Bolivia's Coke to end with Maya calendar

Bolivia Set To Banish Coca-Cola To Mark Mayan End Of Capitalism

By Anderson AntunesFor most Americans, Bolivia is a third world South American country last robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. However this impoverished nation is making headlines due to its Minister of External Affairs recent announcement that the Coca-Cola Company, one of the world’s largest corporations, is to be booted out of there by year’s end.

David Choquehuanca, the minister in question, explained that Coca-Cola will be expelled from Bolivia on the same day that the Mayan calendar enters a new cycle–December 21. According to Choquehuanca, the date marks the end of capitalism and the start of a culture of life in community-based societies. In order to celebrate that, Bolivia’s government is already planning a series of events that will take place at the Southern Hemisphere’s Summer Solstice on La Isla del Sol, one of the largest islands in Lake Titicaca.

“The twenty-first of December 2012 is the end of selfishness, of division. The twenty-first of December has to be the end of Coca-Cola and the beginning of mocochinche (a local peach-flavored soft drink),” Choquehuanca told reporters at a political rally for Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales. “The planets will line up after 26,000 years. It is the end of capitalism and the beginning of communitarianism,” he added.

It’s already been rumored that Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, will follow suit, encouraging his country to ditch the American beverage for soft drinks produced locally.Bolivia Expels Coca-Cola Company: Foreign Minister Predicts End Of Capitalism After Mayan 'Apocalypse'In what is being called a "symbolic rejection of US capitalism," Bolivia has announced that it will be marking the end of the Mayan calendar with the expulsion of the Coca-Cola Company from the country.

"December 21 of 2012 will be the end of egoism and division. December 21 should be the end of Coca-Cola,” Bolivian foreign minister David Choquehuanca said earlier this month, according to Russian news agency, RT.

This is a significant move for Bolivia--who will join Myanmar, North Korea and Cuba as the only countries in the world that are coke-free, Yahoo! News notes.

Unlike the doomsayers who have predicted the apocalypse to occur on Dec. 21, Choquehuanca said he is optimistic that the end of the Mayan calendar will usher in a new and more progressive era--one that will see "the end of hatred and the beginning of love."Comment:  As with every other prediction based on the Maya calendar, I'm guessing this ban will have no effect on capitalism in Bolivia or elsewhere. Indeed, I counterpredict that the end of the Maya calendar cycle on Dec. 21 will have no effect on anyone or anything.

For more on 2012, see Maya Mural Contradicts "Doomsday" Myth and Maya Teleconference Debunks 2012 "Apocalypse."

Below:  Bolivia's Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca. (AFP/Getty Images)