Army 4, Peasants 1
High altitude showdown leaves five
dead
It's not news to anyone in American
editorial rooms more interested in sub-Arctic bladder infections and girl-on-girl action, although BBC is following the story , even as they themselves
are locked in a battle with the British
government...
This past week has seen the Bolivian ruling body (I'm not sure we can call it an actual democracy, given there is a single party...) move closer to consummating a long-planned deal to export natural gas to California and Mexico. Simple on the surface, but loaded with explosive undercurrents. To begin with, Chile claimed Bolivia's minimalist coastline in a British-backed takeover of the guano- and saltpeter-rich environs way back in 1879. In an affront to nationalistic sensibilities, the current gas deal proposes to funnel the gas through this same lost territory to a Chilean port, ostensibly Bolivian terra sancta. If this weren't enough cause for popular rebellion, the decision to sell off the gas -- from fields estimated to be among the largest in Latin America -- makes no provision for supplying the needs of the natives (something completely ignored in a recent article in The Economist which neatly observed that "Since Bolivia itself uses little gas, it can send most of it elsewhere..."), including some one million who live in abject poverty at an inhospitable 4000 meters (13,000 feet) in the Andes mountains. In response, peasant "militias" are casting their fury across the nation, with such strategies as blockading the [very few] major ground transportation arteries throughout the country, especially those connecting the country's capital, La Paz, with the rest of the nation. A week ago, the blockades stranded some 800 tourists in the town of Sorata, an hour or so outside of La Paz. When negotiations failed to lift the blockades, Bolivian president, Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada, opened his playbook and did the expected: he sent in the troops. Four dead peasants and one dead soldier later, the tourists got through. This modus operandi is not unusual for Goni, and will no doubt continue to be applied in the coming weeks as the issue heats up even more -- fueled, appropriately, by natural gas.
Stay tuned...
This past week has seen the Bolivian ruling body (I'm not sure we can call it an actual democracy, given there is a single party...) move closer to consummating a long-planned deal to export natural gas to California and Mexico. Simple on the surface, but loaded with explosive undercurrents. To begin with, Chile claimed Bolivia's minimalist coastline in a British-backed takeover of the guano- and saltpeter-rich environs way back in 1879. In an affront to nationalistic sensibilities, the current gas deal proposes to funnel the gas through this same lost territory to a Chilean port, ostensibly Bolivian terra sancta. If this weren't enough cause for popular rebellion, the decision to sell off the gas -- from fields estimated to be among the largest in Latin America -- makes no provision for supplying the needs of the natives (something completely ignored in a recent article in The Economist which neatly observed that "Since Bolivia itself uses little gas, it can send most of it elsewhere..."), including some one million who live in abject poverty at an inhospitable 4000 meters (13,000 feet) in the Andes mountains. In response, peasant "militias" are casting their fury across the nation, with such strategies as blockading the [very few] major ground transportation arteries throughout the country, especially those connecting the country's capital, La Paz, with the rest of the nation. A week ago, the blockades stranded some 800 tourists in the town of Sorata, an hour or so outside of La Paz. When negotiations failed to lift the blockades, Bolivian president, Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada, opened his playbook and did the expected: he sent in the troops. Four dead peasants and one dead soldier later, the tourists got through. This modus operandi is not unusual for Goni, and will no doubt continue to be applied in the coming weeks as the issue heats up even more -- fueled, appropriately, by natural gas.
Stay tuned...
Posted: Fri - September 26, 2003 at 03:56 PM
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Published On: Apr 25, 2004 11:14 PM
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Published On: Apr 25, 2004 11:14 PM