Weekly Report - 9 December 2003
BOLIVIA: Mesa's `truce' starts crumbling
The 90-day truce granted to President Carlos Mesa by peasant and social organisations when he took office is approaching the two-thirds point, and already it is falling apart. Late November and early December witnessed a spate of protest actions in various parts of the country, most of them signalling impatience with what is perceived as government inaction.
Perhaps most significant was the decision by the landless peasants' movement, MST, to seize 20 farms they claim had been left lying idle. They specifically cited the government's delay in responding to their demands as the motive for their action. Under President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, MST squats had been forcibly evicted. The current string of seizures appears to be a probe to gauge the Mesa government's response.
In what appears to be an unconnected episode, peasant unions in south-central Potosí have announced that they will start blocking highways if the government fails to satisfy their demands.
In the Chapare, radical coca growers seem to be tiring of the calls for restraint by their leader, Evo Morales. Ambushes of the joint army-police eradication squads have resumed. On 29 November an explosive device was detonated as a patrol passed, killing one agent of the FELCN, the special antinarcotics forces, injuring five soldiers and wrecking an army truck. On 4 December, another agent was killed when his unit came under heavy gunfire.
These are revivals of protest actions that had begun before the change of government. The past couple of weeks, however, have also seen the emergence of others. The La Paz-Cochabamba highway, frequently targeted by the cocaleros, was blocked in early December by protesters from Aiquile, Totora and Mizque, demanding US$2.3m in government aid to rebuild the areas devastated by an earthquake in 1998.
In central La Paz, hundreds of relatives of those killed or injured in the September-October protests turned up in front of government house to demand an increase in the compensation offered by the government.
Patience to be stretched further
Against this backdrop, it seems that President Mesa is offering no immediate action. Evo Morales, after meeting Mesa in his capacity as leader of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), reported that the President had announced:
Perhaps most significant was the decision by the landless peasants' movement, MST, to seize 20 farms they claim had been left lying idle. They specifically cited the government's delay in responding to their demands as the motive for their action. Under President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, MST squats had been forcibly evicted. The current string of seizures appears to be a probe to gauge the Mesa government's response.
In what appears to be an unconnected episode, peasant unions in south-central Potosí have announced that they will start blocking highways if the government fails to satisfy their demands.
In the Chapare, radical coca growers seem to be tiring of the calls for restraint by their leader, Evo Morales. Ambushes of the joint army-police eradication squads have resumed. On 29 November an explosive device was detonated as a patrol passed, killing one agent of the FELCN, the special antinarcotics forces, injuring five soldiers and wrecking an army truck. On 4 December, another agent was killed when his unit came under heavy gunfire.
These are revivals of protest actions that had begun before the change of government. The past couple of weeks, however, have also seen the emergence of others. The La Paz-Cochabamba highway, frequently targeted by the cocaleros, was blocked in early December by protesters from Aiquile, Totora and Mizque, demanding US$2.3m in government aid to rebuild the areas devastated by an earthquake in 1998.
In central La Paz, hundreds of relatives of those killed or injured in the September-October protests turned up in front of government house to demand an increase in the compensation offered by the government.
Patience to be stretched further
Against this backdrop, it seems that President Mesa is offering no immediate action. Evo Morales, after meeting Mesa in his capacity as leader of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), reported that the President had announced:
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