Press conference by President of the Government and President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia after the President of the Government was awarded the National Order of the Condor of the Andes

Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia)

Today, President Evo Morales will present the President of the Government of Spain will the highest distinction bestowed by the Plurinational State of Bolivia - the National Order of the Condor of the Andes with the "Gran Collar" distinction. This award, the National Order of the Condor of the Andes with the "Gran Collar" distinction, is granted to citizens and national and foreign institutions for distinguished service to the nation (Supreme Resolution 23876), in this case to Pedro Sánchez Pérez Castejón, President of the Government of Spain, in recognition of his interest in enhancing the ties of friendship and cooperation between Bolivia and Spain. For its registration, notification and archiving. Signed, Evo Morales Ayma, Constitutional president of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and Fernando Huanacuni Mamani, Minister for Foreign Affairs. We will now invite the President of the Government to receive the award of the National Order of the Condor of the Andes with the "Gran Collar" distinction, to be presented by our President, Evo Morales Ayma, Grand Master of the Order.

This is the medal of the Condor of the Andes, granted to the President of the Government of Spain.

On Bolivia TV and the different media outlets, we are now going to hand over to the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez Castejón, to say a few words:

President of the Government Sánchez.- President Evo Morales, good afternoon, Minister of the Government of Bolivia, good afternoon as well, and to all those business people who have come to attend this very important event for the Government of Spain and for me, as President of the Government of Spain.

I wanted, first of all, to particularly express my gratitude to President Evo Morales for having travelled here to be able to host this meeting in Bolivia that has been a long time coming. 20 years have now passed since a President of the Government of Spain officially visited Bolivia, and one of the issues I conveyed to President Evo Morales at the meeting we held prior to this is that this delay will never happen again, that the extraordinary bilateral relations between our countries must also be exercised in person, with much more regular contact by the Presidency of the Government of Spain, and that will be one of the clear commitments I take on personally, dear President Evo Morales.

I have said this in private but I would also like to say this in public. I am deeply moved by the high distinction that the President has bestowed on me, as we are seeing here. I believe that this is a true reflection of the alliance that exists between Bolivia and Spain, and between Spain and Bolivia.

And of course, what I can publicly guarantee the people of Bolivia is that the Government of Spain will do everything possible, everything that is in our hands to help in the progress, cohesion and prosperity of a country that we feel close to, our sister nation Bolivia. Thank you very much President. Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen.

We are grateful to the words of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez Castejón. We will now hand over to the Constitutional President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma, to say a few words.

President Morales.- Thank you very much, my friend, Pedro Sánchez, President of the Government of Spain. My greetings to your whole delegation, public officials and business people of Spain; my greeting to the Deputy Ministers, the Speaker of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament, to the Mayor of Santa Cruz, the President of the Municipal Council, special guests and to the press.

For Bolivia, it is an enormous pleasure to receive at this villa the official visit of the President of the Government after 20 years. 20 years have gone by but I have many fond memories of Spain, from the first time we came to power and I have never felt abandoned by Spain. First, I perfectly remember that Bolivia's education debt was written off. So I would ask you, President of the Government, to convey my respect and thanks to all the people of Spain. Secondly, the cooperation on ambulances during the government of President of the Government Rodríguez Zapatero. I remember that at an Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero asked me how you could help us. I told him how I had lived as a child. And I remembered exactly how my father had toothache when he was in a farm hut. From there he had to walk for three or four hours to a control point. There was no first aid station there. The provincial capital was about a day's ride away by truck, maybe a little more. From there to the first aid station and then on to the city. It took at least five or six days by truck. I remarked on this to José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who had asked me how he could help. With ambulances to the corresponding municipalities. And our first cooperation was through the provision of two ambulances that could attend people in all the municipalities. So that there would not be children like Evo, suffering with his family because his parents were absent. There was no State presence at that time.

I could speak about many issues of cooperation. However, this recent visit encourages us to continue working. We now live in different times. As we say here, "pasado pisado" [that is in the past]: we have new diplomatic relations, new joint cooperation relations. I want to say to the European delegation, particularly in its extended form, that your investments are fully guaranteed. We have overcome some harm done during the constituent process, some differences that arose, but that is now sorted.

We are very encouraged by the recent economic growth in Bolivia, accompanied by international bodies, by companies like Repsol, with which we maintain a friendship, as they are our partners.

We welcome the experience of Spanish companies. A moment ago we talked about a Spanish company that legally, legitimately, through a public tender, had been awarded the installation of a solar energy panel, which has now been completed. We are still waiting on some projects to be completed as it would have been good to reiterate the work of some other Spanish companies. Anyway, thank you very much for your visit. For me, in particular, this is an historic day, and also for the Bolivian people. Agreements for the good of our countries. Thank you very much.

We will now take any questions.

Q.- Good evening, President Morales. I had a question for the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez. You have come here from Santiago de Chile, and you visited the Museum of Memory there. I wanted to ask you what the Government of Spain intends to do with the Valley of the Fallen [Valle de los Caídos] and how, where and who will create the Truth Commission at the centre or what will you create in the Valley of the Fallen?

President of the Government Sánchez.- As the different media outlets in Spain are aware, President Evo Morales, last Friday, the Council of Ministers decided by Royal Decree-Law to exhume the remains of Dictator Franco, because we consider that no democracy should pay tribute to a dictator. Consequently, this is a decision that dignifies our democracy. Aside from that, you know that this will turn into a Bill, and hence, there will be a debate in Parliament at which we will see the different opinions from the various parliamentary groups, but I can announce to you the opinion of the Government of Spain, which is that the Valley of the Fallen cannot be a place that has a special meaning. It cannot be a place of reconciliation. It must be a place of rest, hence a civilian cemetery for the remains of the victims of the conflict, of the Civil War and of the Franco regime that are buried there. That is the proposal, that is the government's opinion and we are waiting to see the opinion of the parliamentary groups in the passage through Parliament of this Royal Decree-Law for its ratification.

Q.- My question is, what will be the impact of these three agreements, both for Spain and for Bolivia? And we wanted, Mr President, to remember Bolivia's economic model, which has had economic stability now for the past 12 years and has been recognised by such international bodies as ECLAC and other international organisations.

President Morales.- Firstly, I would like to once again welcome the visit by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez and his whole delegation. I would like to say that these agreements with Spain, and also with the European Union, not only address social policy, which we mentioned a moment ago, for example, the presence of Europe in the fight against drug trafficking, important and unconditional cooperation. In exchange for this cooperation, the EU does not ask to be owners of businesses or of natural resources. That is the difference with the supposed "cooperation" of the United States. But, in addition to that, this is an economic model that guarantees State investment, private investment, whether national or international, and also the investment of cooperatives of associations. This combination of investments has allowed us to guarantee, first of all, economic stability, and secondly, economic growth. I remember perfectly well how, when I presented my candidature, some groups accused me of not being interested in cooperation, stating that there would be no investment. Look, the results we have are tremendous and by holding a sincere and transparent debate, always thinking of the people, of the most needy, it is possible to resolve the problems we have. When we came to power, Bolivia was the poorest country in all South America, the second poorest in all America, and it has surprised me that Bolivia has headed up economic growth in South America over the last four years. That is fairly encouraging, but through this cooperation, this investment, these transfers of technology, this industrialisation, I am sure that Bolivia can look forward to the future. I always say here, there is no more "Lamento boliviano" [Bolivian regret], when I was young we were made to sing the "Lamento boliviano" Well the "Lamento boliviano" is over now, and with the presence, the cooperation of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, we feel heartened to continue working for those most in need.

President of the Government Sánchez.- I also want to ratify what President Evo has said, because the various delegations have also spoken and we have acknowledged the role of President Evo and his government in the fight to recognise water and sanitation as a right, as one of the main ways to achieve progress and, above all, in his fight against poverty in many regions. And as a result of that reflection, which we shared, we also spoke about the challenge our different societies face in the efficient use of water, of an increasingly scarce resource, which also causes regional problems in our country, Mr President. And I precisely say this because one of the projects that has come as a result of this Memorandum of Understanding is on the efficient use of water in the agricultural sector, regarding irrigation, where Bolivia and Spain have so much in common, and hence what we are talking about are agreements that are clearly going to help our societies prosper, which are clearly going to further enhance the ties of cooperation between our two countries, and on this matter, I also want to congratulate President Morales for the Rotating Presidency that Bolivia will hold of ECLAC in the year 2019, and also say publicly through this request, through this desire that President Evo expressed to hold here, in Bolivia, a joint meeting between the European Union and ECLAC, that Spain will clearly work through the European Union to ensure that this becomes a reality in 2019. I hope we can achieve that, Mr President; you know that you will receive all the support and help of the Government of Spain.

And if you will allow me an aside for a moment, because it is true that in the question I was asked by the journalist from Servimedia in Spain, I have forgotten to answer the question on the Truth Commission. You are aware that we proposed an amendment to the Historical Memory Act at the start of the year, in which we incorporated a change to this law to set up a Truth Commission. We are going to see what fruits this debate bears that will take place following the ratification of the Royal Decree-Law to amend the Historical Memory Act, but the Government of Spain clearly intends to set up this Truth Committee, which will be as plural as possible, which incorporates all the historical perspectives on the Civil War and on the dictatorship. Aside from that, we want to close all these wounds that our country is unfortunately still suffering from.

Q.- Juan Ruiz from "El Periódico". Hello, good afternoon. I wanted to ask you about the plurinational nature of the State, since the Spanish Socialists back this project and, at some time, have quoted the case of Bolivia by way of example. I wanted to ask you if you addressed this at anytime in your meeting with President of the Government Sánchez. At any event, what ideas or advice can you give him on this system?

President Morales.- Each country has its own peculiarities; it is not a question of giving advice or sharing experiences of public management through good administration. But Bolivia is so diverse; we have 32 or 33 wrongly called nationalities for various ethnic groups; they are not ethic groups, but nationalities; they are not dialects, but languages, they are peoples and we have gone for thousands of years with so many systems based on community, on collective groups, on solidarity and on complementation. There was injustice for many years, but not so much as now. That is why we re-founded Bolivia, we left behind a colonial State and we created a plurinational State and that has been positive for us. We have achieved such results as the recognition of all rights, particularly rights for the indigenous peoples. I just want to say that there are very few families in some nationalities, one MP of an indigenous population with 400 or 500 votes may be an MP with the same rights as an MP that only needs 150 or 200 votes to be elected. In another process, we have integrated the countryside with the city, professionals with non-professionals, East with West, with our social stakeholders. I can tell you that we have three mining cooperative systems, one that is State-managed, another that is a cooperative and another that is private. There was no agreement between the State-managed system and the cooperative system so we merged them all together. These are some of the problems we have but the result is that you are all aware that here we all have the same rights and the same obligations. After the Republic was founded, who had citizens' rights? Those who held private property and knew how to read and write, which was around 20% of people. Women were completely discriminated against. The different social classes did not mix with each other after the Republic was founded. Now everyone has rights. The majority of the Cabinet you are forming are women. Here, at least, we have a majority of women in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly. For a time this stood at 50-50 in the Cabinet; this has fallen a little now, but we will recover it.

But getting back to the words from my colleague, the President of the Government. On the issue of the European Union, you know that last year, the Summit between the European Union and the Caribbean and Latin America was due to be held, but for various reasons it did not finally take place. Next year, it is due to be held in Europe, but I asked both the President of the Government of Spain and some ambassadors if we could hold this meeting in Bolivia, with all the Heads of State and Government of Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union. This would be a great, historic meeting, unprecedented when we have a historical debt here, with an indigenous president. I am sure that you will understand this and I welcome the words of the President of the Government saying that he would help us to convince this meeting to be held, this Summit between Europe and Latin America.

Secondly, on the issue of this cooperation on grants. For the first time, the State is handing our grants, particularly to Europe. Before, families had to make a great effort in order to study a degree or a doctorate, or this was funded by foundations. Now the State is paying for this, for the first time in the history of Bolivia. I remember a meeting with female indigenous colleagues where the question was asked as to who wanted their children to study. Two or three women said that they wanted their children to study in order to bring food home. If you have a degree or become an engineer, then in a short period of time food will not be produced for the village, and they didn't want their children to produce like us without a good education, but would rather their children were technicians. That was their demand, which surprised me, I thought that these women were going to say to me that they wanted their children to become engineers or lawyer, but all they were worried about was producing food for the village.

I want to say to the President of the Government that, for the first time, we are starting with mechanised irrigation, but we still have problems facilitating this mechanised irrigation. I always try to be well informed, and I am told that, after Israel, Spain is the leader in irrigation systems. I wonder whether our young folk from the countryside, if they want to go on and work in the countryside, and if they have a degree rather than a technician qualification, could go, particularly to Spain, because of the language issue, to live and to work on large agricultural holdings, in large industries and see how mechanised irrigation is managed. On those estates where the achievements are amazing, with little land but which produce a great deal of food. That is where this initiative comes from and I welcome Spain's support, as with optimising water. We used 100 litres here before but now we only need 30 litres with mechanised irrigation, and water is saved. Hence I welcome this work.

I am almost certain that in the near future when we implement this, it will be a model of cooperation. We will be able to send away my younger workers so that they can devote themselves to farming, but we also need to look at the issue of housing, work, etc… that they learn through working, looking at how the system of mechanised irrigation works. That is one of our main wishes. This will truly allow framing production to improve in order to guarantee the food supply for our people.

Q.- Magdalena Guzmán, from Cadena A. There is no doubt that for the people of Bolivia, the bio-ocean train project is something they yearn for, and that this will not only benefit Bolivia but also various other countries in Latin America. Well, my question is for the President of the Government. What strategic importance does Spain give to this great project to join the oceans by train and what investment will you make to guarantee this great project?

President of the Government Sánchez.- The Government of Spain and the country as a whole is absolutely convinced of the great importance of this project. We are one of the few European Union countries that is present here, I believe that we are the fifth-highest ranked country, together with Germany and Switzerland, that head sup this multimillion project. I seem to recall that more than 10 billion euros are tied into Spain, and its importance is transcendental, because everything to do with the development and progress of this beautiful country, of this land that we are united with by so many ties, is welcome, and hence the progress of sister nations is not alien to us, we do not look the other way and we clearly welcome and are tremendously satisfied at being able to put our name to a project that will are bound to bring opportunities, jobs and progress to this society.

(Transcript edited by the State Secretariat for Communication)

Non official translation