Evo Morales: Economy is Now in the Hands of the People, Not IMF

Bolivian President Evo Morales, highlighted on Saturday that in the neoliberal period, it was the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)  who decided the economic fate of Bolivia. However, that now it's the Bolivian people who are building their future, according to the first Indigenous president of the Andean country.

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President Morales spoke during the Departamental Encounter in Cochabamba, where new and updated proposals were made for the "Bicentennial Patriotic Agenda," the broad plan of government of the current administration.

"The departmental encounters are for the people to decide their destiny, the people decide their future, the people decide the hope of future generations," stated President Morales during his speech.

According to the leader, in the past, the different international organizations used to treat Bolivia as a "colony," deciding the future of the people using an economic model based on privatization of Bolivian industry and natural resources.

He also reminded, showing archive news articles, that in 1993 the WB demanded that Bolivia privatize the large national gas company (YPFB), as part of the then economic policies for the country. According to the president, the IMF would be practically deciding who would be on the economic team advising the government.

"We all have to give birth to programs, our programs, our social policies, we all have to make a plan so that Bolivia continues to lead in economic growth," he said.

Bolivia currently has one of the storngest economies in the region, based on redistributing wealth and an "economic social communitarian productive model." Evo Morales has long argued that this is possible thanks to the country's nationalization of natural resources and strategic industries.