Big differences

By: Gisela Derpic - 29/06/2023

Guest columnist.
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Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, former constitutional president of Bolivia, shook the political scene last Sunday when he published his proposal for a new Constitution from the US, where he has lived in exile for 19 years. Opinions have multiplied in this regard, making clear the impact of his initiative that makes it an invitation to debate, and it is desirable that it come based on reflection and information.

However, the object of these lines is not the substance of the Constitution of All that Sánchez de Lozada proposes. It has to do with my memories of him as president and the dramatic circumstances in which he was forced to resign and go into exile. It has to do with an account that, from a bird's eye view, I made these days regarding situations of political crisis that have arisen in Bolivia and South America during the 21st century. Consequently, the object addressed in this article are social conflicts as sufficient proof of the nature of the underlying projects according to the means applied in their development by their promoters.

The resignation and exile of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada goes back to 2003, to “black October”. The possibility of a future export of Bolivian gas to the States by Chile by Chile was the main trigger, although not the only one. Context of demonstrations, strikes and blockades with increasing violence, with the use of blunt weapons, explosives and even firearms as seen in some photographic records, with significant participation of elements of the lumpen, almost exclusively in the department of La Paz, and actions repressive measures by law enforcement against it.

There were civilian and military casualties, in circumstances not clarified beyond any reasonable doubt. Like any similar situation, this put the Government before the need to restore order as a condition of social coexistence, fulfilling its duty to apply violence within the limits of legality, which does not totally exclude the risk of affecting rights rights, including the right to life and bodily integrity, even less if the level of violence displayed by the social actors in conflict is high.

That “black October” obscures “black February” of the same year, although one cannot be fully understood without the other, neither in form nor in substance. And none of them, neither together nor separately, understand themselves by ignoring their relationship with the "water war" in Cochabamba and with the roadblocks in the highlands of La Paz. A succession of conflicts that have arisen since 2000, all under the same modus operandi: summation of petitions to avoid a solution, and pressure measures with increasing violence. Hopefully with the dead, and if not, you have to look for them, even if good faith prevents good souls from believing that this could be the case.

Today, the social conflicts of 2019 in Chile, of 2021 in Colombia and Ecuador, of 2023 in Peru (attention to the case of Puno) and in Jujuy, Argentina are not fully understood, without considering the conflicts that have arisen in Bolivia since 2000. Again , all under the same modus operandi: sum of requests, without rhyme or reason, and measures of pressure with increasing violence. In perspective, one sees the participation of a transnational paramilitary force, with Cubans, Venezuelans, Colombians, Argentines and Bolivians, in all these scenarios. They are scenes from the same plot, rehearsals for perfecting the same recipe for attacking democratic institutions.

Different went to the march of the Tipnis indigenous people, in 2011, for more than 900 km in defense of their territory before the construction of a road through their heart; that of the disabled demanding a monthly subsidy equivalent to 73 dollars (508 bolivianos) that traveled 383 km from Cochabamba to La Paz, and the citizen rebellion of "las pititas" in defense of democracy in the face of electoral fraud in 2019, for 21 days .

In all three cases, the strategy was non-violent. The violence was applied without justification by the Government with paramilitary participation, against the defenseless citizens. During the citizen feat of 2019, this state and parastatal violence killed citizens in Montero, Huayculi and El Alto; wounded with sniper fire and sexually harassed participants in the caravan of miners and students on the Oruro-La Paz road; houses attacked and besieged by hordes of lumpen at the service of power in the southern zone of La Paz, having been burned those of Waldo Albarracín and Casimira Lema, as well as 64 Pumakatari buses.

When the Police and the Armed Forces came out to dissuade the violent in our protection, we gave thanks to God. Today several chiefs and officers are in prison for fulfilling their duty, without clarification of the facts beyond any doubt.

Lessons: To such ends, such means: violence seeks authoritarianism, and authoritarianism needs dead to sow hatred and resentment. Bolivia has been and is the laboratory of that experiment. Let's see if we learn so as not to go blind again.

«The opinions published herein are the sole responsibility of its author».