Opposition strike in Bolivia reaches sixth day amidst threats from the government

By Mauricio Rios Garcia

The first approach between the Census Steering Committee 2023 and representatives of the Arce regime during the weekend failed due to the lack of political will of the latter to propose a clear and concrete plan to carry out the census.

Consequently, there should be a redistribution of public resources and seats in the Legislative given the general elections of 2025.

On Thursday, October 27, Santa Cruz begins the sixth day of a civic strike, and the conflicts throughout the country grow in number and intensity due to the government itself.

Suppose there is only one characteristic of the Santa Cruz initiative with the strike.

In that case, it is that it is carried out with the conviction of its citizens that the sacrifice it implies will allow them to achieve the objectives of the department and that it is carried out in an organized manner, designating specific days and schedules so that the citizens can stock up and resist for as long as necessary.

However, the Arce Catacora regime responded by complying with the threats of his ministers to use heavy machinery to unblock the city’s main avenues and to mobilize police forces massively to arrest opposition demonstrators.

To make matters worse, different pro-government sectors have also made good on their threats to surrounding the city of Santa Cruz and cut off the supply of industrial gas and other fuels to the main productive companies in the department.

In this regard, Fernando Hurtado, president of the Chamber of Industry, Services and Commerce of Santa Cruz (CAINCO), sent a harsh message on Wednesday afternoon in which he questioned the double standard attitude of the Arce Catacora regime.

Hurtado said, among other things, that “it is ironic that, on the one hand, the Government strongly questions the civic strike, and on the other hand, encourages its social organizations to surround Santa Cruz”.

He also added that the government seeks to aggravate the conflict and use the problem of the census as “a smokescreen to cover up the decline of the economic model and the loss of reserves and foreign currency”.

As Hurtado highlights and warns, the Arce regime has called for a summit on the census this Friday in Cochabamba, “a big meeting to analyze this issue”.

At the same time, the Bolivian president has decided to suspend the export of foodstuffs such as meat, soybeans, oil, and sugar “to guarantee the supply of the internal market and until the strike is lifted”.

He also encouraged the assembly members of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) in the Legislative to demand that a state of exception be established in the eastern region.

Of course, in addition to the fact that it already exacerbates the mood of conflict and growing confrontation in the country, the first impact of the desperate and irresponsible suspension of exports from Santa Cruz will fall on the national banking and financial sector.

The level of reserves of the Central Bank of Bolivia has been a cause for concern, at least since its most important component to respond to any eventuality; that is, foreign exchange reserves fell to only US$866 million at the end of August.

In the meantime, and far from showing a willingness to negotiate and understand, Rolando Cuellar, a pro-government congressman, recently stated that “in Santa Cruz, it is not possible to dialogue with foreigners who cowardly escaped from World War II, and now they have come to get into the Civic Committee.

“I am referring to Mr. Branko Marinkovic, Fernando Larach, Stello Cochamanidis”, and that “the Civic Committee has to be represented by true Santa Cruz citizens whose last names are Pinto, Cuellar, Rojas, Mercado, not foreigners who come to convulse the department”.

In the same way, Eber Rojas, executive of the Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB), assured this Wednesday afternoon that they would not allow discrimination of their affiliates and even affirmed that they will go to Santa Cruz to kill the governor of Santa Cruz Luis Fernando Camacho and the civic leader Rómulo Calvo.

Another CSUTCB leader, Omar Ramírez, also warned that they are preparing the “Túpac Katari” plan, which consists of “starting with 500,000 or 1 million peasant brothers to surround the department and give an exemplary punishment mainly to the Santa Cruz oligarchy by closing the companies that continue to function normally, and see if this does not hurt Mr. Camacho and Mr. Calvo so that there is a famine in Santa Cruz”.

The reactions of the civic leader and the governor of Santa Cruz were immediate. For his part, Rómulo Calvo said:

“I want to tell you, Mr. President, that you have strong people in Santa Cruz and strong people in Bolivia who are looking for better days and who will not rest or lower their guard until you react and think of the Bolivians and not think of a political party”.

In the same line, Camacho confirmed that he will not attend Arce’s convocation in Cochabamba “because it would be “endorsing a date in 2024” and called for a town meeting in the Villa Primero de Mayo to persuade the inter-institutional commission to make the same decision.

While the threats, responses, and taking of dangerous measures accumulate and intensify in a way that undoubtedly recalls the beginning of the conflicts over the fraud committed by Evo Morales at the end of 2019, this Thursday, the department of Tarija will also assume a departmental civic strike in support of carrying out the population and housing census in 2023, even though its leaders recognized that there is some fear among the citizenry that the atmosphere of tension experienced in Santa Cruz will be replicated.

Other mobilizations and pronouncements are also expected from different authorities and other leaders of the organized civil population in the rest of the country in support of Santa Cruz and in the expectation that Arce may or may not reaffirm his decision to carry out the census in 2024 or even later.

With information from Gaceta