ALAI, América Latina en Movimiento
2008-06-06
Bolivia
In educated Sucre: “On your knees, shitty Indians”
Racist Fascism
Alex Contreras Baspineiro
Over
the past month, the political landscape in Bolivia has become
increasingly polarized between the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism)
party
of President Evo Morales and social movements, on the one hand, and
the opposition and European-descendent elite, on the other. Last
month's illegal autonomy referendum in the Eastern department of
Santa Cruz, a bastion of opposition to the MAS project of
decolonizing and refounding the nation, exacerbated the conflict. On
Monday June 2nd, two more departments in the East (Pando and Beni),
known as the Media Luna region, also voted for autonomy. The growing
tensions, however, are not as simple as Media Luna vs. Morales, as
even within Santa Cruz there is a growing indigenous movement for
land redistribution and other reforms supported by the Morales
government. This movement, mainly organized by the Guarani people,
has been met with violent opposition by the large landowners that
dominate Eastern Bolivia. In addition to the Media Luna region, the
city of Sucre has also become a site of tension in Bolivian politics.
Sucre is the nominal capital of Bolivia (but not the seat of
government, which is in La Paz) and was the location of the historic
Constituent Assembly; it is also becoming a stronghold for the
opposition. One of their main demands is that Sucre become the full
capital of Bolivia, a strategy to weaken MAS support, which is strong
in the twin cities of La Paz and El Alto. The links below provide
more information on all of these issues.
---------------
"On
your knees, shitty Indians, yell long live the capital,"
"Respect Sucre, goddamit," "Llamas, ask for
forgiveness," were the orders imposed by a group of young people
from the Bolivian department (province) of Chuquisaca by means of
kicks and punches, forcing around 50 Quechua campesinos
to
take off their shirts, get on their knees, and burn the MAS flag and
the Wiphala flag (symbol of indigenous nations) in front of the Casa
de la Libertad, located in the main plaza of Sucre.
It was on
May 25th,
199 years ago, that the continent's first cry for liberty was sounded
in this same place. 2008, paradoxically, heard cries full of racism,
hate and discrimination against representatives of the national
majorities, exactly those who liberated this country from the Spanish
yoke.
"Kill the Indian, they said, and all of this
occurred in the presence of the President of the Municipal Council of
Sucre, Fidel Herrera, and the Mayor Aidée Nava; they applauded
everything these violent groups did," reported the Mayor of
Mojocoya, Ángel Vallejos, who also was brutally punched and forced
to walk on his knees.
On May 24th,
the President of the Republic, Evo Morales Ayma, was supposed to
arrive in Sucre to present a series of projects and two ambulances at
each of the municipalities of the department of Chuquisaca. However,
violent conflicts halted these activities.
In spite of police
and military intervention, forces whose membership is composed of an
indigenous majority, the force and organization of the youth
groups-armed not only with sticks and stones but also tear gas and
dynamite-resulted in many human rights abuses.
The images of
violence captured in different neighborhoods of Sucre were simply
bloodcurdling: the youth, many of whom were inebriated, used sticks
and stones to attack the campesinos, who fell to the ground. Neither
women nor children were spared.
Medical reports show that 35
people were wounded, and in addition the campesinos suffered the
theft of their documents, watches and the little money they had.
A
blow to freedom of expression
"They
pushed me, I felt hits, kicks, punches, shoves, and they doused me
with alcohol. I approached an ambulance asking if they could take me
away from there. The rocks entered the car, because the window was
open, and they didn't let us leave, they stood in front of us,"
was the story related by Marianela Paco Durán, a journalist for the
Loyola Cultural Action radio station in Sucre (Aclo-Sucre) and a
member of the Bolivian Radio Education (Erbol) network, who was also
hit and insulted by the groups involved in the confrontation.
This
journalist, who was carrying out her work in the moment of the
aggression, reported live the attack on the campesinos.
"I
went to cover the Atabi zone (a rural area), I assume that someone
identified me as a worker for Aclo and began to point at me. I heard
very strong insults and I saw a crowd coming upon me. Someone, that I
didn't identify, went to take me out of there, and then people pushed
away the person trying to help me," related the assaulted
journalist.
In a public communication, Erbol held "Aydée
Nava, Tommy Durán, Jaime Barrón and Fidel Herrera" responsible
for this act "for having called out violent groups with the aim
of assaulting and inciting hatred against people that do not share
their ideological line."
The accused people, along with
Jhon Cava, are representatives of the Inter-Institutional Committee
of Chuquisaca, who under the demand that Sucre be the only capital
city, attempted to make the Constituent Assembly fail and now are
trying to push forward the departmental autonomy of Chuquisaca.
The
attack suffered by the Aclo-Sucre journalist is not the only one
recorded in this Chuquisacan political process, which dates back
exactly one year. Unfortunately, no perpetrator has been prosecuted,
let alone punished.
Of this city, that formerly, has had four
names--Charcas, La Plata, Sucre and Chuquisaca--the "educated
city" remains only as a memory.
He
who does not jump is a llama
According
to the data of the last population and housing census, in Bolivia
63.3% of the population is considered indigenous.
However, the
small groups who held power in the last neoliberal governments and
benefited from corruption and shady deals do not accept this reality.
These lampoons and humiliations of recent days are not
new.
During the Constituent Assembly sessions, the indigenous
representatives that are the face of multicultural and multilingual
Bolivia have been assaulted and insulted at various
instances.
Shouts of "He who does not jump is a llama,"
"Out of here, fucking collas [highland people]," "A
cross between llamas and mud-huts," and other adjectives
accompanied by physical aggression are part of history, and have also
been met with impunity.
Moreover, the death of three
Chuquisacans, in November of 2007, remained unpunished.
Regrettably,
for the past year, no citizen or authority has been prosecuted by the
Bolivian justice system, even though according to the images,
testimonies and reports, those directly responsible as well as the
intellectual authors of the violence can be identified.
Beyond
the traditional excuses--"it is under investigation" or "we
will act with the law in hand"--of some government
representatives, nothing concrete has been done.
The
confrontation between country and city, whites and Indians, the
k'aras and t'aras, the oligarchs and the indigenous, is increasing
every day, even as government officials and departmental authorities
deny their responsibility.
The president of the
Inter-Institutional Committee, Jaime Barrón, did not rule out that
there may have been infiltrators among the Sucrenses [people from
Sucre] who took campesinos hostage and forced them to take off their
shirts and kneel in front of the Casa de la Libertad.
"This
should not have happened. The campesino brothers deserve all of our
respect. When I saw them on their knees I made them get up
immediately, I brought them to the City Hall and to the exit to
Tarabuco, because they were totally frightened," he
said.
According to Sabina Cuéller, the candidate for
prefecture of the Inter-Institutional Committee-Popular Citizen
Movement alliance (ACI-MPC), indigenous people were forced to go to
Sucre to receive the President of the Republic under the threat of
fines of 100 Bolivianos [Bolivian currency].
When the
Federation of Campesinos of Chuquisaca requested the expulsion of
Inter-Institutional Committee representatives it also threatened to
close the water
valves
in the locality of Turupampa and Villa Fernández that connect to the
capital city.
From Cobija, the Head of State referred to the
issue, requesting that "some youth" from "some
universities" regain their respect, ethically and morally, for
indigenous peoples, campesinos, and the poor. "What sort of
university students do we have? This is not every student in all the
universities. But it is important to improve the ethics, the morality
of a respectful young person in solidarity, who is always attentive
to social problems," he stated.
Dangerous
Impunity
Beyond
these statements, there is no concrete action being taken to halt the
series of abuses. The government must act in accordance with the law.
In January of 2007, there were violent confrontations between
groups organized by the Prefecture and the Civic Committee, against
campesinos and indigenous peoples in Cochabamba, but no one was
punished.
There is evidence of participation by both citizens
and authorities.
In Santa Cruz, the vice president of the
Santa Cruz Civic Committee, Luis Núñez, asked those who are against
autonomy to "abandon Santa Cruz, or beware of the
consequences."
To this racist discourse he added: "They
(the Bolivians of the west) have arrived. Adapt to our way of life,
which is about peace, work, and tranquility, but do not continue to
provoke us, insult us, or denigrate us as you did yesterday, or
beware of the consequences."
Members of the Union of
Young Crucenistas (people of Santa Cruz) attacked several people on
various occasions in Santa Cruz. The physical violence was also
accompanied by attacks with dynamite, threats, persecution, and other
acts against human rights, but nobody did anything.
In the
last few days in Sucre, Representative Wilber Flores was attacked, as
were the parliamentarians from Potosi, Carmen Flores and Cesar
Navarro, and the Senator from Cochabamba, Leonilda Zurita.
If
these acts of violence are happening in Sucre, in the rural areas of
Santa Cruz the situation is as bad or worse.
Days after the
Autonomy Referendum in San Ignacio de Velasco, civic representatives
and the primary Chiquitano indigenous leader attacked the priest
Adalid Vega Veizaga, who they accused of being a MAS militant and
against the Autonomy process. They demanded that he leave the
region, and no authority stopped them from doing so.
The
aggression was not only directed at campesinos, indigenous people, or
the poor, but also toward government ministers and even the President
and Vice-President of the Republic, who practically cannot set foot
in some regions of the country.
Enough!
In
Bolivia, no one is unaware of the fact that "justice" is
driven by representatives of the old neoliberal model. The apparatus
of justice that was "raffled off" by the neoliberal parties
is controlled by people tied to the previous administration of
Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.
Although the office of the District
Attorney of Chuquisaca promised an investigation of the facts of
Saturday May 24, after an accusation was made, it remains uncertain.
The District Attorney of Chuquisaca, Ana Maria Lia, affirmed that the
Public Ministry would proceed with an investigation following
established laws.
The Public Defender, Waldo Albarracin,
asked that a District Attorney from elsewhere than Chuquisaca
investigate the violent acts against campesinos in Sucre, because he
considers that Chuquisacan justice lost impartiality by being forced
to yield to the civic groups.
He stated, "These acts
should not only be condemned, they should be punished. (But) the
District Attorney of Chuquisaca, let alone the courts, does not meet
the conditions for an impartial investigation, because in the last
few months it demonstrated its absolute subordination to the civic
authorities."
In reaction to these fascist, racist
actions has risen a popular clamor from different points of the
nation to say "enough," and also to demand
governability.
In the process of the Democratic Cultural
Revolution it is time to stop the violence and racism, it is time to
look for a dialogue and consensus, it is time to consolidate change
and unity.
- Alex Contreras is a Bolivian journalist and
writer. Article first published in Spanish on ;ay 26 2008)
For
further information on the situation in Bolivia:
Polarizing
Bolivia: Santa Cruz Votes for Autonomy
By
Benjamin Dangl
08 May
2008
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1275/31/
Santa
Cruz Divided: Report from the Streets on Referendum Day in Bolivia
By
Alexander van Schaick and David Bluestone.
08 May
2008
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1270/31/
Landowners'
Rebellion: Slavery and Saneamiento in Bolivia
By Alexander van
Schaick
28 April
2008
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1254/31/
Illegal
Autonomy Referendum Deepens Division in Bolivia
By the Andean
Information Network
25 April 2008
Source: Andean Information
Network
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1251/31/
Bolivia:
Referendum plan raises tensions
By Igor Ojeda
17 March
2008
http://alainet.org/active/22880
Bolivia:
Three Dead in Capital Conflict
By Andean Information Network
26
November 2007
Source: Andean Information
Network
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1018/31/
http://www.alainet.org/active/24535
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