I: Bolivia Backs Off Water Hikes; Protests Continue

["nello" <margiotta@tightrope.it>]

-----Messaggio Originale-----
Da: "Michael Eisenscher" <meisenscher@igc.org>
Newsgroup: misc.activism.progressive
Data invio: mercoledì 12 aprile 2000 6.05
Oggetto: Bolivia Backs Off Water Hikes; Protests Continue


Bolivian Govt Backs Off Water Hikes
By Peter McFarren
Associated Press Writer
Monday, April 10, 2000; 11:16 p.m. EDT

LA PAZ, Bolivia –– The government agreed Monday to back off water price
hikes that sparked a weeklong spiral of violent protests by thousands of
farmers and workers, fueled by the economic crisis in South America's
poorest country.

The protests, which have virtually shut down Cochabamba, Bolivia's third
largest city and have left six dead, prompted a security crackdown and a
"state of siege" decree giving police and the military a freer rein.

An end to the unrest was in sight Monday evening, after the government
reached an agreement with protest organizers, the Roman Catholic Church and
local officials over an expensive water project in Cochabamba and a
controversial new water law.

"We hope that this will end this conflict that has so divided our people,"
Vice Minister of the Interior Guido Orias told a journalists alongside the
protest organizers.

Thousands of protesters who had gathered on the main square of Cochabamba
began disbanding Monday night.

The Cochabamba protests were prompted by a 20 percent increase in city
water rates needed to finance the badly needed expansion of water and
sewage systems in the central city, high in the Andes. Demonstrations
quickly spread to rural areas with thousands protesting a new water law,
unemployment, rising fuel prices and economic difficulties.

On Monday, Information Minister Ronald MacLean accused drug traffickers of
backing the demonstrations in an attempt to stop a government program to
eradicate production of coca leaf, used to make cocaine.

"These protests are a conspiracy financed by cocaine trafficking looking
for pretexts to carry out subversive activities," MacLean said. "It is
impossible for so many peasants to spontaneously move on their own."

The destruction of coca leaf production has deprived thousands of peasants
of their sole means of income, particularly in the area around Cochabamba.

Since protests began April 3, Cochabamba, a city of 500,000 located 350
miles east of La Paz, has been paralyzed and isolated by road blocks,
marches and clashes.

A so-called state of siege decree passed Saturday suspended many
constitutional guarantees, allowing police to detain protest leaders
without a warrant, restricting travel and political activity and
establishing a curfew.

Six people were killed and scores wounded in clashes around the country as
the government sent thousands of soldiers into the streets of Cochabamba to
try put down the protests. On Monday, protesters manned roadblocks near the
Andean towns of Achacachi and Batallas, where one army officer and two
peasants were killed and dozens injured on Sunday.

At one point during the week of protests, police went on strike in the
capital, La Paz, and in Santa Cruz, the country's second-largest city,
demanding a pay increase and clashing with soldiers. They were quickly
granted the pay hikes.

Under Monday evening's agreement, Congress began considering changes in the
new sanitation law that had raised outrage by requiring residents and
farmers pay fees for digging wells.

The government also confirmed that the international water consortium that
was to finance the water project, Aguas del Tunari, was withdrawing from
the country. That meant the 20 percent hike in water prices would not come
into effect, although it also meant the project now has no foreseeable
financing.

The government also agreed to release some of the 20 protest leaders
arrested during the demonstrations.

© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press

===========================================
Indian farmers continue protests in Bolivia

April 10, 2000

BY PETER MCFARREN ASSOCIATED PRESS

LA PAZ, Bolivia--Police walked off the job in the country's two largest
cities and Indian farmers massed outside the third-largest Sunday,
protesting, among other things, the government's destruction of the
once-thriving cocaine industry and high water prices.

By late afternoon, most of the tension was limited to the central city of
Cochabamba, where the wave of anti-government protests began a week ago.
Thousands of farmers angry over the government's handling of Bolivia's
economic slump gathered on the outskirts of the city, and thousands more
rallied in the main square.

A commission headed by Vice President Jorge Quiroga was heading to
Cochabamba to try to negotiate an end to the conflict that has paralyzed
the city for a week, government spokesman Ronnie MacLean said.

The other hot spot was the Andean foothill town of Achacachi, in the west,
where five more people were killed in clashes between protesting Indian
farmers and soldiers who tried to remove their roadblocks. Two farmers, two
soldiers and a police officer were killed Sunday, MacLean said. Eight
people died in political violence over the weekend.

Police were at the center of the conflicts for part of the day, with
hundreds of officers in the capital of La Paz and in Santa Cruz, the
country's second-largest city, taking over their own headquarters and jails
and demanding a 50 percent pay increase. The strike turned violent in La
Paz, with police firing tear gas at soldiers, who shot their automatic
weapons into the air.

In both cities, the strikes ended in hours, with the police winning salary
increases.

No violence was reported in Santa Cruz, but the army was called in to
control the streets of that eastern city.

The streets in Cochabamba were quiet Sunday morning following a day of tear
gas, rubber bullets and the government suspending many constitutional
guarantees. By early afternoon, thousands of protesters had gathered in and
outside the city. Anticipating a serious confrontation, the government flew
in soldiers from other parts of the country.

The escalation in anti-government action was unexpected and reflected
Bolivians' disgust over rising water rates, unemployment and other economic
difficulties plaguing this nation in the heart of South America. The
economic crisis was blamed in part on the government's war on cocaine
trafficking.

The destruction of more than half of the country's coca leaf production has
left thousands of Quechua and Aymara Indian farmers without a livelihood
and depressed the economy in regions where cocaine trafficking once thrived.

Leaders of the coca farmers helped organize the protests that have
paralyzed Cochabamba since last Monday.

Under emergency provisions, the government is allowed to arrest and confine
protest leaders without a warrant, impose restrictions on travel and
political activity, and establish a curfew. In Cochabamba, they held
control of the city's radio stations to prevent independent reporting.

Calm prevailed in much of the country, in most smaller cities and the
countryside as military patrols in combat gear remained on most rural
roads, allowing buses and trucks to circulate and carry food to many cities
where shortages were being felt.

An exception was Achacachi, where Indian farmers pitched rocks at soldiers
who tried to remove roadblocks. Farmers had been blocking roads all over
Bolivia last week, but most barricades had been peacefully removed by the
weekend.

The farmers there took over and ransacked government buildings as troop
reinforcements were sent in Sunday afternoon to try to control the violence.

The state of siege declared by President Hugo Banzer on Saturday was the
seventh time that such an emergency has been imposed since democracy
returned to Bolivia in 1982. Typically, quiet returns within a day.

Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved.



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