The A-B-C of Popular Revolt
By Andrea Arenas Alipaz and Luis Gomez
Published October 18, 2003 in Narconews.com
Edited by Ed Dvorak

La Paz, Bolivia: October 17, 2003:

It wasn’t a coup. It was the people. 
And nobody, not even Viceroy David Greelee, could stop it.

Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada had to resign from the Bolivian presidency after weeks of popular mobilizations, for having massacred the people, for lying, and for trying to hang on to power by all means necessary. Now, vigilant and festive in the streets, the Bolivian people are the live expression of a democracy constructed from below.

”If Goni wants money, let him sell his wife,” the men and women of deep “Bolivia Bronca” began to chant two months ago. It all began there: The sale of the country’s natural gas reserves, a multi-billion dollar business deal that the Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada administration tried to make with the  multinationals LNG and Sempra, passing a pipeline
through Chile to the Pacific. “Not the multinationals, nor the Chileans, should benefit from the Bolivian people’s wealth. We are going to recover our natural resources,” was what Congressman Evo Morelos, leader of the coca growers, said during a session of the national Congress.

In the beginning of September, Congressman Felipe Quispe, national peasant farmer leader, began a hunger strike, demanding that the gas not be for sale. The well-known “El Mallku” made it clear: “This is a personal business deal for Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.”

The national labor union, Central Obrera Bolivia, (COB) led by Jaime Solares, launched a series of marches in different regions of the country. But, the government didn’t see any strength in the mobilizations--that was a mistake.

After the first blockades, confrontations, and deaths in the high plains of Sorata & Warisata, the movement from the towns snowballed. On October 8th, in El Alto, with 800,000 residents, the neighborhood councils began to adhere to the COB action plan, based on an indefinite General Strike.

The massacres of the following days brought determination to the people. El Alto resisted, with sticks and stones, the rain of tear gas and bullets. Then, nearly all of the cities of Western Bolivia mobilized. Still, Goni insisted he would not go, because, he claimed, the Bolivian people
were with him.

Then, the general strike hit Cocabamba, Oruru was paralyzed, Potosi too, and Sucre saw 25,000 people take to the streets, day after day. In La Paz, the residents came out to receive the marchers from El Alto, and together they took the Plaza of San Francisco several times, demanding the exit of the “gringo,” as they called the President who was raised in the U.S.

 B.  What

On Tuesday, October 14th, when the president called for a dialogue with the leaders of the opposition, it was already too late. When the massacres began, all the leaders joined under one banner: The resignation of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

”How can we have talks with an assassin,” said Felipe Quispe. “The people know. The people think. The people decide. There will be no talks until the president resigns,” added Evo Morales. Via radio, the voice of the people began to be heard: NO--he must go.

On Thursday, October 16th, thousands of coca growers arrived in La Paz, along with hundreds of miners from the South. El Alto came down from the hills again, into the city. An open meeting was held to decide what to do, and the popular clamor was to refuse to move one step from the demand that the president resign. Never before in the 21-year history of the Democracy of Bolivia had there been a demonstration like this one: 200,000 people marching, chanting, deciding, from below, the future of their country.

By Thursday afternoon, the intellectuals, artists, and the middle classes began to join the opposition. Ana Maria Romero, former Public Defender of the nation, launched a hunger strike along with 6 others, Ten hours later, there were already 400 people in the hunger strike throughout Bolivia.


C. When

On Friday, October 17, the demands of the mobilization were finally answered. After killing more than 80 Bolivian citizens, after wounding more than 400, Sanchez de Lozada literally flew out of his post--toward Miami.

At 9:00 am, the envoys from Brazil and Argentina entered the Presidential Palace. At 10:00 am the mediators headed to the house of Vice-President Carlos Mesa, who had just bid goodbye to Viceroy Greenlee. “We will not permit that democratic institutionality be violated,” said Greenlee, assuredly terrified of the panorama of Indians that watched him from afar. At 11:00 am, the leader of the New Republican Force party, Manfred Reyes Villa, left the house of the president and announced to the national press that he was resigning from the governing coalition.

While these events were occurring, the Bolivian people continued marching and breaking all records; there were 350,000 in the streets of La Paz, coming from everywhere. Under such pressures from the Bolivian people, and despite the fact that, just hours earlier, Sanchez de Lozada had declared to Telefe of Argentina and CNN that he would not resign, he was indeed already preparing his resignation. However, he did not show his face in the halls of Congress; instead, he sent a letter and a video.

Two helicopters were sent to transport the ex-president and the Defense Minister, Carlos Sanchez Berzain. Journalists that re-corded the scene noted women
with placards that read, in English, “Goni, Go Home.”

Evo Morales said that this was a great triumph for the Bolivian people. He asked all the people to avoid confrontation and said that we were beginning to recover democracy, adding: “We are going to defend the Constitution.” He also said that the new president, Carlos Mesa will have to answer to the Bolivian people, in particular, amending the hydrocarbon law because, “we can’t lose so many lives and still not win back our fuel.”

In an interview with CNN, Morales also corrected the accusations made by Sanchez de Lozada who said that he had connections with the Colombian FARC rebels and was also a narco-trafficker. The coca growers’ leader denied all of this and said that the ex-president had always accused the popular movements of those connections.

Addressing Carlos Mesa, he added: “He will have to accept that there will never be ‘zero coca’ in this country. We hope that things will change and that Mesa will not subject himself to the imperial interests of the U.S. We  know that the U.S. Ambassador Greenlee has been trying to put pressure on Carlos Mesa. But we hope for a new policy, more open, more humane, that leaves behind the attacks and assassinations that we have suffered for so long.”

When asked if he was thinking of joining the new administration, Evo Morales responded: “The Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) doesn’t seek jobs in the new government. It will not co-govern with Carlos Mesa or anybody else because we have great differences in culture and ideology.”

“The defense of our natural resources is an issue that affects the entire Bolivian people. This is our wealth. And we should benefit from it. The same is true of the coca leaf, which has been part of our culture for millennia.” Plan Colombia, said Evo, is no more than a plan to colonize us. “I’m remembering that the Colombian and gringo troops dedicated to combating the narco are also guarding the oil pipelines.”

At 9:30 pm, the Congress began its session to ratify the resignation of Sanchez de Lozada. The party bosses agreed that they would simply read the letter of resignation signed by Sanchez de Lozada  and transfer power to Carlos Mesa. At 10:25 pm, Carlos Mesa was sworn in , and became President, thanks to the people. In his first words as head-of-state, Mesa, a former leader of the La Paz journalists’ union, said that he would put the gas issue to a referendum so that the will of the people would be respected.

“We must be able to understand the country, beginning with the ethnic groups like the Quechuas, Aymaras, and Guaranies, who have constructed the history of inequality with their blood, a history that we are obligated to repair.”

At 10:45 pm, on October 17th, 2003, Bolivia has a new president, and from the street, the fireworks sound and this nation is celebrating triumph. The people came, they spoke, and they decided. A new victory for Authentic Democracy has been constructed, but with death and with rage. The War on Drugs, imposed by the gringos, has suffered a brutal defeat with what has happened here. The maximum leader in El Alto, with tears in his eyes, commented this evening that there is no doubt that the people of Bolivia “have delivered a huge punch to the United States.”