Santa Cruz… Still

I know that my last post said I was supposed to be on my marry way out of this fiasco, but I’m still sitting here at CCM in Santa Cruz.  Also wanted to point out that you might have heard or seen things about Bolivia in the news, like the Peace Corps getting shipped out of the country, U.S. Gov. encouraging American citizens to leave Bolivia and even offering tickets and specials flight to Peru, and every day Hugo Chavez making a big scene and competing more and more with U.S. for the country-that-messes-with-the-most-other-countries-business award.  But, I would just like to say that with all the business in the news and this-that-and-the-other; I’m still chilling here in Santa Cruz and doing very well and feeling very safe.  I’m a little board at times being that I don’t have all that much to do, but I’m getting to know my host family and all is well.

 

P.S. I can keep on going with news briefings on news if folks would like, being that I’m watching Bolivian, Brazilian, and U.S. news, and reading Bolivian, and U.S. newspapers, along with the BBC.  But for now I would suggest folks just to keep up on the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/default.stm) and www.democracyctr.org.

A brief, comprehensive and truly unbiased report of Bolivia Pt.2

        

Here is entrenching attempt number three.  I have my mate and my ipod full of U2 music, so I think this time I’ll be able to finish it all off.  Again, please read my past two posts to get the entire picture of what’s going down, and yes I’ll continue on with more posts but this is a dedicated trio of posts.

 So, during the last week in Santa Cruz, things have started to happen.  Well, things have always happened.  But, over the past two years or so there have always been protest, bloqueos, and paradas.  The public that I have spoken with all agree that over the last three days it has escalated to a level they have never seen before.  The manifestaciones or demonstrations (some peaceful, some violent) have been mostly lead by one or both of two groups: the Unión Juvenil Cruceñista and the Federación Universitaria Local.  The first group is a loose organization of youth around Santa Cruz that support the Autonomist Party in Santa Cruz; the second group is actually under the umbrella of the local university here in Santa Cruz.  They are organized and supported by professors and students in the university.  Historicaly the university has always supported the Autonomist Party and in the past has actually made it a requirement for student to participate in some of these demonstrations (again some violent and some not).  On Tuesday these two group started gathering together near the city centre, the Plaza del 24 de Septiembre.  They started having confrontations with the National Police it escalated to the Police shooting teargas and rubber bullets, and the youth with rocks and firecrackers.  Unfortunately these two groups usually take advantage of young kids with drug problems and marginalized youth to help them out with their dirty work.  They also say that they are in this fight (this day it was specifically about IDH) with the disabled people of Santa Cruz.  So an aside, this is another thing that has been thrown in with the mix. Evo Morales during his campaigning promised to give a stipend to any and all disabled people of Bolivia; the amount was a not so impressive 3,000 Bolivianos a year (about $400 u.s.), the money has never showed up and so over the last year or so the disabled people have gotten together and been performing there own protest, bloqueos and even a hunger strike in La Paz that ended in one disabled person dying.  The Autonomist have recently been getting the disabled people in on their own protest which unfortunately ends up in them getting hurt and then the autonomist blaming the police and a whole bunch of “how dare you attack a group of unarmed disabled people.”  All around bad news bears with that business.

So, on Friday, 5^th of September, I planned a meeting with a luthier who does all the repairs for the orchestra of the organization that I’m working with.  I was supposed to meet this gentleman on the steps of the catedral (which is right on the plaza, literally) in downtown Santa Cruz on Tuesday the 9^th at 12:00, and I would wear a National Geographic Channel hat so he could find me.  As I walked towards the plaza I heard firecrackers going off “what kind of a thing are they celebrating today” I thought, didn’t seem like September 9^th was supposed to be special in any way.  As I got closer to the plaza I realized that one block over to the North there was tons of smoke and a pretty hefty amount of commotion going on (along with the random reporter/person with a video camera running around).  I had decided to get there early so I could meet with my boss (from the SICOR) whose office was also on the plaza.  I had my meeting and as a left the building I passed a TV with a guard watching it.  They were showing live footage of people running around with firecrackers and shooting them at Police (all decked out in riot gear) and brigades of National Police marching on the groups with their big shields.  I asked the guard if this was what was happening the next block over, and he said it sure was.  I went out onto the plaza and sure enough there was smoke coming up from one of the streets (right along the front of the cathedral) and mobs of people looking down the streets, and young guys with masks running back and forth with huge boxes of firecrackers and there make-shift firecracker shooters.  I decided to mill around a bit and see if I could find Alfonso “Hichu”, the luthier, since I was fairly excited to meet him.  I decided it would be in my best interst to stay on the capital building side of the plaza (in my mind the autonomist have always been really fond of the Santa Cruz government).  The only issue was the kids with their mask and business kept on moving different parts of the plaza.  An interesting point I noticed here was the most of the public seemed to be ether interested in the manifestacion as a source of entertainment or just kept on with their business and ignored it entirely.  After a good 25 minutes and several failed attempts off calling him Hichu finally found me.  We found a bench on the plaza and talked for a while, with raised voices over the sirens, fireworks and hollering, until the cathedral bells starting tolling and tolling and wouldn’t stop.  Hichu told me we should probably move on to some other place, the bells meant that something very serious was happening in the city. By the end of Tuesday, the violence had escalated, the national army also got in on some of the action.  All told there were several injured on both sides, some reports of one person dead (this was not agreed upon by all the news sources).  Also the FUL successfully took over the offices of the Servicio de Impuestos Internos, (some sort of national Tax office) the Instituto Nacional de Reforma Agraria (the office where they were working on the land redistribution stuff) and the Santa Cruz ENTEL office on the plaza (this is the phone company).  All of these are National offices or somehow related to the national government.  But not only were all the places taken over but also entirely vandalized and ransacked.  Particularly the ENTEL office since property phone cards and all sorts of stuff was taken.  Also the national TV station, Canal 7, based in La Paz has a office in Santa Cruz and that building was practically completely demolished.  Also by the end of the night the Immigration office was also taken over. 

 On Wednesday the 10^th we were hoping things would have calmed down.  The news confirmed the opposite (an aside, I have been astonished by the news coverage, there are about 4 news channels and they are about as one sided as I could imagine, ether pro or anti Evo).  I made it pretty tranquilo from my barrio outside of the main part of Santa Cruz into the centre where the MCC offices are.  But that afternoon I was returning with my tutor from getting to know the city and we were in a taxi going by the Bi Modal, big bus and train station, (we had been there earlier trying to figure out if we could get a train out to Santiago and it was practically empty, nothing was going any where).  As we got close to the station we saw a large group of kids milling around.  They were blocking off the second ring around the city, so we had to take another route right by the station as we went by there were groups of youth chucking rocks and fireworks and breaking into the station.  We also drove by a couple of Bolivian Red Cross folks.  That night on my way home we ended up taking an even wider route around that area since more and more was being blocked off.  On the news that night we saw that the people had ended up taking over the bus station and ransacking the whole place.

 Today, Thursday the 11^th, the violence has still been going. The two groups now supported by even more have continued taking over more buildings and even tried unsuccessfully to brake into a bank that was in charge of paying national employees in the city.  On the first day most of what I heard, on the news from Santa Cruz, was we must continue supporting our valiant you in their courageous efforts. That is still somewhat present on the news (they seem to interview a lot of folks that are actually heads of these organizations or groups so it isn’t al that surprising that they would talk nice about them), but what I’ve started to hear on the micros and chatting with people is that this has gotten entirely out of hand and it has never been this bad before.  It has gone from people trying to instigate change to people wanting to create chaos (that is adapted from conversations I had with Lynn last night). A lot of folks are really astonished by the youth and people that are starting to perform acts of outright vandalism and looting on the city itself.  From what I saw personally it was a genuine example of mob mentality.  Personally one of the saddest things I have started to figure out that many of the National Police are young folks (around 19 or 20) and are from the campo, or rural areas, or from Santa Cruz itself.  In Bolivia you are required to get a certain certificate after high school, you can get this by either doing military service or paying it off.  Turns out a lot of the leaders in the University group are actually a part of the Santa Cruz rich elite.  I’m not saying that on the streets it’s a bunch of reach preppy kids fighting against poor farm boys in military uniforms but it adds a dynamics.  Another point that has also been made is that some of the generals have actually pulled there brigades back at some points saying that they would have been required to open fire of live rounds if they had not.  But also there have been reports of a not so favourable flavour of generals deserting their troops and leaving them to fend for themselves (this has not actually been confirmed as far as I know).

Personally, one of the saddest things (you can chastise me later about this) has been that last night there were world cup qualifier games being played around the world.  Bolivia played Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, (Argentina also played Peru and sadly tied….) but it was being televised on only two channels in the country, ITS (a cable channel) and Canal 7 (from La Paz). And what would you know but ITS is only with one of the three cable providers in the country (my host family doesn’t have that channel) and Canal 7 was snow (not coming in).  Supposedly since the offices and what not were destroyed Canal 7 has had a hard time getting their service into Santa Cruz.  So on the second night of rights and violence in the city a large percentage of Cruzeños couldn’t watch there selection tie Brazil in a historic match in Rio (I also couldn’t watch Argentina, but that’s besides the point). But what is the world coming to when you can’t watch your own countries soccer game…… it was very nerve-racking last night knowing that if they could have gotten one goal that things really would have started to look up in the city.

So the states of things are uncertain.  We’re entirely stuck in the city. Nobody can get in or out (except by plain, they haven’t shut down the airport entirely, and there is another small airport that I might actually have the chance to fly out of).  So, I’m not sure when or how I’ll be able to get to my little town of Santiago.  I’m hoping to go to a soccer game this weekend since we didn’t get to go last weekend.  My host family here  (kinda funny) is really happy that they ransacked the train station, since that means I will be here for at least a week or so longer then we had planned, if I don’t get out in a plain. And, out in the Plan 3000 (my barrio) it is pretty calm. Also, for now Bolivia keeps on keeping on, even if the news is dominated by civil unrest instead of soccer.

 

 

 

A brief, comprehensive and truly unbiased report of Bolivia Pt.1

 

So here goes attempt number two, and it seems like there will be an attempt number three as well being that time is against me.  But I do ask that you read my previous post that I so wittingly called A brief, comprehensive and truly unbiased history of Bolivia, this will give you a much deeper understanding of what is going on.

To really figure this stuff out we’ll have to do some explanation of who on earth is who and why they care.  We shall start with Mr. Juan Evo Morales Ayma himself. He is the first indigenous president of Bolivia, he got started as a leader of the Bolivian cocalero movement, a type of coca farmers labour union (this explains one of his reasons for not being terribly friendly with the U.S. and the DEA, his stance is that he has never supported the refining of coca into cocaine and that it has never been a part of the Andean culture).  He was elected president in 2005 as a member of the Movimiento al Socialismo or Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).  Since then he’s had the growing support of Indigenous people and a fairly high majority of the entire Andean, western, part of Bolivia (this is where many of the Aymara and Quechua people are concentrated, and over all where most of the poverty is concentrated as well).

So, seems like Evo is a pretty cool guy, well some people do have some beef with him.  He’s fairly socialist, and some say communist, so U.S. doesn’t care much for that (check two marks off along with the cocalero business).  Evo is pretty chummy with Chavez of Venezuela (who has been chummy with Castro in the past, check three marks off).  The eastern part of the country is pretty wealthy (lots of natural gas and oil) and so they aren’t so excited about the Cuba/Venezuela connection ether (communism doesn’t ever bode all that well for people with tons of money).  There are claims that he’s been taking all of the money from Santa Cruz (one of the eastern departments) and giving it to the Indians of the west.  Which people say isn’t all that bad but that the Indians don’t do anything with it.  He’s had this large land reform project going on, Reforma Agraria which is trying to redistribute land that might have been claimed by illegal means and limiting the amount of land that one person can have (say more then 10,000 hectares is one of the suggestions, that’s about 25,000 acres) also if there is any land that is just sitting there from some rich European guy, that maybe some other farmer could actually do something with it, then they would switch things around to make things right.  This seems to be pretty widely confirmed as being a good idea; except for the few folks that have more then the limit of land (I’ve heard of some people having more then 70,000 or 100,000 hectares.  Evo has also tried to have a new constitution, which is all fine and good except that his party went about it in a not so agreeable way, the new constitution was actually written up (they approved the making of the changes, with most of the opposition not present, but they are still waiting on actually approving the final thinger, also during the whole fiasco in Sucre there was some violence and several people were killed so they moved the Congress to Ururo to keep on working on it bad news bears all around).  So these are a couple of things that he’s done, along with nationalizing one of the telecommunications companies, and kicking out the American ambassador, Goldberg, who has seemed to be a pretty level headed guy, but has had contact and meetings with Ruben Costas the governor of Santa Cruz.

On the other side of the country, the media luna, or half moon (the group of five departments that are more wealthy, want more autonomy, percentage wise are less indigenous and when looked at on a map look like a half moon) there is a different set of things going on.  The Cruzeños, or folks from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, are not all that fond of mister Evo.  That I have experienced personally, it definitely isn’t all of Santa Cruz but there is a very large anti Evo presence.  The biggest gripe they have with the national government is that they claim that their tax dollars are going to La Paz and not staying there.  Also, they would like to be able to take part in more of there own governance.  This has recently changed a little, since in all of the smaller towns and villages they now have their own mayors and governors and they are taking care of a lot of there own business.  The most glairing thing that has come up recently is the fiasco with IDH, a tax on hydrocarbon products, or oil.  Santa Cruz, as a department, was supposed to get a big chunk of cash here recently from taxes on oil but by some finagling and shifting around of laws some how (sorry I didn’t research this enough but I hope it still makes sense and I’m not making junk up) the money went to La Paz.

So I do believe here is another perfect point for a pause, and a chance to for me to have another post and another cheesy name for another title.  And, I do believe I need to acknowledge some of the help that I’ve gotten on this.  Phil Bender (great guy) who came originally to Bolivia with MCC ages and ages ago, gave a wonderful talk about history of Bolivia (a lot of my last post).  I’ve had many a conversation with Laura (our connecting peoples person here, and my boss).  Also, with my host family: Doña Chachi, Mauricio and Alboro.  Also, my wonderful tutor from Santiago Delicia has given me plenty of insight from a Bolivian who has also lived some time out of the country.  And, lastly, just waltzing around the country for the last 3 or however many weeks.  I’ve listened to people on the micros, and chatted with folks on the street and got stuck on the edges of one of the riots on Tuesday (I’ll explain this more later).  So thank you all for your prayers and support for getting me to this wonderful place.  No worries I will try not to be as late on the third post.

 

 

 

 

 

A brief, comprehensive and truly unbiased history of Bolivia

This is my feeble attempt to entrench myself at the computer with my mate and give a comprehensive and unbiased report of the goings-on’s of this wonderful place, including a bit of history, political mumbo-jumbo, and the current arena of things (this is actually in the soon to come post, aka try number two, aka a brief comprehensive and truly unbiased report of Bolivia now).  I admit that a truly comprehensive and unbiased report is entirely impossible, and in reality this will just be a gringo perspective of things.  But none the less, this is a gringo that has been in south American cultures before, has seen the violence first hand, the news (from the east and the west, and outside of the country), and has spoken with a fair amount of folks from around here.  So… take from it what you will.  Here goes:

            So, Bolivia got its independence in 1825 and since then rich European elite has dominated the political arena.  Another interesting point to consider is that throughout history Bolivia has gotten the short end of the stick from pretty much all its neighbours.  They’ve had conflicts with Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Chile over land. The most notable of which would be the War of the Pacific where Bolivia lost there disputed territory along the coast of the Pacific (1879-83) and the Chaco War with Paraguay (1932-35).  Now if you ask a Paraguayan or a Chileno they’ll probably tell you that it was there land in the first place and Bolivia should mind there own business….. but who knows.  Political craziness followed through most of the 20th century.  You can get the whole report from wikipedia if you like, but one of the most interesting points is that Bolivia has had a total of 193 coups d’etat from independence until 1981. (kinda crazy if you ask me) And all the credit for the past quarter century of relative political stability is largely attributed to President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, who ceded power peacefully after cutting hyperinflation which reached as high as 14,000 percent (that’s pretty crazy high).  He succeeded in doing this buy just stopping national spending for a period of time to pretty much nothing.

            So, if you haven’t read any international news in the past three years, or the August issue of National Geographic (it’s great, I highly recommend it), you wouldn’t know that in 2005 Evo Morales, a native Aymara from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) party, won the elections with a whopping 53 and something percent.  This is the first time in history that a Native has been in charge of Bolivia and pretty much any of South America.  This is especially significant since a total 55% of Bolivia is made up of Native or Original peoples (30% Quechua-speaking, 25% Aymara-speaking, and then several dozen other groups that sadly don’t seemed to be mentioned enough in the whole ordeal).  So Morales says this is the end of 500 years of colonialism and a time for autonomy has begun.  And not surprisingly that started to make some people uneasy, and pay attention because that word autonomy comes up again.

            So blamo here we are in 2008 and things seem to be looking up.  I show up in Bolivia with all this amazing knowledge about the country.  I’m mister informed and aware.  According to the textbooks, National Geographic, and Wikipedia things have settled down, sorta.  The referendum elections (that happened the weekend before we got here, August 10^th, but you all should know that being the well informed folks that you are) stated that supposedly more then 2/3 of Bolivians supported Evo Morales.  So, I then came to the presumptuous conclusion that a hefty percent of Bolivia folks like this Morales dude.  But when I got here, I started hearing all this boohiss Evo business.  So I decided to start asking around and trying not to be the ignorant gringo that just went along with popular opinion/what CNN tells me.

           

The following post will be what I have accumulated.  (sorry I said I’d give a Uncompromised, Inclusive, Unbiased report and I ended up giving a history lesson, but honestly this background is necessary to even start understanding all the business that is going on now).

            And please correct me on any of this stuff, my sources are folks from around here, the Internet and news, so I hope that most of those are accurate but I realize that it isn’t always the case.