El Alto Lifts Blockades, But Doesn't Give In

El Alto has decided to relieve the people and lift the blockades although two districts have now broken with the neighborhood leadership and are planning on maintaining the blockades there. Other mobilizations will continue because the demand to get the Suez Group out of Bolivia still stands. Evo Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party will not accept the president’s resignation, and announced that their blockades will continue. The only thing that seems certain is that the Bolivian President will end up stronger than ever this afternoon when the National Congress ratifies his post. Around midday the general assembly of El Alto neighborhood presidents ended. Organized into nine districts, the neighborhoods spent almost five hours discussing the future of their movement to sack the French-based transnational Suez corporation.

The debates were intense and the polarization evident, the latter a result of President Mesa’s resignation letter, which he presented yesterday to the National Congress.  Various people from the districts, in particular those that lack water services (7 and 8), insisted for hours on the need to continue the blockades and radicalize the civic strike. However, the other districts did not want to enter a situation that has been exhausting for them.

At midday districts 7 and 8 left the assembly. District 8 in particular, in the city’s southeast, which has kept that area closed for seven days, accused the leadership of the Federation of Neighborhood Committees of El Alto (“Fejuve”), headed by Abel Mamani, of having sold out.

Former Fejuve head Don Carlos Carrera, who led the organization during the insurrection of October, 2003, spoke in the name of the District 8 neighborhood presidents, saying that they intended to continue, and that the struggle could not be stopped.
Meanwhile, in Fejuve headquarters, the assembly reached its conclusion. Abel Mamani declared that the mobilizations would continue, but without blockades. “We will begin to coordinate the next actions with all the districts,” said Mamani, referring to marches and other forms of protest.

Mamani insisted on two things. “What President Mesa said in his speech on Sunday, in which he dedicated fifteen minutes to me, is his own invention. We have never considered taking over the airport. We are reasonable people… and as we have already said, if the president wants to leave, he can make that decision on his own but he can’t blame us for it.”

Fejuve, then, has changed its tactics, although it remains firm in its demand that Aguas de Illimani (Suez) be expelled. The organization’s technical team is working at this moment on options for continuing the fight for water…

This morning Evo Morales gave a press conference in Congress. Morales said generally that the blockades by rural groups allied with the MAS would continue. But a source within the party confided to Narco News that the most likely outcome ist hat the blockades are lifted in the next few days, as the MAS-aligned peasant farmers in Sucre have already done, criticizing Evo for his lack of clarity on the path to follow.

Another thing to consider: Evo said that his party (and his congressional delegation) would not accept Mesa’s resignation, because they consider it to be “blackmail.” Thus, what many predicted yesterday has become a reality: Mesa’s resignation will not be accepted, and Mesa will come out of this game stronger than ever (the three biggest right-wing parties, the MNR, MIR, and NFR, have already said they will ratify Mesa’s presidency).

The Congressional session for the debate of Mesa’s resignation letter was scheduled for early this afternoon. We will be there, although I doubt we will have many surprises to report. We’ll have to wait for the reaction from Mesa, now supported by most of Congress, to at least know the details of his new political agenda….