Resistance and Social Change at the Heart of Racism

[Judi Lynn]

Resistance and Social Change at the Heart of Racism
Raúl Zibechi | April 30, 2009

Translated from: Plan 3000: Resistencia y cambio social en el corazón del racismo
Translated by: Brandon Brewer

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP) americas.irc-online.org

In the middle of a racist city of white elites, the nucleus of the agro-export oligarchy, Plan 3000 is an immense and poor suburb of almost 300,000 inhabitants mostly of Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani descent; a microcosm composed of 36 Bolivian ethnic groups. It is a city that—in the name of the struggle against inequality—the residents of Plan 3000 resist the machista, oppressive, and violent culture of the local elite.

~snip~
In 1950 Santa Cruz had 41,000 residents; in 1998 it had over a million. Forty percent are collas who come from the Altiplano and the valleys; another 40% are migrants from the interior of the department; and the rest are cambas, Mennonites, and Japanese. In 1952 Santa Cruz represented 3% of Bolivia's Gross National Product (GNP); in 2004 it topped 30%, thanks to the exportation of gas to Brazil and Argentina, and its agricultural production, chiefly livestock and soy. Although material commodities have become modernized, mentalities evolve a lot more slowly: a modern society coexists with a feudal mentality.

A good example of this mentality is the Miss Bolivia pageant, which Santa Cruz prides itself on winning. For the last 12 years, the city has taken first place. Gabriel Oviedo, Miss Bolivia 2003, said that she represents "the other Bolivia," not the "indigenous one," since in the east they are "white, tall, and speak English." A 23-year-old law student said something very similar: "Bolivians come to Santa Cruz because it is like a Miami to them."5

~snip~
Discrimination toward the collas began to grow substantially when Evo Morales became president in January of 2006. "For three years there has been aggression toward protests and social leaders; cowardly aggressions used to intimidate us, groups of 20 with baseball bats," says Junior. He maintains that the youth of the neighborhood, along with the rest of the inhabitants, began to defend themselves from attacks from the Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC, Unión Juvenil Cruceñista), a civil group with paramilitary characteristics.

In the end, the year 2008 will be known as the breaking point. Remmy González, engineer and former vice minister of Agricultural and Rural Development, who was born in La Paz but migrated to Santa Cruz decades ago, believes that the right-wing's offensive was unified and covered all fronts. "Last year they decided to economically interfere with Evo's government by increasing inflation in January and February. Soy is the primary food source for cattle; it sets the price of meat, cooking oil, and milk, and because of the speculation those prices began to rise. At the same time they were claiming autonomy."8

~snip~
In Plan 3000 the real confrontations started on May 4th of that decisive year. On that day the Pro Santa Cruz Committee (Comité Pro Santa Cruz) and the Santa Cruz prefecture called an illegal referendum for the approval of a Statute of Departmental Autonomy.10 The Committee tends to convene "civic strikes" in which the UJC assumes the role of law enforcement, forces businesses to close, beats those who dissent, and uses violence to prevent popular demonstrators from reaching the central plaza. They usually leave graffiti with the slogan "collas de mierda" ("dirty collas").

That day in Plan 3000, due to the threats of an attack from the UJC, a defensive watch was organized to begin at 5 o'clock in the morning. Inspired by protest music, an estimated crowd of 10,000 concentrated in la rotunda to prevent the cruceñistas from wreaking havoc. Until that point in time the roving gangs of the UJC had only confronted small groups or isolated individuals whom they invariably beat up and humiliated. They had never dared to come face to face with a large crowd.

The separatist right-wing sectors were gaining ground. On August 15th, while two-thirds of Bolivians confirmed the presidency of Evo Morales in a referendum, members of the UJC brutally beat the Santa Cruz police commander to the ground as it was being filmed. "In that moment the real dimension of the 'state crisis' in those departments came to light."11 Around the end of August and the beginning of September the regional strikesbecame stronger in Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Tarija, demanding the refund of IDH funds since the government had decided to use that money to finance pensions for the retired.

Evo could not get to five of the nine departments because crowds of dissidents blocked the airports. Between September 9th and 11th it seemed as though the right wing was prepared to capsize the government from the streets: they seized institutions, destroyed state offices, and occupied airports, persecuting and shooting the opposition. In Santa Cruz offices belonging to TV station Canal 7 and the state radio were destroyed. Public offices as well as those of local unions, pro-government political parties, peasant movements, and NGOs were surrounded, set on fire, and blasted with dynamite.

The remnants of the headquarters of the Federation of Ethnic Peoples of Santa Cruz (Confederación de Pueblos Etnicos de Santa Cruz) and the damage done to the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples from Eastern Bolivia (Confederación Indígena del Oriente Boliviano) can still be seen, even though they are located far from downtown. During those intense days, movement members along with government and NGO employees took refuge in Plan 3000 because it was the only place they felt safe.

However, on September 11th the right-wing sector went too far when they took part in the massacre of a peasant march in Pando resulting in 17 deaths; defenseless peasants were killed by bursts of machine gun fire. Witnesses assure that on that day the poor people of Bolivia felt it was time to act, to end what Evo denounced as a "civic coup" against institutions. The government expelled the U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg, who Nobel Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel condemned as the great articulator of the opposition, declared Pando in a state of siege, and mobilized the military. All South American presidents issued their support for these actions through UNASUR.

In Plan 3000 there was enormous tension. On the 10th the separatists surrounded and took the bus terminal, "kicking out whoever resisted inside while the group of police stood by and did nothing."12 The neighbors clearly understood that if they did not defend themselves, no one would. That same day several buses filled with "unionists" arrived through numerous entrances to the city, beating their shields with sticks to frighten the people.

Junior was in la rotunda and remembers the events of that day. It began early with the defensive watch, but the most intense confrontation happened at noon: "They arrived with antiriot shields and high-powered 12 caliber rockets capable of breaking through brick and tin and reaching a distance of 50 meters, and that's how they began to attack. They made us retreat back two blocks. In the meantime some older compañeros fell down and were beat up. Then came the backlash. We screamed, got organized ourselves, and began to advance. We managed to fight them hand-to-hand, freeing our compañeros who were taken prisoner and taking prisoners of our own. We regained our ground and forced them to draw back about three blocks. That's when the police, who protect them, had to step in, forming a little fence around them."

"The radio transmitted every battle," explains Eduardo Loayza. "They had already burned Patria Nueva and Canal 7, and they wanted to burn our radio station. The only thing left to do was to organize and call on the people to defend it. The people responded. They called us from all over to explain what was happening: 'a dark car with unionists just passed by, they're carrying rockets, such and such bus is carrying walkie-talkies.' Our numbers were growing because the radio acted as the eyes of the people, its hands, everything. There were thousands of us, women, young people, and children, with their makeshift tin shields ready to fight ... a beautiful image that will endure throughout history."

Afterward it was discovered that the objective was to take la rotunda in order to prepare for the arrival of Branko Marinkovic, president of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee, who had already written his speech. According to legend, he was going to proclaim, "There is nothing here, we are the majority here," but the people of Plan 3000 resisted and it is now a symbol and a bastion of multicultural Bolivia.

~snip~
Besides being in the minority, the cambas feel surrounded by these indigenous groups, by collas who they despise ... and fear. The Santa Cruz elite illegally took possession of lands intended for the agrarian reform of 1953, estimated between 30 and 50 million hectares, and this is the basis of their wealth. Since the coup d'état of 1971 led by General Hugo Bánzer, supporters of the takeover have always come from Santa Cruz, which remains to this day the hometown of all elected agricultural ministers past and present.

More:
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/6093

[EFerrari]

1. Wow. Just WOW. This is an excellent account, Judi Lynn!

Thank you so much for posting it. Read the snips, now off to read the whole.