A Confusing Retreat in Bolivia

After announcing last night that the pressure tactics would continue, Evo Morales met with the social leaders this morning, before flying to the Chapare to announce a temporary suspension in the mobilizations. Last night, after Carlos Mesa’s proposal to move forward with general elections and the diverse reactions to his speech, the Chamber of Deputies approved the hydrocarbons law proposal after a debate over the details. Now it’s up to the Senate to approve it definitively or modify it… in waiting for that moment, the movements went into a confusing retreat this morning. (Posted in Spanish at 12:17 PM)

First President Mesa shook the political stage once again in Bolivia with his call for early elections. Later, the Chamber of Deputies finally approved the hydrocarbons law (in which the collection of taxes and royalties follows the government’s original proposal), leaving the Senate the task of making any modifications.

Faced with this situation, Evo Morales and the social groups aligned to his Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party decided to lift their blockades and proposed an “intermission” to the other social leaders committed to the national mobilization pact created last week.

During the meeting this morning in the headquarters of the Bolivian Workers’ Federation (COB in its Spanish initials), both Morales and COB Executive Secretary Jaime Solares explained that it was necessary to wait until the Senate worked on the hydrocarbons law, and, they said, “decide to respect the sovereignty of the Bolivian people,” modifying the law until the royalties are set at 50 percent per unit of gas or petroleum produced.

Roberto de la Cruz (a member of the El Alto city council), Felipe Quispe (the Aymara leader known as el Mallku), and the Aymara leader of the peasant farmers of the La Paz department, Gualberto Choque, also attended the meeting. Quispe, frustrated by the suspension of the protests, walked out before the meeting was over.

Choque, who later held a meeting in his office with the main Aymara community leaders from the Bolivian highlands, was not happy with the meeting either: the Aymara nation had decided to join the blockades in full force, and this new posture from Morales and other leaders left them disconcerted.

At the moment, the highway that unites the cities of Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, passing through the Chapare, is now practically free of blockades. Evo Morales is heading there to speak with his supporters about what will come next for them. And speaking of the center of the country, this morning the peasant irrigators confronted the police in Cochabamba, making them flee and strengthening their blockades, which they will probably lift this afternoon. This afternoon a joint session of Congress will debate Mesa’s call for early elections. Nevertheless, the proposal to make the newly elected congress also into a Constituents' Assembly, charged with writing a new constitution, has been rejected by nearly every sector of the political class and the Bolivian social movements. (The original proposal for such an assembly was understood to be separate from Congress, and inclusive of all Bolivia’s social sectors as opposed to just the political parties).

The withdrawal of the social movements, some tired but gambling on congressional action (such as the MAS), others frustrated by what they consider to be a step back (such as Felipe Quispe) is without a doubt still confusing… but we will keep watching these events unfold.