“Life is the supreme value and while I am president I will do everything in my power, without compromising my principles, so that the people’s blood is not spilled. And with this foundation, we promulgate this law listening to the people,” said Luis Arce in a conference broadcast by the state channel Bolivia TV.
In his address, the president reviewed the negotiation between representatives of Santa Cruz and the Government, and the economic damage of the protests in that province, which he estimated at US$1.2 million due to the strike.
On November 29, the norm was debated in the Senate for more than five hours and approved with 21 votes in favor out of a total of 36.
Previously, on November 19 it was approved in the Chamber of Deputies, which allowed lifting the work stoppage in the department of Santa Cruz (east), which by then had been going on for 36 days.
“The law that was approved in Congress is not from the right, it was raised by the left, and it does not violate powers. It is a law for the application of census results,” he pointed out.
The results of the census will allow a redistribution of economic resources and parliamentary seats, which is currently done with data from the last census, carried out in 2012.
Santa Cruz, the economic and industrial capital of the country, is a bastion of political opposition to the Government.
The Population and Housing Census, established in the Bolivian Constitution to be carried out every ten years, was initially scheduled for November 16, 2022, but was postponed for technical reasons until 2024, which generated the conflict.
With information from Sputnik