I have searched the web for the original spanish version of this interview and cannot find it; if anyone locates it, please send me the link!}* *1- ECUADOR* In Ecuador there is a government that proclaims a "citizen revolution" and that has a constitution with explicit environmental values that speaks of Well Being and the rights of Nature. At the same time, there are 179 or 180 indigenous leaders and activists accused of sabotage and terrorism for doing what they always have done: blocking roads and occupying public land to protest and stop the mining projects that threaten their livelihood and communities. The greatest struggle of the social movements right now is to defend water and to halt open-pit mining. President Correa calls them "full-bellies" ('pancitas llenas') who have plenty to eat and can dedicate themselves to criticizing the government and the mining industry alongside their imperialist NGO allies (non-governmental organizations). *MU: Bolivian President Evo Morales also calls out NGO's as organizations promoting imperialist interests with the intention to erode Latin American state power.* Yes, Correa and Morales accuse the social movements of being manipulated by the NGO's, as if the indigenous communities were underage children. Ecuador and Bolivia have several things in common: one, the popular movements are strong; another is that the governments call themselves 'revolutionary'; and in both countries there is an fierce confrontation between the governments' modernization policies with the social movements who are criminalized and persecuted. But an interesting fact is that the dominant classes in Bolivia as well as in Ecuador are changing rapidly. The financial bourgeoisie in Guayaquil (in the south) has collapsed and today it is the financial sector in Quito (the northern altiplano) that is dominant. At the same time, new analyses coming out of Bolivia speak of a new bourgeoisie in which the Aymara and Quechua indigenous leaders have an important role. This contradiction was evident in the conflict over Tipnis, when a huge indigenous mobilization halted a highway project into their ancestral lands, which are part of a national park. In Tipnis the conflict is between the coca-producers who are now part of the ruling structure against the indigenous [whom they had previously been allied with to bring Evo Morales into power]. We see this process happening in several countries. *MU: So, what does the power map look like now?* Basically what we have on the one hand is the old ownership class, and on the other hand the "management" class ('gestores'). People who are not the owners of the banks but who manage the banks, those who control the pension funds, the capital that is the raw material for financial speculation. These managers are now the critical players, they are paid well and they are part of the ruling class even though they do not own the industrial means of production. They dominate the financial-economic circuit that reproduces capital. We see contradictions in these countries between the owners and the managers who are allied with each other in some ways, but not in others. It is interesting to see how the dominant class that has become more complex and where there are conflicts. And how parts of the ruling class make use of the popular sectors and others depend on other social sectors, in service of their own interests, and that there are points of unity and points of conflict between and among them. Basically we are seeing a re-structuring and re-positioning of the ruling classes and we see these shifts very clearly in Bolivia and Ecuador. -- *Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..* P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/