Campesino coca growers (cocaleros), public school teachers and other labour sectors in Bolivia joined together during the week of September 18 to press their demands with a coordinated series of strikes, protests and roadblocks that had the country virtually shut down by September 23.
Cocaleros and other campesinos are demanding land rights, as well as protesting the forced eradication of coca crops and the planned construction of three new US-financed "anti-drug" military bases in the Chapare region. Bolivia's rural public school teachers have been on an open-ended strike since September 13, pushing for a 50% wage increase among other demands; the strike was joined on September 18 by the urban public school teachers.
The Coordinating Committee for Water and Life, which organised a protest movement in the city of Cochabamba in April against the privatisation of the municipal drinking water system, is also backing the new protests. On September 20, some 20,000 people demonstrated in Cochabamba to demand that the government discuss implementation of a new water law.
On September 22 more than 5,000 teachers, campesinos and workers marched from Quillacollo to Cochabamba. Speakers at the subsequent rally called for the resignation of President Hugo Banzer Suarez.
While the committee was able to resolve some water law issues through talks with local authorities during the week, it is continuing a civic strike and roadblocks in solidarity with the teachers and campesinos. The other groups involved in the actions are following the same solidarity policy, insisting that all demands must be resolved before any protests will be lifted.
The coordination was formally laid out in an inter-union pact between the different sectors. The Bolivian Workers Central (COB), the country's main labour federation, is backing the protests with a call for an open-ended general strike to begin on September 25.
By September 24, some 60,000 cocalero families grouped in the six campesino federations of the Chapare region had barricaded 300 kilometres of the main road that crosses Bolivia from east to west. Members of the Only Union Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) are also blocking roads in La Paz department and other areas of the country, including important trade routes linking landlocked Bolivia to ports in Peru and Chile.
Some 5,000 military and police troops have failed to clear the roads — as soon as the troops manage to break up a roadblock and move on, the protesters return to reblock the road.
Oscar Olivera, leader of the Coordinating Committee for Water and Life, said on September 23 that the roadblocks around Cochabamba were intensifying, and would soon extend to the city's bridges.
The same day, campesinos in Oruro department announced they will join the protests by blocking major highways in Oruro on September 25 to press their own list of 11 demands, primarily concerning land and environmental issues. Urban and rural teachers have also threatened to step up their protests on September 25.
[From Weekly News Update on the Americas. For information about subscriptions, contact <wnu@igc.org>.]