Opposition in Bolivia threatens to go on a new general strike

Opposition groups in Bolivia have announced new general strikes, and even nationwide hunger strikes starting next Monday if the Government does not resolve the demands of the authorities of Santa Cruz, who demand the repeal of the decree that sets the new census for 2024.

Thus, civic committees from all over the country, the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Conade), opposition deputies, and other citizen platforms have united in demanding that the census be carried out in 2023, setting a new 72-hour strike starting this Monday, reports the newspaper ‘El Deber’.

“We are taking these drastic measures because the government has dragged us into this. The census is a necessity that we are all asking for to be carried out in 2023″, has insisted the president of the Civic Committee of Tarija, Adrián Ávila.

The Conade has gone a little further and has reported that since Thursday, some of its members have begun an indefinite hunger strike as a prison measure and that they are preparing a lawsuit against the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, and other authorities for violation of laws and excessive use of force.

Several citizens and opposition platforms to Arce have come out this week to protest in the streets all over the country in solidarity with the department of Santa Cruz, which this Friday celebrates two weeks of the general strike and generalized strikes to demand that the population census be carried out next year.

The protests against the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) regime are once again having as epicenter the department of Santa Cruz, traditionally one of the bastions of opposition since Evo Morales took over the reins of Bolivia more than fifteen years ago.

Its leaders, especially the governor, Luis Fernando Camacho, have demanded that the census be held as originally planned for the first semester of 2023 and have not taken as good the explanations of the Government about the technical impossibility of carrying it out due to the consequences of the pandemic.