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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach09232008.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/burbach09232008.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Verdana" size=2>September 23, 2008 <br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>Social and
Indigenous Movements March on Santa Cruz <br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Bolivia's Popular Upheaval
</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4>By TANYA M.
KERSSEN and ROGER BURBACH <br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">A</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2> 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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<b>Tanya M. Kerssen</b> 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.
<a href="mailto:tkerssen@berkeley.edu">tkerssen@berkeley.edu</a><br><br>
<b>Roger Burbach</b> 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
“<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1842774352/counterpunchmaga">
The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice.</a>”<br><br>
<br><br>
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