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05/20/2005:

"Bolivia Erupts"

At around 8:00am on Monday morning, massive crowds of mostly poor indigenous Bolivians gathered on the cusp of a mountainside that descends into the capital city of La Paz. They are residents of the massive shantytown of El Alto, located on the high plateau (the altiplano) that overlooks the valley which encompasses La Paz.

Workers in the massive informal sector, ex-miners "relocated" to the shantytown after privatization of the mines in 1985, the unemployed, recent migrants from the countryside pushed from their former livelihoods through the devastation of the agricultural economy in the high plateau, women in traditional indigenous dress with their unique bowler hats, shoe-shine boys, Trotskyist teachers, communists, socialists, indigenists, neighbourhood activists, populists, and others milling around in a jovial mood eating breakfast on the street, provided by women venders who have erected their food-stands along the opening path of the planned march for the nationalization of the country's natural gas. Organizations participating in the day's actions include the Federation of United Neighbours of El Alto (FEJUVE-El Alto), the Regional Workers Central of El Alto (COR-El Alto), the Public University of El Alto, the Departmental Workers Central, the Confederation of Original Peoples, the Federation of Peasants of La Paz "Tupaj Katari," the Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the teachers unions of El Alto and La Paz, among many, many others.

The theme is the nationalization of gas, but it doesn't stop there. They want to close the Parliament and kick out the president. Frustration is running high in El Alto and throughout popular sectors in the country. The nationalization of gas was the historic demand of the October rebellion of 2003 that left many dead and ousted the hated president Gonzalo ("Goni") Sánchez de Lozada. Vice president at the time, Carlos Mesa Gisbert, who had distanced himself from the state violence perpetrated by Goni, assumed the presidency through constitutional mechanisms, with the support of many of the protesters who believed Mesa would carry through the "October Agenda," as he promised. Nineteen months later and Mesa remains in the hands of the transnationals, the American empire, European imperialists, the IMF, the World Bank, and the internationalized sections of the local bourgeoisie.
Full: counterpunch.org