Chapter 10: The Role Of Higher Education Within The Socialist Revolution Of Latin America

On October 9, 1967, in the Bolivian town of La Higuera, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was executed by a “half-drunken” sergeant in the Bolivian Army under the direction of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Moments before his death, Che was asked if he was thinking about his own immortality. “No” he answered, “I am thinking only about the immortality of the revolution” (McLaren, 2000).

On January 22, 2006, Evo Morales assumed the office of President of Bolivia after a democratic election in which almost 85% of the Bolivian electorate cast a vote. President Morales is the leader of Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), which aims at giving more power to the country’s indigenous and poor communities by means of land reforms and the redistribution of wealth. On January 25, 2009, Bolivia’s new constitution that grants unprecedented rights to the country’s indigenous majority was approved by over 61% of the vote (Morgan, 2009). This, according to President Morales, represents the beginning of “communitarian socialism,” the first step in liberating Bolivia from its colonial state (Fuentes, 2009). Morales has nationalized the oil and gas industries and laid the groundwork for agrarian reform.