Bolivia: Mobilization by the Dispossessed Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Granma Internacional Digital - June 21, 2002 http://www.granma.cu Boliva: MARCHING, THE ONLY WAY TO BE HEARD by Maria Victoria Valdes-Rodda THE marchers' weariness yielded to the determination of making themselves heard. The 850 kilometers from Santa Cruz to La Paz have not been an obstacle for their advance, as for them the most important concern is to make changes in Bolivia's constitution that would promote the country's reformation. The dispossessed insist that they have to be considered in any plans for the nation's economic and social development. A mobilization of thousands of campesinos and indigenous peoples, which began in mid-May in the country's eastern region, is calling for a law of much-needed reforms to the political Constitution, which could change the course of the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for June 30 in that Andean country. Faced with a need to respond, the government authorities and the leaders of eight political parties with parliamentary representation recently met in the capital in an attempt to consider the creation of a distinct higher authority. The Landless People's Movement (MST) joined the debate after abandoning the march in exchange for sectorial promises proffered by Jorge Quiroga, the Bolivian president. The central aspirations of the marchers, who have thrown the other political parties into a crisis at a point when their only concern is the imminent elections, are for a Constituent Assembly that would promote constitutional reforms beneficial to the indigenous groups and avert carrying out agricultural measures damaging to the campesinos. The Federation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB) and the Ayllus and Markas del Kollasuyu Council (CONAMAQ) are insisting on a constituent assembly as the only way of solving acute national problems, theirs as well as those of the rest of society. "We don't feel like participants and that is why we want a change (of constitution) with contributions from ourselves and all the other sectors," commented Marcial Fabricano, president of the CIDOB. The circles of power will consider instigating an extraordinary congress, but only after the elections, while the governing Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN) party has expressed its doubts regarding possible constitutional reform. The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), one of principal parliamentary parties, has rejected a total modification of the constitution. It is not known for certain what could happen at this point. For his part, Manuel Rocha, the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, affirmed that the current situation is of little concern to the White House, which is guided by quantitative analysis and for whom a few thousand indigenous people are far from constituting a nightmare. Nevertheless, Bolivian society is showing symptoms of growing discontent, both numerically and qualitatively: Health Ministry workers have initiated a strike, meat vendors in the markets have blocked supplies in opposition to a newly-imposed tax, campesinos in the western region have announced protests, and the miners are demanding the return to the state of the Huanuní deposit, turned over to the private sector, or they will also join the march. Bolivians, and the marchers in particular, are questioning the neo-liberal model imposed on their lives, hence their perseverance in reverting it via a constituent assembly. Their central objective is to end racial marginalization, out of a conviction of the danger threatening the future of one of Latin America's richest cultures. (c) 2002 Granma International Digital. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytlab-06.25.02-14:42:55-17069