A playoff, a joy and a homeland
By: Hugo Marcelo Balderrama - 15/09/2025
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On September 9, 2025, the city of El Alto witnessed a historic event: Bolivia, with a goal from Miguelito Terceros, defeated Brazil and secured a spot in the 2026 World Cup playoffs.
For those of us over forty, the result evoked memories of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup in the USA and the golden age of the Bolivian national football team. For the younger generation, it excites them with the excitement of experiencing what their parents and grandparents experienced decades ago: a victorious Bolivia playing in a World Cup.
In fact, it was my children who made me want to watch another national team match. The final whistle unleashed a frenzy throughout Bolivian cities, as the streets filled with frenzied fans shouting, "Bolivia wins and goes to the World Cup," the refrain of a famous 1990s song. But beyond the result on the field, there's something else worth noting: not a single whipala was seen during the celebrations. This is further proof that for Bolivians, that multicolored flag means nothing.
In reality, the whipala is the symbol of a criminal franchise born and run from Cuba. It is not a national symbol, much less an indigenous tradition; it is merely part of a false narrative that, through indigenism and plurinationality, sought and seeks to destroy the nation. Regarding this, Carlos Sánchez Berzain, in an interview with the online newspaper www.infobae.com, explains:
It must be remembered that what has been called the political era of Evo Morales is in fact the era of the expansion of the Cuban dictatorship, with funding provided by Hugo Chávez starting in 1999. Together with Lula da Silva and the Sao Paulo Forum, the 21st-Century Socialism was introduced. This has led to the expansion of the Cuban dictatorship, of dictatorships that exist today in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Correa's Ecuador. And the establishment of democratic governments at the service of dictatorships, which I call paradictatorial governments. So, within that framework, what is called the political era of Evo Morales is in fact the era of 21st-Century Socialism in Bolivia, of the occupation of Bolivia by a transnational project that has ended up being revealed as that of a criminal group and not a political movement.
Bolivia is not plurinational; it is the product of the fusion of Hispanic and Indo-American traditions. The beautiful features of Bolivian women, like those of the rest of the region, are a product and legacy of the crossbreeding promoted by Spain during the viceroyalty era. However, Evo Morales and his Cuban leaders attempted to impose a distorted version of history.
That more than two decades of dictatorship in Bolivia have failed to establish the whipala as a national symbol in the national collective imagination—in reality, we Bolivians feel a sense of repugnance for it—is a hope in the long road to regaining freedom in the country. However, the path is difficult, since the strength of dictatorships is founded on violence, deceit, crime, and manipulation, all with the goal of remaining in power indefinitely. Furthermore, ordinary citizens are defenseless against the regime's libertarian machinery.
All in all, the young players on the national soccer team, which has one of the youngest average ages in the qualifiers, cheered us up in the midst of a political and economic crisis, but they also reminded us that we are one nation, one homeland, and under one flag. Thank you, kids; you've given us back hope and patriotism. I hope that we, the older ones, can leave you a free and prosperous country.
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