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</font><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Bolivian Free Territory of Chapare Ousted the Coup Regime, Braces for Bloody Re-invasion</h1>December 25, 2019</div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-line-height4 gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><p>By Ollie Vargas</p><p><strong>Spending
time with the union members of Chapare, who run society in a collective
fashion, offers special insights into the resistance to the coup. They
succeeded in expelling the police, but now fear a bloodbath in
retaliation.</strong></p><p>Cochabamba, Bolivia — Known as Bolivia’s
Chapare region, the Tropico of Cochabamba is a sanctuary for elected
President Evo Morales’ most dedicated base of support. Since the
November 10 coup, it has effectively become a self-governing territory
where the military junta is absent.</p><p>The police and military fled
the area as the coup began and were told they would only be welcomed
back if the they “get on their knees and apologize” to the community.</p><p>Chapare
is a 12,000 square kilometer swath of land where hundreds of unions
have flourished. Spending time with those union members, who run society
in a collective fashion, offers special insights into the resistance to
the coup.</p><p>Despite the resilience on display here, there is also a
sense of dread. Union leaders have told me that if the state decides to
militarize the region, as it has signaled, then only a bloodbath could
break the strength of the community.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://orinocotribune.com/bolivia-privatization-has-only-ever-caused-poverty/">RELATED CONTENT: Bolivia: “Privatization Has Only Ever Caused Poverty”</a></p><p>Chapare
has always had a high degree of self-governance, owing to the needs of
the community. When the neoliberal Bolivian governments of the 1980s
closed down a large number of state mines in Potosi and Oruro, many
rural workers “relocalized” to this tropical region to grow coca and
other crops.</p><p>The presence of former miners, who had been part of
the revolutionary struggles of Bolivia’s miners union, brought a
proletarian tradition that fused with the indigenous politics of
campesino communities.</p><p><img alt="Bolivian Free Territory of Chapare Ousted the Coup Regime, Braces for Bloody Re-invasion" src="https://i1.wp.com/orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/screen-shot-2019-12-24-at-10444205240.png?resize=768%2C589&ssl=1" width="768" height="589"></p><p><em>A </em><span><em>Chapare union named Llallagua after one of the largest former mining towns in North Potosi.</em></span></p><p>The
relocalization was far from a smooth process. The US was stepping up
its so-called war on drugs at the time, using it as a pretext to
intervene militarily in Latin America. The DEA teamed up with the
Bolivian military to declare war on the campesinos, and attempt to
eradicate coca.</p><p>The commanders in that effort were DEA agents;
Bolivian troops served as foot soldiers at their disposal.The DEA was
given so much power it could determine who could enter and exit the
area.</p><p>It was during the struggles against the presence of the US
that Evo Morales rose to the top of the union structures in Chapare.And
in facing down the DEA and the Bolivian military, an extraordinary level
of organization was developed.</p><p>Today, there are six union
federations in the region, and within each federation there are about 30
“centrals.” Within each central there are about 10 unions, each of
which has between 100,000 and 200,000 members. The total number of
unions in Chapare numbers somewhere in the hundreds.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://orinocotribune.com/how-a-mass-bot-network-is-pushing-the-coup-in-bolivia/">RELATED CONTENT: How a Mass Bot Network is Pushing the Coup in Bolivia</a></p><p>Due
to the weak presence of the state, the unions organize most aspects of
daily life in the area. They establish plans for infrastructure
projects, manage land and social disputes in the community, set up local
media outlets, and, of course, organize the campesinos’ political
activities.</p><p>Since Evo Morales’ 2006 land reform effort, the land
has been owned by those who work it, with each union member controlling
their parcel of land with no landlord.</p><p>The unions won’t give up these victories easily.</p><p><strong>Taking on the Coup</strong></p><p>Since the coup, that union-based resistance of Chapare has taken on the role of policing.</p><p>On
November 10, as it became clear that the coup had overwhelmed Evo’s
elected government,the police preemptively fled the area, escaping to
the nearby city of Cochabamba.</p><p>Coup officials knew that social
organization was so solid in Chapare that they would never be able to
contain the resistance. And they were right. After the coup took hold,
almost every police station in the region came under attack from the
local population.</p><p>Israel, a local journalist at Radio Kawsachun
Coca, a union-run station, explained, “The people were so enraged, no
one could stop them.”</p><p>Israel was echoed shortly after by Senobio
Carlos, the mayor of Puerto Villaroel. “We never told the police and
military to leave, they fled,” Carlos said. “In fact, there was one
military base where soldiers hadn’t managed to leave before protesters
had blocked off all exits. I personally went there and told them that I
would guarantee their safety if they join the community and don’t turn
their guns on us.”</p><p>Carlos said he was branded a traitor by his own
community for attempting to negotiate with the soldiers, who were
whimpering for mercy.</p><p>Since then, the community’s position has
hardened, union leaders now say that the police are entirely
unnecessary, and can only return if they get on their knees and ask for
forgiveness.</p><p>With the coup’s security forces expelled from the
area, the unions established the ‘union police’, under the command of
community. I met them while they were standing guard at a union meeting,
and found them unarmed other than a few sticks. They drawn from and
fully accountable to the community.</p><p><img alt="Bolivian Free Territory of Chapare Ousted the Coup Regime, Braces for Bloody Re-invasion" src="https://i1.wp.com/orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/screen-shot-2019-12-24-at-101802084148.png?resize=768%2C588&ssl=1" width="768" height="588"></p><p><em>The Union police</em></p><p>Everyone
I spoke to in the Chapare appeared content without the state’s police
in the area. One council member, Limbert, from the local town of
Ivirgarzama, said, “We’re even safer now without the police, they used
to charge truck drivers illegal tolls, they’d ambush people who were
walking home at night and steal their phones. Now we don’t have that,
anyone can walk around safely in the Tropic.”</p><p>Still, a couple of
military bases that have remained intact. Inside, local teenagers are
performing their military service. As the coup unfolded, a local
journalist named Sabina told me how the parents of those young men
flooded towards the military base and pleaded with their children not to
side with the coup. Since then, troops have been ‘active’, but have
agreed to only stay within their base. All other military units have
fled.</p><p><strong>Massacre Ahead?</strong></p><p>Though the police
haven’t been able to re-enter the region, the coup government has tried
to punish the residents of Chapare for expelling them. They have cut off
all services to the public bank, Banco Union, which across most of this
region is the only national bank with ATM’s.</p><p>What’s more, the
coup’s interior minister Arturo Murillo, whose nickname is ‘El Bolas’
(‘the one with balls’, in reference to his macho posturing and violent
attitude) has threatened all of Chapare with the denial of the right to
vote in any upcoming elections – unless they allow the police to
reenter.</p><p><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://orinocotribune.com/ue-condemns-coup-in-bolivia/">RELATED CONTENT: UE Condemns Coup in Bolivia</a></p><p>Murillo’s
police have since announced that they are preparing to ‘enter, jointly
with the armed forces, into the Tropic of Cochabamba, in order to
establish the rule of law in this area.” They haven’t yet explained
exactly how, because the only possible way is by military invasion and
occupation.</p><p>“The police can’t come back, people won’t accept it,”
said Segundina Orellana. When I asked her what could be done to combat a
potential invasion, she said that the region would rise up, and hoped
that it would push the rest of the country to do so as well.</p><p>It’s
not hard to see why the community won’t countenance the return of the
police. On the 15th of November, union members from this region were
marching towards the city of Cochabamba, and were shot at by officers,
some from helicopters. Nine were killed that day in the Sacaba massacre.</p><p><strong>The Bolivian media’s information war intensifies</strong></p><p>Chapare
is one of the most demonized regions of the country. Mainstream
Bolivian media routinely portrays its population as a collection of
narco-terrorists, pumping out evidence-free claims that the FARC is
controlling protests.</p><p>The reality is entirely the opposite, as the
production of coca has actually been reduced under Evo’s rule, while it
has skyrocketed in US allies like Peru and Colombia. The unions
themselves play a role in ensuring that production is controlled and
destined for traditional use. In fact, most so-called “cocaleros” also
produce fruits, rice, cheese and other agricultural products.</p><p>Though
their community benefited from the flood of public infrastructure
projects and investments in public services under Evo, but that’s all
gone now. Yet they’re still here, as determined as ever in their
commitment to the MAS.</p><p>Nor is anyone here acting under obligation
from union leaders, as is alleged by mainstream media and Western-backed
pro-regime change NGO’s. In fact, the members are usually more radical
that their bosses. I went to numerous union meetings with a federation
leader named Julian Cruz, and watched as he was forced by his
rank-and-file to explain why he wasn’t a traitor for negotiating a peace
deal with the coup government.</p><p>The participatory nature of this
movement is remarkable. Julian explained to me how he has to attend
every single meeting of every union central within his federation, and
that if he doesn’t, union members members will take him out to the
jungle and “tie me to a tree for 24 hours” as a punishment for lack of
transparency. Not many unions in the US or North America can count on
that level of grassroots engagement.</p><p>Watching the media’s campaign
against the campesinos from Chapare, it feels like the demonization is a
prelude to bloodshed. Coverage of the Sacaba massacre was instructive,
as the national media falsely framed the killing as “crossfire”. Coup
supporters point to the one-sided coverage as proof that there was no
massacre, but rather an armed clash with narco-terrorist cocaleros.</p><p>Nevermind the lack of evidence that the protesters were unarmed, and that not a single police officer died.</p><p>“The
media say we’re armed terrorists, but in reality we haven’t got
anything to defend ourselves with if the military does attack,” a young
campesino named Eleuterio Zurita who has offered protection for
journalists told me. “The point of an attack would be to break the union
organization we’ve got here, so I hope the world can support us and
show the truth.”</p><p>The self-governing nature of Chapare has arisen
out of the practical need for sustenance and self-defense, not a
devotion to anarchistic ideology. All the unions here are currently
holding emergency meetings, not to discuss the administration of local
affairs, but to lay out a strategy about how to confront the coup
nationally, and thereby take back state power.</p><p>At every meeting I
have attended, union members have passed a resolution committing to
contributing grassroots donations for the MAS campaign, not to be used
here, but instead by MAS chapters in other parts of the country where
the party isn’t as strong. This is how MAS has thrived from its earliest
phases, so it would be difficult to imagine the party putting forward a
ticket without a representative of this organizing tradition.</p><p>The
coming days and weeks will determine whether this radical space of
resistance will be drowned in blood by the Bolivian junta. If it
survives, it will be the base from which the left resurrects its
national project.</p><p><img alt="Bolivian Free Territory of Chapare Ousted the Coup Regime, Braces for Bloody Re-invasion" src="https://i0.wp.com/orinocotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/screen-shot-2019-12-24-at-10720107880.png?resize=768%2C576&ssl=1" width="768" height="576"></p><div><p></p></div></div></div></div>
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