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dam-l Riots in Bolivia over Privatised Water
The Bolivian government shoots its citizens protesting water privatisation!
Lorne Stockman
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is more current info on the declaration of martial law in Bolivia. If
you haven't been following this, the citizens movement that blockaded roads
and caused the government to declare this "state of emergency" was a
mobilization against the privatization of water and the sale of the
Cochabamba water system to a transnational corporate outfit led by US-based
Bechtel. The IMF required Bolivia to privatize water systems and other
utilities as part of its "structural adjustment" plan. (People working on
the April 16 IMF/WB mobiliations might consider using the Bolivia situation
as an example.) This incredible fight against privatization of the basic
stuff of life is right at the forefront of the movement against
corporate-led globalization, and very much like the Ecuadoran indigenous
mobilizations of a few months ago.
Whatever the role of Bechtel (or the IMF or US) in this, it's obscene that
the government suspended civil rights to protect corporate investment over
basic human needs. I encourage folks to follow Jim Schultz's suggestion
below and contact Bechtel today.
Saludos,
Dan
>X-Sender: jshultz@albatros.cnb.net
>Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 10:50:52 -0400
>To: Dan Jaffee <dsjaffee@facstaff.wisc.edu>
>From: Jim Shultz <JShultz@democracyctr.org>
>Subject: Re: *Please forward latest Bolivia email asap*
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>
>Sunday, April 9th
>Cochabamba, Bolivia
>
>Dear Friends:
>
> The situation here in Bolivia remains critical. Since the
>declaration of
>martial law yesterday at least three people have been killed, including a
>17 year old boy shot by soldiers with live ammunition here in Cochabamba.
>More than 30 people in Cochabamba alone have been injured from conflicts
>with the military. Respected leaders of the water protests have been
>jailed, some flown to a remote location in Bolivia’s jungle. Soldiers
>continue to occupy the city’s center. However, there is now something very
>real and straightforward you can do to help.
>
> The massive protests that prompted the declaration of martial law here
>were prompted by the sale of Cochabamba’s public water system to a private
>corporation (Aguas del Tunari, owned by International Water Limited) which
>then doubled water rates for poor families that can barely afford to feed
>themselves. It turns out that that the main financial power behind that
>water corporation in the Bechtel Corporation, based in San Francisco
>(Source: http://www.bechtel.com/whatnew/1999artsq4.html).
>
> The people of Bolivia have made it very clear that they want
>Bechtel out.
>The Bolivian government is so committed to protecting Bechtel that it has
>declared martial law and killed its own people. While some in the
>government here are saying this afternoon that Bechtel will leave, given
>the government's reversal on the same promise Friday the statement has no
>credibility here ansent a written agreement and end to martial law. It is
>critical that pressure be brought to bear directly on Bechtel in the US.
>You can help, here’s how:
>
>1) Send an e-mail, letter, fax or make a phone call to:
>
> Riley Bechtel, Chairman and CEO, Bechtel Corp
> E-mail: northame@bechtel.com
> Tel: (415) 768-1234
> Fax: (415) 768-9038
> Address: 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
>
>2) The Message:
>
> "Bolivians have made it absolutely clear that they want Bechtel’s water
>company, Aguas de Tunari, out of Bolivia, through a week of huge protests
>that have nearly shut down the country. To protect Bechtel, the Bolivian
>government has now put the country under martial law, leaving many dead and
>wounded. Bechtel has a responsibility to honor the wishes of Bolivians and
>bring the crisis to an end by immediatley signing an agreement to turn the
>water system back over to Bolivians."
>
>3) Please send this information as far and wide as you can. More than
>1,000 other are receiving this message today. Even 100 e-mails ro calls to
>Bechtel Monday will make an enormous difference.
>
> To give you some additional context on events here I am including
>below an
>article, which I published in Saturday's San Jose Mercury News. The article
>went to press just before the government reversed position and declared
>martial law.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Jim Shultz
> The Democracy Center
> JShultz@democracyctr.org
>
>
--------
(NOTE: This went to press just BEFORE martial law was declared Friday
night)
>
>BOLIVIAN PROTESTERS WIN WAR OVER WATER
>
>COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA
>
>In a stunning concession to four days of massive public uprisings, the
>Bolivian government announced late Friday afternoon that it was breaking
>the contract it signed last year that sold the region's water system to a
>consortium of British-led investors.
>
>A general strike and road blockades that began Tuesday morning in
>Cochabamba shut down the city of half a million, leaving the usually
>crowded streets virtually empty of cars and closing schools, businesses and
>the city's 25-square-block marketplace, one of Latin America's largest.
>
>The government's surprise agreement to reverse the water privatization deal
>follows four months of public protest. It came just as it appeared that
>President Hugo Banzer Suárez was preparing to declare martial law, possibly
>triggering fighting in the streets between riot police and the thousands of
>angry protesters who seized control of the city's central plaza.
>
>Greater meaning
>
>While rumors are surfacing that the government might backtrack on their
>promise, for Bolivians the popular victory apparently won over water has
>much wider meaning. ``We're questioning that others, the World Bank,
>international business, should be deciding these basic issues for us,''
>said protest leader Oscar Olivera. ``For us, that is democracy.''
>
> The selling-off of public enterprises to foreign investors has been a
>heated economic debate in Bolivia for a decade, as one major business after
>another -- the airline, the train system, electric utilities -- has been
>sold into private (almost always foreign) hands. Last year's one-bidder
>sale of Cochabamba's public water system, a move pushed on government
>officials by the World Bank, the international lending institution, brought
>the privatization fight to a boil.
>
>In January, as the new owners erected their shiny new ``Aguas del Tunari''
>logo over local water facilities, the company also slapped local water
>users with rate increases that were as much as double. In a city where the
>minimum wage is less than $100 per month, many families were hit with
>increases of $20 per month and more.
>
> Tanya Paredes, a mother of five who supports her family as a
>clothes-knitter, says her increase, $15 per month, was equal to what it
>costs to feed her family for 1 1/2 weeks. ``What we pay for water comes out
>of what we have to pay for food, clothes and the other things we need to
>buy for our children,'' she said.
>
> Public anger over the rate increases, led by a new alliance, known here as
>``La Coordinadora,'' exploded in mid-January with a four-day shutdown of
>the city, stunning the government and forcing an agreement to reverse the
>rate increases.
>
> In early February, when the promises never materialized, La Coordinadora
>called for a peaceful march on the city's central plaza. Banzer (who
>previously ruled as a dictator from 1971-78) met the protesters with more
>than 1,000 police and an armed takeover of La Cochabamba's center. Two days
>of police tear gas and rock-throwing by marchers left more than 175
>protesters injured and two youths blinded.
>
> February's violent clashes forced the government and the water company to
>implement a rate rollback and freeze until November, and to agree to a new
>round of negotiations.
>
>Deal scrutinized
>
> Meanwhile, La Coordinadora, aided by the local College of Economists,
>began to scrutinize both the contract and the finances behind the water
>company's new owners. While the actual financial arrangements remain mostly
>hidden, the city's leading daily newspaper reported that investors paid the
>government less than $20,000 of upfront capital for a water system worth
>millions.
>
> Amid charges of corruption and collusion in the contract by some of the
>officials who approved it last year, La Coordinadora announced what it
>called la última batalla (the final battle), demanding that the government
>break the contract and return the water system to public hands. The group
>set Tuesday as the deadline for action.
>
> Government water officials warned that private investors were needed to
>secure the millions of dollars needed to expand this growing region's water
>system. They argued that breaking the contract would entitle the owners to
>a $12 million compensation fee, and pleaded for public patience to give the
>new owners time to show the benefits of their experience.
>
> Among the vast majority of Cochabamba water users, however, that patience
>had run out. Two weeks ago, an inquiry surveyed more than 60,000 local
>residents about the water issue and more than 90 percent voted that the
>government should break the contract. During one of the marches this week
>protesters stopped at the water company's offices, tearing down the new
>``Aguas del Tunari'' sign erected just three months ago.
>
> Tuesday, city residents took to the street with bicycles and soccer balls
>-- only a few cars moved across town to take advantage of the day off from
>work and school. By Wednesday, armies of people from the surrounding rural
>areas, fighting a parallel battle over a new law threatening popular
>control of rural water systems, began arriving, reinforcing the road
>blockades, and puncturing car and bicycle tires. Thursday night, with
>another day of wages lost and no sign of movement from the government,
>public anger started to erupt.
>
>Protesters arrested
>
> A crowd of nearly 500 surrounded the government building where
>negotiations, convened by the Roman Catholic archbishop, were taking place
>between protest leaders and government officials. In the middle of
>negotiations, the government ordered the arrest of 15 La Coordinadora
>leaders and others present in the meeting.
>
> ``We were talking with the mayor, the governor, and other civil leaders
>when the police came in and arrested us,'' said Olivera, La Coordinadora's
>most visible leader. ``It was a trap by the government to have us all
>together, negotiating, so that we could be arrested.''
>
> In response, thousands of city and rural residents filled the city's
>central plaza opposite the government building, carrying sticks, rocks and
>handkerchiefs to help block the anticipated tear gas. Television and radio
>reports speculated all day that the president would declare martial law,
>and there were reports of army units arriving at the city's airport.
>
> Freed from jail early Friday morning, the leaders of water protests agreed
>to a 4 p.m. meeting with the government, called by the archbishop. At 5
>p.m., government officials still had not arrived and the plaza crowd waited
>tensely for the expected arrival of the army.
>
> Suddenly and unexpectedly, the archbishop walked into the meeting and
>announced that the government had just told him that it had agreed to break
>the water contract. Jubilant La Coordinadora leaders crossed the street to
>a third-floor balcony, announcing the victory to the thousands waiting
>below, many waving the red-green-and-yellow Bolivian flag, as the bells of
>the city's cathedral echoed through the city center.
>
>"We have arrived at the moment of an important economic victory," Olivera
>told the ecstatic crowd.
>
(The above was written just before declaration of martial law. The
movement leaders were again arrested Friday night. The government admits it
lied to the protesters, but says it did so to protect civil order.)
==========================================
>From Reuters, Saturday April 8:
Bolivia declares emergency over protests
April 8, 2000
Web posted at: 6:53 p.m. EDT (2253 GMT)
LA PAZ, Bolivia <map.la.paz.cochabamba.jpg> (Reuters) -- Bolivia's
government put the landlocked Andean nation of 8 million people under a
state of emergency Saturday, after it was rocked for a week by protests over
pending waterworks projects and legislation.
"We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state
of emergency to protect law and order," President Hugo Banzer said in a
message delivered by Information Minister Ronald MacLean at the government
palace.
The state of emergency giving Banzer special powers to deploy police and the
military will be in place for 90 days. It was announced Friday night to
avoid damaging "the efforts for social dialogue" and assure "that the great
effort towards economic reactivation is not set back further," MacLean read.
The move has to be ratified by Congress, in which the ruling party controls
the majority.
Bolivia has been hit by protests in the central city of Cochabamba over a
$200 million waterworks project that promises to hike drinking-water rates.
Meanwhile, roadblocks have been set up on several national highways by
peasants pressuring the government to relent on a bill currently being
debated in Congress that could force them to pay for water they currently
obtain for free.
On top of the waterworks demonstrations, university students in the central
city of Sucre -- home to the nation's Supreme Court -- have staged a hunger
strike against a "persona non grata" from the southern Tarija province civic
committee who was received by the president.
And in the capital city La Paz, various police units have set off a mutiny
over low pay.
Mobilization of police and military began early Saturday with a raid on the
headquarters of the Bolivian Workers' Central Union (COB). The wives of 13
police officers who were on a hunger strike in search of better wages for
their husbands were hauled away.
And at least 10 civic leaders were arrested in Cochabamba, the scene of
violent protests during the week against the new waterworks project, which
could raise water rates by 35 percent.
MacLean confirmed that at least 20 people had been arrested. Government
Minister Walter Guiteras told reporters those detained would be confined,
although he did not mention where.
"The chaos has begun to spread ... just at the moment in which we are
beginning an important economic reactivation plan," said the dictum from
Banzer, the fourth consecutive democratically elected president to be forced
into declaring a state of siege.
The government is refusing to climb down on the $200 million waterworks
contract in Cochabamba with Aguas del Tunari -- a consortium led by
London-based International Water Limited (IWL) -- saying it must guarantee
the rights of foreign investors. IWL is jointly owned by Italian utility
Edison and U.S. company Bechtel Enterprise Holdings.
Tear gas was fired Friday at thousands of demonstrators in downtown
Cochabamba, and peasant leader Felipe Quispe promised the protests would
intensify over the weekend.
A large military operation has been put into action to clear the highways in
five of the nation's nine provinces.
The roads have been blocked for the last five days by peasants railing
against the water bill they claim will bring large-scale private utility
projects and put a price tag on their water.
Waldo Albarracin, the influential president of the local human-rights
assembly, said he saw no justification for declaring a state of emergency.
"Now we wait and see if the situation does not deteriorate into human-rights
abuses," Albarracin told reporters.
Copyright 2000 Reuters </interactive_legal.html>. All rights reserved