A week of uprisings, street blockades, general strikes and conflict erupted on the height of the Bolivia's "gas war", finally forcing the president Sanchez de Losada to resign and to flee to Miami, Florida, US. Despite the army shooting protesters, leaving about a hundred dead and several hundred wounded, a wide coalition of miners, coca-farmers, highland peasants, indigenous, transport workers, teachers, pensioners, union members and many other sections of civil society, took to the streets to show their disagreement with the IMF enforced cheap sell-out of Bolivia's natural gas resources to the US. [Read a letter from Bolivia's capital La Paz]
This was the second major insurrection this year that took place in Bolivia. On February anothr revolt occured following tax rises, cuts in pensions and other neoliberal measures carried through on orders of the International Monetary Fond (IMF) Bolivia is not the only country in Latin America where clashes between social movements and governments have taken place; as cuts in the educational system (Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico), privatisation of state owned companies (Colombia), oppression of the indigenous population (Argentina, Chile, Colombia) and attacks on social projects and self-managed factories (Argentina) are repeatedly followed with protests, student riots and strikes, to which governments have reacted by enforcing repression and military style curfews.
To read the full feature containing background information, first hand reports, photos, timelines of events and daily updates of the week 13th - 19th of October, click on the "Read more" link below.
[For those who need the url: http://radio.uk1.indymedia.org/bolivia.pls or http://etherkiller.de/listen.pls]
Updates 18.10.03:
- Chronicle of the fall of the gringo Sanchez de Losada.
- Statement of Mujeres Creando
- Carlos Mesa, new prisoner of palace, by Econoticiasbolivia
Further Updates
See Updates and Recent Reports in the main feature.
Pictures:
- pics about La Paz [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
- Cochabamba [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
- other pics (Reuters/AP/TV): [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] 12
- Solidarity demonstrations in Buenos Aires | Berlin (report+picturesn in german) | Paris | Geneva.
- Map of Bolivia
Other sources:
- Zmag: Bolivias gas war
- ZNet: Bolivia watch
- Indymedia global [recent feature, past feature]
- Resource Centre of the Americas: [Roadblock continue, Five die in Altiplano protest]
- Archive on Nadir about Bolivia: [September, October]
- The Democracy Center On-Line: Bolivia in Crisis Over Gas Sale to California
More information [in Spanish]:
Updates 17.10.03: NEWSFLASH - President Resigns!
- President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada fleds to Miami. IMC-Bolivia reports (esp). Photos of Santa Cruz airport.
- Crowds are gathered around Bolivia's Congress awaiting the official resignation speech of the President as parliamentarians attempt to mantain formal "democracy".
- As of Friday, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada has resigned in a letter sent to the Bolivian Congress. [Reuters / Associated Press]
- A giant multitude have sieged the Presidential Palace throughout Thursday demanding Bolivia's President resignation as around a million people from all walks of life have joined on a national hunger strike until Sanchez de Lozada steps down. [Report]
Update 16.10.03
- 120.000 demonstrate in La Paz. ++ embassy in Ecuador occupied. ++ Repression against the press: newspapers are confiscated, a broadcasting antenna got destroyed, a TV channel silenced and journalists wounded.
Updates 15.10.03:
- Reports of conscript soldiers tortured and 15 of them executed for refusing to shoot on civilians. Report in Spanish.
- Almost all Bolivian social and political organisations are against the government and calling for strikes, blockades and mobilisations. The National Council of "Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyo" indigenous organisation has also called for a march on La Paz to lay siege to institutions to protest against the killings of indigenous people. They demand no less than the resignation of the President: Sanchez de Losada. Thousands of peasants and indigenous people are following this and other calls for action, circling the capital and blocking roads, mainly the main motorway between La Paz and El Alto.
- Cochabamba: fires in Prefectura (main police station) and some businesses.
- A journalist from Eriol Radio was shot in the back by the army this morning, he is still alive but in a critical condition. At the same time mass funerals are taking place in El Alto, of some of the 71 confirmed killed by security forces during the past few days.
- Reports of a general strike in La Paz, and the city being almost empty, whilst food shortages are beginning. The two only government buildings still operating are those of the Defense and Interior Ministries.
- Two more miners have been confirmed dead today and many injured during the violent clashes in Patacamaya.
- The co-ordination of Community Juntas are burying 15 people today in El Alto. A day of mourning without confrontations, as conflict moves to La Paz. There have been more than 60 people killed during the disturbances of the last few days. The Government has been accused of having already put aside money for compensation for deaths and injuries resulting from protests, before the beginning of mobilisations.
- The radio stream reports live as miners throw dynamite at police and army during violent clashes in Patacamaya (150 Km from La Paz) on the road from Oruro.
Updates 14.10.03:
- Latest update from IMC-Argentina.
- 3,000 are demonstrating in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in solidarity with the people in Bolivia.
- Miners announce the occupation of mining companies in the regions Oruro, which are owned by the president (source: ORF.at).
- Three ministers and the vice-president have withdrawn their support for president Goni.
- Thousands of people from Oruro march towards La Paz.
- After the massacre on Sunday in El Alto the main focus of the fights moved to La Paz, where the government is situated. Here again at least 20 deaths of the civilian population occurred. The whole country is revolting at the moment, and the government was forced to order further troops to La Paz.
- Already in the evening new units with 8 tanks and about 10 troop transporters have entered the city. At the same time tens of thousand of protesters started to march from Oruro and Achacachi to support the rioters in La Paz.
Recent reports:
- summary of Monday events
- Thousands of people force police retreat
- Smells like Insurrection
- Short improvised translation of the live radio stream
- No way to La Paz
- Sunday, 12th of October: 30 deaths in Bolivia according to Indymedia
- 25 killed in "War for Gas" on Sunday 13th of October, Bolivia
- map of the battle in El Alto
- translation of previous feature
Comments
Hide the following 9 comments
more fotolinks to events last weeks
15.10.2003 17:57
pls add this
How
16.10.2003 11:54
What was the Last straw?
Cat
e-mail:
nosfou@hotmail.com
Action Call against the Bolivian government
16.10.2003 15:45
We must support the Bolivian uprising in the same way as was done with the Zapatistas in 1994!
Massive internet campaigns and pressure on the Bolivian government and our own to stop the human rights abuses!!
Write to your governments, the Bolivian embassy, organise demonstrations and DIRECT ACTIONS etc.. whatever people feel is possible.
We must support the Bolivian uprising in the same way as was done with the Zapatistas in 1994!
Massive internet campaigns and pressure on the Bolivian government and our own to stop the human rights abuses!!
Write to your governments, the Bolivian embassy, organise demonstrations and DIRECT ACTIONS etc.. whatever people feel is possible.
We should also be making it very clear that any US involvement will be loudly opposed!
If we want a better world we have to work hard to make it.
These are the details of the Bolivian embassy in London, for letter-writing purposes etc.
I would be very much in favour of a solidarity demo too, although I have no time
personally to organise one. :(
Bolivian Embassy in London
106 Eaton Square, London SW1W 9AD.
Tel: (020) 7235 4248/2257
Fax: (020) 7235 1286
General email:
Ambassador's email:
Can someone in the know give out details of officials in Bolivia itself?
Cosmo
Reuters News Photo Gallery
16.10.2003 16:13
"Bolivian riot police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at rioting students after an anti-government demonstration turned violent, in the center of Cochabamba, October 15, 2003."
"A Bolivian student tries to burn a truck tire to block a street as riot police responded with tear gas after an anti-government demonstration turned violent, in the center of Cochabamba, October 15, 2003."
"Hundreds of Bolivians stand in line to buy bottled gas for cooking in front of Army barracks in La Paz, October 15, 2003. Bolivia's army fought to stop protesters from streaming into the paralyzed city, leaving two miners dead, as a popular uprising against the president spread."
"Cargo train wagons lie after being blown with dynamite off a railroad bridge on the main highway into La Paz, October 15, 2003."
LinkMichel
Homepage:
http://www.reuters.com/newsPhotoGallery.jhtml
Radio Netherlands Thursday, 16 October, 2003
16.10.2003 17:56
- listen to an interview with Dutch anthropologist Willem Assis, 3´14
LinkMichel
Homepage:
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/bol031016.html
Radio Netherlands Bolivia article link
16.10.2003 17:59
LinkMichel
Homepage:
http://www.rnw.nl/hotspots/html/bol031016.html
Democracy Now! Thursday, October 16th, 2003
16.10.2003 18:09
DemocracyNow.org
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LinkMichel
Not another revolution please
17.10.2003 20:02
Why do revolutions cause death? Because there exists a "bank of reason" in our culture, traditions, and ancient laws, that has been built upon by many generations and which we will add to ourselves. A distilled best practise of humanity.
IMC leftists have the affrontery to think that the small store of reason that exists in their heads is an adequate substitute for the bank of reason that has been built up over centuries by a whole society. It is not surprising that, when implemented on a revolutionary platform and thrust by main force upon the majority, these small stocks of reason are proven inadequate and lacking to the task of keeping a society stable and prosperous time and time again. The erasing of the bank of reason and the atheist attempt to build a new society, a "heaven on earth" invariably results in a great collapse of civilised values. Before you know it, you're being sent to the gulags or the reeducation camps or the concentration camps or whatnot, for the crime of not supporting the revolution. Its happened time and time again despite the "principles" of the left, and, as long as leftivism is allowed any space among the disadvantaged of the world, it will grow and prosper there and bring greater privations and mass murder than than we have yet seen. The ability of the left to prosper among the downtrodden is similar to the ability of the fascists to do the same; both depend on the support of the desperate, both depend on the idea of destroying civilised values and taking, by wholescale force and often slaughter, that which does not belong to you. Both depend on the demonisation of some small group responsible for all the ills of society. Indeed, if you substitute "jews" in the ravings of much fascist propaganda, for the word "capitalists", you end up with socialist propaganda. The actual policies have minimal difference; its who's to blame that counts. Bourgeoise for one, Jews for the other, and not one iota of proof or reason between them.
In the end, the problems that Bolivians have cannot and will not be solved by silly insurrections and revolutions. Those problems can only be solved by trying to stabilise the country and add to their bank of reason as much as possible. It is only through respecting the rights of others, enacting sound property laws. free speech, and tort and criminal law, with a limited and sovereign government, that Bolivia's problems can begin to be addressed. Insurrections, revolutions, and chaos only result in death, destruction, and a step in the direction of Stalin, Mao and Hitler. That is a path that I would hope to see you all avoid - but we can't expect the left to elarn from history, or else they would not be leftists, for they would feel too guilty.
bc
e-mail:
tinyp3a@yahoo.com
The Government And The State
19.10.2003 01:46
The mobilization of the masses is inspiring. But where will it go?
This massive uprising has brought down the government.
Yet it should be clear that any similar government would take the same policies - the more radical would simply delay a little before implementing neoliberal policies.
The true task is bringing down the state - ending both military and the media.
This is the only possibility which offers a different world.
Red Hughs
Red Hughs
Homepage:
http://www.webcom.com/maxang