Kind readers, the war that the valiant Aymara people from the Bolivian countryside have unleashed is a reality. Yesterday afternoon, despite the brutality they were subjected to, the Aymara maintained a sporadic siege of Plaza Murillo. And a few minutes past 3pm, as reported here, the police launched an offensive of gasses and low-caliber bullets to disperse the crowd… and to let President Mesa leave the Palace of Government and fly to Sucre for the Bolivian capital’s anniversary festival.

After this, for at least two hours more the police hunted down the Aymara farmers. Several trucks from the Special Security Group – this country’s riot police – circled the streets outside the Plaza de los Héroes, where the Aymara had held their council. They were looking for groups of leaders, to gas and arrest as many possible.

By the evening there were at least 32 injured and several arrests, many of them students. Around 7pm, the police released Aymara leader Roberto de la Cruz, from the city of El Alto, who, as a city councilor, is protected by the same immunity that senators and congressmen enjoy; his detention was completely illegal. But de la Cruz is fine and was not mistreated.

Rumors of a military uprising also began circulating in the afternoon. The coup, it seems, would be organized by retired high-ranking soldiers and a few radical leaders… but we hope to prove that this was a rumor and nothing more, a rumor that could generate a pretext for the government and the right wing to repress the protesters or unleash a witch-hunt.

And, now in Sucre, President Mesa made a television address last night, using the opportunity to clearly announce that he has no intention of leaving the government. Mesa spoke of the need for a Constituents’ Assembly in order to, among other things, end social exclusion. But, in a friendly gesture to the extreme right in Santa Cruz that could divide the country in two, he also decidedly supported the referendum on that region’s autonomy and demanded that the National Congress set dates for its realization. “It can’t be that we Bolivians can’t accept both things,” said Mesa.

The Bolivian president defended his government and referred offhandedly to the “radicals” that were very close to taking his office and leaving him, as well as the members of Congress, jobless this morning. But he didn’t have anything specific to say about that…

Finally, to close this hectic first battle of May, the Federation of Neighborhood Committees of El Alto responded to the repression unleashed against the Aymara. As the sun went down, the Federation ended its emergency meeting with the following resolutions:

1. The residents of El Alto have determined to continue and radicalize the civic strike: today there will be broken glass “carpets” in a few strategic areas, and they organized lookouts for that night.
2. Today the will come down early into La Paz, along with peasant farmers from the countryside, although they did not specify their plan for deployment.
3. For today, and possibly longer, the El Alto residents will close the mayor’s office so that he can’t work.

Don’t forget something important here, kind readers: the urban Aymara, in El Alto, maintain a close relationship with their brothers out in the countryside. Yesterday the heart of El Alto burned with rage when the farmers were repressed, energizing the general shut-down in that city. That relationship may decide the path of this confrontation.

In any event, the military and political leadership of the Aymara world is already working on the next actions in its territory, and it is therefore possible that the war may continue out in the provinces in the next few days.

For now, that is all (though these events have been no small thing)… later today we will bring you what comes, so prepare yourselves.