BOLIVIA
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a documentary by sheila franklin
on the uprising against the privatization of water in Cochabamba, Bolivia
now available
Bolivian Describes Successful Struggle to Preserve Water, By Howard Kling ~ Nov. 4
Let Them Sip Champagne: The Battle Of Bolivia, By Robert Sterling ~ Oct. 4
U.S. Drug War At Center Stage In Renewed Bolivian Violence ~ Oct. 1
Detail Accounts of Events in Bolivia - Between Sept. 21 - October 2, by George Ann Potter, October 4
Confrontation in Parotani Leaves Dead and Wounded, Tom Kruse ~ 24 September
Weekly News Update On The Americas, Nicaragua Solidarity Network ~ Sept. 24
National Uprising Rocks Bolivia. Bolivia: Oil and Gas Fields Seized. Bolivia: Government Attacks, Negotiates, Attacks. US "Concerned" About Bolivia Uprising
"Los Bolivianos Jamás Hemos Tenido Alma de Esclavos", la Coordinadora, Cochabamba ~ septiembre 19
The World Bank Speaks - We Respond, Jim Schultz & Tom Kruse ~ June 6
Behind The New Globalization Protests Lies An Old Demand, Democracy, Jim Shultz ~ May 4
"Water For Life": A Travel Journal, By Manuel Rojas ~ July 29
Bolivia‘s Indigenous People Gather in La Paz to Reshape National Policies, Cidob ~ July 4
Brutal Attacks On Bolivian Immigrants, By Marcela Valente ~ May 24
Call To Citizens to Support Threatened Indigenous Group ~ May 8
Devastating Oil Spill Harms Uru Morato People, by Tamara Stenn ~ April 24, 2000
"Bechtel Speaks, We Respond" by Jim Schultz, Democracy Center ~ April 29, 2000
International Water Ltd. Responds to Op-Ed By Jim Schultz of Democracy Center
International Water Ltd.’s Response To Jim Schultz of The Democracy Center
Peace Accords Signed, But Controversy Far From Over. Violence Continues, by Bolivian Times staff ~ April 2
Banzer, The Siege and The Market in Bolivia, by Alejandro Campos ~ April 21
World Bank Head Comments On Water Protest. Bolivian Protest Leader Heads To Washington, Jim Schultz ~ April 13
Army Assassin Who Fired On Water Protesters Went To School Of The Americas, Andean Information Center ~ April 13, 2000
NEWS-InBrief, Jim Schultz ~ April 13
Oscar Olivera Member of La Coordinadora To Address IMF/World Bank Demonstrations In Washington
Bolivia Returns to Calm
Bechtel And Bolivian Government - War of Words
New Zealand Protesters Hose Down Bolivian Consulate
Blame The Bechtel Corp. Not Narcotraffickers For Bolivia Uprising, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center, April 11, 2000
Army Shooters In Civilian Clothes Fire On Crowds, Tom Kruse, April 12, 2000
While Bolivia Says Bechtel Agreement Is Broken, Bechtel Says Its Staying. Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center, April 11, 2000
Text Of Statement by Bechtel Corporation, April 11, 2000
Protests And Violence Continues In Bolivia As Sides Seek Agreement To End Crisis, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center ~ April 10th
State Of Siege Still In Effect While Repressive Measures Of Political Control Are Heavily Implemented, Asamblea Permanente de los Derechos Humanos de Cochabamba (APDHC) ~ April 9
Situation In Bolivia Under Martial Law, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center ~ April 9
Bolivia Under Martial Law ~ April 9, 2000
Bolivian Protesters Win War Over Water, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center ~ April 9
Bechtel and Edison Reach Agreement on Edison's Acquisition of a 50% Stake in International Water Limited, November 8, 1999 (Article from The Bechtel Corp. Website)
A Bolivian Baby Turns One In Jail, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center ~ August 2, 1999
When The War On Drugs Becomes War On The Poor: Your Tax Dollars At Work, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center, August 1, 1999
Sewing Shut Thier Mouths In Order To Be Heard, Jim Shultz, The Democracy Center ~ June 8, 1999
Resources On Human Rights In Bolivia, Nizkor International Human Rights Team
For More Information on the Enron Corp. Also Read:
Greenbacks and Election Blues: The Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between Enron CEO Ken Lay and the Republican Contender, By Pratap Chatterjee, Special to Corporate Watch
Bolivian Describes Successful Struggle to Preserve Water
By Howard Kling ~ Nov. 4
People in the developing world are leading the fight to defend our common resources, such as water, from becoming just another commodity. A hero in that struggle, Bolivian union and community leader Oscar Olivera, visited the Twin Cities recently, bringing with him the details of a major successful struggle to reverse the privatization of water resources in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia. Olivera, a machinist and executive secretary of the Cochabamba Federation of Factory Workers, spoke at a well attended Coffeehour at the Resource Center of the Americas on Saturday, October 28.
"For the first time in the history of Bolivia we have told the government 'no' and made them back off of their destructive schemes for privatization of our resources," stated Olivera. He played a major role in the Coordinadora de Defense del Agua y de la Vida, a broad movement of labor, peasants and others which organized a successive wave of protests against the privatization of their regional water system by an affiliate of the San Francisco based multinational, Bechtel. Eventually over 100,000 people occupied the streets of Cochabamba for weeks, blocking and even some factories stopped operations as men, woman and children from as far away as 40 kilometers joined the demand to create a new water operator based on community input.
Privatization stopped. In April 2000, Aguas del Tunari, the Bechtel affiliate, was forced to abandon their operations, the local water system was de-privatized, and substantive changes in water legislation were promised by the Bolivian government. But victory came with a price. Hundreds of people involved in the movement were injured, some severely. Several people were killed by government snipers dressed in plain clothes.
The repression could have been worse, according to Olivera. The broad base of the coalition that united workers, shopkeepers and intellectuals in the city with peasants in the countryside is one reason for some measure of police and military restraint. The coalition's democratic character was also the heart of the movement's success,outrage at 35 to 300 percent increases in the price of water after privatization. Further, the depth of popular resentment against government corruption and years of harmful economic policies provided additional meaning for the participants. "Behind the struggle for water there are people struggling to give democracy true substance. The fight for water rekindled values we had been losing over many years because of pressures from the neo-liberal economic policies of Bolivia and the World Bank."
Neo-liberal economic policy has become the mantra of globalization, informing the substance of international agreements like NAFTA and GATT and providing a theoretical basis to the practices of institutions like the World Bank. A crescendo of criticism has mounted against neo-liberalism, the World Bank and its sister, the International Monetary Fund, for their role in promoting undemocratic economic policies and the interests of multinational corporations around the globe. Protests against these policies brought thousands to the streets of Seattle and Washington, D.C. earlier this year.
Lessons for other countries Olivera described the impact of the World Bank/IMF influence in Bolivia. ?Since 1975 we have been told by the government and political structure that privatization and neo-liberal adjustments must happen to improve our economy. Airlines, railways and factories were given away to multinational interests as a result. But despite their claims our lives have been worsening. Their practices have not increased employment, not brought down prices.
Instead of increased state revenue, we have budget cutting by the government. In the process of adjustment all our labor rights were lost and new unfavorable labor conditions were brought about, replacing permanent jobs with temporary labor, and older organized workers with young people and women who enter the workplace with no rights. This has broken down production and divided workers, introducing personal competition and creating enemies among different sections of the workforce and population."In Bolivia new laws and arrangements involving water resulted from pressure from the World Bank as well, granting monopoly concessions to companies all over the country. But, when it came to water in Cochabamba, the people had had enough. Water and air were about all they had left in common. And now these new laws made water a commodity, allowed the confiscation of cooperative water systems, and privatized distribution and sources of water. The government agreement guaranteed Aguas del Tunari and Bechtel a 16% rate of return and was shrouded in secrecy through 'clauses of confidentiality'."
Traditional resource management was eliminated in rural areas like that around Cochabamba where water has been scarce for 40 years. The results were devastating to the ecosystem. \For the consumer under privatization, the price of water became tied to the dollar. The people formed the Coordinadora or Coalition in the Defense of Water and Life in November 1999 declaring "the water is ours". By April they had forced an end to the scheme. "I have these messages for my friends in the United States" Olivera stated. "It is possible to stop privatization and the neo-liberal onslaught if the people say 'enough'. Further it is important to understand that behind the struggle for water in Bolivia there are people struggling to create a world where democracy means social justice."
Howard Kling is project director for Workday Minnesota and director of the Labor Education Service Telecommunications Project at the University of Minnesota.
END
Let Them Sip Champagne: The Battle Of Bolivia
By Robert Sterling ~ Oct. 4
Water is the essence of life, making up 70% of the human body. Mankind can't live long without it. Such is the background behind a failed swindle, masterminded by the forces of globalization. The backlash nearly led to a revolution, the first of hopefully many to follow in the New World Order of economics. Oddly, there wasn't too much about it in the news. In 1999, the Bolivian government "privatized" the public water system in the city of Cochabamba, based on the "advice" (i.e. demands) of the World Bank. They only considered one bid, by a conglomerate led by Bechtel, the giant San Francisco-based engineering monolith. Bechtel and its pals were given a 40-year-lease. More than half a million people depend on the water to survive.
What is important to understand is that there's nothing unusual behind such plans: it's modus operandi for both the IMF and World Bank. "Privatization" means selling public enterprises and natural resources to private corporations. The corporations are unsurprisingly almost always Western military-industrial titans. In exchange, the countries are infused with more cash. The sales job is that the corporations will run things more efficiently than a bungling government industry. It didn't work that way in Bolivia. Big surprise: why would an amoral money machine not abuse a granted private monopoly and the license to gouge? The conglomerate doubled and tripled prices. They claimed it was to recover the cost of a huge dam project in Misicuni, yet to be built.
Many impoverished people suddenly couldn't afford the essence of life. The response from Bechtel, the Bolivian government, and the World Bank was a collective shrug. Get used to the new economic realities. Or, as Marie Antoinette would put it, "Let them sip champagne."
The people of Bolivia responded to the economic rape and thievery with protests led by workers, environmentalists, and citizen's groups. A strike and transportation stoppage brought the city to a standstill. They were met with tear gas and bullets. Six were killed and 175 injured, including two children blinded from the chemical warfare.
In April 2000, Hugo Banzer, the former Bolivian dictator and now the President, declared martial law. World Bank Director James Wolfensohn commented to reporters that, "The riots in Bolivia, I'm happy to say, are now quieting down." Bechtel issued a statement denying the upheaval in Bolivia had anything to do with its plundering, and suggested the revolt was the work of those opposed to a "crackdown on coca-leaf production."
But the tide had turned. This time, the opponents of Corporatism (under the banner of "free trade globalization") ended in victory against the evil empire.
While Bechtel and the Bolivian government tried to shift blame to the other, the industrial giant fled its offices and tried to extract a US$12 million exit payment. The leader of the water protests, Oscar Olivera, became a national hero. More than even Seattle or D.C., the Battle of Bolivia is a global wakeup call against economic oppression in the world.
END
"U.S. Drug War At Center Stage In Renewed Bolivian Violence"
Jim Schultz, The Democracy Center On-Line ~ October 1, 2000
Dear Readers:
I am sorry to report that, once again, I am writing from a Bolivia in the midst of conflict. A series of national strikes and highway blockades which began two weeks ago has been met with 20,000 government troops using tear gas and live rounds in abundance. At least ten are dead, more than a hundred injured and many jailed. The U.S. State Department has publicly declared its support for the government's actions. Below is my dispatch from Bolivia, which will be circulated to news outlets in the U.S. Monday morning by Pacific News Service. I hope you will share it with others to keep Bolivia in the U.S. public eye.
The only help I am asking for at this time is the following. Many of the injured are children, many mamed beyond Bolivian medicine's ability to help them. This includes a six year old girl whose nose and face was decimated Saturday morning by a government tear gas canister. If any of you have contacts or suggestions of resources to help these children with appropriate medical attention, please contact me at: JShultz@democracyctr.org.
Jim Shultz
"U.S. Drug War At Center Stage In Renewed Bolivian Violence"
by Jim Shultz ~ October 1
While Colombia and Peru have been catching more of the world's Andean attention for the past few weeks, Bolivia suffers one of its worst political and social crises in decades. Two weeks ago an informal alliance of teachers, farmers, rural water users and others began a series of national protest actions aimed at forcing the Bolivian government to the table over a mix of issues including teacher salaries, eradication of the last remaining coca crop, and the construction of three new, U.S.-financed military bases.
A nationwide teachers strike has left virtually the entire Bolivian public school system idle during the final weeks of the South American school year. Blockades of the major national highways have brought virtually all overland travel and commerce to full stop. Bolivia's President, Hugo Banzer, who ruled the nation as a dictator during much of the 1970s, has deployed more than 20,000 soldiers and police in an effort to stop the protests by force.
U.S. BACKS CRACKDOWN, DESPITE KILLINGS
At least ten people have been killed by government fire, more than 100 injured, and an unknown number jailed. Eye witnesses have reported that much of the shooting is being carried out by army officers, including long-distance sharp shooters. The current crisis comes just six months after President Hugo Banzer declared a national "state of emergency" in an unsuccessful effort to stop a civic uprising over water privatization. Those protests forced the departure of a subsidiary of the U.S. Bechtel Corporation which had raised rates as much as 300%.
On Friday in Washington, US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher declared the U.S.'s support for Banzer's actions, saying, "We share and fully support President Hugo Banzer's call for communication and reconciliation." Hours later, just before dawn on Saturday, Banzer's government sent 1500 troops into the small town of Vinto, in an attempt to remove a highway blockade there. Soldiers killed a 25 year old taxi driver, Benito Espinoza Saravia, injured 29 others, including six year old Ximena Zenteno who had her nose destroyed by an army tear gas canister.
US DRUG WAR AT ISSUE
On Saturday, Bolivian government officials sat down for negotiations with various movement leaders, convened by the Catholic Archbishop. Sources close to the talks say that the hardest issues deal with the Bolivian government's US-financed plan to eradicate the last remaining 5% of the country's illegal coca leaf crop. That plan involves building three new military bases in the Chapare region, the chief coca growing area. To be built with $6 million in U.S. assistance, the bases would permanently deploy 1,500 troops in the area, a move bitterly opposed by local residents and many human rights groups.
"These bases were never debated in the Bolivian Congress or by the Bolivian people," says Edwin Claros, Vice President of the Assembly on Human Rights in Cochabamba. "The role of the military is to protect our borders, not to wage war with our own people. The bases will definitely mean more use of the military in the region and more violations of human rights." Late Saturday the government announced that it would back away from its hard-line insistence on the bases, but only with the alternative of expanding the military's presence at an existing base in the area. Arguing for a permanent military presence in the region in a televised speech to the nation last Wednesday, Banzer proclaimed, "We can't leave those areas unprotected to be retaken by the black market of narcotrafficking."
Despite U.S. Ambassador, V. Manuel Rocha's public declaration last week that the bases were, "not an imposition by the US government but a decision by the Bolivian government," many here question whether the US is voicing that same flexibility behind closed doors. An Embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that if Bolivia should back way from the US-financed base plan, it could create doubts about the Bolivian government's much-touted pledge to make the country "free of illegal coca" by 2002. Said the official, "That would leave open the question: If you are committed to eradicate coca using the military, how are you going to continue it without a military presence?"
In September the Bolivian government's coca eradication efforts were cited by President Clinton as his main reason for proposing that the U.S. and other lenders forgive the nation's multi-million dollar foreign debt. U.S. officials would very much like to use Bolivia as a model of a successful eradication effort, especially with the Clinton Administration's new $1.3 billion military-led coca eradication plan in Colombia.
Even with the apparent government concession on the bases, it is unclear how long the conflict may continue between the government and coca farmers in the Chapare region. Blockades there have cut off highway passage between the nation's second and third largest cities, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. Representatives of farmers are demanding that they be allowed to continue growing small plots of the plant (less than 1/2 an acre). With nearly 95% of the crop already eradicated in the region, they argue, the small crops that remain would be for traditional uses, including the wide-spread Bolivian practice of chewing coca leaves. Talking about the eradication program this week, a top Bolivian official admitted, "We've also wiped out the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands, maybe one million people.''
While the coca leaf is the base ingredient for cocaine, it only takes on the drug's effects after being substantially processed with powerful chemicals. Unprocessed coca leaves are legal, sold and chewed widely and also used for commercial production of coca tea, popular as a treatment for stomach and altitude ailments. Coca farmers also note that small plantings are allowed under the nation's coca-eradication law approved under U.S. pressure in 1988.
FOOD SHORTAGES AND PATIENCE WEARING THIN
Meanwhile, food shortages caused by the blockades have started to take effect in some cities and many Bolivians are growing weary of the protest, lobbing criticisms and more at both sides. A collection of children's drawings pasted to the wall of one Cochabamba school shows images of soldiers opening fire on people and trucks stopped at blockades, along with writings such as: "I want peace; Don't throw rocks; and Don't kill people." A week ago, angry chicken producers dumped a pile of 1000 dead and rotting birds on the front steps of the Cochabamba state governor and of one protest group. The birds died when their food supplies were cutoff by the blockades. An informal poll by a daily newspaper here of 1440 readers voiced a 51% level of support for the protesters and their demands.
Following the end of negotiations Saturday, representatives of the various groups returned home to their local bases to consult on possible accords. Over the weekend some coca farmers announced that they were prepared to take up firearms if needed to protect their land if the government did not reach an acceptable agreement. The highway blockades, public mobilizations, and military deployments continue throughout the nation, creating a palatable air of tension and with no immediate end in site.
The Democracy Center (San Francisco: P.O. Box 22157 San Francisco, CA 94122 TEL: (415) 564-4767 FAX: (978) 383-1269
BOLIVIA: Casilla 5283, Cochabamba, Bolivia E-mail: info@democracyctr.org
END
Confrontation in Parotani Leaves Dead and Wounded
Tom Kruse ~ 24 September 2000
Cochabamba. At least two people were killed and over 10 wounded today in confrontation between Bolivian military and protesters near the community of Parotani, about 350 km from La Paz, Bolivia's capital, when government troops, under civilian cover, fired tear gas and live ammunition on protesters.
For more than a week Bolivia has been convulsed by waves of protests by peasants, coca growers, public school teachers and others. One key form of protest has been the blocking of major highways, effectively cutting off regions one from the other, and Bolivia from neighboring countries.
In April of this year Cochabamba, Bolivia was the site of fierce protests that succeeded in reverting privatization of the local water system by a Bechtel Corporation affiliate, and forced substantive changes to water legislation that local communities felt would cause them to lose control of their indigenous water systems. In the current protests, local groups are demanding approval of those legislative changes and final termination of the contract with the Bechtel affiliate. Those protests were joined by rural and urban public school demanding wage increases, and coca growers demanding an end to US financed coca leaf eradication and military base construction in Cochabamba's Chapare region.
At 1:30am this morning, the Bolivian Permanent Human Rights Assembly mediated negotiations between Prefect José Orías of Cochabamba and protest leaders, to allow a small number of trucks carrying chickens and buses carrying travelers, stranded for various day in Cochabamba. Protest leaders indicated they would make efforts to ensure safe passage of the caravan, but indicated that blockade leaders would be hard to reach until morning.
At about 2:00am the caravan left, and, unbeknownst to the protest leaders, accompanied by about 100 heavily armed regular army troops. Protest leaders indicate that at no time during the negotiations did the Governor indicate the caravan would be militarized, and hand they known, they never would have approved it's departure.
At 4:00am the first reports of confrontations between the military accompanying the convoy and protesters were reported. At just after 4:00pm the first confirmed reports of dead and wounded came in.
Sacha Llorentti, representative of the Bolivian Permanent Human Rights Assembly, and member of the National council of Human Rights in Bolivia, and who mediated the negotiations that led to the caravan's departure, feels the Prefect Orías lied to him. Llorentti commented, "We feel betrayed. At no time did the Prefect suggest that he would send dozens of well armed soldiers with the civilian convoy. Had we known, the [Human Rights] Assembly would never have played a role in negotiating the convoy's departure. We feel the Prefect deliberately used the Assembly and innocent travelers and truckers as cover for military operations."
Protest leaders have called for a mass public assembly to consult with local organizations regarding the next steps to be taken. What is certain is that with the recent government violence, protests are destined to continue.
END
Weekly News Update On The Americas
Issue #556, September 24, 2000
Niciragua Solidarity Network Of Greater New York
339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012
(212) 674-9499 <wnu@igc.org>
1. National Uprising Rocks Bolivia
3. Government Attacks, Negotiates, Attacks
4. US "Concerned" About Bolivia Uprising
National Uprising Rocks Bolivia
Campesino coca growers (cocaleros), public school teachers and other labor sectors joined in Bolivia during the week of Sept. 18 to press demands with a coordinated series of strikes, protests and roadblocks that had the country virtually shut down by Sept. 23. Cocaleros and other campesinos are demanding land rights, as well as protesting the forced eradication of coca crops and the planned construction of three new US-financed "anti-drug" military bases in the Chapare region. Bolivia's rural public school teachers have been on an open-ended strike since Sept. 13, pushing for a 50% wage increase among other demands; the strike was joined on Sept. 18 by the urban public school teachers.
The Coordinating Committee for Water and Life, which organized a protest movement in the city of Cochabamba last spring against the privatization of the municipal drinking water system [see Updates #523, 532, 533], is also backing the new protests. On Sept. 20, some 20,000 people demonstrated in Cochabamba to demand that the government discuss implementation of a new water law. On Sept. 22 more than 5,000 teachers, campesinos and workers marched from Quillacollo to Cochabamba. Speakers at the subsequent rally called for the resignation of President Hugo Banzer Suarez. While the Committee was able to resolve some water law issues through talks with local authorities during the week, it is continuing a civic strike and roadblocks in solidarity with the teachers and campesinos.
The other groups involved in the actions are following the same solidarity policy, insisting that all demands must be resolved before any protests will be lifted. The coordination was formally laid out in an inter-union pact between the different sectors. The Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the country's main labor federation, is backing the protests with a call for an open-ended general strike to begin on Sept. 25.
As of Sept. 24, some 60,000 cocalero families grouped in the six campesino federations of the Chapare region had barricaded 300 kilometers of the main road that crosses Bolivia from east to west; members of the Only Union Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) are also blocking roads in La Paz department and other areas of the country, including important trade routes linking landlocked Bolivia to ports in Peru and Chile. As of Sept. 24, some 5,000 military and police troops had failed to clear the roads--as soon as the troops manage to break up a roadblock and move on, the protesters return to reblock the road. [La Republica (Lima, Peru) 9/19/00, 9/21/00, 9/22/00, 9/24/00, all from AFP; El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 9/24/00 from Reuters; Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 9/19/00 & 9/24/00; El Diario (La Paz) 9/23/00]
Oscar Olivera, leader of the Coordinating Committee for Water and Life, said on Sept. 23 that the roadblocks around Cochabamba were intensifying, and would soon extend to the city's bridges. The same day, campesinos in Oruro department announced they will join the protests by blocking major highways in Oruro on Sept. 25 to press their own list of 11 demands, primarily concerning land and environmental issues. Urban and rural teachers have also threatened to step up their protests on Sept. 25. [ED 9/24/00]
END
Bolivia: Oil And Gas Fields Seized
On Sept. 20, some 300-400 campesinos seized three oil fields in Sara province, Santa Cruz department, as part of the national protest movement. On Sept. 22 the oil fields remained shut down, with protesters refusing to let anyone leave the area. The oil fields belong to the Chaco company, an affiliate of the transnational corporation BP-Amoco. [LR 9/21/00 from AFP; LT 9/23/00]
Indigenous protesters from the Ayoreo and Chiquitano tribes shut down two natural gas pipeline construction camps in Santa Cruz department, also apparently in conjunction with the national protests. Bolinter, the company building the pipeline, managed to evacuate all its personnel from the sites by Sept. 22, and is counting on government security forces to protect the equipment left behind. Bolinter was contracted by Gas Oriente Boliviano (GOB), a local consortium of the transnationals Enron and Shell, to build the gas pipeline, which is eventually to run from Bolivia to an electricity generating plant in Cuiaba, Brazil. The occupations were organized by the Federation of Ethnic Peoples of Santa Cruz (CPES) to demand that GOB fulfill promises it made to local communities for an indigenous development plan, the paving of roads in the communities, construction of a classroom and drilling of a water well. Indigenous leaders say they'll continue negotiations with company executives and local authorities, but will not end their occuption until demands are met. [ED 9/23/00]
END
Government Attacks, Negotiates, Attacks
On Sept. 21, three people were wounded, one of them seriously, when combined forces of the Bolivian army and police attacked campesinos on a bridge that links the town of Chimore with Villa Tunari, the epicenter of the protests in the Chapare region. Feliciano Mamani, executive secretary of the Federation of Cocaleros of Villa Tunari, was one of the wounded; he was hospitalized after a military bullet ripped through the bones in the lower part of one leg. Another victim was a 13-year old boy, hit by a tear gas grenade while watching the protests from the balcony of his home. A student, a journalist and a soldier were injured during protests in Villa Tunari the previous day. [LR 9/22/00 from AFP]
On Sept. 22, the government surrounded Villa Tunari with a massive troop blockade. Unable to stop the protests, the government finally agreed on the afternoon of Sept. 23 to meet with campesino leaders--including cocalero leader and legislative deputy Evo Morales Ayma--to discuss a solution. The campesino leaders were transported in an Air Force plane from Villa Tunari to the meeting at the Cala Cala church in the northern zone of the city of Cochabamba. The talks were brokered by Msgr. Jesus Juarez, vice president of the Conference of Bolivian Bishops [LR 9/24/00 from AFP; ENH 9/24/00 from Reuters; LT 9/24/00]
Campesino leaders refused to accept a government demand that the roads be unblocked before negotiations could start. "They put the condition on us that the roadblocks be lifted, [but] that would be foolish, a trap, because we have already gone through that," explained CSUTCB executive secretary Felipe Quispe Huanca. "In April we lifted [the protests] and inexperienced leaders entered into negotiations, they signed an accord, but it turns out that after more than three months there's nothing and the same thing could happen again," said Quispe, who is known to his followers as "el Mallku" ("condor" in the Aymara language). [LT 9/24/00]
On Sept. 23, as cocaleros began observing a "truce" for the negotiations, military and police troops tried to dislodge a group of protesters from El Castillo, just outside Villa Tunari. Four people--including a bus passenger stranded by the roadblocks--were wounded by bullets. Another three people, including a soldier, suffered other injuries.
The negotiations began around 2pm; by midnight, the cocalero leaders and the government representatives had worked their way through five of the 13 demands. A break was called, with talks scheduled to resume on Sept. 24. Taking part in the negotiations are Presidency Minister Guillermo Fortun, Agriculture Minister Osvaldo Antezana, Cochabamba prefect (mayor) Jose Orias, and Fernando Rojas, secretary of the Conference of Bolivian Bishops.
The points on which agreement was reportedly reached include: the creation of a University of the Tropics under the auspices of Cochabamba's San Simon Major University (UMSS); the paving of the route from Ivirgarzama to Puerto Villarroel; help in finding markets for alternative products; no expulsion of cocaleros from the Chapare region; and revision of the National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) Law. [LT 9/24/00]
The cocaleros charge that government troops have been retaliating against communities in the Chapare region by burning homes and stealing property. The government has also cut off drinking water to Villa Tunari, and has cut off telephone access to a number of communities. Overall, at least 15 people have been reported wounded by bullets, with a similar number injured in other ways, and nearly 40 people arrested; the cocaleros are asking representatives of the Catholic Church, human rights groups and the media to come to the area to act as observers. [ED 9/24/00]
On Sept. 22, President Hugo Banzer Suarez insisted that despite the widespread roadblocks and protests, "there's no risk that a state of siege will be imposed." Banzer, who ruled Bolivia as a dictator from 1971 to 1978, explained that "these protests are the fruits of a democratic process and they are protected by the political Constitution of the State, as long as they are carried out peacefully." [Amid similar protests in April this year, Banzer decreed a state of siege that lasted for two weeks--see Updates #532-534.]
Banzer claimed drug traffickers are financing the cocalero protests. [LR 9/24/00 from AFP; ENH 9/24/00 from Reuters; LT 9/24/00] Information Minister Manfredo Kempff reiterated on Sept. 23 that the government will not stop the eradication of coca plants, but rather will intensify its efforts. [ED 9/24/00]
END
US "Concerned" About Bolivia Uprising
On Sept. 23, US ambassador Manuel Rocha expressed "concern" over the current conflictive situation in Bolivia. Asked by a news agency reporter about the possible impact of the protests on US-mandated coca eradication programs, Rocha said: "We will be mindful of any proposal that the [Bolivian] government may make toward modifying the program and the goals that have been drawn up with regard to eradication under Plan Dignidad," the US-sponsored anti-drug program. Rocha clarified, however, that he had not yet received any such proposal from the Bolivian government. The Banzer government has set December 2000 as the deadline for the complete elimination of coca cultivation in the Cochabamba tropics. Bolivia's new deputy minister of social defense, Roberto Lemaitre Mendoza, has hinted that the coca elimination goals could be set back by two months because of the latest Chapare protests. [ED 9/24/00]
The first US-funded "anti-drug" military base in the Chapare region is set to be built in October of this year on army-owned land in the area of Chimore, Defense Minister Gen. Oscar Vargas confirmed over the weekend of Sept. 17. Vargas said that information about the contractor that will build the base is in the hands of the US Embassy, which controlled the bidding process. The other two bases are to be located in Ichoa and Villa Tunari. The Bolivian government estimates that the total cost of building the three bases will be at least $2 million--the amount committed by the US Southern Command for the project. The bases were designed by Southcom engineers with Bolivian army engineers last January; each base is to house 500 troops. [ED 9/18/00]
END
"Los bolivianos jamás hemos tenido alma de esclavos"
la Coordinadora, Cochabamba, septiembre 19 de 2000
Coordinadora Departamental de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida
Y....OTRA VEZ SALDREMOS DE NUESTRAS COMUNIDADES, NUESTRAS CASAS Y NUESTRAS ESCUELAS PARA MOVILIZARNOS
Despues de mas de cinco meses desde la victoria de abril, ante la incapacidad del gobierno, volveremos a salir a la lucha, esta vez porque la situación del país ha empeorado, los jubilados han marchado, los universitarios, los transportistas, los maestros y cocaleros están en pleno conflicto; la problemática del agua está siendo tergiversada por gobierno, algunos medios y comentaristas de prensa están pidiendo a gritos que el gobierno reprima a la población para restablecer el "orden".
Los cochabambinos dimos un plazo al gobierno hace casi un mes y no obtuvimos respuesta positiva.
Viajamos hasta La Paz para entregar de manera responsable nuestra propuesta de reglamentación a la Ley 2066.
Hicimos conocer nuestra posición con relación al Consorcio Aguas del Tunari, al cual expulsamos.
Estamos trabajando para proponer una Ley de Aguas que responda a nuestros intereses y no a la de los empresarios y el gobierno.
Estos no han querido escuchar, por eso....decidimos nuevamente salir a tomar las calles, los caminos y los puentes, como en enero, como en febrero, como en abril, con los siguientes objetivos:
1. Apoyo militante las demandas de los compañeros del magisterio en procura de mejores salarios y dignidad en su trabajo.
2. Apoyo a los compañeros del Trópico cochabambino, por que encarnan la dignidad del pueblo boliviano, que se oponen a la erradicación forzosa de la hoja de coca y la instalación de cuarteles, porque eso está convirtiendo al Chapare en campos de concentración y de miseria
3. Nuestras demandas regionales son:
· AGUA.- Aunque para los cochabambinos Aguas del Tunari no vuelve mas, el gobierno pretende indemnizar a sus socios, de hecho una empresa está trabajando para ello, según lo declarado por la delegada presidencial Ana María Cortés, el Super de Saneamiento Básico lo niega, ¿quién puede explicar esto?
La reglamentación de la Ley 2066, que es necesaria y que luego de varias semanas y con el esfuerzo colectivo de regantes, campesinos, pobladores de barrios y profesionales se presentó al gobierno como una propuesta nuestra. Ella no ha sido tomada en cuenta, se quiere desvirtuar y torcer el verdadero contenido de las conquistas de abril.
La inmediata discusión de una ley consensuada del recurso hídrico, que fue parte de los convenios de enero, febrero y abril, no pretende ser llevada a cabo por el gobierno, mientras tanto se dictan decretos y leyes para seguir enajenando este recurso a los empresarios extranjeros y sus socios criollos para hacer de nuestra agua un negocio.
El proyecto tan anhelado por el Valle Alto como es el de Qhewiña Khocha, debe iniciarse a la brevedad posible, mínimamente con la instalación de una oficina que empiece a gestionar este proyecto.
· TIERRA.- Los campesinos de todo el país y particularmente de Cochabamba, exigen modificaciones sustanciales en la Ley INRA, que les garantice la propiedad jurídica de sus tierras que son el único medio de subsistencia.
· CONDICIONES DE VIDA.- La situación económica se hace cada vez más insostenible con la elevación de carburantes, de pasajes, de impuestos y desempleo, en Cochabamba. Mientras en febrero y abril hemos luchado porque no se eleven las tarifas de agua, las facturas de energía eléctrica se han elevado en un 100% desde hace un año atrás; así nos quieran demostrar lo contrario. El pago de ítems como carga demanda, tasa de aseo y alumbrado público, no tienen hasta el día de hoy una explicación lógica y coherente. Exigimos, como pobladores que sufrimos las consecuencias de esta política de asalto a la economía de la población, un REVISION INMEDIATA DE TARIFAS Y FACTURAS de ELFEC, tanto para la ciudad como en el campo.
La contaminación del río Arque y otros debido a las concesiones para la explotación minera está poniendo en riesgo la actividad productiva de los valles cochabambinos. Cochabamba, ha dicho que no permitirá ni una sola concesión mas en nuestro territorio.
Nuestros heridos están esperando del gobierno el cumplimiento de sus compromisos
· DIGNIDAD.- La instalación de cuarteles en el Trópico de Cochabamba, la erradicación de la hoja de coca, el menosprecio al trabajo de los educadores, la política económica genocida diseñada por los organismos financieros internacionales y la embajada norteamericana, nos deben poner en una situación de resistencia y lucha para impedir mas humillaciones y pisoteo de nuestra dignidad y soberanía, por eso exigimos: no a la construcción de cuarteles en el trópico; si a la construcción de escuelas, hospitales, servicios básicos y caminos; no al trato de menosprecio a los maestros del país; salarios justos y respeto a sus derechos; basta de erradicar hoja de coca, que está sumiendo a la indigencia a miles de familias campesinas. Los derechos no se mendigan, los derechos se los conquistan.
· CORRUPCIÓN.- Los recursos, alimentos, equipos y vituallas para los damnificados por el terremoto de Aiquile, Mizque y Totora, fueron desviados por funcionarios gubernamentales que hoy se pasean impunes por los ministerios, las prefecturas, parlamento y las calles. Se enriquecieron a costa del dolor y la angustia de miles de familias, que hoy continúan en la permanente zozobra,
Los negociados en la Aduana, contrabando, vacunas, asfalto, impuestos, dietas y sobredietas, FONVIS, que son el dinero del pueblo, pero que están llenando los bolsillos de esa mafia encaramada del aparato estatal en éste y los anteriores gobiernos. Todo esto no puede quedar en la impunidad, exigimos el esclarecimiento de estos actos y el castigo a los responsables.
Estas son nuestras demandas, las de la población sencilla y trabajadora que exige del gobierno respuestas positivas, no promesas ni represión, por todo ello la Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida, resuelve lo siguiente:
PRIMERO.- En vista de haber concluido el plazo otorgado al gobierno, para la atención de estas demandas se declara el INICIO DEL BLOQUEO GENERAL DE CAMINOS A PARTIR DEL DÍA MIERCOLES 20 DE SEPTIEMBRE.
SEGUNDO.- Esta medida deberá ser implementada de manera GRADUAL por las organizaciones campesinas, barriales, sindicales y populares, hasta lograr la atención del gobierno, caso contrario estos bloqueos se radicalizaran hasta asumir el bloqueo general e indefinido de caminos.
TERCERO.- En caso de que el gobierno saque a las tropas de la policía y el ejercito a los caminos y/o las calles las medidas se asumirán de inmediato, sin esperar plazos.
CUARTO.- Convocamos a la población a tomar todas las previsiones del caso, como viajes, provisión de alimentos y medicinas, porque la medida puede ser prolongada en vista de la sordera, ceguera e incapacidad del actual gobierno.
QUINTO.- Se constituye el Comité ampliado de la Coordinadora, única instancia de representación y dirección de las demandas y el conflicto de la población cochabambina.
Cochabamba, septiembre 19 de 2000
COD, FEDECOR, FTFC, CODAEF, PROFESIONALES, FSTCC
Oscar Olivera Foronda, Omar Fernández, Gabriel Herbas, Samuel Soria, Basilio Mamani, Moises Tórrez, Rosendo Flores, José Escalera
END
The World Bank Speaks - We Respond
Jim Shultz & Tom Kruse, The Democracy Center ~ June 6, 2000
Summary: In early May, Christopher Neal, the World Bank's External Affairs Officer Latin America & the Caribbean, wrote to us to complain about inaccuracies in our reporting on the Cochabamba water protests and the World Bank's role.
This exchange of letters includes Mr. Neal's message and our response.
THE WORLD BANK'S LETTER TO US
Dear Mr. Schultz & Mr. Kruse Americas.Org website
We've received a few media calls prompted by incorrect information on your website under the title "Globalization and War for Water in Bolivia". Your web articles erroneously suggest that the World Bank supported the recent Cochabamba water privatization project, in which the government of Bolivia accepted an offer from Consorcio Aguas de Tunari. In fact, the World Bank advised the government against proceeding with the privatization plan and water tariff increases that sparked tragic violence in Cochabamba last month.
Bolivian governments and the private sector have studied alternatives to increase water supply and expand water service in Cochabamba for more than 20 years. In 1997, the Bolivians asked the World Bank to analyze a water project, called Misicuni, whose $252-million financing requirement led to the tariff hike, and compare it with another proposal, known as the Corani Project. The Bank advised against proceeding with the Misicuni project, as our analysis was that neither the public nor the government could afford its high price tag. Instead, the Bank favored the alternative project, known as Corani, as offering a lower-cost, fully private-financed option under which no tariff increases would have been permitted for at least five years.
This note is to request that you correct the misleading information about the Bank's role in the Bolivian water sector at the earliest opportunity. I would also be most appreciative if you would contact me to obtain more information about the Bank's role, so that you can inform your readers more accurately about the World Bank's acitivities. The Bank is working on many fronts to resolve the global water crisis. More than a billion of the world's people do not have access to clean, safe water. Three billion don't have adequate sanitation. A recent report by the World Bank-sponsored World Commission on Water estimates that demand for water will rise by 40 percent over the next 20 years.
Meanwhile, much water is wasted. In many countries, factories, farmers and middle-class consumers enjoy subsidies that shift the burden of paying for the water they use --- and often waste --- to the government. These costs leave governments unable to finance the water pipes, pumps, sewers and tunnels so urgently needed by the poor in the urban shantytowns and small rural farms of the developing world. Largely as a result of this, millions die each year from water-related diseases.
The challenge we face is finding the resources needed to provide clean water and sanitation for everyone. Many countries' public sectors do not have the money or the expertise needed to deliver safe water to all their citizens. Consequently, they look to the private sector to build, maintain and manage water systems.
This has prompted opposition from those who, apparently, believe that public sector ownership is the only appropriate model for water service delivery. Others, including the World Bank, believe that shutting the private sector out of water services altogether will prevent the poor from gaining access to the water they need. That's why the Bank is working with governments to involve the private sector in water delivery.
But there is an essential caveat. Governments need to set up the regulatory frameworks needed to ensure that a monopoly private provider delivers water at an affordable price to consumers. The Bank is helping many of them do that. This means governments negotiate with the private providers where and what kinds of water investments are made. They also provide subsidies targeted at those who need them, namely the poor. In Santiago, Chile, for example, the municipal government introduced a 'water stamps' program that covers part of the cost of water for low-income residents. The result is that more people have access to water, and water use is more efficient.
External Affairs Officer Latin America & the Caribbean
The World Bank Room I 8 - 178 1818 H Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20433 Email: cneal1@worldbank.org Phone: (202) 473-7229 FAX: (202) 522-3698
OUR RESPONSE TO THE WORLD BANK
Christopher Neal External Affairs Officer Latin America & the Caribbean The World Bank (via e-mail)
Dear Mr. Neal, This letter is in response to your May 10 e-mail to us regarding the recent civic uprisings over water prices and water privatization here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Please forgive our delay in responding. We were both traveling outside the country when your message arrived. We appreciate you taking time to represent the World Bank's official view on the events that happened here. We assume that you are a person of goodwill whose concern for the poor is genuine. However, as residents of Cochabamba we must say that your representation of the World Bank's role in the tragedy that occurred here is seriously incomplete.
As you well know, following the completion of water privatization here last January, the people of this valley saw their water bills climb by double and more. To seek recourse they were forced to shut down their city for a week, and to endure government tear gas, bullets, and repression which left a 17 year old boy dead and more than 100 others injured. While the World Bank may wish it were otherwise, the events that set this tragedy in motion lead directly back to the Bank and its heavy handed privitization policy in Bolivia.
First, despite your statement that the World Bank, "advised the government against proceeding with the privatization plan and water tariff increases, the facts are absolutely clear that the World Bank relentlessly forced privatization of the water system, over the clear objections of many Bolivian citizens and leaders. In February 1996 the World Bank told Cochabamba's mayor that unless it privatized its water system the city could forget receiving any additional World Bank assistance for local water development. In July 1997 World Bank officials told Bolivian President, Gonzalo Sánchez de Losada, during meetings in Washington, that the privatization of the Cochabamba water system was also a pre-condition of receiving international debt relief from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and others.
Far from opposing privatization, the World Bank used every coercive power at its disposal to force water privatization on the people of Cochabamba. The process that resulted was carried out in a shroud of secrecy, with just one bidder, and by a government completely unequipped to adequately negotiate with or regulate a private monopoly.
Second, in your letter you place the blame for the water rate hikes entirely on the Misicuni dam project, which you explain was vigorously opposed by the Bank. We agree that the Bank's opposition to the dam is well-documented, and we have never said otherwise in any forum. In fact, the Bank's doubts about the project are shared by many here in Bolivia, despite the insistence by many local interests the project move forward. Yet, while you at the Bank argued the Misicuni project was absurd and overpriced, at no time did you disapprove of the tariff increases; just the opposite. The Bank insisted on price increases to cover costs of the Misicuni project despite knowing the project is commercially unjustifiable. The Bank staff wrote - in bold type - in its June 14, 1999 "Bolivia: Public Expenditure Review", that "No public subsidies should be given to ameliorate the increases in water tariffs in Cochabamba&ldots;" By issuing that command to the Bolivian government, did you expect any result other than the public erruptions that occured here?
Third, the Misicuni project was clearly not the sole reason for the enormous rate hikes forced on people here. World Bank debt also played a key role. International Waters Limited and the Bechtel Corporation, the owners of the company that implemented the rate increases, claim that the Misicuni project was responsible for well-less than half of the increases (see April 25 letter from Mr. Didier Quint to Jim Shultz posted at www.Bechtel.com). Those increases were also forced by the company's demand for a guaranteed profit (an average 16% per year, according to their contract) and by huge foreign debts agreed to by the Bolivian government - including millions owed to the World Bank. The World Bank made these loans to a public enterprise in which it evidently had no confience whatsoever, yet, nevertheless, it expects local water users to now pay off that debt in the form of higher water prices.
Fourth, another reason that rate hikes were so high, especially for the poor, is the World Bank's insistence that all of the operating and maintenance and project costs be born entirely through water tariffs, with no opportunity for public subsidies. In a policy dictated with absolutely no input from the people actually affected, the World Bank made it abundantly clear to the Bolivian government that Cochabamba water users should pay whatever the market dictates. The World Bank seems driven by an economic theory that water prices for the poor must be kept high in order to keep families from wasting water. In addition to your statements, that theory was also articulated by World Bank director James Wolfensohn, when asked directly about Cochabamba in an April news conference in Washington. Mr. Wolfenshohn explained that people in Bolivia and elsewhere would waste water unless there was a "proper system of charging," adding, "It's just a fact that if you give public services away, I think everyone would agree that that does lead to certain waste." In the world where clothes washers, dishwashers, water heaters, and automatic sprinkler systems are commonplace, perhaps using elevated prices to discourage waste makes sense. Here, however, families own none of those luxuries. Most have water entering their home for an hour every day or two. Market pricing for water here in Cochabamba goes well beyond discouraging waste. It threatens to put water entirely out of reach. It is no surprise that the end result of World Bank policy was the bloody fiasco that occurred here in April. To have demanded privatization under such conditions makes the Bank directly complicit in what followed. You can not send a boulder racing down a mountain side and then claim no responsibility for the damage caused when it hits its target. Let us be clear. We are not apologists for poorly run public enterprises. The former public water system was plagued by corruption and mismanagement. We are working closely with civic groups here in their effort to construct a public water system that is efficient and well-administered. Nor are we opposed to private investment and involvement in public services such as water. Clearly, private investment is critical in a poor country such as Bolivia.
The heavy-handed and anti-democratic approach to forced privitization that the World Bank implemented here is precisely the kind of policy that has led to the recent wave of international protest against the Bank. If the World Bank wants to be of genuine assistance in Cochabamba it should begin by looking at the debt it holds over water users’ heads, and negotiate forgiveness of that debt in exchange for water rates which the poor can afford. Rather than pursue its relentless demand for privatization, the World Bank should support genuine efforts to create well-run, well-financed public systems that allow local residents to keep control of their water. Finally, we would be delighted to invite you to come to Cochabamba. This would be an opportunity for you to bring in to the public light what the World Bank intended with its demand for privatization. Such a visit, by giving you an opportunity to hear from those directly affected, would also expand your understanding of what led to the violent rejection of water privatization. Sincerely,
Jim Shultz and Tom Kruse
Cochabamba, Bolivia
END
Behind The New Globalization Protests Lies An Old Demand, Democracy
Jim Shultz, Director, The Democracy Center ~ May 4
Watching coverage of the protests in Washington DC last month it would be easy to have the reaction, "Now what is this all about?" For most people the names World Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Trade Organization are signals to change the channel or move on to something a little closer to home. However, what erupted in Seattle last December and marched on to Washington in April is not some passing fancy. It is, in fact, the start of an important, worldwide political movement and, while its slogans and messages may still be rough, the issues that movement raises are among the most important we will face for much of the new century.
Within the U.S. much of the last century was marked by one citizen effort after another aimed at curtailing the abuses and excesses of corporations and the marketplace - child labor laws, the regulation of monopolies, the right to organize unions, minimum wage laws, consumer protection, environmental protection, and more. All these have been important steps forward in U.S. economic life. Today, as the economy turns more and more global by the week, individual nations are becoming less and less able to set such rules.
Steadily, the economic decisions that affect our daily lives are leaving the hands of governments we elect and falling into the arms of multinational corporations and global economic institutions that we do not. The movement we saw being born in the streets of Seattle and Washington is an echo of all those same fights for economic justice, only this time the issues and the battles have gone global.
As thousands of students, working people, environmentalists and others were preparing to gather in Washington, from far off Bolivia came a powerful example of what that protest was about. Bolivia, in many ways, is the poster child for what happens when a poor country is left to the whims of global economic planners. This little-thought-of land of high mountains and lush jungles is saddled with a huge international debt which benefited mainly the wealthy but now bears down on mainly the poor. The cost of paying the annual interest on that debt cuts deeply into revenues that could be used for health, housing or education. Similarly, at the command of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Bolivian government is about to change the national labor laws, weakening the right to organize unions and other worker protections.
Then there is the issue of "privatization". For years the World Bank has pressed hard on poor countries like Bolivia to sell off their public enterprises to international investors. Fearful of losing access to World Bank credit, the Bolivian government has eagerly complied. One by one it sold off the national airline, the train system, and electric utilities. Last year it traded away the public water system in Cochabamba, a city of more than half a million. In a secretive, one-bidder deal, a 40 year lease was sold to a subsidiary of San Francisco-based Bechtel Enterprises.
It took little time to understand what all this elaborate global economics meant to the mostly-poor families who live here. Before Bechtel's subsidiary even finished hoisting its new logo over local offices, it hit local water users with rates of double and more. Franz Pedrazas, who supports his family driving his taxi 12 hours a day, seven days a week, had his rates doubled, an increase equal to what he makes in a day. Even in the U.S. it seems unlikely that consumers would take calmly a utility increase equal to a day's pay. Cochabambinos, many earning a minimum wage of less that $60 per month, reacted with unity. They shut down their city with a one week general strike and took to the streets to demanding water rates they could afford and democratic control of the water system.
The reaction of the government, the corporation, and the World Bank was a case study of the New World Order. Bolivia's President, Hugo Banzer (who ruled the country as dictator for most of the 1970s) declared a "state of emergency", pulled the plug on radio stations, sent soldiers into the street (killing a 17 year old boy and injuring hundreds more) and tried to blame the water protests on "narcotraffickers". Bechtel's subsidiary refused to leave, lied about how much they had increased water prices, and hid behind the government's repression. World Bank director, James Wolfensohn, asked about the Bolivian water uprising at a Washington news conference, defended the Bank's price increase policy with cool, clueless economic theory. "It's just a fact that if you give public services away," said the $300,000 per year Bank head, "that does lead to certain waste."
In Cochabamba the protests ended in victory. Amidst a flurry of finger pointing between Bechtel and the Banzer government, the corporation fled from its offices and turned its attention to trying to snatch a $12 million exit payment. The leader of the water protests, Oscar Olivera, accepted an invitation to come to Washington where global justice advocates were just beginning to gather. Standing next to him in the middle of the Washington march, I asked the 45 year old machinist what he thought of the nation's capital. "It looks just like Cochabamba," he told me, "young people and police everywhere."
It was, in fact, the young people, that gave real life to these twin protests on opposite sides of the equator. Beneath the economics, the slogans, the street confrontations and the rest, young people in Bolivia and in the U.S. smelled what the young always notice first, the arrogance of power. It is true that setting the rules for the new global economy will not be easy and the issues are not all so simple. Yet beneath it all there is once principle that is simple. People, regular people who work for a living, want a say in the decisions that shape their economic futures. They believe that these decisions should not be simply left to the arrogant commands of Banzer, Bechtel, the World Bank, or the IMF. The issue in the streets of Cochabamba and Washington last month was an old one - democracy.
END
"Water For Life": A Travel Journal
By Manuel Rojas ~ July 29
Wednesday, Jun 21, I was eating lunch, everything was ready, even the small details, I had my airline ticket, the television channel was reporting on the most important events that had happened the morning past. The information that the television channel concentrated on was important, the speaker emphasized that a film team from USA was in Cochabamba to make a documentary film about the big social movement which took place in the city in the valley at the beginning of this year.
The picture on the screen of Ravi Khanna and Sally Hanlon (translating) gave me the concrete information, the team was in Bolivia to gather the information that couldn't be gotten in other ways. I remember the words of an old journalist, who had been my teacher at the journalist school, "sometimes the people are not prepared to get the truth because it can destabalize the whole society". I never accepted that, I think that society has a right to know the truth, even if it can damage some, but I'm positive that it will help the society the long-term.
I was also very happy to know that everything was beginning to work for us who have been waiting for more than a month for this moment. It took more then a month for Ravi to get the visa to come to Bolivia, nobody has a clear idea why it took so long for the embassy and for the Bolivian Foreign Ministry to give the visa to Ravi. But finally in the end the team was in Cochabamba.
Ravi Khanna, the man that I met just one and half month ago had invited me to join the group, when we had been discussing the situation of the Urus tribe, who had been so much affected by the situation of the 70 thousand barrels oil spilled at the Desaguadero river.
It was very generous for Ravi to make this invitation to me, at the moment I was preparing my trip to Europe where my exhibition about the Andes People was taking place in Hanover - Germany. It was important for me to be in Europe, but it was much more important to join the film team, that was going to be very important for finally knowing the truth about what happened in Cochabamba.
First time I saw Ravi I got the impression that he was a person who knew what he was doing, not only with the film, but with his life. I told him what I saw on the television before I left La Paz, and even though I didn't like the way our common friends had done the press conference I was very glad to see him, Sheila, and Sally.
Next morning at 8:30 we met the other persons who where going to join us in Cochabamba, immediately we went to the high Valley of Cochabamba, to visit the areas that are close to the swamps, and the places that had been very much affected by the law that the Bolivian State wanted to put in practice, to make the peasants pay for the water they had owned generation after generation without any help from the government. We visited also the dam, Angostura, where some technicians assure the water problem of Cochabamba starts.
When we met the courageous people who are not easily going to accept a situation that the transnational companies wants the people to accept, I was positive that the situation was more complicated. The government wants the public opinion to be shaped by the information the mass media was given.
That day and the next day were very important for us because we had the version of the people who had been acting during those very difficult days, we had been also visiting places at the low valley, where the peasants had the same attitude , they confirmed my impression, they were very much positive that the water was the beginning of theirs lives and they were going to defend the water even with their own lives.
Saturday the 24 we had being visiting the radio stations in town that was also fighting for the water in those difficult days that paralyzed the state of Cochabamba department. One was Radio Pio XII and the other was Radio La Cancha.
Sunday the 25 we met the young people who were called the Water Warriors. We went to visit different places where the struggle took place, especially downtown where the warriors showed us where they had being during that time, I could imagine how seriously the entire population was acting, defending the right to have water, but not at the price the transnationals wanted the people to pay. We also could see where the young person Victor Hugo Daza was killed by the army who had shot him with live ammunition. The people didn't have weapons, they used only their own hands or stones.
Monday the 26 we traveled to Oruro, after the mission in Cochabamba went very well, I was very satisfied by the results we got there.
Thursday the 27 we were in Oruro, the first idea we got was to visit the Pastoral Social, especially to visit the Oruro bishop, Mons. Saenz. And we got the invitation to visit the pastoral, the intention was to interview the persons who had some things to do with the indigenous population. At the Pastoral Social we got the information that was there, a person who had been working with the Urus ethnic group who are spread throughout the whole altiplano which raises from 3.600 mts. o.s. to 4.100 that is the altitude of Oruro town.
We interviewed there a person, he presented himself as the President of the entire Uru Nation, his name is Juan Condori Mamani. Juan didn't want to say very much about the catastrophic situation the people were under after the oil spill took place in January 30 the present year.
The facts were like this: Sunday the 30 of January, a French investigator could notice that something very dangerous had happened in Desaguadero River, immediately he saw the black of the oil in the water, he contacted the police. The policeman who was at that place didn't have any form to contact his superiors therefore he waited until Monday the 31, and the his superiors didn't know what to do under such a situation.
The company who owns the Bolivian oil transport a month ago was alerted by the authorities of the Environment Ministry of Bolivia that the pipeline in different places were very old and needed replacement. The company didn't do anything to replace the pipelines. The water of the river this year was very high, and it made a hole in the pipeline and through this hole 75 thousand barrels of oil came to the river.
Consequences of that fact are not serious taken in consideration yet, but the oil went to the river to different lakes, especially to the Poopó lake and to the Uru - uro lake, that is connected by different rivers, where the oil had affected.
The company immediately started the works to clean the river Desaguadero, and at the beginning the Company Transredes, who is the representative for the Enron Oil Co. and Shell, transnational companies which formed now a big transnational . They said to the mass media in Bolivia that only 4 thousand barrels were spilled, but they knew that it was 60 barrels, they show at the television that they had been cleaning and had been using more then 4 millions dollars in that goal.
The man we met at Pastoral Social, Juan Condori Mamami, he didn't want to tell very much, because he said he didn't have the information to give a concrete idea. The director of The Pastoral Social, which is an institution that belongs to the Catholic Bishop of Oruro, recommended us to speak with an anthropologist who had being working with the population of that area for very many years. We waited for Orlando Acosta, the anthropologist, to come in.
At the evening when he came to the office, after we had visited Poopó and had interviewed a member of the Poopó local Communal Council, Mary, so we could have an interview with Oralando Acosta, he was very nervous and all the information he gave us was very well known, it was the same information we got by the media, I got the impression that he had a deal with the company Transredes. One very important thing he mentioned was that the Urus people had to make a deal or compromise with the company. When we asked that company who had lawyers and personnel for interpreting the situations favorable to the company, how they could get favorable treatment in compromises. The answer was, "They have to learn to do by themselves."
In the afternoon Ravi decide we should go to the place was mentioned by Tamara that was important we should visit. We had a problem to go to the place close to Wary, where part of the ethnic group Uru is living, it was a route blockaded in that area because of other ethnic groups fighting there, that area is one of the poorest regions of the world.
We make one appointment with Mary to visit them the next day, which we have done, we ask them to show us where the most affected part of the lake was, we spent the whole morning in one trip to go to the lake Uru, but we couldn't get to that place but we were very close to that. We decide to meet some of the leaders of the indigenous population nearby Poopó village next day.
That night Winston Moore, who present himself as a director of PR of the Transredes company, he came to visit us at the hotel, we didn't have an appointment with him, but he just came and invited us to visit the office of Transredes and to talk with him.
The 29 of June we went to Poopó again, the appointment was at 10 a.m. The members of the local Council were not there, but leaders of the indigenous of the region were waiting for us. We took both persons with us Mr. Esteban and Mr. X, we went all together to visit some of the persons who were living near to the river where the problem was.
My impression is that day we could meet the dimension of the tragedy why these people were suffering, we saw how the animals were dying by thirst and by hunger. It was the best journey in which we got a realistic idea about all the tragedy of those persons.
In the afternoon we went to visit the company offices. We expected to meet only one person, but at the office were ten persons and the Uru representative, that is how he presented himself, Juan Condori Mamani, who had the mission to explain to us how positive the company was acting in that area, and how kind they were with the URU Indians. The meeting was completely filmed, not only by us, but by the persons of the Transredes company.
We had another appointment to visit the lawyer Eduardo Alessandri who represents in Oruro the human rights organization and who had also contacted the environment organization FOBOMADE, he was the man who gave to us the most concrete information about what was happening in reality in the region. He explained to us the way Transredes was acting, trying to make deals with some of the communities but not with all the communities, and also the way that the company had not been covering all the compromises in theory they had agree to do.
Next day at 9 a.m. we met the bishop of Oruro, and we made also an interview with him. At once I took the bus to La Paz, because I had a speech in El Alto, and I had to be there.
When I was traveling by bus I had an idea, what I had been doing was great, I was very lucky to have participated in such trip and have all the information, the compromise with myself was to try to give this information to all the organizations and people I could, and try to make them understand how the situation is there where so many persons have so many difficulties and they are not getting any kind of help.
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Bolivia‘s Indigenous People Gather in La Paz to Reshape National Policies
Cidob ~ July 4
An historic moment is now unfolding in Bolivia. Indigenous groups from across the country have gathered to finalize a proposal to radically reshape national policies and take part in direct negotiations with the government this week. It is very likely that negotiations will turn out unfavorably and they will vote to begin a massive month long 300 mile march from the lowland city of Santa Cruz to the highland city of La Paz.
Should this occur, they will need support in all forms, whether it be helping with their website from afar, coming to march, providing financial support, food, media outreach or the like. If you can help in any way, please contact Cidob, http://www.cidob.f2s.com, http://www.paraba.f2s.com, and http://www.oyendu.f2s.com or contact Derrick Hindery Tel: 011-591-16-82490/011-591-3-477050.
For Immediate Release: July 4, 2000
Contacts: Derrick Hindery 011-591-16-82490/ 011-591-3-477050 Email: dhindery7@hotmail.com Jordi Beneria Surkin 011-591-10-12326
History in the Making as Bolivian Indigenous Peoples Initiate Direct Negotiations to Radically Restructure Government Policies
Santa Cruz, Bolivia - Today more than 350 representatives from the 34 indigenous groups in the Bolivian lowlands will initiate an historic National Assembly to reach final agreement on their proposal to overhaul the Bolivian constitution and national policies in preparation for dialogue and direct negotiations with the national government later this week.
"Our dialogue with the government is of national interest. There is social discontent in the country, and these negotiations represent an opportunity for a new form of civil society" (Marcial Fabricano, Vice-President of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), 7-3-2000).
After fifteen years of democratization and economic reform, indigenous peoples of Bolivia still face devastating socio-economic inequities and environmental degradation. In this context, the central objective of negotiations with the government is to improve their own lot and engender a more just, equitable and multicultural nation.
Tomorrow, indigenous representatives will continue prioritizing their proposal and developing strategies of negotiation. On Wednesday and Thursday, the acting President of Bolivia, Tuto Quiroga and government ministers will initiate direct negotiations with the indigenous peoples. During negotiations, representatives of the major political parties, non-governmental organizations, representatives of embassies and international development agencies, churches, unions, and grassroots organizations will be present to voice their opinions and act as outside observers.
If negotiations do not produce positive results, on July 7th representatives of the 34 lowland indigenous groups will vote on whether to initiate a month long massive march from Santa Cruz to La Paz in an effort to place greater pressure on the government. Peasant and colonist organizations as well as other sectors have already expressed their willingness to participate in the mobilization, should it occur.
For more information or to obtain high resolution digital photographs of the event see CIDOB's web sites at http://www.cidob.f2s.com, http://www.paraba.f2s.com, and http://www.oyendu.f2s.com.
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Brutal Attacks On Bolivian Immigrants
By Marcela Valente (IPS) ~ May 24
The robberies of three Bolivian families living in Argentina have shaken local rights groups and the immigrant community due to the particularly brutal nature of the attacks, in which the victims -- men, women and children -- were bound, tortured and beaten for two hours.
Prosecutor Juan José Maraggi said he was shocked by the violence of the 13 masked assailants -- two of whom were reportedly women -- who broke into the homes of three families in the town of Campana in Buenos Aires province late yesterday.
The assailants tied up their victims and tortured them with electric shocks to the testicles and legs. One of the victims was beaten with a hatchet.
The aggressors stole the families' money, watches, clothing and other belongings that turned up later in a stolen vehicle.
Two suspects, local residents of Merlo, a town not far from Campana, were arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, aggravated deprivation of liberty, torture, resisting authority and assault and battery.
Prosecutor Maraggi said similar attacks had occurred but that fear had stopped the victims -- most of whom were undocumented immigrants -- from filing complaints. "We find out because the hospitals report the admission of a Bolivian patient who has been beaten, but the victims don't explain what happened," he said.
"These people are very timid, they find it hard to speak out and defend their rights," said Maraggi. "And those who don't have documents are even more vulnerable."
Last year, Maraggi handled a case in which a 25-year-old Bolivian man was beaten to death for refusing to pay an illegal "toll" charged by local residents to outsiders wishing to pass through their neighborhoods.
Argentina has a long history of immigration, mainly from Europe. But in the past few decades, the decline in immigration from Europe has made the presence of immigrants from other Latin American countries like Bolivia or Peru more noticeable, even though there has been no actual rise in the influx of nationals from neighboring countries in absolute terms.
The total number of immigrants from neighboring countries stands at less than a million in this country of 37 million, and the number of immigrants has even dropped in recent years due to Argentina's high level of unemployment, which currently stands at around 15 percent.
The Buenos Aires-based International Organization of Migration (IOM) issues periodic reports on the scant impact that immigrants actually have on the local labor market, pointing out that they tend to take jobs in which Argentine nationals are not even interested.
The Bolivian families attacked in Campana work as caretakers on farms belonging to local residents who live in the city, said Maraggi. They did not "steal" work from anyone, because they took difficult jobs that few people would have accepted. They get up at five in the morning and work until ten at night, the prosecutor added.
Juana Waitel, with the Center for Legal and Social Studies, told IPS that Bolivian nationals had complained of an increase in attacks since the publication by a weekly paper of a report on immigration that was criticised as "xenophobic."
"They threaten to burn their homes, they attack them in the streets, they tell them to 'go home'. I never thought a publication could trigger so much contained violence and hatred against immigrants," said Waitel, who expressed outrage over yesterday's brutal attacks.
The article, headlined "The Silent Invasion," was published in April by La Primera de la Semana, triggering a lawsuit on discrimination charges by associations of civil society.
Waitel said the article manipulated statistics and provided false data. It claimed, for example, that in some public schools, 80 percent of students were of Bolivian or Peruvian origin, a statistic that was refuted by education authorities. The authors also described Bolivians and Peruvians as "smelly" and "dirty."
In a report released early this year, the Center for Legal and Social Studies said the lack of an updated law on immigration and government persecution of immigrants -- including derogatory and false remarks by high-ranking officials -- had made 1999 the worst year for foreign nationals living in Argentina.
For the past few years, immigration experts have been calling for a new law to replace the existing one -- passed during the 1976-83 military dictatorship and still on the books -- which virtually orders authorities to treat immigrants as criminals.
Former president Carlos Menem (1989-99) pinned the blame for rising crime and unemployment rates on immigrants, while former director of migration Hugo Franco asserted that foreign nationals were responsible for 60 percent of the crimes committed in Buenos Aires -- a statistic that was later refuted by the federal police.
The mainstream media has also begun to echo the increasingly widespread prejudice, referring to suspects by their nationality, with headlines like "Gang of Peruvians Steals Phone Lines," or "Bolivian Exploiters," said Waitel.
Ricardo Roca Sánchez, the owner of the daily Vocero Boliviano, said the rise in aggression against immigrants who are blamed for taking jobs away from Argentine nationals is real. "The climate is one of discrimination towards us, from the first moment they see our faces," he said.
A local polling firm, the Center of Studies for the New Majority, carried out a survey in April designed to gauge the "self-perception" of Bolivians living in Argentina. A full 65 percent of respondents said they felt "unsafe" here, and 57 percent said they had felt discrimination at some point.
The respondents felt that the main reason for that discrimination was their physical features, which are similar to those of Argentine nationals living in the northwest -- in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta -- where the indigenous influence has far outweighed the European influence.
However, most of the respondents said they had been living in Argentina for at least six years, and that despite everything they felt "grateful" and "happy" to live here, and desired to stay here and "progress."
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Call To Citizens to Support Threatened Indigenous Group
Tamara Stenn ~ May 8
School for International Training student, Tamara Stenn is inviting the public to help with the formation of "Friends of Poopo," a citizen advocacy group which supports indigenous people affected by a recent oil spill in Bolivia, South America. Friends of Poopo’s immediate focus is the 5,000 year old Uru Morato who have had their food source destroyed by the oil spill and are now in serious danger of extinction.
The oil pipeline operated by US/Dutch owned Transredes erupted on February 4, 2000, in the Bolivian altiplano region of Oruro and for 18-32 hours, pumped 29,000 barrels of refined crude oil into the Desaguadero River. The Desaguadero feeds into Lakes Uru Uru and Poopo where many indigenous groups - including the Uru Morato - live, farm, and hunt.
Two months after the oil spill, on April 4th, the Uru Murato were forced by pending starvation from the loss of their life sustaining waterfowl and fish, to leave their ancestral lands at the southern shores of Lake Poopo and march 135 kilometers to the city of Oruro. There they expected to meet with Transredes authorities and government officials to discuss the condition of Lake Poopo and secure a guarantee that the lake would be restored to its original state and that the community would be supplied with food in the interim.
German Choque, Representative of the Uru Morato declared, "until the ultimate consequences, we need to find a solution. We need a guarantee." Later Choque voiced his fear that the group was dying. Once a powerful numerous people, now the Uru Morato number just 600. Living only by hunting waterfowl and fishing, the Uru Murato are completely dependent on Lake Poopo for their survival.
"The lake has died and there is no life since the oil spill," said a Uru Morato woman.
When the Uru Morato approached the city of Oruro, April 5th, Transredes authorities stopped the group and offered them money to return to their ancestral lands. The group refused the offer and continued on to the government offices where they were scheduled to meet with Transredes and Bolivian authorities. Transredes claimed that the remote parts of Lake Poopo where the Uru Morato live were not contaminated by the oil spill but would not guarantee that. The meeting ended without the Uru Morato receiving any type of help, food or guarantee from Transredes or the Bolivian authorities.
The group "with tears in their eyes" as reported the national newspaper, Presencia, left the city empty handed to return to their ancestral lands. Today the Uru Morato wait on these lands for help. They are without electricity, telephone or mail service. Surrounded by such isolation, it is very easy for Transredes and other authorities to forget their plight. Meanwhile the ducks, geese, flamingos and other water fowl are gone, the fish dead, and the struggling community is facing the question of their own survival.
Two weeks ago, Bolivian journalist, Manual Rojas, reported a similar situation with the Uru of Irohito located at the north of Lake Poopo. There they were also experiencing the same problems as their cousins in the south - no birds or fish to eat. They too are very fearful of losing their culture, land and history and only want their lake to be restored to "how it was before."
Stenn, met with the Uru Morato and Bolivian authorities April 4th while in Bolivia investigating the impact of the oil spill on the rural indigenous of Poopo. Due to the Uru Morato’s isolation, Choque gave Stenn the authority to represent the group in the US.
Today Stenn is working to develop further dialog between the Uru Morato, Bolivian authorities and Transredes, put pressure on Transredes to take responsibility for all oil spill damages, and is forming a citizens advocacy group, "Friends of Poopo." For more information contact Stenn at 802-258-3421.
BACKGROUND
The February pipeline eruption prompted the Bolivian Environmental Deputy, Neyza Roca, to charge Transredes (owned by the Royal Dutch Shell Group and US Enron) with gross negligence in their pipeline operations. International and national environmental organizations such as the Bolivian Forum for Environment and Development (FOBOMADE), LIDEMA, Amazon Watch, and the Institute of Ecology from the San Andres University of Bolivia, traveled to the effected region to oversee the cleanup and report on environmental damages.
In a March 27th press conference in New Orleans, FOBOMADE and Amazon Watch requested that the Inter-American Development bank reevaluate its funding of future projects with Transredes. "Several cases of negligence from Shell and Enron in Bolivia demonstrate that the IDB should not finance these irresponsible corporations," said Patricia Molina, a representative of FOBOMADE. The groups also noted the following:
Transredes only began to respond to the oil spill eight days after it began even though the company's extensive public relations campaign began immediately to downplay this disaster. Concurrently, the company is maintaining a campaign of disinformation, refusing to provide data about the spill volume and composition of the crude, which is necessary to evaluate the extent of contamination.
Although Transredes claimed to have brought 200 North American specialists to apply high technology, local monitoring groups report the cleaning process has consisted of manual collection in plastic bags, using local people. The bags have been transferred to highly permeable soils in the Pumping Station in Sica Sica and are being decomposed by the sun, risking leakage into this region's important aquifer.
For More Information on the Enron Corp. Also Read:
Greenbacks and Election Blues: The Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between Enron CEO Ken Lay and the Republican Contender, By Pratap Chatterjee, Special to Corporate Watch
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