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BOLIVIA:
Protests,
Roadblocks Continue Despite
Governance Pact
Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, (IPS) - Lawmaker Evo
Morales, the leader of Bolivia's
coca farmers, and the Central
Obrera Boliviana (COB) labour
federation announced that they
would step up the protests and
roadblocks staged around the
country over the past few days.
The announcement came just hours
after President Carlos Mesa's
offer to resign was rejected by
parliament and a ”governance
pact” to overcome the political
crisis was signed by all parties
with the exception of Morales'
Movement Towards Socialism
(MAS).
COB executive secretary Jaime
Solares said Wednesday that the
intensification of the protests
was aimed at defending the
results of the 2004 referendum
in which voters decided that the
people of Bolivia, South
America's poorest nation, should
reap greater benefits from the
country's abundant natural gas
reserves.
Solares and Morales announced in
a press conference that they had
reached a ”political and social”
opposition agreement that was
also joined by the Pachakuti
Indigenous Movement (MIP),
Aymara indigenous leader Felipe
Quispe, city councillor Roberto
de la Cruz (from the slum city
of El Alto, located next to La
Paz), and representatives of the
Landless Movement and the
teachers' union.
The resignation offer that Mesa
submitted to parliament Sunday
night was voted down late
Tuesday.
Mesa, who has faced innumerable
protests and social conflicts in
his 17 months in office, said he
would not call out the police
and army to break up the
roadblocks, because of the cost
in human lives that this would
entail.
After intense negotiations in
which MAS refused to take part,
the rest of the political
parties agreed to take the
necessary steps to facilitate
the creation of a constituent
assembly to rewrite the
constitution, pass a new law on
the country's natural gas, and
hold a referendum on regional
autonomy.
MAS holds more seats in Congress
than any other party, and had
formed Mesa's main support base
since he succeeded Gonzalo
Sánchez de Lozada when the
former president was forced to
resign in October 2003.
Hundreds of people took to the
streets early this week to press
for an agreement that would
allow Mesa to remain in office,
a goal that was also actively
backed by the business
community, the Catholic Church,
the office of the People's
Defender (ombudsperson), and the
Permanent Human Rights Assembly.
But MAS refused to join the pact
and continues to demand the
outright nationalisation of the
country's natural gas reserves,
as well as an increase in the
royalties paid by the foreign
oil companies, to 50 percent.
The increase in royalties is the
immediate aim of the opposition
agreement announced by Morales
and COB.
MAS parliamentary Deputy Santos
Ramírez said a 50 percent tax on
the oil companies would generate
annual revenue of 750 million
dollars a year for the state
coffers, compared to the 90
million dollars that would be
brought in by the initiative
proposed by the government.
Another MAS legislator, Gustavo
Torrico, had told IPS that his
party and its allies would
create ”an accord opposed to the
oligarchy and in defence of the
country's sovereignty” and
energy resources, as an
alternative to Mesa's governance
pact.
Meanwhile, trade unions and
civil society groups in El Alto
said they would continue their
protests and ongoing ”civic
strike” until a contract between
the state and the Aguas del
Illimani water company, a
subsidiary of France's Lyonnaise
des Aux, is cancelled. The
privatisation of the water
company drove up the price of
water services.
After Mesa offered to resign
Sunday, he received messages of
solidarity from presidents
Néstor Kirchner of Argentina,
Hugo Chávez of Venezuela,
Ricardo Lagos of Chile and
Alejandro Toledo of Peru.
South America's two main trade
blocs, the Southern Common
Market (Mercosur) and the Andean
Community, also sent the
president messages of support.
With the pact that will enable
him to complete his term, which
ends in August 2007, Mesa, a
former television journalist who
is not affiliated with any
party, thus emerged successfully
from his all-or-nothing bid for
political support for a broad
range of reforms of the state.
But the political and social
situation in Bolivia remains
highly unstable, because most of
the pressing social problems
that led to the popular
demonstrations that triggered
right-wing Sánchez de Lozada's
resignation have not been
resolved.
The former president stepped
down in October 2003 in the
midst of mass protests that were
initially sparked by the
government's plans to export
natural gas to the United States
and Mexico through Chilean
ports. Around 70 people were
killed and another 200 injured
when the security forces were
called out to break up the
demonstrations.
The Sánchez de Lozada
administration's plan to export
gas was based on legislation
that was attractive to foreign
oil companies, and the
demonstrators were protesting
that many of Bolivia's 8.5
million people, 65 percent of
whom are poor, cannot even
afford natural gas for cooking
and heating purposes.
Bolivia has 53 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas reserves,
worth an estimated 100 billion
dollars -- the second-largest
reserves in South America after
Venezuela's.
Foreign oil companies have
invested three billion dollars
in infrastructure to exploit
Bolivia's natural gas.
The latest wave of unrest broke
out after Mesa criticised a bill
approved last Thursday by the
lower house of Congress that
would create a 32 percent
”direct tax on production” -- on
top of the 18 percent royalty
already paid by the foreign oil
companies.
The president warned that such a
large increase in the taxes that
the oil companies are charged
would plunge the country into
international isolation, because
it would modify the terms of the
contracts signed during Sánchez
de Lozada's first term
(1993-1997).
But MAS interpreted Mesa's
criticism of the 32 percent tax
on production as an attempt to
”defend the interests of the
transnational corporations” and
a ”betrayal” of the results of
the July 2004 referendum, which
gave the government the mission
of modifying the contracts and
putting a priority on the
refining of natural gas in
Bolivia, in order to export it
with ”value added”.
Under the new governance pact
signed on Tuesday, the tax
policy for the oil industry will
be reviewed again by the Chamber
of Deputies, with the aim of
making it more flexible.
Political analyst Andrés Soliz
Rada, a former legislator, said
Mesa's tendency to favour the
oil companies revealed his
weakness.
”Another opportunity is opening
up before us, and we must not
squander the possibility of
working together,” Mesa told
Congress after the pact was
signed.
After lashing out on Sunday
against the protests led by MAS,
Mesa attempted to bring about a
reconciliation with his former
ally Morales, inviting him to
join the other parties in their
dialogue, but the leader of the
coca farmers turned down the
invitation Wednesday. |
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