http://www.workers.org/2005/world/bolivia-0623/
Behind the Indigenous-led uprising in Bolivia
By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Published Jun 14, 2005 9:54 PM
On the evening of June 9, after three weeks of mass uprising, Bolivian
President Carlos Mesa who was forced to resign. The president of the Bolivian
Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodr�guez, replaced him.
A union of the Bolivian Workers
Central marches in Sucre on June 9
to demand that two politicians
renounce succession, for a constituent
assembly, the nationalization of the
natural gas and general elections.
Photo: Bolivia Indymedia
The irrepressible force of outrage, pride and the quest to defend natural
resources by Bolivia's Aymaras, Quechuas and Guarani Indigenous population-who
went to the capital of La Paz waving their Whipalas liberation flags-has placed
this country in the center of Latin America's revolutionary efflorescence.
The Indigenous peoples, together with peasants and workers, have been waging a
courageous uprising against U.S. and other foreign transnational corporations.
For decades these outside forces have been stealing the country's natural
resources, leaving the Indigenous peoples in the most abject misery.
They also rose up against their own capitalist class, which has been the agent
of their subjugation by foreign monopolies.
With the two main demands-nationalize hydrocarbons (natural gas) and convene a
Constitutional Assembly-they have been increasingly mobilizing and striking
until the country was paralyzed.
Bolivia, with a population of 9 million, is the poorest country in South
America Yet it is rich in natural gas. Bolivia has the second biggest
natural-gas reserve in the region, after Venezuela.
In the hands of foreign companies like Repsol, British Petroleum, Total, Enron,
Shell, Petrobras and others, this natural wealth has done nothing to improve
the quality of life of the masses.
Infant mortality is very high: For every 1,000 live births, 56 babies die.
Maternal mortality is 550 per 100,000 live births.
Around 30 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Poverty and
social exclusion hit the Indigenous people hardest. The Indigenous are 62
percent of the population.
The poverty stems from the imperialists stealing resources-through neoliberal,
free-market economic policies that were put into place in 1985 to "control" a
24,000% hyperinflation, and through imposition of International Monetary Fund
and World Bank requirements. During this time foreign enterprises took over the
ownership of Bolivia's natural gas.
The three traditional parties-the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), the
Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) and the Movement of the Revolutionary Left
(MIR)-have been sharing power. They have dutifully put these policies into
place, to the detriment of the vast majority of the population.
This has created great discontent, and distrust of the ruling class and its
parties, among the poorest sector of society.
But Bolivia has also a great and long history of mass political protest. In
1952 a rebellion forced the nationalization of mines and universal suffrage.
Most recently, the masses' militancy prevented foreign capital from taking over
control of water resources.
In April 2000 a "Water War" arose in the city of Cochabamba, southeast of La
Paz-which prevented U.S.-based Bechtel Corp. from privatizing water.
In January, Indigenous residents of La Paz's satellite city, El Alto, held
militant protests that forced President Mesa's government to end a contract
with the French Lyonnaise des Eaux Co. This firm had been operating in Bolivia
since 1997, under the name "Aguas de Illimani." It administered water utilities
in El Alto, charging exorbitant prices to consumers and denying this vital
service altogether to the poorest neighborhoods.
Keep in mind that the U.S.-led World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank
are business partners of Aguas-and the force behind the wave of privatization
of not only the water services, but all Bolivia's natural resources and
services.
Uprising starts in El Alto
The recent uprising is a step further in the people's struggle.
It started in mid-May in the city of El Alto. Then resistance spread to the
rest of the country.
El Alto is located in the "altiplano" or highland plain, 4,000 meters above sea
level. It is a fast-growing city of approximately 1 million people, most of
them rural Aymaras. El Alto sits above La Paz, only seven miles away.
This unique topography makes El Alto's protests highly effective, since it
surrounds La Paz Airport and hosts in its center the main road that connects La
Paz with the rest of the country.
El Alto began as a shantytown. Unemployed workers would settle there in the
hopes of finding work in the capital.
Many were part of the 25,000 Bolivian miners who lost their jobs in the 1980s,
when tin mines were shut down after the world price of tin crashed. Aymara
Indigenous people and to a lesser degree Quechuas joined the community after
being forced off their small farms.
They bring strong organizational skills and traditions. And they share a common
experience: They are all victims of Washington's policy of neoliberalism
carried out by the IMF with the help of the local bourgeoisie.
Now El Alto is 90 percent Indigenous. According to research by the Center of
Labor and Rural Development Studies in La Paz, 60 percent of the
"alte�os"-residents of El Alto-live below the poverty level. Of these, 50
percent survive under indigent conditions.
Only 30 percent of the households have basic sewage. Education and health
services are extremely poor.
Strong neighborhood committees are the backbone of the Federation of
Neighborhood Committees-FEJUVE. This is one of the two main Alto organizations
that have played a big role in the mobilizations.
FEJUVE is led by Abel Mamani, but the rank and file are decisive. FEJUVE and
the Regional Workers Central-COR, whose executive secretary is Edgar
Patana-together form the basis of a coordinating committee that mobilizes the
masses.
They were the force behind the recent road blockades and the symbolic takeover
of gas plants in El Alto.
In 2003 they initiated and became the center of protests, with shouts of, "El
Alto on its feet, never on its knees!" and "Civil war now!"
This was the "Gas War" to defend that reserve and prevent its sale to the
North. The rebellion forced the 2003 resignation of President Sanchez de
Lozada, a strong U.S. ally. He escaped to the United States after unleashing
the police and the military to try to crush the protests.
The repression killed 80 people and wounded 400, many of them alte�os. This
"Black October" is still vivid in people's minds. One of the current demands is
to prosecute the former president. Sanchez de Lozada still roams free in the
terrorist sanctuary that is the United States today.
Many other organizations in Bolivia form the resistance along with FEJUVE and
the COR. There is no overall political unity yet; some of their specific
demands sometimes even seem in conflict. The great majority, however, share a
resistance to neoliberalism and a readiness to take action even in the most
trying circumstances.
They all were pressing three major demands: nationalize gas, convene a
Constitutional Assembly, and prosecute Sanchez de Lozada and later, dump Mesa,
neoliberal head of Senate Hormando Vaca Diez, and Mario Cossio, head of the
lower Chamber of Deputies.
Combined action drove out Mesa
The combined national actions of all the opposition groups shut down of the
country, forced Mesa to resign, and prevented the constitutional presidential
succession, which would have been the head of the Senate and then the president
of the deputies. These posts were held by the unpopular Vaca Diez and Cossio,
who were known participants in the neoliberal program put into place by Sanchez
de Lozada. The new president, Eduardo Rodr�guez, is the head of the Supreme
Court, and as such, the only one who constitutionally can call for early
elections.
Some other forces in the uprising are Aymara Deputy Evo Morales and the
Movement Toward Socialism, MAS, which holds the second biggest representation
in Congress after the traditional parties.
Morales, a coca grower, is well known for his organization's battle against the
eradication of coca in the Chapare region, especially by particularly
Washington's Plan Colombia. The U.S. government has strongly opposed Morales
and falsely accuses him of receiving financing from Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez.
The militant miners, who formed the base of the Bolivian Workers Central, COB,
are the ones who exploded dynamite caps during the protests. Indigenous and
peasant groups from the eastern lowland of Bolivia were also crucial to the
struggle.
Santa Cruz: home to the oligarchy
This eastern region of Bolivia is very rich in natural gas. It is also the home
of the oligarchy, the white and racist minority population. The residents of
the department of Santa Cruz launched a secessionist movement with a demand of
autonomy that was supported by the U.S. embassy and the oil transnationals, and
by Vaca Diez, who also lives in this region.
The rebellious masses strongly opposed secession. They saw this maneuver as an
attempt to oppose the militant struggle for nationalization and steal the
country's natural resources. On June 1, a demonstration voicing the national
demands by the Indigenous, peasants and workers from the area was brutally
attacked by a paramilitary group of racists, the Santa Cruz Youth Union,
shouting racist statements.
After three weeks, the protest that had initially begun in El Alto had extended
as a general strike to the rest of the country. It paralyzed the Congress,
airport, services, transportation, small markets-and in the end it shut down
the whole country.
The strike completely blockaded La Paz. It stopped any gas or oil supplies from
getting through.
Food began to be scarce, not only in the capital but also in El Alto.
In the final days, the Congress's deliberation, in an attempt to debate Mesa's
resignation, had to be transferred to Sucre, the constitutional capital,
supposedly a quieter city devoid of protesters, southeast of La Paz.
Miner's death sparks broader revolt
On June 9, Workers World spoke with Bolivian alternative-media reporter and
writer Alex Contreras, who was in Sucre. Gasping for air after running from
tear gases, he said: "Today Congress was supposed to meet to debate the
presidential succession, but at 2:30 this afternoon there was a confrontation
where a 52-year-old miner was killed by police. They were mine workers who were
coming to Sucre to prevent Vaca Diez from getting elected as president. This
has radicalized the actions of the rest of the protesters and they are trying
to take over the main plaza where the deliberations are taking place."
Contreras described how demonstrators had poured in by the thousands from many
rural areas when they heard the news of the miner's death: "There were police
and military contingents in roads, the airport and particularly in the Plaza 25
de Mayo where there were hundreds if not thousands of Bolivians on the streets.
There is a confrontation with the police-"
At this point, with the noise of shots and dynamite explosions in the
background, the telephone connection was broken. WW was able to contact
Contreras later and learn that he was not injured.
These developments forced Congress to unanimously approve Mesa's resignation.
Most important, the successors to the presidency, Vaca Diez and Coss�o, decided
to step aside from the succession.
When Mesa took office in 2003, he was to have carried out the "October Agenda,"
the nationalization, which would in fact have been development of the gas
industry for the people's benefit instead of the transnational corporations'.
He was also to convene a constitutional assembly where the people could freely
choose and plan out the future for their country.
Mesa fulfilled neither of these promises. Confronted soon after taking office
by a majority neoliberal Congress and a racist and pro-United States oligarchy
that despised and feared the Indigenous population, Mesa vacillated.
In March, a watered- down Gas Law was finally passed. It increased taxes on
foreign corporations by 32 percent on top of the previous 18 percent. But it
fell short of meeting the people's demands.
According to the law's critics, it would still benefit the corporations at the
expense of the Bolivian masses. Now the demand is for full nationalization and
development of the natural gas for the benefit of the poor majority.
The struggle continues
After Rodriguez was sworn in as president, not all the blockades were lifted.
The combative people of El Alto vowed to keep struggling until nationalization
is won.
The new president met with the leaders of El Alto for hours, until an agreement
was reached. The organizations granted the new government a brief but vigilant
truce.
Abel Mamani announced the formation of a joint commission of government and El
Alto social organization representatives to make sure that nationalization, a
constitutional assembly, and the call for general elections are included in the
National Congress's agenda.
The rebellion in Bolivia has not finished. There is only a temporary truce.
Even the combative residents of El Alto were asking their leaders to allow a
truce in order to replenish their meager food supplies and feed their children.
But they have no illusions about Rodriguez or the traditional parties. They
confront their bourgeoisie and U.S. imperialism.
Meanwhile, Washington and U.S. corporations are working nonstop with their
allies, both internationally and in Bolivia itself.
It was recently reported that the United States and Britain are "pardoning" the
debt of 18 of the poorest countries of the world, among them Bolivia. Do they
think this is enough to quiet the combative masses there? Will the U.S.
companies leave? Pay reparations to the people?
Or do they want a "stable" situation so that the transnational corporations can
reap the profits of these countries' natural resources without any bother?
Imperialism always underestimates people's movements. The question in Bolivia
now is how the Indigenous, workers and peasants can take power. According to
Contreras, there are attempts to form a Unitary Committee of Mobilizations
among all organizations. He also informed WW that El Alto's FEJUVE and COR had
joined with the Aymaras Peasant Federation of La Paz to create the Popular
Assembly of Indigenous People and Workers-and declared El Alto the capital of
the Bolivian Revolution of the 21st century.
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