>Bolivia
>Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2000 17:24:48 -0700 (PDT)

I've posted several reports about the Bolivia situation since yesterday, 
This is the most recent AP report - it's about 4 hrs old.

I'm posting this one because - although it's fairly detailed and it 
refers to high prices for water- it fails to refer to the effect of 
neolib economic policies in causing public dissatisfaction. You'll 
notice that the AP sez that the economic crisis is blamed in part "on 
the government's war on cocaine trafficking".

Of course the facts are not simple.

 But I've posted one report from last Friday to the effect that church 
leaders had persuaded the international water company -[ a consortium 
led by London- based International Water Limited (IWL), IWL is jointly 
owned by Italian utility Edison and U.S. company Bechtel Enterprise 
Holdings.] - to withdraw from the contract - by which the investors 
are allowed to hold 50% of the stock AND take over management, in 
rweturn for a promise to put an equal amount of money into capital 
improvements.

Also that after declaring martial law the Bolivian government annonced 
it would not allow the IWL to break the contract.

Also notice that in Cochabamba, which is where the water supply has 
been (is being) privatized the government kept control of the city's 
radio stations to prevent independent reporting.

But above all notice how reliable AP turns out to be - in the service 
of privgatization, globalization and Bechtel!!

Cheers
Michael

======
   Apr 9, 2000 - 03:25 PM

   Striking Police Clash With Soldiers, Coca Farmers Protest as Tensions
   Remain High in Bolivia
   By Peter McFarren
   Associated Press Writer

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) - Police walked off the job in the country's two 
largest cities and Indian farmers amassed outside the third-largest
 Sunday, protesting, among other things, the government's destruction of 
the once-thriving cocaine industry and high water prices.

By late afternoon, most of the tension was limited to the central city 
of Cochabamba, where the wave of anti-government protests began a week 
ago.
Thousands of farmers angry over the government's handling of Bolivia's 
economic slump gathered on the outskirts of the city and thousands more 
rallied in the main square.

A commission headed by Vice President Jorge Quiroga was en route to 
Cochabamba to try and negotiate an end to the conflict that has paralyzed 
the city for a week, said government spokesman Ronnie MacLean.

The other hotspot was the Andean foothill town of Achacachi, in the west, 
where five people were killed in clashes between protesting Indian 
farmers and soldiers who tried to remove their roadblocks. Two farmers, 
two soldiers and a police officer were killed Sunday, said MacLean. Eight 
people total have died in political violence over the weekend.

Police were at the center of the conflicts for part of the day, with 
hundreds of officers in the capital of La Paz and in Santa Cruz, the 
country's second-largest city, taking over their own headquarters and 
jails and demanding a 50 percent increase in pay. The strike turned 
violent in La Paz, with police firing tear gas at soldiers, who fired 
their automatic weapons into the air.

In both cities the strikes were over in hours with the police winning 
their salary increases.

No violence was reported in Santa Cruz, but the army was called in to 
control the streets of that eastern city.

The streets in Cochabamba were quiet Sunday morning following a day of 
tear gas, rubber bullets and the government suspending many 
constitutional guarantees. But by early afternoon Sunday, thousands of 
protesters had gathered in and outside the city.

Anticipating a serious confrontation, the government flew in soldiers 
from other parts of the country.

The escalation in anti-government action was unexpected and reflected 
Bolivians' disgust over rising water rates, unemployment and other 
economic difficulties plaguing this nation in the heart of South America. 
The economic crisis was blamed in part on the government's war on cocaine 
trafficking.

The destruction of more than half of the country's coca leaf production 
has left thousands of Quechua and Aymara Indian farmers without a 
livelihood and depressed the economy in regions where cocaine 
trafficking once thrived.

Leaders of the coca farmers helped organize the protests that have 
paralyzed Cochabamba since last Monday.

Under emergency provisions, the government is allowed to arrest and 
confine protest leaders without a warrant, impose restrictions on travel 
and political activity and establish a curfew. In Cochabamba, they kept 
control of the city's radio stations to prevent independent reporting.

Calm prevailed in much of the country, in most smaller cities and the 
countryside as military patrols in combat gear remained on most rural 
roads, allowing buses and trucks to circulate and carry food to many 
cities where shortages were already being felt.

An exception was Achacachi, where Indian farmers pitched rocks at 
soldiers who tried to remove their roadblocks. Farmers had been blocking 
roads all over Bolivia last week, but most had been peacefully removed 
by the weekend.
The farmers there took over and ransacked government buildings as troop 
reinforcements were sent in Sunday afternoon to try to control the
violence.

The state of siege called by President Hugo Banzer Saturday was the 
seventh time that such an emergency has been imposed since democracy 
returned to Bolivia in 1982. Typically, however, quiet returns within a 
day.


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