A New Constitution for Bolivia in 2009 would put conditions on private property and would protect Coca

Authors:
Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Here you can download the contents of the Constitution draft approved by the Constituent Assembly of Bolivia on Sunday, December 9, 2007. This proposed Constitution will be submitted to a popular referendum on next January 25, 2009.

Click here to download the full text –in Spanish- of the draft Constitution that Evo Morales and his supporters want for Bolivia.

We read the whole project and we think it is very inclined to Statism. Besides its content has a Marxists aspect, especially with regard to private property and its social function.

In general we recommend paying attention to Article 56, which stipulates that the right to private property is guaranteed only if it satisfies a social function. And to Article 57, which contains the government’s constitutional right to expropriate any property that does not fulfill a social function.

That means virtually the abolition of private property, because possessions are permitted only if they meet collective interests or social objectives. Karl Marx couldn’t have written it better.

But there are more, because article 172, paragraph 27, establish the President as the highest authority of the Bolivian Service of Agrarian Reform, which gives the President special powers for the distribution and redistribution of land.

Then call attention to the articles 393 and 397, which again decreed that the State recognizes the ownership of land, if and only if, it has a social function or a social economic function. It is further indicated that work is the fundamental source for the acquisition and preservation of agricultural property –another Marxist idea- and that if the properties do not meet their social function, or social economic function, do not safeguard their rights.

In sum, we can say that this draft Constitution subordinates private property’s rights to the socialist ideology, which is a violation of basic human rights agreed in the United Nations.

Finally, we drew attention to the shelter that this draft constitution grants to coca, considering it original and ancestral -Article 348 – But If the constituents want to justify the planting of coca with the argument that it is part of the Bolivian tradition and culture, they should think more carefully. What they propose is like justifying sexism, arguing that it is part of the tradition and culture of some country.

Our wish is that Afghanistan and Colombia do not copy this botanic proposal, and come in to protect opium and poppy in their Constitutions, because we would have a flood of narcotics worldwide.

Therefore, we have no doubt that if the Bolivians decide to approve this defective Constitution draft, it will be require a constitutional amendment within a few years.

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