Given the abundance of natural resources in much of the developing world, it is surprising how often people speak of these countries as if their poverty was an attribute somehow intrinsic to their people or land. In fact, it has often been this wealth of the land that has played a large role in the poverty of the people.

The issue of natural resources has recently dominated the political landscape in Bolivia where voters go to the polls in a presidential election on December 18.

In October 2003, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozado was forced from office by protests against a planned sale of natural gas rights to U.S. corporations. A similar issue forced the resignation of his successor, Carlos Mesa, in June 2005. Today, the leader in the polls is Evo Morales, an Aymara (an indigenous Bolivian) and head of the left-of-centre “Movement Toward Socialism” (MAS) party.

Natural gas nationalization is one of the principal issues around which he and his coalition of landless peasants, farmers and indigenous people are mobilizing. Clearly, Bolivians are familiar with their own history, and they know to view foreign bids for their natural resources with deep distrust.

About 8.9 million people inhabit the small, land-locked country in the heart of South America. On average, 64 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line. Indigenous Quechua and Aymara Bolivians, who comprise the majority of the people, have an even higher poverty rate of 88 per cent. And the United Nations ranks Bolivia 113th out of the 177 nations on its Human Development Index. So by all accounts, this is a truly impoverished country.

But an examination of Bolivia’s natural resources, past and present, turns this interpretation on its head.

When the wealth-hungry Spanish stumbled upon the American continent in the 15th century, they quickly concentrated their efforts on the rich and powerful Inca Empire. Soon after, in 1544, the invaders caught wind of the discovery of silver in Potosí, located in the southwest of present-day Bolivia. The amount of silver extracted from this single source over the next 300 years has been estimated at a staggering 137 million pounds.

The city grew rapidly. By the late 17th century, it had a population of over 200,000, making it one of the largest cities in the world — and one of the richest. In 1658, for the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, the city’s streets were entirely re-paved with bars of silver.

Yet the wealth of the land produced only poverty and suffering for the vast majority of the area’s indigenous people. Along with tens of thousands of African labourers, they were forced to work in the mines, where labourers survived an average of six months. An estimated eight million workers died extracting the wealth that sustained the Spanish empire for hundreds of years.

Present-day Potosí, its silver long exhausted, is a desolate and desperate town. Its inhabitants are dependent on the remaining low-grade silver and tin that is still salvageable beneath the earth. Conditions in the mines have not improved much since the 17th century, the principal tools still being picks and shovels. The workers, who include hundreds of child labourers, are prone to numerous lung diseases and have a life expectancy of less than 40 years.

Currently, Bolivians are experiencing a situation similar to the silver boom of centuries past, complete with vast wealth and power struggles among foreigners, Bolivian élites and indigenous people. It has recently come to light that the provinces of Santa Cruz and Tarija contain a large amount of natural gas — worth $1.2 billion US by some estimates. The struggle over this wealth has pitted the provinces in question, who want to profit from this resource by sharing rights with foreign corporations, against the rest of the populace, who argue that the gas should be nationalized. From Santa Cruz and Tarija has emerged an élite, anti-indigenous movement, which is threatening to secede from the country.

Bolivia’s natural gas, like its silver, may provide profits for foreigners and local élites, and poverty for most Bolivians. But if Morales wins the upcoming election and follows through on his promises, this could mark the point in Bolivian history when the people wrested control of their own natural resources. They may reach the point when wealth of the land no longer means misery for the people.