La Paz Los Tiempos.- En un encendido discurso, el secretario ejecutivo de la Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (Csutcb), Felipe Quispe "El Mallku", anticipó que el bloqueo de caminos, que decidirá el IX Congreso Nacional Campesino, se prolongará por 90 días, y la "whipala ingresará al Palacio de Gobierno, para botar a los inquilinos".
El Mallku, hizo el anuncio del bloqueo ante 4.000 campesinos que participaron en el acto inaugural del IX Congreso de Campesinos que comenzó en el Coliseo Cerrado "Julio Borelli" de La Paz, donde además fue bastante explícito en sus intenciones de desestabilizar al actual gobierno.
En abril de 2000, Quispe lideró un bloqueo de caminos en la zona del altiplano paceño, y luego en septiembre del mismo año los campesinos paralizaron el tráfico vehicular en todo el occidente con el bloqueo de caminos, mientras en el trópico cochabambino, los cocaleros hacían lo mismo.
El líder campesino ahora pretende reeditar el bloqueo de caminos por el cumplimiento del convenio firmado con el gobierno el pasado 7 de octubre. Cuarenta y cinco de los 50 puntos se cumplieron, pero con relación a la sustitución de la Ley INRA no hay nada. Tampoco el Desarrollo Rural y respeto a la coca. En su criterio, el gobierno sólo resolvió los puntos en papeles.
Durante el bloqueo de caminos que se efectuó en septiembre y abril varios campesinos perdieron la vida a causa de las balas y en Achacachi, los campesinos lincharon a un militar.
Según anticipó Felipe Quispe el tercer bloqueo de caminos está preparado, los campesinos están listos con sus piedras a la vera del camino y comenzará el 1 de mayo próximo.
El comité ejecutivo de la Csutcb cesante, planteará al IX Congreso la estrategia de lucha que partirá desde el ayllu hasta las ciudades.
En esa estrategia, se plantean tres planes "tarajchi", "pulga" y "sikititi". Son tres métodos diferentes y "eso se conocerá en su momento", anunció Felipe Quispe. Será el Congreso campesino el que apruebe y será ejecutado por los nuevos dirigentes de la Csutcb, que serán elegidos el viernes próximo.
Quispe consideró que hasta el 1 de mayo terminará el trabajo de cosecha de los cultivos, por eso se habla de esa fecha.
"La tercera es la vencida" sostuvo Felipe Quispe al advertir que será un bloqueo de caminos y también de productos alimenticios. Recomendó a la población a reunir alimentos secos, porque el bloqueo demorará en levantarse hasta que el gobierno solucione todas las peticiones.
Al IX Congreso de Campesinos asisten siete federaciones departamentales de Campesinos. Sólo faltan Pando y Beni. Ayer más de 4.000 campesinos protagonizaron una marcha desde El Alto y llegaron al Coliseo para el acto inaugural.
Los dirigentes campesinos Alejo Véliz y Felipe Quispe esperan que en el IX Congreso Nacional de Campesinos, que comenzó ayer, se consiga la unidad del sector, al margen del dirigente cocalero Evo Morales y del que fue elegido en un frustrado congreso en Oruro, Humberto Choque.
El dirigente saliente de la Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (Csutcb), Felipe Quispe indicó que en el Congreso se efectuará un análisis profundo sobre la situación de la organización sindical y hay un fuerte criterio de lograr la unidad después de dos congresos sectoriales que terminaron en el fracaso.
Consideró que la división no se registra en las comunidades ni en las centrales o subcentrales.
Véliz, señaló que el encuentro sindical es importante y hay disposición de lograr que la Csutcb salga fortalecida.
Contrariamente a este criterio desde el camino, el otro secretario ejecutivo de la Csutcb, Humberto Choque, elegido en el congreso de Oruro, indicó que el congreso es organizado con gente afín de los partidos del oficialismo.
Dear Friends,
Please consider acting on (and passing on) the following urgent request which has been forwarded to us by the Council of Canadians and Eric Wesselius of the Corporate Europe Observatory, very reliable sources.
Brian Jenkins
StopMAI Coalition, Western Australia
WA Globalisation Forum
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WAGF
Citizens' Voice Network
http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/CV9.html
Website http://members.iinet.net.au/~jenks/fair.html
* * * * * *
From: (forwarded by) Steven Staples
Issue Campaigns Coordinator
The Council of Canadians
** Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida /
Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life, Cochabamba, Bolivia
* * YOUR FAXES NEEDED; SEE BELOW * * *
Close to 1,000 heavily armed members of Bolivian security forces dispersed peaceful marchers with tear gas, beating them, and confiscated their personal possessions around three p.m. today April 12.
Over 60 were illegally detained, and Minister of Government Guillermo Fortún announced that there was one arrest: unionist Oscar Olivera, a key leader of the movement to reverse water privatization by San Francisco-based Bechtel Corporation in Cochabamba in April 2000.
The march to La Paz, called the "March for Life and the Sovereignty of Our People", left Cochabamba 9 April, to demand attention to a series of demands, some of them unfilled promises from April of 2000. Led by Olivera and others, the march was made up of over 600 peasants, workers, coca growers, and others, organized in a coalition called the Comunal. Marchers not detained have vowed to continue towards La Paz.
Today, the fourth day of the March, the Bolivian government violently interrupted the march in the highland village of Pongo. Facing tear gassings and beatings, the marchers fled to the mountains, while some 60 to 70 others were detained.
At present (9:00pm) the whereabouts of the illegally detained marchers is still unknown.
Father Luis Sanchez of the Cochabamba chapter of the Bolivian Permanent Human Rights Assembly has denounced the government action as illegal, insisting that it was an "illegal forced transport" and "illegal detention" of marchers. He and other human rights observers are beginning to speak of Olivera and other illegally detained marchers as "disappeared." Minister of Government Guillermo Fortún claimed at 8:30pm tonight that the only marcher arrested is Olivera, on charges of subversion and attempted murder. The subversion charge is for comments made by Olivera that he would like to see President Banzer leave office before his term expires in 2002 - a widely shared sentiment in Bolivia.
The attempted murder charge stems from an incident yesterday, 11 April, when marchers happened upon plainclothes police monitoring the march. Lying, the police first identified themselves as journalists, then part of a human rights delegation. Their vacillation caused suspicion among the marchers, and a scuffle ensued.
According to eyewitnesses from various local media, Olivera intervened to put a stop to the scuffle. Marchers seized weapons, cellular phones, and a copy of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, which were turned over to human rights observers.
Today, Minister Fortún characterized Olivera as responsible for the scuffle, which is now being called a "massacre" of the police and "attempted murder." At the time of this writing the whereabouts of Olivera are unknown. Minister Fortún admits he is in government custody, but church leaders, human rights workers and press in Cochabmaba have been stonewalled by police and government officials, and Olivera has not been seen.
* * * ACTION REQUEST * * *
We are asking for letters and faxes to President Banzer of Bolivia, and Minister of Government Guillermo Fortún. EVEN IF OSCAR AND OTHER MARCHERS ARE RELEASED, IT IS IMPERATIVE THIS REPRESSION NOT GO UNCHALLENGED. Please adapt and send the following letter to the faxes noted below. [NB--an Australian consular address has been included. I have verified that the details are correct.--BJ]
----------
Dear President Banzer:
I am writing to express my concern and outrage regarding the treatment of the civilian marchers in the "March for Life and the Sovereignty of Our People", illegally detained 12 April, and among them Mr. Oscar Olivera. The manner in which they were detained and dispersed is both illegal and unconscionable. At present we understand that Mr. Olivera's and the marcher's whereabouts are unknown. We demand an immediate clarification, and guarantees for the safety and human rights of all the marchers and Mr. Olivera, and that Bolivian and international law be respected. We demand that all illegal detainees be immediately released. We denounce the obviously absurd charges against Mr. Olivera, contradicted by many press eyewitnesses. We expect such violations to cease immediately. We will be monitoring the situation closely.
Sincerely -----------
Please send faxes to: Presidente Hugo Banzer Suárez Palacio de Gobierno La Paz, Bolivia Fax: +591 2-391216
Min. de Gobierno Guillermo Fortún Ministerio de Gobierno Av. Arce No. 2409, esq. Belisario Salinas La Paz, Bolivia Fax: + 591 2-442589
In Canada: Embassy of Bolivia in Canada 130 Albert St., Suite 416 Ottawa, Ontario K1P5G4 Canada Tel.: (613)236-5730 Fax: (613)236-8237
In Australia, also address to:
Presidente Hugo Banzer, C/- Mr Antonio M Nava, Honorary Consul
Consulate of the Republic of Bolivia
Suite 1102 Level 11
4 Bridge Street
Sydney NSW 2000 Tel : (02) 9247 4235
Fax : (02) 9251 7741
* * * * * * *
Dear Readers:
Unfortunately, once again, I am writing to you from Bolivia in the midst of social and political crisis. However, once again, there is something simple that you can do to help. Ten days ago more than 1,000 workers, farmers, and other Bolivians set off from the country's major cities for a two week march to the nation's capital, La Paz. They did so to confront the government with a series of economic and political demands. Today, as this dramatic "March for Life" nears the capital, it is faced with the threat of armed and violent repression by the government, which has declared that it "will not permit" the marchers to arrive. Every day army units move in to arrest as many marchers as possible, often beating them while in custody.
Here's how you can help. If you can, send a fax to the office of the Bolivian President, with this simple message (or your own):
Sr. Presidente Hugo Banzer Suárez
The world is watching your government's violent repression of the "March for Life". If the government uses force to stop the marchers from arriving in La Paz, this will have grave consequences for the Bolivian government's image all over the world. We demand that you respect the right of the people to peacefully protest.
Your fax should be sent to (from the U.S.): 011-591-2-391-216
Thank you for your help.
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
In the next few days the heads of virtually every nation in the Americas will be meeting in Quebec, with the objective of advancing treaties to further implement the "unfettered free market" vision of a globalized economy. In my home state of California these past six months people have gotten a serious dose of how wrong blind faith in the free market can go, as deregulation of wholesale energy prices have skyrocketed bills, forced major utility companies into bankruptcy, sucked up state revenue, and shut out the lights with rolling blackouts.
Bolivians also know the price of this economic vision all too well. Under pressure from the World Bank and others, the Bolivian government has spent the past 15 years "privatizing" its major public enterprises into the eager hands of multinational corporations — the electric company, the phone company, the oil industry, the national airline, and more. Last year when the Bolivian government handed over Cochabamba's water system to a subsidiary of the Bechtel corporation, the people rebelled and won back their water company, which today is serving more people with more water at rates a half or a third of what Bechtel sought to collect.
On Monday, April 9, a broad coalition of Bolivian workers, farmers, students, and others left Cochabamba to begin a 240 mile long "March for Life" to the nation's capital of La Paz, to confront the Bolivian government with a list of ten demands that the government has refused to discuss in any other way. Among these demands are: legal protections to prevent government confiscation of people's lands; an end to attempts by the government to privatize water, education, and the health care system; a return to public hands of the companies sold off by the government; aid to victims of the floods that have swept through much of the country in the past few months; investigation of government corruption; and the right to traditional cultivation (not for cocaine production) of the coca leaf.
The last demand has recently been the most combative here. Under enormous pressure from the U.S., the Bolivian government has eradicated by force more than 90% of the coca leaf crop in the Chapare jungle, long a coca leaf source for the international cocaine market. Coca growing families charge that the government has done virtually nothing to create real alternatives and wants to protect that part of their crop that is for traditional use (chewing, medicines, etc.). While the U.S. Embassy touts ideas such as growing bananas for export, the roads in and out of the region are so poor that products rot before they can ever be brought to market. Conflicts between the army and coca farmers are getting more violent. Yesterday two soldiers were shot and wounded in the Chapare and human rights abuses against farmers by the military are common place.
As marchers left from cities and towns throughout the country, planning to converge in the capital next Monday (April 23), government officials belittled the protest, "Let them walk, let them get exercise," declared the Minister of Government, Guillermo Fortún. Behind the rhetoric, however, army units were rolling in to try to stop marchers in their tracks. Day after day soldiers have moved in to arrest as many marchers as possible, forcing them onto buses, often beating them, and shipping them back to Cochabamba.
One day last week, just before dawn, marchers discovered four undercover policeman in an unmarked car, equipped with surveillance equipment, loaded guns, and a copy of Adolph Hitler's "Mein Kampf". First the police said they were students, then reporters, then human rights workers. Angry protesters started to punch the police, an altercation broken up by labor leader Oscar Olivera, who also led last year's protests against Bechtel. Government agents then swooped in and arrested Olivera, charging him with attempted murder (for the protestors' punching of the police) and sedition (for statements he had made earlier saying that the President Hugo Banzer should resign). When released hours later, Olivera returned to the march.
Human rights officials, the Catholic Church and the nation's Public Advocate have all called on the government to talk with protest leaders, rather than using government troops to stop the march. Edwin Claros, vice-president of the Cochabamba Assembly on Human Rights warns that the government has a long pattern of "protest, violence and death, and only then dialogue." In a meeting last week with human rights and church officials, Government Minister Fortún reportedly refused any such dialogue and announced that in an hour the army would break up the march."
By the time soldiers arrived, with a helicopter and enough caged trucks to arrest 900 marchers, all they found were a few human rights workers, reporters and mothers with infants. The marchers, having received advance word, scattered off into the country side. Accounts of the government's failed efforts to stop the march are the lead story here every day, with reporters now referring to the steady progression toward the capital as, "the invisible march."
"In reality, what the government is doing is acting like it is fighting a war against guerillas," said Olivera in a interview by cell phone from the march. "The people have a right to peacefully march to the capital to make demands of their government." With marchers now just 90 miles away from the capital, the government seems to be getting more tense, amidst much public speculation that it will use all the force required to block marchers' entrance into La Paz this weekend, perhaps even a declaration of a state of emergency, essentially a suspension of constitutional rights. The government has already prohibited all public protest in La Paz and on Tuesday arrested and beat a 28 year old human rights monitor at the march site, even though he had a formal Assembly on Human Rights credential and was marching under a white flag.
If the army does use violence to block the march's entrance to La Paz, march leaders have threatened to mobilize protests, include highway blockades nationwide. "We don't want to blockade the roads, that hurts everyone and that is only a last resort," explained Olivera. "Everything depends on the willingness of the government to talk and look for solutions to the ten points we have raised."
When Bolivian President Hugo Banzer, the country's dictator from 1971-78, left last Tuesday for the Americas Summit in Quebec he made it clear that he was not willing to consider major changes in the policy of privatization, "That I can not do." If march leaders do resort to highway blockades, he also left clear orders in place, "they will be repressed," which here means forceful military action and suspension of civil rights. As Banzer made his declaration before leaving for Canada, the U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia, Manuel Rocha, sat silently in a line of government ministers gathered to bid farewell. As one local paper reported, "strangely... as if he were one of them."
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Friends,
It seems that I have been recycling an outdated alert yesterday.
Through Ruth Caplan (Alliance for Democracy), David Boys (Public Services International) and Larry Weiss (Resource Centre of the Americas) I got news that Oscar Olivera and the other detainees have been released on Good Friday.
Erik Wesselius
Corporate Europe Observatory / Transnational Institute
Subject: Good news-Olivera's release
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 18:22:29 +0200
From: Ruth Caplan
I have just received the good news that Oscar Olivera has been released.
Details follow.
Ruth Caplan, Alliance for Democacy
Posted-Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2001 10:34:33 -0400
This welcome news means that urgent action on yesterday's alert is no longer required. But the march to La Paz continues, with new determination and heightened tensions around the nation. Please watch for news on the Bolivian struggle in the days to come - 50 Years Is Enough Network
At approximately 2:00 am this morning, Bolivian security forces released marchers that were illegally detained in Pongo yesterday afternoon. Forces left marchers along the highway between La Paz and Cochabamba, the majority in Sacabambilla, 50 miles from Cochabamba.
Bolivian government officials stated that there were no charges against the marchers. Last night the Minister of Government justified Olivera's detention, saying that there was a warrant for his arrest for subversion and attempted murder for the beating of four police intelligence officers by marchers. This appears to be untrue.
Oscar Olivera stated to the press that security forces continued to hit and insult marchers on the bus as they travelled toward Cochabamba. Members of the Cochabamba Permanent Human Rights Assembly continue working to confirm that all marchers that were detained are accounted for.
The remaining columns continue marching toward La Paz. Other social sectors have announced their participation. These violent, illegal detentions have greatly heightened tensions throughout the nation. It is crucial that the government initiate a dialogue with marchers to avoid further violence.
For more information please contact the Andean Information Network: paz(a)albatros.cnb.net, kledebur(a)albatros.cnb.net
Dear Friends,
Translation in English at the end! - Pls make a large diffussion!
SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE OF BOLIVIAN PEASANTS AND WORKERS - PLEASE SEND LETTERS TO THE GOVT.
Nos solidarizamos con la Marcha por la Vida y la Soberania de los Pueblos y condenamos la grave represión de que es objeto.
Senores:
MANIFESTAMOS :
Apoyamos y nos solidarizamos con la Marcha de la Dignidad y de la Soberania del Pueblo Boliviano, la derogatoria del decreto 21060 que abrio las puertas al neoliberalismo, del decreto 1008 que prohibe el cultivo tradicional de la hoja de coca, asi como contra la aplicacion de las políticas anti-populares.
Desde el exterior manifestamos nuestra preocupacion por los acontecimientos que se van agravando cada vez mas y condenamos los niveles de represión y de los hechos que violentan los fundamentales derechos humanos de los campesinos, trabajadores y de toda la población boliviana en general.
Pedimos se permita la inmediata intervención de la Cruz Roja Internacional, Organismos de Derechos Humanos para poder garantizar la vida de los manifestantes.
Solicitamos a Ud.(s) parar de manera inmediata la represión en contra de la población civil y propiciar asi un ambiente de diálogo franco y directo.
Atentamente,
nombre :
Nota : Envía esta carta a las siguientes direcciones.
United Nations - Kofi Annan Secretary General
United Nations
Room S-3800
New York-NY 10017
e-mail : eau@un.org
Presidente de la Republica de Bolivia,
Hugo Banzer Zuares
La Paz-Bolivia
Fax : 591-2391 216
Ministerio de Justicia
Sr. Juan Chain Lupo
Casilla 6966
La Paz-Bolivia
e.mail : minjust@caoba.entelnet.bo
Ministerio de Defensa
Pedro Salazar, La Paz-Bolivia, Nº676
Tel. Y Fax : 591-2-422589
e-mail : UDAPDE@mindef.gov.bo
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
e-mail : mreuno@rree.gov.bo
We express our solidarity with the People's March for Life and Sovereignty and condemn the repression of the Bolivian peasants and workers.
Sirs:
WE DECLARE :
We support and solidarize with the March for Life and Sovereignty of the Bolivian People, the abolition of decree 21060 which opened the doors to neoliberalism, the decree No. 1008 which prohibits the traditional cultures of coca leaf, as well as against all anti-popular measures.
People from all countries of the world outside Bolivia, we declare our concern regarding the way in which Bolivian population is living, a situation which is worsening everyday, we also condemn the high levels of repression, as well as all facts which violate the fondamental human rights of peasants, workers and all the people as a whole.
We ask the inmediate intervention of the International Red Cross and Human Rights Organizations in order to protect the life of peasants and workers who are marching peacefully.
We demand that you respect the right of the people to peacefully protest and to stop immediately all repression against civil population.
Sincerely,
Un gran despliegue de tropas militares acecha a los caminantes de la Comunal La marcha se atomiza para burlar una nueva intervención
Caracollo no fue escenario ni de diálogo ni de intervenciones. Sin embargo, la amenaza de que la tercera intervención militar y policial estaba cerca obligó ayer a los marchistas dirigidos por la Coordinadora de Movilizaciones Única Nacional (Comunal) a optar por la estrategia de la "atomización": se dividieron en más de cien grupos que tomaron diversas rutas de herradura para conseguir su objetivo de llegar a La Paz.
Mientras varios helicópteros, "que sobrevolaban como moscas", rompían la tranquilidad de los marchistas, 17 vehículos, otra decena de camiones "caimanes", buscaban a los marchistas por las carreteras en un claro tercer operativo frustrado, informó desde las serranías a Los Tiempos el dirigente Óscar Olivera.
Eran las 16.30 cuando los caminantes, que después de mediodía habían salido de Caracollo, se enteraron de la determinación del operativo, por lo que los dirigentes acordaron dispersar a los -según los dirigentes- 1.500 integrantes del movimiento en más de cien grupos que se desplazaron por varias rutas de herradura a la izquierda y derecha de la carretera. "Compañeros, nos vemos el 22 en Achica Arriba", fue la instrucción del dirigente cocalero Evo Morales momentos antes de separarse cuando ya habían recorrido más de 20 kilómetros.
Morales, sin embargo, siguió avanzando por la carretera junto con 14 mujeres cocaleras y una comisión de la Asamblea Permanente de Derechos Humanos, la Iglesia Católica y los sindicatos de la Prensa de Oruro y Cochabamba, quienes portaban banderas blancas en son de paz.
Media hora antes, según da cuenta el enviado especial de La Prensa, el prefecto de Orur, Carlos Börth, había llamado al celular de Morales para pedirle un par de horas de espera a fin de que una comisión de gobierno dialogue con ellos, pero Evo no aceptó. Había intuido la trampa.
A las seis de la tarde, los marchistas descansaron en distintos puntos en zonas aledañas a las poblaciones de Sica Sica y Vila Vila, a 57 kilómetros de Oruro.
Pretenden llegar a Konani, a 97 kilómetros de Oruro. Masificación y radicalización Paulatinamente, la marcha dirigida por la Comunal se fue masificando.
Primero fueron las 150 personas conducidas por el dirigente campesino Moisés Tórrez, que llegaron cerca de las 11 de la mañana a Caracollo. Después se integraron algunos universitarios de Cochabamba, y se espera que ocurra lo mismo con los de La Paz. Para hoy se aguarda la llegada de campesinos de Oruro y Potosí, y pasado mañana podrían integrarse los indígenas del oriente boliviano después de su ampliado de mañana.
Lo que sí cambió es el discurso de los marchistas, que ya no sólo exigen la reivindicación de la hoja de coca o la atención al Pliego Petitorio de la Central Obrera Boliviana (COB). Durante la última jornada cobró mucho vigor el clamor de pedir el acortamiento del mandato presidencial.
Al grito de "kausachun coca" (que viva la coca) de Morales, se sumaron arengas de "abajo el gobierno incapaz", "wañuchun (que mueran) los corruptos del gobierno". Algunos trabajadores de base que prefirieron no identificarse dijeron que Banzer no tiene capacidad para gobernar.
Abusos militares a la prensa Los efectivos militares incautaron vehículos y cometieron excesos contra periodistas de la prensa nacional e internacional la tarde de ayer. Un oficial no identificado incautó con prepotencia un vehículo donde encontraban periodistas de agencias internacionales Reuters, France Press y Associated Press, y nacionales como Jatha, y lo abandonó a 500 metros de la localidad de Konani.