Frederick B. Mills

Statement by Vice President of Bolivia Álvaro García Linera

These are difficult times, but for a revolutionary such difficult times are the air we breath.

We live from this, from these difficult times, from this we thrive, from these difficult times.

Do we not come from below, are we not the ones who are persecuted, the tortured, the marginalized, in these neoliberal times?

The golden decade of the continent did not come without a cost. It was the struggle of all of us, from below, from the unions, from the university, from the barrios, which had given rise to the revolutionary cycle.

This first wave did not fall from the sky. We carry in the flesh the marks and wounds of the struggles of the 80’s and 90’s.

And if today, provisionally, temporarily, we have to return to the struggles of the 80’s, of the 90’s or the 2000’s, we embrace the challenge. This is what it means to be a revolutionary.

We struggle, overcome, fall, get up again, struggle, overcome, fall, get up again. Until the end of our lives, that is our destiny.

Unofficial translation by Fred Mills