Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada Holds Up European Union As Model

Sept. 10, 2003

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada held up the European Union as a potential model for improving the economic situation in the Americas during his convocation address at Illinois Wesleyan University on Wednesday.

Above, Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada addresses a colloquium at Illinois Wesleyan on Tuesday (9/9). Below, President Sanchez de Lozada and Illinois Wesleyan Acting President Janet McNew discuss the statue of explorer John Wesley Powell in The Ames Library.

Sanchez de Lozada concluded a two-day visit to Illinois Wesleyan with his speech in Presser Hall on the campus. He was presented an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University.

• Listen to President Sanches de Lozada's Convocation Address (RealPlayer)

The 72-y ear-old president is in his second term, having been elected in August 2002. His country is in the fifth consecutive year of recession, and his government has faced numerous challenges during the past several months.

Sanchez de Lozada described himself as "confused and dismayed" at the state of world events, referring specifically to the second anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and also to this week’s announcement that U.S. President George W. Bush was seeking $87 billion to fund the U.S. efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"[The $87 billion] is an immense amount of money. I’m not criticizing. It wouldn’t be appropriate, and I wouldn’t know what to say," the Bolivian leader said. "If that amount of money were to be spent on AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis — diseases that kill eight million people a year — you would give a lot more hope and create a different environment in the world."

As for the lessons of 9/11, he said that the terrorist acts "brought into high relief that the easiest thing the poor can do is engage in violence."

Sanchez de Lozada cited the economic results of the European Union as a successful model that might be considered for the Americas. The European Union, he said, shows what happens "if you help people become equals."

"Poor countries have no options but to send [wealthier nations] their poor, struggling people — and their drugs," he said. "Those who have must contribute to help those who don’t have."

On the first day of his visit, Sanchez de Lozada cited the lack of education among his country’s citizens as one of the challenges that has faced his administration in launching reforms designed to create a future of economic growth for the country in which two-thirds of the population lives in poverty.

"In one of my visits out into the country, a man told me that providing education is the same as letting the blind achieve sight," Sanchez de Lozada said during a colloquium that addressed the integration of indigenous cultures into national development programs.
Sanchez de Lozada noted that enforcing six years of compulsory education has often been difficult since many of the poorest Bolivians require that children work rather than attend school so that the family can earn a living.

"We have emphasized the need to teach reading, writing, and basic arithmetic for the first three years in each person's native language," he said. "Language defines mentality. If you teach them in their native language for just two or three years so that they have the basics, then they will want to shift to the language of the future. You begin with the base, then graft on the apples and oranges. If we can do this with education, we will have talented and confident people."

At the same time, he cited the need for jobs in a country where estimates are that the unemployment level adversely affects 12 percent of the economically active population.

"The big problem with unemployment is living at home without the dignity of providing for your family," he said during a second colloquium that specifically addressed economic issues. "We have to have the difference between the rich and the poor in our country be reasonably acceptable."

Referring to the fact that Bolivia is an extremely diverse country in many ways, Sanchez de Lozada said the goal must not be to tolerate diversity but to celebrate it.

"We have geographic, biological, ethnic, and cultural diversity in our country, and we must make it our strength and treasure," he said. "Imagine a world in which all the birds are pigeons. All races and classes have more in common than in differences."

Asked about the difficult issues surrounding his country’s role in the war against drugs, Sanchez de Lozada said that progress has been made but the costs have been high.

"We have been able to eradicate 95 percent of the illegal coca growing," Sanchez de Lozado said of the crop that once supplied half of the cocaine that found its way to the United States. "Although it was illegal and immoral, it was an important part of our gross national product. In this war on drugs, we find that a lot is demanded and little is done."

Educated in the United States where his father was a political exile, Sanchez de Lozada received his undergraduate degree in philosophy and English literature from the University of Chicago and said that his visit to Illinois Wesleyan was, in some respects, a homecoming for him.