The Following Was Posted Friday, June 10, 2005
From Last Year’s Truce to This Year’s Turmoil
The protests in Plaza Murillo during the second week of August, 2004, were low key and apparently routine. On the day I was there, about 40 men and women – mostly indigenous laborers, some very young – were picketing in the center of the plaza. There was no loud speaker or music or chants; everyone was just standing around as if waiting for something to happen. Protestors would come and go, making their way through the ring of police, who blocked them from view of traffic and passersby. The facades of Congress and the Presidential Palace adjacent to the plaza were unobstructed and seemed very business-as-usual. In the center of the plaza, protestors quietly held their turf, and the police, though dressed in riot gear, did not assume an otherwise threatening posture. This was my encounter with Bolivia’s low-key but tense status quo in 2004, one of protests and labor actions like the air traffic controller strike that had diverted my flight to Cochabamba (see October 2 below).
This week's confrontations mark the end of an 18-month truce in Bolivia’s “gas war” which resulted in 67 deaths and the resignation of President Lozado. His contracts with multinationals to develop Bolivia’s very large natural gas reserves had enraged left-leaning Bolivians who favor nationalization of the oil and gas industry. Carlos Mesa succeeded Lozado and was able to establish a period of dialogue and debate. But now that truce is faltering, and President Mesa is announcing his resignation after less than two years in office.
The distribution of Bolivia’s gas and oil wealth is only one of a variety of issues heating the country up. If you want to know more about this from people who understand much more than I do, go to Jim Shultz’s excellent blog.
¶
The protests in Plaza Murillo during the second week of August, 2004, were low key and apparently routine. On the day I was there, about 40 men and women – mostly indigenous laborers, some very young – were picketing in the center of the plaza. There was no loud speaker or music or chants; everyone was just standing around as if waiting for something to happen. Protestors would come and go, making their way through the ring of police, who blocked them from view of traffic and passersby. The facades of Congress and the Presidential Palace adjacent to the plaza were unobstructed and seemed very business-as-usual. In the center of the plaza, protestors quietly held their turf, and the police, though dressed in riot gear, did not assume an otherwise threatening posture. This was my encounter with Bolivia’s low-key but tense status quo in 2004, one of protests and labor actions like the air traffic controller strike that had diverted my flight to Cochabamba (see October 2 below).
This week's confrontations mark the end of an 18-month truce in Bolivia’s “gas war” which resulted in 67 deaths and the resignation of President Lozado. His contracts with multinationals to develop Bolivia’s very large natural gas reserves had enraged left-leaning Bolivians who favor nationalization of the oil and gas industry. Carlos Mesa succeeded Lozado and was able to establish a period of dialogue and debate. But now that truce is faltering, and President Mesa is announcing his resignation after less than two years in office.
The distribution of Bolivia’s gas and oil wealth is only one of a variety of issues heating the country up. If you want to know more about this from people who understand much more than I do, go to Jim Shultz’s excellent blog.
¶
