[News] Bolivia - Social and Indigenous Movements March on Santa Cruz

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach09232008.html

September 23, 2008


Social and Indigenous Movements March on Santa Cruz


Bolivia's Popular Upheaval

By TANYA M. KERSSEN and ROGER BURBACH

A popular upheaval is sweeping Bolivia, 
threatening the departmental capital of Santa 
Cruz, the bastion of the right wing rebellion 
against the government of Evo Morales. Some 
twenty thousand miners, peasants and coca growers 
are moving on the city to reclaim state 
institutions occupied by autonomist forces. They 
are also demanding the resignation of the Santa 
Cruz prefect (governor), Rubén Costas, and the 
apprehension of Branko Marinkovich, an 
agro-industrial magnet who heads up the Santa 
Cruz Civic Committee comprised of large land owning and business interests.

Five hundred kilometers away in Cochabamba in 
central Bolivia negotiations are taking place 
between the Morales government and the 
opposition. Thousands of demonstrators occupy the 
city’s streets, serving notice that the country’s 
social movements will tolerate no concessions to 
the right wing. The “Dialogue,” facilitated by 
Jose Miguel Insulza, the president of the 
Organization of American States, is to resolve 
the issues that have brought the country to the 
precipice of civil war. “I want to sign a 
document that will allow for the pacification of 
the country 
 and guarantee a new political 
constitution for the state,” proclaims Morales.

But the opposition is raising procedural and 
substantive objections to the governments’ 
proposals, even to an autonomy accord that 
contains concessions for the rebellious 
departments. According to Fidel Surco, the head 
of the National Coordination for Change, the 
coalition of Bolivia’s social movements allied 
with MAS, the Movement Towards Socialism: “We 
aren’t going to wait any longer
we know that the 
prefects are simply stalling so that no accords 
are reached.” Morales, in a warning to those in 
attendance at the Dialogue, said: “I have a 
letter from the mobilized social movements, they 
also want to participate. As far as I am 
concerned they are welcome, we await their participation.”

Almost a month ago the National Democratic 
Council (Conalde)--the organization of the right 
wing prefects and politicians based in the 
rebellious departments in the “Media Luna” of 
eastern Bolivia--sparked this crisis by launching 
an offensive to seize complete control of their 
departments. They set up road blockades and 
violently took over government facilities, 
including customs offices, airports, the agrarian 
reform offices and the national hydrocarbons company.

Their protests initially focused on reversing the 
government’s decision last year to use a portion 
of the revenue from the hydrocarbon gas tax to 
create a universal pension for citizens over 
sixty. Now they have expanded to include complete 
departmental autonomy, the end of agrarian 
program and a gutting of the new constitution 
slated to be voted on in a referendum late this 
year. Control over the oil and gas resources, 
which for the most part are located in the Media 
Luna, is the fundamental objective of the autonomy movement.

The conflict came to a head on September 11 in 
the Media Luna department of Pando when peasants 
from the community of El Porvenir began marching 
to Cobija, the departmental capital, to protest 
the right-wing sacking of government offices. 
They were ambushed by a para-military force with 
machine guns, resulting in 15 dead, 37 injured 
and 106 disappeared. Morales responded by 
declaring a state of siege in the department, 
sending in the army to retake government offices, 
and throwing the Pando prefect, Leopoldo 
Fernandez, in jail after he admited to giving 
orders to forcefully subdue protesters. A new 
prefect, Navy Admiral Landelino Rafael Banderia 
Arce, was appointed by Morales to impose order as 
many of the right wing leaders fled across the border to Brazil.

The events in El Porvenir precipitated a national 
mobilization of the indigenous peoples and social 
movements as well as a sense of outrage in 
neighboring countries. Chilean president Michelle 
Bachelet called an emergency meeting of South 
American countries (UNASUR) in Santiago to 
discuss the Bolivia crisis. The “Declaration of 
La Moneda”, signed by the twelve UNASUR 
governments, denounced the atrocities committed 
in Pando and any attempt to undermine the central 
government and Bolivia’s territorial integrity.

Morales, thanking UNASUR for its support, 
declared: “For the first time in South America’s 
history, the countries of our region are deciding 
how to resolve our problems, without the presence 
of the United States.” On September 10, the day 
before the massacre, Morales had expelled US 
ambassador Phillip Goldberg from Bolivia for 
meddling in the country’s internal affairs and 
meeting with Ruben Costas and the autonomous leaders.

For his part, Morales has thus far shown 
tremendous restraint in cracking down on the 
right wing violence, almost too much in fact. He 
has drawn criticism from the social movements, 
particularly in peasant and indigenous 
working-class communities, such as the “Plan 
3,000” community adjacent to Santa Cruz, which 
has been living under constant threats from right 
wing racist groups like the Cruceño Youth Movement.

Although after the massacre, Conalde decided to 
lift the road blockades and relinquish some of 
the government offices (albeit with hundreds of 
thousands of dollars in damages), the political 
forces it represents retain effective control of 
the major urban areas of the Media Luna outside 
of Pando. This is why the peasant and indigenous 
movements are marching on Santa Cruz, to assert 
their rights and dignity throughout the Bolivian 
nation, with or without the support of Morales and the government.

Branko Marinkovich, for his part, is hitting the 
road in a “public relations campaign” to explain 
the autonomist cause. According to the newspaper 
La Razon, he is traveling to Argentina, Brazil, 
Chile and Paraguay to “denounce the acts of 
violence that were provoked by MAS in Pando and 
the government threats that loom over the 
negotiations underway in Cochabamba.” Following 
Marinkovich’s logic, the fifteen slain peasants 
are not only the authors of their own fate, but 
are to blame for all of the violence of the past 
month. Presumably, their very existence, let 
alone their demands for a share of the country’s 
resources, is provocation enough. By launching 
his South American tour, Marinkovich is also 
conveniently leaving the country before he can be 
apprehended for the damage and havoc of the past few weeks.

The marchers are isolating Santa Cruz as they set 
up fortified road blocks at strategic points 
while they continue to move on the city. Minister 
of Government Alfredo Rada expressed his support 
of the protesters, stating that they are merely 
reacting to the violence initiated by the Santa 
Cruz Civic Committee via the Cruceño Youth 
Movement. Likewise, Vice-President Alvaro Garcia 
Linera stated: “They have mobilized to defend the 
country and the integrity of our democracy.”

President Morales, on the other hand, seemed to 
be experiencing a spell of cold feet as he 
expressed his frustration with the actions of the 
social movements at a press conference in 
Cochabamba: “It frightens me because they say 
they will march until the prefect [Costas] 
resigns. I don’t agree with it, and it scares me.”

Nonetheless, the marchers are proceeding with 
their plan to descend on Santa Cruz. According to 
Joel Guarachi, the head of the National 
Confederation of Peasant Workers, some 600,000 
protesters are located throughout the fifteen 
Santa Cruz provinces. He declares the march and 
occupation of the city’s plaza will be peaceful.

Throughout the crisis, Morales has been avoiding 
the appearance of government oppression in favor 
of appeals for peaceful negotiation and the rule 
of law. But the social movements are demanding 
more, a social revolution that over turns the 
political and economic order in the Media Luna. 
And Morales may be moving with the tide. The day 
after he said that Costas should not be forced to 
resign, he recalled the siege of La Paz in 1781 
led by Tupac Katari, who demanded an end to 
Spanish oppression and the recognition of the 
basic rights of the Indian peoples and their 
communities. Now more than two centuries later 
the Indians and popular classes of Bolivia may 
finally be on the brink of realizing their aspirations.

Tanya M. Kerssen is a correspondent of the Center 
for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) in Bolivia, 
and a Masters candidate at the Center for Latin 
American Studies at the University of California, 
Berkeley. She was tear-gassed on Monday in the 
Yungas region as she marched in a demonstration 
to demand justice for those who fell in the 
Porvenir massacre. <mailto:tkerssen at berkeley.edu>tkerssen at berkeley.edu

Roger Burbach is Director of the Center for the 
Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, 
CA. He has written extensively on Latin America 
and is the author of 
“<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1842774352/counterpunchmaga>The 
Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice.”




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