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Translated by: ClajadepCanada
Even though they are in great numbers out on the streets, using assault rifles and firing bullets and automatic weapons, the military and police troops loyal to Bolivian president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada have not been able to suffocate the increasing popular rebellion from the impoverished residents of The Alto and the hillside areas of La Paz.
On the contrary, the indiscriminate repression is pushing more and more workers and unemployed, children-youth and elders, men and women from the most impoverished urban neighbourhoods of Bolivia to rebellion.
Within the two most central city squares in the Ballivián area, the residents keep vigil over their dead, fallen in El Alto massacre, a city located four thousand meters high, which has become a true hell due to the incursion of military troops attempting to re-supply of fuel the city of La Paz, siege by blockades and civilian protests for the past five days.
At least five residents have been confirmed dead until midday today, gunned down with assault rifles. Dozens of wounded could also be counted from confrontations this past Sunday, which has proven bloodier than the day before, when army fire resulted in three civilians dead (among them a five year old child) and an approximate of twenty wounded.
‘There is machine gun fire all over the area. People seeking refuge against the walls, but they are resisting in the area of Rosas Pampa and the main avenue’, are the comments of residents infuriated with the government of Sánchez de Lozada, who is facing marches, blockades and protests for the past four weeks.
‘For God’s sake, let the army stop firing against the people’, implores the priest from Senkata, an area where bullets are flying as much as blood pouring on the streets in corner to corner and block to block combats. It is the confrontation of machine guns, of bullets against stones and sling shots.
Armoured tanks penetrating in neighbourhoods, firing down just like the helicopter flying above and hundreds of soldiers sent out on the streets. But the rebels are many, way over the eight thousand estimated by the President, in the solitude of his Palace.
The radio stations are reporting about new wounded and old sorrows. Everyone is asking for the head of Sánchez de Lozada, who is accused of drowning Bolivia in blood in favour of a project of exporting their gas to the United States, via a Chilean port, a deal that will fill the money bags of the transnationals leaving very little behind for the poorest country of South America.
In Villa Santiago II more people fall wounded. The hospitals and health clinics are unable to cope, blood supplies are running out and they are asking for medicines. There is solidarity and people are donating and crying for their neighbours and friends.
‘This is cold blooded killing (…) Sánchez de Lozada is a butcher’, says the ‘Mallku” (leader) Felipe Quispe, taking cover in the building of Radio San Gabriel.
On the highway linking La Paz with El Alto bullets are flying all over. A police caravan gone mad is protecting a convoy of trucks loaded with food and fuel supplies. They are driving down the highway throwing tear gas grenades everywhere against the hills, houses and residents, who due to the indiscriminate attack join the rebellion. The aggression is to much, as well as the anger.
‘Tomorrow we are going to burn down La Paz, let the residents of La Paz go out on the streets and support us’, say other residents.
The analysts also give their opinion. ‘Nobody can govern with so many people against them’, says Jorge Lazarte, the former spokesperson of the National Electoral Court who believes that the only way out for Sánchez de Lozada is to back down on the issue of gas.
But despite that, there are too many who don’t want anything to do with him. ‘The evil gringo must go’, says and elder woman with her voice broken with pain and who’s demand is broadened all over the country by community radio stations.
In Cochabamba, in Oruro, in the mining areas and in the south and the east of the country the condemnation is absolute, because there is too much blood and too much violence. The coca growers lead by Evo Morales are assuring that they will go out on the streets as of Monday to block Chapare, as it is already being done by the coca growers of the Yungas area. The coca growers lead by Evo Morales had until now refrained from participating, at least effectively, in the popular struggle organized by peasants, miners and workers of the west, but now everyone seems to be joining the protests. Even, the journalist of La Paz through their Federation, are calling for mobilizations to stop the genocide.
‘The government is running against the clock’, says Lazarte, who sees, as many other do, how a growing insurrection of the poor is rising up from the roof of the world.