General Update
So much has been going on here in Cochabamba and Bolivia for the past several months that it's hard to keep track -- and I've never delved into it here because of the daunting task of fully comprehending and expressing it all.
So without trying to back up, just a tiny sampling of what's been happening in Cochabamba and beyond this past week:
-After over 1,000 campesinos marched from Santa Cruz through Cochabamba and onwards to La Paz, and after two senators made a controversial late night switch of position, the Ley INRA was passed. The law plans to redistribute a massive chunk of Bolivia's unproductive or illegally-owned land to campesinos with insufficient land. There is significant debate on how this might affect the respect for private property, as well as the issues that come along with defining "productive". But it may be Evo's most notorious move since the nationalization of hydrocarbons in May.
-Meanwhile, several departments in Bolivia planned strikes. The biggest, most constant news in Bolivia is the Asamblea Constituyente, which commenced in August and has a maximum of one year to rewrite the Bolivian Constitution. There are always related debates, and one of the most omnipresent has been whether to approve a simple majority (approving articles with 51%) or mandate a 2/3 approval of articles. The strikers wanted the government to recognize a 2/3 majority -- there were hunger strikes and blockades in Cochabamba's Plaza Principal.
-To top it off, public transportation drivers (transportistas) were striking and blockading last week over the passing of a law to eliminate illegal transport lines and drivers.
-And the clincher: next week the Comunidad Sudamericana, a political/economic community of South American countries founded in 2004, is meeting in Cochabamba -- which means presidents and important politicians from all over South America converging here. And surely, plenty of people taking advantage of the publicity to voice and demonstrate their concerns.
I'm looking forward to it, but it's hard to believe that the city won't deteriorate into utter chaos. The most frequent joke, as well as the most frequent beef among Cochabambinos, is the zeal Bolivians have for striking and blockading and anti-striking for anything and everything. From a North American outsider's point of view, it always seemed to be a rare and welcome sign of people coming together to assert their rights and protest injustice. Being here, however, it's become clear how debilitating constant blockades and strikes are to daily life, the economy, and even to the causes which provoke the manifestations -- people become increasingly immune to their force and start to view them with hostility when they happen every other day, sometimes for the most trivial of reasons, with negative effects on so many people unrelated to the issues. Mauricio has joked that we could step out of the office, set up a blockade on the street just because we were bored or frustrated with work, and no one would question it -- would take a detour, go about business as usual. It's daily life.
I'm still working it all out.
So without trying to back up, just a tiny sampling of what's been happening in Cochabamba and beyond this past week:
-After over 1,000 campesinos marched from Santa Cruz through Cochabamba and onwards to La Paz, and after two senators made a controversial late night switch of position, the Ley INRA was passed. The law plans to redistribute a massive chunk of Bolivia's unproductive or illegally-owned land to campesinos with insufficient land. There is significant debate on how this might affect the respect for private property, as well as the issues that come along with defining "productive". But it may be Evo's most notorious move since the nationalization of hydrocarbons in May.
-Meanwhile, several departments in Bolivia planned strikes. The biggest, most constant news in Bolivia is the Asamblea Constituyente, which commenced in August and has a maximum of one year to rewrite the Bolivian Constitution. There are always related debates, and one of the most omnipresent has been whether to approve a simple majority (approving articles with 51%) or mandate a 2/3 approval of articles. The strikers wanted the government to recognize a 2/3 majority -- there were hunger strikes and blockades in Cochabamba's Plaza Principal.
-To top it off, public transportation drivers (transportistas) were striking and blockading last week over the passing of a law to eliminate illegal transport lines and drivers.
-And the clincher: next week the Comunidad Sudamericana, a political/economic community of South American countries founded in 2004, is meeting in Cochabamba -- which means presidents and important politicians from all over South America converging here. And surely, plenty of people taking advantage of the publicity to voice and demonstrate their concerns.
I'm looking forward to it, but it's hard to believe that the city won't deteriorate into utter chaos. The most frequent joke, as well as the most frequent beef among Cochabambinos, is the zeal Bolivians have for striking and blockading and anti-striking for anything and everything. From a North American outsider's point of view, it always seemed to be a rare and welcome sign of people coming together to assert their rights and protest injustice. Being here, however, it's become clear how debilitating constant blockades and strikes are to daily life, the economy, and even to the causes which provoke the manifestations -- people become increasingly immune to their force and start to view them with hostility when they happen every other day, sometimes for the most trivial of reasons, with negative effects on so many people unrelated to the issues. Mauricio has joked that we could step out of the office, set up a blockade on the street just because we were bored or frustrated with work, and no one would question it -- would take a detour, go about business as usual. It's daily life.
I'm still working it all out.
posted by Kristin at 12:30 PM
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