On Monday evening, 28 Italians, two Spaniards and one Colombian arrived at the El Alto/La Paz International Airport. This select group of activists and journalists did not come to relax in Lake Titicaca’s beach-side towns nor to trek through the Andes. Instead, they will visit gravesites of the victims of the 2003 military massacre, talk with landless peoples, and see community-based alternatives to the privatized water system rejected by popular demand five years ago. Members of the Caravan
Mayaki ( “only one” in Aymara) are in Bolivia for a one week convergence to learn about—and stand in solidarity with—the lives and
luchas (struggles) of this country’s indigenous and politicized people.
“We welcome you with open hearts into our home and into our territory,” announced Aymara scholar and Sociology Professor Pablo Mamani at the event’s opening press conference. “There is much to learn and we are glad you are here.”
Mayaki participants received several warm welcomes this morning in the historic Public University of El Alto (UPEA), including a message on behalf of renowned water-rights activist and Mayaki co-coordinator Oscar Olivera.
The setting itself established the tone for the week. “This university was the result of years of struggle by Altenos (residents of El Alto) who demanded that the government offer them an opportunity for higher education,” explained Luis Gomez, Narco News Acting Publisher and co-organizer of the Caravan. “It would not have existed without a fight.”
With this backdrop, the international group offered their appreciation and main message. “It is a privilege to be with you,” affirmed Guiseppe DeMazo, Mayaki’s spokesperson and Italian coordinator. “We are here to share in experiences, to talk and to listen. We want you to know that what happens here also causes us pain, that your dead are also our dead. But, we have also come to say that we have the same problems in our country and that we hope to unite these struggles against neo-liberalism, privatization and the Washington agenda…Through this week’s process, I believe we are creating this unity from below.”
In the late-morning Mayaki members began their journey, paying respect to some of the “fallen heroes” of the first Gas War in 2003. “Today, October 11th, is significant in our history,” explained Nestor Salinas, head of the citizen’s committee to hold their ex-President accountable for the 2003 massacre. On this day two years ago, ex-President “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada, in an attempt to deliver gas into the city of La Paz suffocating from El Alto’s blockades, issued a decree that authorized military force against his own people. “This order paved the way for the over 60 deaths and hundreds of wounded that came in the following days,” Salinas stated.
Caravan members thus stood side-by-side today with the fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, siblings and children of Black October’s victims at a memorial service for the fallen. In El Alto’s Tarapaca cemetery where 27 victims are buried, they listened to the demands of the injured and the grieving.
“We are here for justice,” a Black October widow told the group. Crying, with her 4 year-old fatherless son tugging at her side, she explained: “I lost my husband and no one has been held accountable. Goni must return from the United States and be tried for his crimes or else we can not be at peace.”
In the descent from El Alto to La Paz, the group switched gears. Leaving behind the cemetary's tearfilled eyes and El Alto's dilapidated housing and unpaved roads, they entered the shiny campaign headquarters of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Bolivia’s most prominent leftist political party. For over an hour Mayaki participants talked with Evo Morales, indigenous coca-leader and MAS presidential candidate in the upcoming December 4th elections.
Morales responded to Caravan member’s questions about the key issues—nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas, the proposed Constitutional Assembly (a process to collectively rewrite the nation’s founding document), the right-wing’s recent attempt to postpone the elections and the MAS’s goal to carry-out the will of Bolivia’s social movements from a position of state power. (Unfortunately, lacking either time or a response, he entirely avoided the question posed: “what are the MAS’s specific plans for moving forward the judicial process against Goni?”)
Mayaki members were tired by the end of the day—worn down by the Altiplano (highland) sun, the extreme altitude and the wealth of emotion and information offered. Hopefully, they are resting now, because the coming days are sure to bring more of the same.
