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Chronology for Indigenous Highland Peoples in Bolivia
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| Date(s) |
Item |
| 1989 |
The Katarista (highland Indian) party, MRTKL, of Victor Hugo Cardenas won only one seat in the parliamentary elections. This was due to low funding and low budgeting for television and media campaigning. In three successive elections beginning in 1989 until 1991, Carlos Palenque, an Aymara Indian and popular television host, was elected mayor of La Paz and El Alto. His new party, Conciencia de Patria (CONDEPA) has become a leading party for indigenous and rural peasants. He utilized Aymara symbols and language in his campaign. |
| 1991 |
The Bolivian government signed the International Labor Organization's Agreement 169 on the "rights of indigenous and tribal peoples in independent states." The government also passed a national law protecting the rights of indigenous people. This law was supported by highland indigenous groups, but was not as well supported by lowland indigenous groups. Also during this year, the lowland indigenous people and the highland people marched together ("March for Territory and Dignity") for 700 kilometers from the jungle to the Andes to the city of La Paz. The "territory" referred to the protection of their land from logging and to the legal protection of their communal lands. |
| Jul 1991 |
The Coroma Indians of Potosi visited San Francisco, CA to protest the theft of their sacred textiles which is considered stealing their souls. The Indians, through the aid of anthropologists in Bolivia, brought their claim to the U.S. Customs Office, which confiscated the textiles from U.S. dealers. The dealers were scheduled for trial in the U.S. and the Indians were awarded the return of their textiles. |
| 1992 |
The Indians of the highland and lowland adopted the term "pueblas originarios" to refer to their status as original, or first nations of the country. |
| May 13, 1992 |
President Paz Zamora signed over 1 million ha. of land as a grant to the indigenous people in the Andean region. |
| Oct 12, 1992 |
Thousands of lowland and highland indigenous people marched in all the cities of the country. In La Paz, over 50,000 Indians surrounded the national headquarters of the government and created a human chain. These were peaceful demonstrations. |
| 1993 |
Victor Hugo Cardenas, former Katarista highland leader, merged with the MNR (with presidential candidate Sanchez de Lozada) for vice-president in the national election and won. At the August 6, 1993 inauguration, Cardenas spoke in Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani, while he and his wife were dressed in traditional Aymara clothing. He was also accompanied by Guatemalan Maya and Nobel Peace laureate, Rigoberta Menchu. Bolivia's peasant guerrilla group, Ejercito Guerrillero Tupac Katari, was disbanded after its leader and 11 key members were arrested. The group was responsible for 30 bomb attacks during the early and mid-1980s. |
| Jan 20, 1993 |
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) funded a project to protect indigenous people in Bolivia. The $51 million program will support sustainable development and cultural conservation within the region. It will also support the implementation of bilingual education programs and new health care facilities, as well as training indigenous people to market their handicrafts and abilities in the economy. |
| May 1993 |
The Plan de Todos was released. This plan included emphasis on communal land and groups, an opening of pluralist democracy, and multi-lingual education. |
| Jun 4, 1993 |
It was reported that over one million indigenous people had no voting card and thus, were unable to vote in the election. Many of the indigenous people are also illiterate, which also deters them from voting. |
| Jul 1993 |
President Jaime Paz Zamora announced that Bolivia would participate in the Indigenous Peoples Development Fund, created at the Ibero-American Summit. This fund was developed to implement technology development programs in indigenous areas. |
| Nov 1993 |
The Technical Team to Support Educational Reform (ETARE), supported by the World Bank, assessed the educational systems in indigenous areas and implemented bilingual education only for students whose "mother tongue" was an indigenous language. |
| 1994 |
The government passed constitutional reforms, which acknowledged Bolivia as "multiethnic, pluricultural society" and allow the indigenous people to assume ownership of traditional lands. |
| Dec 2, 1994 |
One hundred Indians from Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia marched in Temuco, Chile to protest Chile's addition to the North American Free Trade Agreement. They protested the opening of the Chilean market to multinational corporations, who they perceived as taking their land. |
| Apr 19, 1995 |
The government declares a state of siege after recent unrest including a 5 week teachers’ strike, a 3 week general strike, daily clashes between police and demonstrating workers and growing discontent in the various regions. The emergency declaration follows a violent military-police takeover of the COB’s headquarters in La Paz. Some 300 union leaders were dispersed to remote towns. All demonstrations, protests and meetings are prohibited. President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada says that the measure was necessary as union leaders were provoking violence. States of siege were previously instated in 1986, 1987, and 1993 (Inter Press Service, 04/19/95). |
| Apr 24, 1995 |
Violent clashes occur between the police and coca producers in Chapare. Seven people are injured while 100 are detained. The producers want their leader, Evo Morales, released from custody (Inter Press Service, 04/24/95). |
| Jul 16, 1995 |
The New York Times reported that rural towns received 40% of the national budget ($255 million) for roads, schools, and education in Spanish and indigenous dialects. It was also reported that they received the appropriations directly and were in control of the implementation of their local programs. This plan is called the Popular Participation Plan and is considered a model economic plan of decentralization for South American countries with high indigenous populations, such as Ecuador and Peru. The government also legalized indigenous traditional medicine. |
| Jul 19, 1995 |
A march by 3000 coca producers in the city of Cochabamba is violently dispersed by police forces. The protestors want their leaders released from custody (Inter Press Service, 07/20/95). |
| Jul 21, 1995 |
The government has extended the state of siege for a further 90 days. It says that continuing disorder in Chapare, where the government is waging an aggressive anti-drug campaign, and unspecified threats to the capitalization of state companies, necessitate a ban on all forms of protest. Major unions including the CSUTCB have called for a week of political actions to support the Chapare coca growers. The CSUTCB says that 2000 women will also be conducting a hunger strike to press for the release of the growers’ leaders (Latin America Weekly Report, 08/03/95). |
| Sep 5, 1995 |
Reports indicate that the government’s anti-drug crackdown is worsening the plight of indigenous peoples. Law No. 1008 gives wide powers to special anti-drug forces. Thousands of people have reportedly been imprisoned and human rights abuses included rapes have been documented. Indigenous peoples have traditionally grown the coca plant for their own use (Inter Press Service, 09/05/95). |
| Oct 15, 1995 |
The government lifts the state of siege (Inter Press Service, 10/15/95). |
| Nov 1, 1995 |
Fighting between the Laimes and Cachacas factions of the Quechua in Oruro and Potosi departments have left two dead. Nine clashes have occurred with both sides using various firearms. The clashes are believed to be linked to an ongoing dispute over agricultural boundaries in the area. |
| Dec 1995 |
An article in the Journal of Development Studies indicates that research over the past decade reveals that indigenous populations in Bolivia and Guatemala have lower levels of schooling, receive lower earnings, and experience lower rates of return to schooling than does the non-indigenous population. A 1993 study for Bolivia finds that most of the indigenous/ non- indigenous earnings differential is due to productivity (income-generating) differences between indigenous and non- indigenous workers. This study was however limited to urban areas and included both monolingual and bilingual (Spanish and indigenous language) individuals (MacIsaac and Patrinos, vol.32, no.2). |
| 1996 |
According to the State Department’s Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1996, indigenous people in Bolivia remain among the poorest in society and continue to face social discrimination. Indigenous people complain that their territories are not legally defined and protected and that their resources are exploited by outsiders, especially coca growers and timber companies. Indigenous people have become increasingly organized politically, and have taken advantage of the Population Participation Law to form municipalities that provide them with greater opportunities of self-determination. By the end of 1997, six municipalities had been established. |
| Jan 17, 1996 |
Some 600 people, including several hundred highland women, protest in La Paz. The women began their march to the capital a month ago from Chapare. They want an end to the police presence in the region, a cancellation of the planned privatization of the state oil company, and compensation for the families of five coca growers who were killed last year in confrontations with the police (Agence France Presse, 01/17/96). |
| Aug 1996 |
A protest march by several groups of indigenous peoples and rural peasants that will culminate in La Paz gets underway. The protestors oppose a controversial land reform bill promoted by the National Institute for Agrarian Reform. They are supported by the Central Bolivian Workers Union, the main labor organization, which has called for a 24-hour strike. The business community, indigenous people, and rural peasants all object to the creation of an Agricultural Superintendency under the control of the president that would be empowered to return land to the state for redistribution. Indigenous leaders fear this body would minimize the power of the National Agrarian Commission in which they participate (Inter Press Service, 09/18/96). The living conditions of indigenous people in Bolivia vary according to region Amazonian people of the north have officially recognized territories while some groups of Chiriguanos in the south still live in semi-slavery in near-feudal production systems. Indigenous people are rarely small landholders. Meanwhile, some 100 Quechua women from a Potosi mining cooperative occupy the summit of Cerro Rico to protest working conditions and the government’s policy of privatizing ore deposits, for the benefit of multinational companies. Potosi is the poorest department in the Bolivian Andes. The average life expectancy of mineworkers is 50 (UNESCO Courier, 12/97). |
| Oct 2, 1996 |
An indefinite general strike called by various unions, roadblocks by rural leaders and daily protests by indigenous peoples and peasants continue in La Paz. Some 20,000 mainly indigenous people, have held daily demonstrations in the capital for the past two weeks to protest a proposed revisions to the Agrarian Law. One demonstrator was killed when police used tear gas to contain the protests. The government says that the armed forces are willing to take action to deal with the situation. Officials indicate that 75% of the country’s poor are indigenous peoples and that 9 of out 10 rural inhabitants are unable to meet their basic needs (Inter Press Service, 10/02/96). |
| Oct 11, 1996 |
Parliament approved a controversial agrarian reform law. Over 20,000 indigenous and rural protesters had marched on La Paz for over a month in protest against the measure. Both peasants and indigenous people and large land-owners felt dissatisfied with the final compromise bill. Many marchers felt betrayed by indigenous people from the east Amazon region as the Confederacion de Pueblos Indigenas del Oriente de Bolivia (CIDOB) split from the movement and signed an accord with the government last week. They received title deeds recognizing the collective ownership of their land. A major highland organization, the CSUTCB, still opposes the new law The bill includes provisions cutting the land tax by 50%, protecting land from being arbitrarily seized, but also allowing land on which taxes have not been paid for two years to be transferred to peasant farmers (Inter Press Service, 10/11/96; Latin American Weekly Report, 10/17/96). |
| Nov 4, 1996 |
A report by the Commission for Development and Environment of Latin America and the Caribbean asserts that the diversity of Andean natural resources and the region’s indigenous peoples must be protected. Some 60% of Bolivians live in the Andes. The report, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the UNDP, also stresses the need to coordinate development programs with indigenous peoples (Inter Press Service, 11/04/96). |
| Nov 29, 1996 |
Laime Indians have joined forces with miners and forces the suspension of a gold operation. The Laime claim the Capasirca mine is located on ancestral lands and that foreign owners have no right to extract minerals from it (Mining Journal, 11/29/96). |
| Mar 10, 1997 |
Carlos Palenque, the founder and leader of Bolivia’s fourth largest party, CONDEPA, dies of a heart attack at the age of 52. Palenque, an Aymara, was a leading presidential candidate for the June elections. He is succeeded by Remedios Loza, the first indigenous woman who will contend for the presidency (Inter Press Service, 03/10/97). |
| Apr 9, 1997 |
Vice President Victor Hugo Cardenas, an Aymara Indian, says that while the state has recognized the rights of indigenous people, that recognition has had little effect on their everyday political and social reality. Since Cardenas was elected in 1993, Bolivia has introduced laws recognizing the rights and land needs of indigenous peoples. A recent Education Reform Law established intercultural and bilingual education to replace mandatory Spanish instruction. However, the lack of qualified teachers has limited the effectiveness of the restructuring of the educational system (Inter Press Service, 04/09/97). |
| Jun 1997 |
Hugo Banzer Suarez of the National Democratic Action Party (AND) tops the polls in presidential elections. Banzer held the presidency from 1971-78. Five political parties establish a coalition government. They are the AND, the Civic Solidarity Union (UCS), Conscience of the Fatherland (CONDEPA), New Republican Force (NFR), and the Revolutionary Leftist Movement (MIR) (Cambridge International Reference on Current Affairs, 01/99). |
| Jun 17, 1997 |
Officials report that the first beneficiaries of the Agrarian Reform Law are some 250 indigenous communities which have received deeds to 2.3 million hectares of land in eight different regions of the country. An additional 8 million hectares remain to be distributed (Latin American Regional Reports Andean Group, 17/06/97). Further, under the 1994 Popular Participation Law, 528 indigenous communities have been granted legal recognition. 33 of these groups, comprising 150,000 people, are located in eastern departments, mainly Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando. Legal recognition allows the indigenous communities to apply for credits and lobby municipal governments for access to resources (Ibid.). |
| Dec 11, 1997 |
El Nino has produced unprecedented heat in La Paz and the highlands and rain floods in the western plains. The government says $100 million is need to repair the damage, especially major losses in the agricultural sector (Inter Press Service, 12/11/97). |
| Apr 6, 1998 |
Peasant unions, including the CSUTCB, blocked highways leading to Bolivia’s biggest cities C La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz C as part of a strike that has already resulted in four deaths. The four died in clashes with the army. The strikers are demanding higher wages and a modification of a land law (AAP Newsfeed, 04/06/98). |
| Apr 25, 1998 |
Officials deny reports about the emergence of an insurgency movement in the coca-growing region of Chapare. Interior Minister Guido Nayar rejected local reports which allege that a Chapare National Liberation Army has been established. Confrontations between government forces and peasants in the region have resulted in at least three deaths. A 22 day strike in Chapare also recently ended. The peasants want the government to open negotiations on its strategy to eradicate the region’s production of coca (BBC, 04/25/98). |
| May 11, 1998 |
In clashes since early April, nine people have died as the government has tried to reduce coca production. President Hugo Banzer sent 6000 soldiers into the Chapare region to destroy some 24,000 acres of coca plants. Some 60,000 Quechua and Aymara Indians depend on the sale of coca leaf for an income. Peasant leaders want the Catholic Church to negotiate between them and the government, but the government does not want third party intervention. |
| Aug 11, 1998 |
President Banzer expels CONDEPA from the coalition government, stating that the party’s internal disputes were negatively affecting his administration. CONDEPA has suffered from factional infighting since the death of its founder, Carlos Palenque, in 1997 (Latin America Weekly Report, 08/11/98). |
| Oct 8, 1998 |
Some 3000 peasant farmers from Cochabamba, Sucre, Oruro, and Potosi demonstrate in La Paz to demand title deeds and protest a draft law that they assert will require them to pay fees for the use of water. Officials state that subsistence level use of water will not be taxed. The demonstration follows on the heels of a month-long protest in La Paz by some 500 coca farmers. They were protesting against the government’s plan to completely eliminate all illegal plantations by the year 2002 (Inter Press Service, 10/08/98). |
| Jan 8, 1999 |
The US praises Bolivia’s reduction of coca crops and announces that its aid for the country’s anti-drug campaign will increase to $54 million this year, from $35 million in 1998. Some 12,000 hectares of crops were destroyed, mostly in Chapare. 12 peasants and 6 policemen were killed in clashes last year (Inter Press Service, 01/08/99). |
| Feb 13, 1999 |
Cocaine exports are now reported to outstrip legal exports in Bolivia. One in five Bolivians is somehow reliant on the drug trade which is worth about $5 billion. Chapare is reported to be a major region for the growth and processing of coca (Times, London, 02/13/99). |
| Mar 18, 1999 |
States of emergency are declared in 2 indigenous communities in the Cochabamba region following heavy flooding. Since February, floods have resulted in agricultural losses of more than $20 million. From January to August last year, El Nino produced a major drought in the same region (Agence France Presse, 03/18/99). |
| May 26, 1999 |
Inter Press Service reported that coca farmers had reduced their protests in the past few months, despite the fact that the Bolivian government was pushing ahead with its fight against drug trafficking, mainly in the Chapare region of Bolivia. The United States CIA indicated that, in 1998, the Bolivian government orchestrated the removal of coca from 25 percent of the land where it was grown in the Chapare region, the area where 90 percent of the illicit exporting of Bolivian coca occurred. President Hugo Banzer had promised to eradicate all of Bolivia’s illegal coca crop by the end of his term in 2002. Bolivians allegedly still grew roughly 700,000 acres of coca and earned $300 million a year for the drug. During the week of May 26, Evo Morales, a coca leader and national legislator representing the Chapare region, attended the 14th meeting of the Indigenous Parliament of the Americas in Mexico. Morales claimed that he might soon lose his parliamentary immunity due to accusations made by the Public Ministry that he was "conspiring" against the state. Morales stated his feeling that the government was attempting to suspend his immunity "due to his efforts to defend Chapare’ coca farmers" (Inter Press Service, May 26, 1999). (The News, May 9, 1999; Inter Press Service, May 26, 1999) |
| Jun 1 - 3, 1999 |
The journal Latin Trade reported that the International Finance Corporation was giving Caja Los Andes, one of Bolivia’s leading lenders to micro-businesses, $2 million in U.S. money to provide loans to Bolivian "micro-entrepreneurs," many of whom are poor. Latin Trade reported that this loan was aimed at assisting Bolivia’s indigenous population. (Latin Trade, June 1999) |
| Jun 16, 1999 |
The World Bank approved two loans worth a total of U.S. $57 million to improve health services and reform public administration in Bolivia. One $25 million loan would support the Health Sector Reform Project, which would attempt to increase the degree of coverage and quality of health services in Bolivia by "establishing a basic health insurance system, providing vaccines to immunize children, and financing a program to reduce Bolivia’s high infant and maternal mortality rates" (M2 Presswire, June 19, 1999). This project would also train regional and local health staff and ensure that health services reach indigenous people, who possessed the least access to health services and highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the country. The second loan ($32 million) would improve the "effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency" (M2 Presswire, June 16, 1999) of Bolivia’s public administration. This loan would be the first of three loans that would be aimed at "reducing corruption and reforming the institutional framework of the civil service and budget system, and by creating a performance evaluation system" (M2 Presswire, June 16, 1999). (M2 Presswire, June 16, 1999) |
| Jan 22 - 25, 2000 |
On January 22, a group of Laime Indians attacked and burned several Oaqachacan Indian homes in Challapata, the capital of the Andean province of Oruro, causing many people to flee. The following day, around 1000 Oaqachaca Indians retaliated by invading the predominantly Laime village of Sora Sora in Oruro province. 18 Lamies and one or two Oaqachacas were killed, and 7 people were injured in this January 23 attack on Sora Sora. Later in the day on January 23, homes were destroyed and 70 livestock animals were stolen from the neighboring area of Potosi. It was unclear which Indian group carried out this action or which group was the victim. Two days later on January 25, Laime Indians countered with an attack that left nine more people dead. Including this latter incident, the total number dead in all attacks since January 22 was 29. In addition, 24 people were injured and more than 100 homes were burned. The Bolivian army was dispatched to the area to control the situation, but Oruro governor Roberto Borth warned that the army’s presence could exacerbate the conflict. Agence France Presse reported that one week prior to the January 22 attacks, authorities from La Paz were sent to act as mediators after Aymara, Laime, and Jucumani Indians joined together in an offensive against the Oaqachaca. Agence France Presse and AAP Newsfeed reported that Laimes and Oaqachacas had been locked in land disputes since the 19th century when an ill-defined border was established between Laimes and Jucumanis on one side and Qaqachacas on the other, and conditions of extreme poverty over the last ten years caused violence between the two groups to escalate. Cultural antagonism also played a part in the conflicts. Disputes had occurred in both Oruro and Potosi provinces, which are located in the southwestern part of Bolivia, near the Bolivia-Chile border. 30 Bolivian regimes alone this century had been unable to solve the conflicts. Agence France Presse also noted that indigenous people in the region defer to a local, traditional, democratically elected public figure called a "quraca," despite the fact that police and judges exist in the region. (Agence France Presse, January 25, 2000, January 26, 2000, and January 27, 2000; Deutsche Presse-Agentur, January 26, 2000; AAP Newsfeed, July 11, 2000) |
| Feb 4 - 5, 2000 |
About 2000 residents (most of whom were peasants) of Cochabamba proper and its surrounding area clashed with police while protesting a 20 percent government-induced increase in water prices. Cochabamba is Bolivia’s second largest city. Demonstrators were attempting to march to the main government building in Cochabamba when they encountered 1500 soldiers and police officers. The marchers threw stones at police, and the police fired tear gas at the marchers. At least 46 people were injured in the clash, and an undetermined number of protestors were detained. Protestors asserted that police killed one person, but Government Information Minister Jorge Landivar denied this claim. President Banzer ordered the construction of military checkpoints around Cochabamba to prevent any additional indigenous people from joining the protests, according to the La Paz-based Radio Panamericana. The organization that orchestrated the protest included 5000 civic leaders, union members, and indigenous coca farmers. This organization also demanded the immediate implementation of a project "aimed at guaranteeing vital irrigation and drinking water supplies in the Cochabamba region" (Agence France Presse, February 5, 2000). This project was called the Misicuni project. On February 5, the Cochabamba Automobile and Transport Workers’ Federation called an "immediate and indefinite strike to protest what it said was violence used by police against demonstrators" (Agence France Presse, February 5, 2000). According to a statement released by the federation’s leader, Luis Veizaga, the federation was demanding a freeze on water prices and a revision of a contract with Aguas del Tunari, a private, British-Spanish-Bolivian water consortium that was awarded a contract to build a dam and provide water services to people in the Cochabamba area in September 1999. Aguas del Tunari was given the contract under the Bolivian government’s Basic Sanitation and Sewer Law, which seeks to privatize water use in indigenous communities, and it raised water prices 35 percent shortly after being awarded this contract. Labor unions also demanded the release of all protestors detained on February 4 and 5 and the withdrawal of all security forces from the area. In addition, the United Labor Federation of Agricultural Workers of Cochabamba allegedly claimed that it would blockade local city and country roads on February 7, 2000 to prevent agricultural products from reaching Cochabamba, but it was unclear whether or not these actions ever occurred. Later in the day on February 5, government representatives met with local civic leaders to try and calm the tensions in the area, and members of the Roman Catholic Church mediated the talks. (Agence France Presse, February 5, 2000) |
| Feb 5, 2000 |
Following a severe storm, an oil pipeline ruptured, spilling 5000 barrels of oil into the Desaguadero River, which empties into Lake Titicaca on the Boilvia-Peru border. The spill also reached Lake Poopo and Lake Uru Uru in southern Bolivia and affected Aymara indigenous communities near Desaguadero River. (THE JOURNAL [(Newcastle, UK], February 5, 2000) |
| Apr 3 - 20, 2000 |
From April 3 to April 7, thousands of peasant farmers and workers protested against increased water prices, unemployment, and Bolivia’s economic crisis, which was blamed in part on the government’s war on cocaine trafficking. San Antonio Express-News noted that the Bolivian government had in recent years destroyed more than half of the country’s coca leaf production, which left thousands of Quechua and Aymara Indian framers without a source of income and depressed the economy in regions where cocaine trafficking formerly flourished. The protests occurred throughout Bolivia, though most of the activity was concentrated in the areas surrounding Bolivia’s two largest cities – La Paz and Cochabamba. Leaders of coca farmers organized protests in Cochabamba beginning on April 3, while peasants began a blockade of a highway running from La Paz to Oruro province on April 4. On April 8, President Banzer declared a 90-day state of emergency in an attempt to quell the week of protests that had occurred throughout Bolivia. Two-dozen demonstrators were jailed the day that the state of emergency was declared. In addition, a teacher was shot and killed as the military attempted to remove the peasant blockade of a highway running from La Paz to Oruro province. A youth was also shot and killed during violent protests in Cochabamba, though the perpetrator of the shooting was unknown. On April 9, hundreds of police officers in La Paz and Santa Cruz took over their own headquarters and jails, demanding a 50 percent pay increase. In La Paz, police and soldiers clashed with each other. Police fired tear gas at the soldiers, who fired their weapons into the air. The police strikes ended within hours in both La Paz and Santa Cruz after the officers were granted a pay increase. In addition, thousands of farmers gathered on the outskirts of Cochabamba and the city’s main square on April 9, protesting increased water prices and the government destruction of Bolivia’s cocaine industry, among other things. A commission headed by Vice President Jorge Quiroga was scheduled to travel to Cochabamba to try and negotiate with protestors there, but the trip was cancelled due to a lack of security. Thousands of Aymara Indian farmers also clashed with soldiers in the Andean towns of Achacachi and Batallas on April 9. In Achacachi, farmers blocked roads and threw rocks at soldiers who attempted to disperse them. The soldiers responded by firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the protestors. Three soldiers and two farmers were killed. Hundreds of protestors in Achacachi also invaded government offices, destroyed furniture and documents, and burned several buildings and vehicles. In Batallas, soldiers also fought with farmers who had blocked roads. Dozens of people were injured in clashes in both cities. On April 10, tens of thousands of peasants occupied Cochabamba's city square, "armed with broomsticks and machetes" (Agence France Presse, April 10, 2000) after marching there from the town of Quillacollo. Expecting a confrontation, the government sent more soldiers to Cochabamba, but no serious clashes were reported. Cochabamba authorities took control of local radio stations to prevent protestors from reporting the news. Peasant leader Alberto Zapata said that the protestors demanded that the Bolivian government alter the Basic Sanitation and Sewer Law, which aims at privatizing the water service industry. Aguas del Tunari, the British-Spanish-Bolivian water consortium, pulled out of their contract with the Bolivian government to build a dam on April 10. According to Water Superintendent Luis Uzin, this move by Aguas del Tunari would eventually cost the government $10 million. In addition, the Bolivian government halted increases in water prices on the evening of April 10 after reaching an agreement with protest organizers, members of the Roman Catholic Church, and local officials from Cochabamba over an "expensive water project in Cochabamba and a new water law" (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 2000). The group that met with the government was known as the Water Coordinating Committee and also contained union and civic leaders from Cochabamba. The Church and civic leaders also asked the government to end the state of emergency because it "tarnishes Bolivia in the eyes of international investors and raises serious questions about human rights" (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, April 12, 2000). Despite the fact that thousands of protesting peasants left Cochabamba's city square on the evening of April 10, nearly 10,000 peasants remained behind and refused to leave until a tentative agreement between the Boilvian government and the Water Coordinating Committee was approved by Congress on April 11. The Bolivian Rural Workers Union (CSUTCB) also refused to end roadblocks that they had erected until security forces released its leader, Felipe Quispe Huanca. The Central Obrera workers' union (COB) also called on all Bolivian citizens to engage in a nationwide strike on April 12 to protest what it termed the "massacre" of peasants by the military in the recent wave of protests, followed by "mass mobilizations, wildcat strikes, and shutting down local food markets to fight the government's (state of emergency) order" (Agence France Presse, April 11, 2000). Rounding out the action on April 10 was a clash between roughly 100 students and police near San Andres University in La Paz and a hunger strike launched by three members of Congress. Both actions were staged to protest or defy the government's declaration of a state of emergency. On April 11, the Bolivian Congress passed a modified national water law that would give local communities a greater voice in local water issues. In addition, Aguas del Tunari released a public statement in which it claimed that it was still committed to the $200 million Cochabamba dam project. On April 12, clashes between students and police flared up again in La Paz. Students threw rocks, and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. Students returned to their campuses after fighting with the police. A university professor named Jaime Vilela claimed that 11-15 students were injured and 50 were detained in the clashes with police. In addition, workers engaged in a strike in the Andean town of Potosi on April 12 in protest over government "indifference" to their problems, according to local leaders. In addition, the Bolivian Workers Center, Bolivia's largest union, engaged in a strike to protest the state of emergency on April 12. Knight Ridder Washington Bureau reported that the strike "did not seriously disrupt daily life in Bolivia's largest cities" (Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, April 13, 2000). Finally, negotiations between government and union officials came to halt on April 12. On April 18, the Bolivian government and agricultural unions signed an agreement to end the conflicts that had been occurring since April 3. However, the Dubuque, Iowa-based Telegraph Herald reported that the Bolivian military had been occupying the area around the town of Achacachi since peasants clashed with police and brutally murdered Captain Jesus Omar Tellez there on April 9. Human rights groups reported that the Bolivian military had been "knocking down peasants' doors in the night and torturing suspects in the search for men blamed for maiming and killing" (Telegraph Herald, [Dubuque, IA], April 18, 2000) Captain Tellez. Finally, on April 20, President Banzer lifted the state of emergency that he had called on April 8. Banzer lifted the state of emergency after indigenous and labor protestors agreed to dismantle roadblocks and cease protest actions, the Catholic Church and trade unions increased their pressure on the government, and Banzer realized that he risked losing a foreign debt relief program financed by the IMF and World Bank. The debt relief program was conditional on the Bolivian government engaging in "dialogue with civil society in defining how…resources would be used" (Inter Press Service, April 21, 2000). One military and four civilian deaths had occurred since the state of emergency was declared on April 8. In addition, 88 people were wounded, and 21 union leaders were arrested. Apparently, Felipe Huanca (peasant workers' union leader) and Mallku (Aymara Indian leader) claimed that the protests staged during April were only the beginning of more demonstrations. Mallku allegedly claimed that the April protests were "the first stones toward taking political power" (Inter Press Service, April 21, 2000). (Japan Economic Newswire, April 9, 2000; Agence France Presse, April 9, 2000, April 10, 2000, April 11, 2000, and April 12, 2000; The Washington Times, April 10, 2000; USA Today, April 10, 2000; San Antonio Express-News, April 10, 2000; Newsday [New York, NY], April 10, 2000; The New York Times, April 10, 2000; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 11, 2000; The Deseret News [Salt Lake City, UT], April 11, 2000; The Times-Picayune, April 12, 2000; Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, April 12, 2000 and April 13, 2000; Telegraph Herald [Dubuque, IA], April 18, 2000; The British Broadcasting Corporation, April 18, 2000; Facts on File World News Digest, April 20, 2000; Inter Press Service, April 21, 2000) |
| May 1, 2000 |
One thousand Oaqachaca Indians attacked Chocaya Indians in the town of Villa Alcarapi with rifles. Apparently, women were raped, one woman was killed, six people were wounded, and an undetermined number of cattle were stolen. (BBC Worldwide Monitoring, May 1, 2000) |
| May 2000 |
Students protested in El Alto, demanding the creation of an independent university there. The protests turned violent and the El Alto municipal building was ravaged. El Alto is inhabited mainly by Aymara Indians, and it does not contain a government-run university. The Bolivian government had offered to construct a university in El Alto but insisted that it be a branch of the La Paz-based San Andres University. (The Record [Bergen County, NJ], June 13, 2000) |
| May 3 - 5, 2000 |
Coca growers of the Peasant Federation of the United Unions of Shinahota blockaded roads in Shinahota to protest the continued forced removal of coca plants by the Cochabamba-based Joint Task Force, Mobile Rural Patrol Unit (Umopar), and Bolivian police. There was "passive reaction" (BBC Worldwide Monitoring) on the part of these three groups to the blockade. Colonel Vladivostoc Menacho Aguirre, a member of the Joint Task Forces’ general staff, stated that the military would not act against the roadblocks, but rather that it would wait until the peasants tire and leave on their own "because they are the ones being affected by" (BBC Worldwide Monitoring, May 5, 2000) the roadblocks. (BBC Worldwide Monitoring, May 5, 2000) |
| May 30, 2000 |
Members of the National Pilot Association engaged in a 24-hour strike to protest the entrance of the Brazilian-Paraguayan TAM airline in the Bolivian market. The strike left thousands of people stranded because all domestic and international flights were cancelled. (Chattanooga Times / Chattanooga Free Press, May 31, 2000) |
| Jun 10, 2000 |
Mr. Evo Morales, the highest-voted deputy in Bolivia and representative of 60,000 coca farmers, told the Irish Times that he had been "approached by a retired general interested in a joint civic-military insurrection" (The Irish Times, June 10, 2000). (The Irish Times, June 10, 2000) |
| Jun 12, 2000 |
Tens of thousands of students and parents from the city of El Alto marched in La Paz, demanding the creation of an independent university in El Alto. The protest brought most La Paz traffic to a halt, while hundreds of police officers were placed throughout the city to stem any possible violence. (The Record [Bergen County, NJ], June 13, 2000) |
| Jun 14, 2000 |
Laime Indians attacked the Qaqachaca community of Q’uwachapi in southern Oruro province. One peasant was killed and three others were wounded. It was also reported that Qaqachacas had killed five Laimes in the community of Pairumani in northern Potosi province that same day. According to Victor Lagrava, the head of the Directorate of the Interior in Potosi province, more than 90 people had been killed in indigenous fighting since January 1999. (BBC Worldwide Monitoring, June 21, 2000) |
| Jul 10, 2000 |
Laime and Qaqachaca Indians in Potosi province clashed again. Two died in these armed confrontations, bringing the death toll to 50 in indigenous wars since January 2000. Defense Minister Oscar Vargas said that 280 soldiers and police had been deployed to the region to "dissuade the fighting….restore calm to the poverty-stricken region…distribute food supplies and medicine…and train the population in modern agricultural techniques" (Agence France Presse, July 11, 2000). The Bolivian government had entertained the idea of relocating the warring indigenous groups to different regions in an attempt to both resolve the ancient territorial rivalries and curb the extreme poverty of the Potosi region. (Agence France Presse, July 11, 2000) |
| Aug 5, 2000 |
The Irish Times reported that, in response to the April rebellion, the Bolivian government was forced to cancel a water privatization deal. The Irish Times also reported that the government compensated the families of protestors that were killed by army snipers. (The Irish Times, August 5, 2000) |
| Sep 13 - Oct 14, 2000 |
Union protests were launched on September 13. On October 18, in protest against the Bolivian government’s anti-narcotics policy, a group of more than 1000 of the country’s coca leaf growers blocked the highway in Villa Tunari – Bolivia’s main highway. Leftist policymaker Evo Morales stated "We (indigenous people) are making our voice heard again, in favor of sovereignty, against the Yankees (referring to US aid to the Bolivian anti-drugs program) who want to take control of our lands, and against the government (of President Hugo Banzer) which has not kept its word" (Agence France Presse, September 18, 2000). The coca growers also demanded "that the government guarantee prices for substitute crops and set up a university with agronomy and environmental studies in the area" (Agence France Presse, September 18, 2000), as well as not touch coca crops in the area and discontinue plans to build three military outposts in the region. EFE provided the following facts about President Banzer's four-year "Dignity Plan," which began in 1998 and projects the allocation of $950 million as follows "$700 million for alternative crop development, $108 million dollars for coca crop eradication, $129 million dollars to fight drug traffickers and $15 million dollars to set up addict rehabilitation programs" (EFE News Service, September 25, 2000). As indicated above, protestors are opposed to several points of this plan. Bolivian authorities claimed that protestor demands to both not touch coca crops and not construct the military bases are "not negotiable, because these projects form part of a state policy" (EFE News Service, September 25, 2000). Agence France Presse reported that in the past three years, the Banzer administration had destroyed between 33,000-38,000 hectacres (the equivalent of 90% of the crop) of coca leaf in Bolivia and that approximately 60,000 indigenous Bolivian farmers in the Cochabamba area depend on the production of this crop for a subsistence income. The Scotsman reported that an estimated 300,000 Quechuan and Aymaran Indian farmers rely on coca as their primary source of income. The Scotsman also commented "Andean mountain peasants traditionally use (coca) to combat altitude sickness and reduce the pangs of hunger and thirst," and in Bolivia, "South America's poorest country, there is no alternative employment (for coca producers), with 70 percent of the population of eight million living below the poverty line" (The Scotsman, September 30, 2000). Japan Economic Newswire also reported that the U. S. had pressured Bolivia "to abolish its excess production of coca leaves" (Japan Economic Newswire, September 27, 2000), seeing that coca also acts as a raw material for cocaine. In response to this pressure, the Bolivian government was "aiming to eliminate all illegal coca cultivation by 2002 and allow only 12,000 hectares of coca fields to operate for local consumption" (Japan Economic Newswire, September 27, 2000). On September 19, Agence France Presse reported that the number of coca farmers involved in the protest increased to about 15,000. In addition, it was reported that roughly 100 indigenous Aymaran farmers joined rural teachers seeking 50% wage increases in blocking a road to Peru on Bolivia’s high central plain. The Aymaran farmers were protesting government land distribution and water policies. On September 20, legislative sources claimed that protestors in the Chapare region ended one roadblock after the Bolivian parliament agreed to establish a municipal jurisdiction in the area. Despite this agreement, other roadblocks continued, and 400 military troops were sent to the region to carry out a September 19 government threat to use security forces to dismantle roadblocks. This promise was made good when 300 Bolivian troops took apart a roadblock on the Copacabana highway (in Bolivia’s mountainous region) leading to Peru, at the towns of Achacachi and Huarina – an act that was met with no resistance by protestors, according to Interior Minister Guillermo Fortun. However, the day did not pass violence-free. 800 soldiers clashed with the 15,000 coca farmers in Villa Tunari for 20 minutes, injuring three people (a soldier, a student, and a journalist). The coca farmers were armed with sticks and stones, while the soldiers launched tear gas. Finally, in southern Bolivia near Santa Cruz, roughly 300-500 peasants stormed three oil fields belonging to the Chaco oil company, a British Petroleum-Amoco (British-U.S. oil company) affiliate. The Humberto Suarez, Los Cusis, and Patujusal fields were occupied. This act was reported by a spokesperson of the affiliate. The protestors demanded that roads be paved, two bridges be constructed, and a forestry project that was intruding on their lands be cancelled. Santa Cruz provincial prefect Ramon Prada reported that the protestors "allowed a partial resumption of operations" (EFE News Service, September 21, 2000) on September 21, after Prada got protestors to halt their occupation until the following day. However, the conflict was not resolved in its entirety. Also on September 21, EFE News Service reported that other Indians in Santa Cruz province continued to occupy two fields belonging to Bolinter, a company that was in the process of building a sector of an oil pipeline linking Bolivia and Brazil. The occupiers were "demanding that the Enron-Shell consortium provide guarantees that a development plan will be implemented" (EFE News Service, September 21, 2000). On September 24, two peasants in the town of Parotani (located on the Cochabamba-Oruro highway in central Bolivia) and one in Guaqui (located on the road between La Paz and Desaguadero) were killed in clashes between soldiers and protestors. The Bolivian Human Rights Assembly sent a commission to Parotani to investigate the deaths occurring there. Sacha Llorenti, secretary of this human rights organization, told EFE News Service that around ten people suffered bullet wounds and another four had disappeared during the Parotani clashes. Conversely, Bolivian Interior Minister Guillermo Fortun stated that other signs indicated that the Parotani deaths resulted not from soldier’s bullets, but rather from being run over by a trucker whose vehicle was being pelted by rocks. At least 35 people were also reportedly injured in clashes throughout Bolivia. The army reported that four officers and two soldiers in Guaqui were injured when peasants threw rocks at them. EFE News Service also reported that the Catholic Chruch was attempting to arrange negotiations between government representatives and protest leaders, while representatives for the coca farmers were reviewing a government proposal responding to protestor demands. Felipe Quispe, leader of the Union of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) and organizer of many of the roadblocks, told Radio Fides that broad demonstrations would continue " ‘because bloodshed motivates us, and others will join our protest’ " (EFE News Service, September 25, 2000). The CSUTCB was also demanding the repeal of water and land laws. On September 27, Japan Economic Newswire reported that the number of casualties resulting from police-protestor clashes had reached five. It also reported that the number of teachers involved in the protests was 130,000 and that the roadblocks had caused product shortages in several major Bolivian cities. On September 29, Agence France Presse reported that the number of casualties since September 24 had risen to eight, while the following day, The Scotsman reported that the number of casualties was at least nine, and the number of injured was 95. On September 30, The Scotsman reported that President Banzer stated that the plan to restrict coca growing would continue, despite the protests. In response to teacher protests, the government laid off hundreds of striking teachers and arrested the leader of the teacher’s union. Police had also broken up teacher protests with tear gas. Agence France Presse reported that the Bolivian government had scrapped the U.S.-funded plan to build three military bases in the region where protests were occurring, in an attempt to appease the coca farmers. Excluding the military base issue, Bolivian Minister of the President, Walter Guiteras, released the following statement on October 1 "We are not willing to obey the whims and the goals that are not the goals of the Bolivian people. (CSUTCB leader Felipe) Quispe is operating under a mentality of 400 years ago" (Agence France Presse, October 1, 2000). On October 2, the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights in Bolivia claimed that the number of deaths in protestor-security force clashes reached 10, while the number of injured had reached 128. A day after Felipe Quispe broke off negotiations with the Bolivian government that aimed to end the countrywide protests, the CSUTCB stated that it would resume talks on October 2. However, Quispe allegedly claimed that he would only attend negotiations if they took place at Achacachi. Additionally, in a meeting mediated by the Roman Catholic Church and other non-governmental organizations, striking rural teachers signed a tentative agreement with the Ministry of Education. Negotiations between the Ministry of Education and urban teachers also apparently got underway on October 2. On October 4 and 5, the Bolivian legislature remained in special session to try and find "a solution to the social crisis" (EFE News Service, October 5, 2000) stemming from the protests. Legislators from three opposition parties criticized President Banzer "for not having acted in time to avoid the crisis" (EFE News Service, October 5, 2000). "Legislators agreed in calling for a social truce and for a national salvation accord involving the government and the political parties, as well as representatives of labor, business and other social sectors" (EFE News Service, October 5, 2000). On October 6, the fifth day of negotiations between CSUTB leaders and representatives of President Banzer’s Cabinet, striking farmers and teachers reached several agreements with Cabinet members. The Catholic Church, the Ombudsman’s Office, and the Permanent Assembly for Human Rights acted as mediators of the meetings. Teachers received a $50 bonus this year and will receive a $190 bonus in 2001, in exchange for agreeing to postpone salary talks. The Banzer "administration (also) agreed to replace controversial land legislation within 60 days, amend the Forests Act, and permanently shelve a bill that would have charged for the use of water from springs and streams" (EFE News Service, October 6, 2000). Felipe Quispe said that "the government’s concessions were being discussed by the rank and file of the different unions, but that once the agreement was signed the roadblocks would be lifted" (EFE News Service, October 6, 2000). The New York Times reported that, in an interview on October 6, Quispe claimed that his ultimate goals were to force Banzer to resign and also reverse his pro-market economic policies, claiming that Banzer was " ‘incapable, inept…(unable to) govern…(and) has to go’ " (The New York Times, October 7, 2000). On the other hand, Presidency Minister Walter Guiteras, the head governmental negotiator, expressed satisfaction with the agreement. The agreement was scheduled to be signed as soon as the government released those who were arrested during the protests but not charged with a crime. This agreement would end most of the roadblocks that had so crippled many of Bolivia’s cities that the air force had to deliver food to these cities. Despite the agreement with farmers and teachers, the main highway in the central Chapare province remained populated with coca farmers on October 6. Government Minister Guillermo Fortun "insisted that he would only talk to representatives of the coca farmers after they unblocked area roads" (EFE News Service, October 6, 2000). On October 7, Congressman Evo Morales, leader of the coca farmers, released a statement in which he reaffirmed the coca growers’ intention to continue carrying out marches and roadblocks "until the government backed down" (The New York Times, October 7, 2000). However, on the same day, protesters and government ministers signed an accord in La Paz. The ministers "agreed to prop up corn prices, reverse a land titling process that would have raised taxes, and return water rights from the government to Indian peasants" (October 7, 2000). On October 10, Agence France Presse reported that President Banzer remained "immovable" on the coca issue, dedicated to eradicating coca-leaf production by the end of his presidential term in August 20002. "Government minister Guillermo Fortun stated that, for reasons of national development as well as international commitments, ‘not even one centimeter (inch)’ of coca leaf would be allowed in Chapare (province)" (October 10, 2000, Agence France Presse). Evo Morales replied by releasing a statement "that coca growing ‘will not be surrendered, even in the face of gunfire’ " (October 10, 2000, Agence France Presse). However, three days later on October 13, the coca leaf farmers agreed to remove their roadblock, which had prevented traffic among the La Paz, Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz provinces. This roadblock had cost Bolivia "more than 250 million dollars in economic losses" (Agence France Presse, October 14, 2000). According to the Ministry of Government Information, Evo Morales and Interior Minister Fortun reached the agreement in the town of Chimore. Agence France Presse reported that "3000 troops were poised to clear the road if protesters refused to do it themselves" (Agence France Presse, October 14, 2000). Other points continued to be negotiated on October 13, but Agence France Presse reported that President Banzer "had ruled out farmers' demands that they be allowed to grow small plots of coca leaf for personal use" (Agence France Presse, October 14, 2000). Finally, on October 14, the Bolivian government pledged to spend "$80 million in economic development programs…to aid coca growers to cultivate other types of crops" (The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), October 15, 2000). This move would effectively end the month of roadblocks being carried out by coca farmers. (Agence France Presse, September 19, 2000, September 20, 2000, September 29, 2000, October 1, 2000, October 3, 2000, October 10, 2000, and October 14, 2000; EFE News Service, September 21, 2000, September 25, 2000, October 5, 2000, and October 6, 2000; Japan Economic Newswire, September 27, 2000; The Scotsman, September 30, 2000; The New York Times, October 7, 2000; The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), October 15, 2000) |
| Oct 20, 2000 |
In preparation for the launching of a measure to revive Bolivia’s staggering economy, President Banzer appointed three new members to his Cabinet, "shuffled the portfolios of four current ministers" (EFE News Service, October 20, 2000), and promised to name a minister for peasant and indigenous affairs. The new Cabinet members were businessman Caludio Mansilla Pea, the new Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; UCS executive secretary Jorge Pacheco France, the new Minister of Labor and Microbusiness; and MIR legislator Hugo Carvajal, the new Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development. (EFE News Service, October 20, 2000; The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, UT), October 21, 2000) |
| Oct 23, 2000 |
The New York Times reported that coca growers in the Chapare region were allegedly "hoarding coca seeds, which can sprout into flowering bushes in just two and a half years, with an eye toward returning to cultivation at the earliest opportunity" (The New York Times, October 23, 2000). Roughly 25 coca growers had been arrested in recent weeks. According to the report, "the resistance of a hard core of about 2000 families has grown more fierce. Coca farmer union leaders have stepped up threats to farmers who have chosen to switch to other crops. (And) Coca growers have set booby traps in the remaining coca fields and even ambushes" (The New York Times, October 23, 2000). The New York Times also reported that coca farmers claimed to be anticipating a change of government when elections roll around in June 2002. In relation to the June 2002 elections, Latin American Newsletters, Ltd. reported on November 7 that the US government was worried that Jaime Paz Zamora, leader of an internal opposition faction within the Movimento de Izquierda Revolucionaria (MIR), might win these elections and "make defense of coca a symbol of resistance to US policy" (Latin American Newsletters, Ltd., November 7, 2000). Latin American Newsletters, Ltd. claimed that this point was "highly debatable…but it is true that the Paz government in the 1980s is remembered in Washington as indelibly tainted by association with drug-trafficking interests" (Latin American Newsletters, Ltd., November 7, 2000). MIR was now part of the ruling coalition in Bolivia. (The New York Times, October 23, 2000; Latin American Newsletters, Ltd., November 7, 2000) |
| Oct 29, 2000 |
The Bolivian Interior Ministry said that police had arrested a coca farmer leader transporting 42 sticks of dynamite toward the Chapare region. In addition, a US-made combat helicopter was struck by bullets while flying over a coca-growing area. The helicopter made an emergency landing, and no one was hurt. This attack came a day after government forces increased their search efforts for two soldiers, two police, and a civilian that were missing for over a month. (Agence France Presse, October 29, 2000) |
| Oct 30, 2000 |
As promised on October 20, President Banzer named a Minister for Peasant and Indigenous Affairs. The new appointee, a sociologist named Wigberto Rivero Pinto, said "his first action would be to implement a 50-point agreement…on coca eradication" (The Seattle Times, October 31, 2000) signed with farmers on Oct. 7. (The Seattle Times, October 31, 2000) |
| Nov 14, 2000 |
Top Bolivian Indian leader, Felipe Quispe, announced the creation of the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement in a speech to 10,000 Aymara Indians in a village located 37 miles from La Paz. According to Quispe, this movement would act as a "political party intended to serve the interests of indigenous people in the South American nation ‘oppressed for 500 years by white people’ " (The Seattle Times, November 16, 2000). Earlier on October 28, The Economist reported that despite President Banzer’s shuffling of his Cabinet, "to the Altiplano Indians, it looks much the same…and unless there are stronger signals that the government is prepared to do more for the rural poor, Mr. Quispe's new Movimiento Pachacuti party is likely to display its frustration in increasingly vigorous ways" (The Economist, October 28, 2000; The Seattle Times, November 16, 2000). (The Economist, October 28, 2000; The Seattle Times, November 16, 2000) |
| Nov 14, 2000 |
Top Bolivian Indian leader, Felipe Quispe, announced the creation of the Pachakuti Indigenous Movement in a speech to 10,000 Aymara Indians in a village located 37 miles from La Paz. According to Quispe, this movement would act as a "political party intended to serve the interests of indigenous people in the South American nation ‘oppressed for 500 years by white people’ " (The Seattle Times, November 16, 2000). Earlier on October 28, The Economist reported that despite President Banzer’s shuffling of his Cabinet, "to the Altiplano Indians, it looks much the same…and unless there are stronger signals that the government is prepared to do more for the rural poor, Mr. Quispe's new Movimiento Pachacuti party is likely to display its frustration in increasingly vigorous ways" (The Economist, October 28, 2000; The Seattle Times, November 16, 2000) |
| Jun 14, 2004 |
Ayo Ayo mayor Benjamin Altamirano is kidnapped and murdered by Aymara residents of the town. Residents had accused Altamirano of corruption and incompetence, in part because he governed the town from the country's capital of La Paz. (Francischelli, Pablo. 2004. “Bolivia Heats Up Once Again: A “Communal Justice” Killing and the Imprisonment of a Landless Movement Activist Shake the Country”. The Narco News Bulletin. http://www.narconews.com/Issue34/article1051.html) |
| Jun 16 - Jul 2, 2004 |
Aymara farmers conduct a 16-day blockade of the main international highway to Peru. They lift the blockade only after the government agrees to open a "permanent dialogue" with the farmers. (United Press International. 7/2/2004. "Bolivian left demands gas nationalization") |
| Jul 16, 2004 |
In El Alto, antigovernment protesters burn an effigy of President Carlos Mesa, in order to show their dislike towards private gas installations from foreign corporations. (Forero, Juan. July 19th 2004. “Bolivians Support Gas Plan and Give President a Lift”. In The New York Times. 6/11/2007. http://www.williams.edu/go/native/bolivia.htm) |
| Oct 17 - 18, 2004 |
Thousands of indigenous coca growers (Aymaras and Quechuas) protest the Hydrocarbons Bill in La Paz. (Latin America News Digest. 10/20/2004. "Bolivian miners block key roads in protest") |
| Jan 1, 2005 |
Aymara neighborhood groups paralyze the city of El Alto until President Mesa agrees to rescind a contract with Aguas de Illimani (a private French company). (The Washington Times. 3/29/2005. "Mesa's grip on power shaky") |
| May 1, 2005 |
Under duress from indigenous protesters, the Bolivian congress enacts a new hydrocarbons law, increasing the state's royalties from natural gas exploitation. (Agence France Presse. 6/2/2005. "Tens of thousands of protesters paralyze La Paz") |
| May 1 - Jun 9, 2005 |
Protests, led primarily by highland indigenous leaders and protesters, rock Bolivia for weeks, centering on issues on constitutional reform and nationalization of the country's gas reserves. Protesters force the government to move its business from La Paz to Sucre. Sitting president Carlos Mesa is forced to resign June 6, a mere 20 months after taking office after his predecessor, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was also forced to resign due to protests. In addition to shutting down La Paz, protesters occupied multiple oil fields and pipelines. (The New York Times. 6/11/2005. "Poor little rich country"; Agence France Presse. 6/7/2005. “New clashes after Bolivia president resigns”; Agence France Presse. 6/9/2005. "Bolivia's Congress to address demands of a divided, restive country") |
| Jun 14, 2005 |
Leaders of the indigenous protest movement have threaten to resume rallies and blockades in order to force the government to accede to their demands for the nationalization of Bolivia's oil and gas sector. (The Globe and Mail. 6/14/2005. “Bolivian city learns price of protest”) |
| Dec 18, 2005 |
In presidential elections, indigenous leader Evo Morales is elected as the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Morales, an Aymara, is the leader of the Movement towards Socialism party (MAS). (Voice of America News. 12/20/2005. "Bolivia Appears to Have Elected Morales") |
| Jun 4 - 7, 2006 |
Ayoreos, members of an Amazonian group, attack Quechuas and Aymaras, members of highland groups, who had been squatting for years in a farm in the Santa Cruz town of Guarayos. The Ayoreos attacked with spears and arrows and set fire to huts belonging to the Andeans. (Agence France Presse. 6/7/2006. “Land distribution increases social tensions in Bolivia”) |
| Jul 30, 2006 |
Silvia Lazarte, a Quechua, is elected the President of the Bolivian Constituent Assembly. She was elected after 137 members in power of the MAS party reached consensus. (Los Tiempos. 7/30/2006. “Eleccion Unanime: La dirigente Silvia Lazarte fue elegida por el presidente Evo Morales y los constituyentes del Movimiento Al Socialismo. Una indigena presidira la Asamblea Constituyente”. http://www.lostiempos.com/noticias/30-07-06/30_07_06_nac1.php)
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| Oct 1, 2006 |
16 indigenous miners (mostly Quechuas and Aymaras) were killed, and more than 60 wounded, during a series of confrontations with mining cooperatives.(Keane, Dane. 10/7/2006. "Bolivia: Morales fires two Bolivian mining officials". Mines & Communities Website, Latin American Update. http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press1242.htm) |
| Oct 10, 2006 |
Thousands of trade unionists (largely Aymaras and Quechuas) march on La Paz, demanding that President Evo Morales address the deaths of 16 workers, killed as rival miners clashed over access to an Andean tin mine the previous week. (Agence France Presse. 10/10/2006. “Thousands of Bolivian miners protest deaths”) |
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