The A-B-C Of
Popular Revolt
Or, How They Got Rid Of
The President In Bolivia
By Andrea Arenas Alípaz and Luis Gómez
The
Narco News Bulletin
19 October, 2003
It
wasnt a coup. It was the people.
And nobody, not
even Viceroy David Greenlee, could stop it.
Gonzalo Goni
Sánchez de Lozada had to resign from the Bolivian presidency
after weeks of popular mobilizations, for having massacred the people,
for lying and trying to hang on to power by all means necessary. Now,
vigilant and festive in the streets, the Bolivian people are the live
expression of a democracy constructed from below.
In these sentences,
kind readers, we will try to give you the clearest picture possible
of what has occured in this country where the people have rewritten
history...
A. Who and How
If Goni wants money, let him sell his wife, the women and
men of deep Bolivia Bronca began to chant two months ago.
It all began there: The sale of the countrys natural gas reserves,
a multi-billion dollar business deal that the administration of Gonzalo
Sánchez de Lozada tried to make with the multinationals Pacific
LNG and Sempra, passing a gas pipeline through Chile to the Pacific.
Not the multinationals, nor the Chileans, should benefit from
the Bolivian peoples wealth... We are going to recover our natural
resources, was what Congressman Evo Morales, leader of the coca
growers, said during a session of the national Congress.
Congressman Felipe
Quispe, national peasant farmer leader, began, in the first days of
September, a hunger strike demanding that the gas not be for sale. The
well-known El Mallku made it clear: This is a personal
business deal for Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada.
The national labor
union Central Obrera Boliva, or COB in its Spanish initials
led by Jaime Solares (a miner with 35 years of experience in the union
struggle), launched a series of marches in different regions of the
country... But the government, that didnt see any strength in
the mobilizations, thought they werent important... That was a
mistake.
After the first
blockades, confrontations, and deaths in the high plains of Sorata and
Warisata (the Athens of the Aymara world, because the first indigenous
school was built there), the movement from the towns and neighborhoods
snowballed. The leaders of the principle popular organizations began
to instruct their bases: radicalize the fight with pressure tactics.
On Wednesday, October
8th, in El Alto, with 800,000 residents, the majority indigenous migrants,
awoke semi-paralyzed. The neighborhood councils began to adhere to the
COBs action plan, based on an indefinite General Strike. That
set the course for the fight, because to paralye this city of poor people,
where the median age is 22 years old, is the same as leaving the City
of La Paz without resources, without workers, without communication,
and without food.
The massacres of
the following days brought determination to the people. El Alto resisted,
with sticks and stones, the rain of teargas and bullets. And nearly
all the cities of Western Bolivia then mobilized. While Goni insisted
that he would not go, because the Bolivian people were with him, the
general strike hit Cochabamba, Oruro was paralyzed, Potosí too,
and Sucre saw 25,000 people take to the streets day after day. In La
Paz, the residents came out to receive the marches from El Alto, and,
together, they took the Plaza of San Francisco various times, demanding
the exit of the gringo as they called the president,
raised in the United States, who spoke Spanish with a North American
accent, who had assassinated them...
B. What
Well, kind readers, first it was the gas and the call not to sell it
to the multinationals so that they could pump it out through Chile.
But when the massacres began, all the leaders joined together under
one banner: The resignation of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada. The
now ex -president called for a dialogue without conditions on Tuesday
morning and issued a decree to have a non-binding referendum regarding
the gas and hydrocarbons. But it was already too late. The snowball
was closing in on his house...
How can we
have talks with an assassin, said Felipe Quispe.
The people
know. The people think. The people decide. There will be no talks until
the president resigns, added Evo on Wednesday afternoon, from
the war room of the Coordinadora for the Defense of Gas
and Sovereignty, in Cochabamba. Via radio, the voice of the people began
to be heard, plus the voices of their leaders and some analysis committed
to the social movements: NO... he must go.
Yesterday morning,
thousands of coca growers from the Yungas region arrived in La Paz,
with hundreds of miners from the South. El Alto came down from the hills
again, into the city. An open meeting was held to decide what to do,
and the popular clamor was to refuse to move one step from the demand
that the president resign.
Never in the history
of the young (21-years-old) democracy of Bolivia had there been a demonstration
like this one: 200,000 people chanting, marching, deciding, from below,
the future of their country.
There had been other
factors that ended up placing Sánchez de Lozada off balance.
He was already thinking of causing a self-coup and maintaining
himself in power through the Armed Forces. On Thursday afternoon, intellectuals
and artists, journalists, and the middle and upper classes began to
join the opposition. The former Public Defender of the nation, Ana Maria
Romero, launched a hunger strike, also demanding his resignation, and,
together with her, six intellectuals and human rights defenders, and
a Catholic priest. Ten hours later, there were already 400 people in
the hunger strike from diverse points throughout Bolivia.
Goni, you
bastard, we want you to resign...
C. When
When the popular sectors of Bolivia march, there is common call and
response: One of the marchers asks the contingent: What do we
want? The response varies according to the demands of the mobilization.
The demonstrators begin to call out, When? And then the
response, Now! Today, there was no time for that... The
now of the popular revolt became reality. After killing
more than 80 Bolivian citizens, after wounding more than 400, and receiving
the rejection of more than 400 hunger strikers, Sánchez de Lozada
literally flew out of his post... toward Miami.
This day in history,
that feeds our last words on Narco News with happiness, was overwhelming.
It was 9:00 a.m.
and the envoys from the Brazil and Argentina governments entered the
presidential palace, which had become, since Monday, the office of the
entire administration. At 10:00 a.m., the mediators sent by Lula and
Kirchner headed from there to the house of Vice President Carlos Mesa,
who minutes before had bid Viceroy Greenlee goodbye. We will not
permit that democratic institutionality be violated, said the
viceroy, assuredly terrified at the panorama of Indiands that watched
him from afar. At 4:00 p.m. on this day, dozens of soldiers arrived
at the United States Embassy to protect it.
At 11:00 a.m. the
leader of the New Republican Force party (NFR, in its Spanish initials),
Manfred Reyes Villa, left the house of his ally, the president, and
announced to the national press that he was resigning from the governing
coalition of Sánchez de Lozada. While these events occured, the
Bolivian people continued marching and breaking all records (today,
there were 350,000 in the streets of La Paz, coming from everywhere).
Today, October 17,
2003, Bolivia celebrated two victories. One, the anniversary of the
nationalization of the Gulf Oil Company, and the other: the defeat of
the administration of Sánchez de Lozada. At midday, another march
began, by the coca growers of Yungas, arriving in La Paz from Calahahuira.
Simultaneously, another march, by 10,000 homesteaders, who broke the
military barricade and passed, triumphantly, onto the Gualberto Villarroel
Plaza.
Under such pressures
from the Bolivian people, and in spite of the fact that, hours earlier,
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, had declared to Telefé of Argentina
and our dear CNN, that he would not resign from the presidency,
he was already preparing his resignation. However, he did not show his
face in the halls of Congress. Instead, he sent a letter and a video.
The airport of the
Military College, located in the Southern Zone of La Paz, was utilized
to help Sánchez de Lozada and Defense Secretary Carlos Sánchez
Berzaín. Two small helicopters transported the ex-president and
their suitcases. Each time that someone came down off a helicopter,
the soldiers, their chests to the ground, pointed their guns at the
tumult of people gathered behind the fence: Some journalists recording
the scene, and women with placards that said, in English, Goni
Go Home!
Evo Morales told
Narco News, after the exit by the expresident, that this has been
a great triumph by the Bolivian people. He asked all the people to avoid
confrontations and said that we are beginning to recover democracy,
and that, we are going to defend the Constitution. He said
that Carlos Mesa will have to answer to the Bolivian people. The new
president will have to comply in the formation of a Constitutional Convention,
education, and health, and amending the hydrocarbons law, now that we
cant lose so many lives and still not win back our fuel...
In the same vein,
Morales corrected, to CNN, the accusations made by Sánchez de
Lozada, in which he was accused of having connections with the Colombian
FARC rebels and of being a narco-trafficker. The coca growers
leader denied all of it and said that Goni had always accused the popular
movements with words like those. And with the new president, we asked
Evo in a telephone interview after he spoke with various members of
the Commercial Media: What about the coca leaf?
He will have
to accept the fact that there will never be zero coca in
this country. We have sat down five times with the ex-president without
winning anything, and now we hope that things will change and that Mesa
will not subject himself to the imperialist interests of the United
States, was the firm response.
We, of the
Six Federations of the Tropic of Cochabamba, Evo challenged, will
not permit the situation to continue like it has. The issue that the
new president will have to analyze comes down to two words: forced eradication.
We know that the Ambassador (Greenlee) has been trying, since this morning,
to put pressure on Carlos Mesa. But we hope for a new policy, more open,
more human, that leaves behind the attacks and assassinations that we
have suffered for a long time
If he tries to repeat them, we will
go out into the streets again to force Mesa to leave.
Given that one of
the most combative parts of Bolivia is the Chapare, and that the new
president, a former leader of the La Paz journalists union, is,
as Miguel Pinto said, the new prisoner of the palace (the
palace of the people, of course), a colleague from Radio Erbol asked
Evo if he was thinking of becoming part of the administration. The Congressman
and coca grower replied: The MAS (his Movement Toward Socialism
party) doesnt seek jobs in the new government. It will not co-govern
with Carlos Mesa or anybody else because we have great differences in
culture and ideology.
During our telephone
interview, Evo confirmed that the MAS doesnt think about becoming
part of the administration. Gómez, he said, youve
already seen what the people can do. For what do we need the government?
If they threaten the coca leaf again, were sure the people will
come forward to defend it
" And before hanging up, because,
of course, he was quite busy, he asked me to send his regards to his
compañero Al Giordano
But his final words
were particularly special, in response to this question: Are the
issues of gas and the coca leaf related?
The defense
of our natural resources is an issue that affects the entire Bolivian
people. This is our wealth. And we should benefit from it. The same
for the coca leaf, because it has been part of our culture for millennia,
he said. Plan Colombia, said Evo, is no more than a plan to colonize
us. Im remembering that the Colombian and Gringo troops
dedicated to combating the narco are also guarding oil pipelines, for
example.
And, kind readers,
can you guess where they have discovered a lot of oil and
gas in this country? Aha! In the Chapare: Well, okay, well continue
with this report on this day in history
At 9:30 p.m. tonight
the Congress began its session to ratify the resignation of Sánchez
de Lozada. The party bosses had agreed, beforehand, that this session
would simply read the letter signed by Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada
and transfer power to Carlos Mesa. In the letter, Sánchez de
Lozada said that democracy was being used for the convenience
of some. (Does some wish to say millions?)
And that the issue of gas has been used as a pretext with
the goal that democracy would be disrespected
As if it had been
the citizens who shot the soldiers in cold blood.
A while ago, at
10:25 p.m., Carlos Mesa was sworn in and became the president, thanks
to the people. In his first words as head-of-state, Mesa, who of course
is a journalist, said that he would put the gas issue to referendum,
a binding referendum, so that the will of the people would
be respected. We must be able to understand the country beginning
with the ethnic groups like Quechuas, Aymaras, and Guaraníes,
who have constructed the history of inequality with their blood, a history
that we are obligated to repair, he said. Now, at 10:45 p.m.,
on October 17, 2003, Bolivia has a new president, and from the street
the fireworks sound and this nation is celebrating its triumph.
The people came,
they spoke, and they decided. A new victory for Authentic Democracy
has been constructed, but with deaths and with rage. And your correspondents,
although tired, we are going to drink a toast to the health of Bolivia,
which begins rebuilding from the streets. Eh, and another toast, because
we may not see each other again, kind readers
To Dan, to Al, it
has been a pleasure ending on this happy note
The War on Drugs,
imposed by the gringos, has suffered a brutal defeat with what has happened
here
There is no doubt
The maximum leader in El Alto commented
to us tonight, with tears in his eyes, that the people have delivered
a huge punch to the United States.