Coca Growers Blockades Paralyze Regions of Bolivia

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The unrest that has expressed itself in the conflicts in Venezuela and the
elections in Brazil and Ecuador -- Ecuador is a country that is already far
more socially and politically polarized than Venezuela was at the time
Chavez took office, and that's saying something -- was also expressed in the
elections in  Bolivia.

The party of Evo Morales, based primarily among the indigenous peasantry
that survives by producing coca, won big gains and made a major challenge
for the presidency.  Now, the Indian-American peasants have again risen up
against a renewed U.S. drive to suppress their livelihood and ultimately
strip them of their land and force ever more of them into the
ever-multiplying slums of the cities in the name of the mythical U.S."war on
drugs" and the equsally mythical "free market."  Washington is counting on
the Bolivian government to draw a line against the mounting fight of the
working people in Latin American for real democratic gains and against
imperialist domination.
Fred Feldman

The Narco News Bulletin January 19, 2003 | Issue #27

Fighting for Life
Bolivia's Coca Growers Lead a New MobilizationBy Luis Gómez
Narco News Andean Bureau Chief
January 15, 2003

He's dead. They shot him and he hasn't arrived at any hospital. He was
barely 18 years old and the Army shot against his people. A bullet
penetrated his body. The young farmer Rómulo González Teran has become the
first victim of the Bolivian government's repression.

In the heart of the Bolivian High Plains, in Cayarani, a small corner of
Aymara lands, Rómulo was participating in a blockade when the soldiers shot
him. "This is a criminal attitude," Congressman Evo Morales told Narco News.
"The government, instead of solving social problems, turns to its military
and police forces to hide its incapacity to govern.

Yesterday afternoon, kind readers, this armed troop that, according to the
government of President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, was ready "to stop the
blockades and disperse the people with rubber bullets," has broken the jaw
of coca growers leader Estaban García, 45. At approximately 3:30 p.m., in
the are of Cesarzama of the Chapare region, the combined forces of
government repression opened fire on a blockade by the coca farmers. and
Esteban, who participated in the protest, threw stones at the soldiers of
the Tropic Unit and the troops coming from the city of Santa Cruz, was hit
by a bullet that broke the bone of his jaw. This is democracy? Today some of
the Congressmen of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) are asking that
question. And it's that, after months of fighting via "democratic" means, of
representing the aspirations of their people in Parliament, the popular
representatives have decided to return to the streets and roads of Bolivia
to demand solutions. Deep Bolivia has returned to get out and fight. and the
first victims have already been hurt.

A Tricky Dialogue

After the hopeful results of last June 30th's elections, that almost made
coca leader Evo Morales the President of the Republic, the members of MAS
passed "from protests to proposals." During nearly five months they centered
their activity in the democratic struggle, cleanly and openly. However, not
one of the twelve legislative initiatives, none of the proposals or
resolutions made by the parliamentarians of the people (27 congressmen and
women, and eight senators) were well received by the official parties' bloc.
Even still, in his role as national leader of MAS and president of the Six
Federations of Farmers of the Tropic of Cochabamba - the embattled coca
growers' organization, Evo agreed to hold talks with the government to
exchange positions and try to find a solution to the problem of the coca
leaf cultivated in the Chapare.

In this manner, last September 13th a singular meeting took place in
Cochabamba: on one side of the table was Evo Morales and a group of leaders
and peasant Congressmen from the region of Chapare. On the other side, the
President of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, and various cabinet
members, subsecretaries and advisors. "There was a meeting between the
president of the poor and the president of the rich," said the veteran
miners' leader (and advisor to the coca growers) Filemón Escóbar, the MAS
party's Senate Leader. For nearly four hours, both groups came to their
first agreement to try to find a solution to the coca problem of the
Chapare.

The coca growers again demonstrated their total rejection of the forced 100
percent eradication of the coca leaf crops in the Chapare, affirming that
the majority of their production, being less expensive than the leaf grown
in the Yungas region, was consumed by the poorest sectors of the population.
Based on this fact, they proposed to the government the realization of a
study to determine the real level of traditional consumption of coca leaf in
Bolivia and the elaboration of projects to industrialize the leaf (as it is
already used to manufacture products such as sweets, tinctures and
toothpaste). They also demanded the demilitarization of the Chapare and the
retirement of the paramilitary forces charged with the repression and the
anti-drug fight.

The government, that in that first meeting barely spoke at all, listened and
criticized the plea by the Chapare coca growers, but left open the
possibility that while solutions are sought there would be a pause in the
eradication in this region. That's why, and forming a joint commission (of
government and coca grower representatives) to analyze all the relative
issues, Evo and his companions decided to remain at the negotiating table
for three more months. There were four more meetings, but after the third
one (October 18) when the position of Sánchez de Lozada turned to the right:
during an official visit to the United States, the Bolivian president said
there would be no pause in the eradication because the coca leaf was
destined to produce drugs. However, in spite of the fact the during the past
months there had been various incidents between the coca growers and the
Armed Forces, and also that the forced eradication of coca continued, the
government insisted on "dialogue." And it continues asking for it, demanding
an end to the blockades that now spread through the regions of Bolivia.
while at the same time it dedicates itself to beat and imprison leaders and
Congress members of the MAS.

"The Oil and the Coca"

Between December 26 and 28, the MAS had its first national meeting after the
elections. Meeting in Chimoré, the brave heart of the Chapare, the leaders,
the rank-and-file members and the members of Congress of the second largest
party in Bolivia discussed the steps to take and the revival necessary at
this point in history. "We have to defend the oil and the coca. the gas
should not be sold to the United States. we must fight against the FTAA
(Free Trade Area of the Americas). it's urgent to distribute more land to
the farmers," that's what the bases said. And the leadership accepted the
platform. After organizing its program with other social sectors, the MAS
and Evo Morales decided to elaborate a "Call for National Mobilization,"
that indicated, among other points:

1. Recuperation of the property of hydrocarbons to put them at the service
of the people and commit the government to no export natural gas to Chile
(and the United States as a consequence)...

2. Recuperation of the privatized mulitnational industries due to its proven
corruption and the return of privatized mines in Huanuni and Vinto...

3. A solution to the land and territory problem with the goal that every
Bolivian, especially those without land, and the original peoples, will have
land to work...

4. A pause in the forced eradication of coca leaf in the Chapare, rejecting
the eradication of even a single coca leaf in the Yungas region and the
demilitarization of the coca growing regions...

5. Rejection of Bolivia's joining the FTAA, an instrument of colonization of
our peoples. To struggle for the strengthening of the regional integration
of Latin America.

6. Rejection of the presence of U.S. troops in Bolivian territory...

This last point was the straw the broke the camel's back. Early last
December, the National Congress, representatives and senators in open
session, approved the entrance of U.S. troops into a Southeastern zone of
Bolivia. The MAS opposed it, but was defeated by the representatives close
to the governing coalition. Beginning at this moment, there began a
regrouping of forces for this mobilization.

The Bolivian people, who last June demonstrated their power at the ballot
box, decided to publicly demonstrate.

This has only just begun

With patience and eyes open, Evo Morales and the other leaders of the MAS,
were articulating their demands to other social movements throughout the
country. And it was the coca growers' movement, the vanguard of the social
struggles in Bolivia, that this Monday began with the blockades in the main
highway that unites East and West of the country. However, the Armed Forces
unleashed the war as of Monday afternoon. They've begun to shoot their
weapons with real bullets, wounding Estaban García. Tuesday at midday, the
backup Congressman to Evo, the Chapare leader Luis Cuitipa, was beaten by
soldiers and dragged into a military vehicle to be held in a police cell.
The government has broken the immunity that Bolivian Congressmen previously
had.

At approximately 3 p.m. on Tuesday, during a demonstration in the city of
Cochabamba, Senator Filemón Escóbar (almost 70 years old) was savagely
beaten by soldiers when he tried to defend a group of retirees who were
attacked by the repressors. Equally, Congressman Jorge Ledesma of the
Chapare and his substitute, Teófila López, were taken prisoner by the police
and were only freed after they proved, inside the prison, that they were
Congress members. However, the coca growers are not deterred: on Tusday
there were blockades in Sinahota, Chimoré and Villa Tunari. There is
absolutely no traffic circulating in the heart of the country, not of cargo
nor of passengers. Still, since this is a national mobilization, there are
blockades and Marches in Oruro, in Potosí, in Santa Cruz and in La Paz, and
also in the Yungas region, where coca growers led by Dionicio Nuñez have
paralyzed commerce and transportation since yesterday. The miners have
mobilized, the retirees (almost 8,000 people who marched and blocked
highways), the landless farmers, the land squatters, the rural teachers, the
famous Water Coordinator movement, the workers, the student and neighborhood
movements in the main cities. It is possible to get an idea of it by looking
at the photos published in the La Paz daily, La Razón:

http://www.la-razon.com/El_evento/Enero/eve030114e.html

Since Tuesday morning, to give an historic example, three indigenous nations
have left behind the rancors of centuries to unite and blockade: Laimes,
Cacachaquas and Jucumanis have united in this movement, concious that the
struggle is not just to defend their beloved coca leaf... this mobilization
has become a valorous defense by a country filled with poor people, and
Narco News continues covering its progess. while Sánchez de Lozada travels
peacefully to Ecuador, a young man has died of a bullet wound, the poor of
Bolivia have risen to defend their dignity, their sovereignty. stay on the
line, kind readers, because this battle is the first of the year and the
Bolivian people is demonstrating, with it, their decision and ancestral
power.







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