Wednesday night (Mar. 16) Federation of Neighborhood Associations (FEJUVE) of city of El Alto held a General Assembly of Presidents and Neighbors to define their position on three items: water, Carlos Mesa and the hydrocarbons. In brief, they resolved: that not a cent will be paid to the water transnational Suez; to reject the hydrocarbons law and put forth the nationalization of natural resources; that Mesa, his ministers and parliamentarians leave.

After some speeches and several short interventions in which could be heard the unanimous repudiation of the attitude of President Carlos Mesa and the parliament, a FEJUVE leader described the context in which political changes are produced in the government:

“We can very clearly see that not one alteño was fooled by Carlos Mesa and the grand party he threw last week at the Plaza Murillo. A party that signaled that the country remains a beggar to foreign capital. A party, where they danced and sung atop the bodies of 60 alteños and more than 400 wounded that fought for our natural resources. We can’t resign to this because blood was shed.”

Next, the following resolutions were read and greeted with applause:

– With regard to Mesa’s resignation or early elections: Let him go, they should all go, the President, his ministers and his parliament

– We need to find mechanisms ourselves for self-government and to do that we need to find unity among all the impoverished and marginalized sectors.

– We need top go to the level of the bases to deal with every issue.

– In relation to the Hydrocarbons Law approved by the Lower House (Cámara de Diputados) of Congress: a unanimous rejection of the 18% royalty and 32% tax. It’s a farse, it’s the same law as Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s and that is why this one was backed by his partisan, Mario Cossío. El Alto’s direct proposal is the Nationalization Hydrocarbons.

– Regarding Aguas del Illimani: we have not ruled out taking over installations.

– Bills will not be paid and to not suffer the cut (of service(?)), each zone will constitute self-defense committees for each street. patrols

– We also indicate that there is no reason to pay compensation to the company; what has it invested? What’s more, it is only because of neighborhood participation that water hookups were made. For all the damage and abuse, they should be the ones paying indemnity to the people of El Alto.

–We are convinced that the call for the immediate resignation of José Luis Paredes as traitor to the city of El Alto needs ratification.

After the interventions, a student from the Public University of El Alto denounced  a fellow student that had presented himself at the Parliament to join a hunger strike in support of Carlos Mesa. He was subsequently expelled from said University.