BY BLANCA ARISMENDI
La Paz, Bolivia 2003
The country was on the cusp of an uprising. President Gonzalo “Goni” Sanchez de Lozada’s decision to export natural gas through Bolivia’s historic enemy, Chile, triggered a nationwide rejection. Starting in February, numerous protests broke out throughout the country, causing dozens of fatalities. By September, social and indigenous organizations coalesced into a mass movement that concentrated in the city of El Alto.
El Alto, Spanish for ‘The Heights,’ sits at 4,000 meters above sea level overlooking de facto capital city La Paz. In the 1950s, it became a settlement for indigenous people fleeting social unrest and economic decline in rural communities. Since then, the population grew steadily to nearly a million by 2003. It became the fastest-growing urban center, home to Latin America’s densest indigenous population and often considered the capital of the Aymara highlands.
There is a high concentration of poverty in El Alto, a stark contrast to the neighboring metropolis of La Paz. The growing economic, social and linguistic divide between the two cities has been a source of tension overtime. More importantly, El Alto has gas refineries and critical highways that breathe life into La Paz, which played a crucial role in the Gas War.
Julia is a resident of El Alto since she was a teenager. Like most indigenous people, Julia immigrated from a rural countryside community looking for work. Julia and her husband, Mario, maintained social ties with their native communities by participating in rural assembly meetings and paying dues. In parallel to Aymara life, El Alto is also organized into neighborhood assemblies, where members are morally obligated to ensure attendance at meetings and join mobilization efforts. Julia and her husband had, without fail, participated in neighborhood efforts to mobilize against thieves and other criminal activity that plagued their city. It was this powerful mobilizing capacity that made El Alto residents the protagonists of Bolivia’s Gas War.
“If this government insists in selling our gas through Chile, their days are numbered!” yelled Julia’s neighborhood assembly leader to a crowd of members. Five people had died in the latest round of confrontations with armed forces, in a town nearby. Julia’s heart raced with fear. “ I was holding [my granddaughter] and I just hugged her tightly.” Julia said, “I knew it was about to get bad for everyone.”
“The president must nationalize the gas or resign!” The assembly leader continued and announced that peasants, farmers, union laborers and other social movements were making their way to el Alto on foot. Half were expected to remain in El Alto to block the main roads and the rest would continue their march to the seat of government in La Paz to pressure the government to stop the export of natural gas.
On October 9, neighborhood assembly leaders announced that the largest labor union would declare indefinite strike the following morning. This would be the cue for El Alto residents to initiate the blockade of the main roads. Daily marches and hunger strikes would be organized all throughout El Alto to paralyze the city.
“You lose your standing in the community if you don’t help,” Julia said. In an attempt to keep her family far away from violent confrontations, Julia and her daughter, Lydia, volunteered to cook for the demonstrators. Her husband remained at home with their grandchildren. Her two youngest sons, Mario Jr. and Freddy, made signs for the protestors marching to La Paz.
Following orders to suppress the indigenous uprising and the blockades, military troops arrived in large numbers. Within a day, El Alto was militarized and news of deaths began to spread. Overnight, random shooting into homes and schools resulted in seven deaths.
“I begged him to stay home but he was enraged!” Lydia said, when her brother Freddy decided to join a group of protesters that decided to block the petroleum plant. The excessive use of force by military troops was met with a radicalized response from residents. Julia and Lydia watched their neighbors march toward the highways with stones, sling shots and sticks in hand. Julia’s neighborhood looked like the center of the battleground.
TV coverage of the escalating protests was limited but local radio stations transmitted developments live. Assembly leaders, organizers and other representatives made announcements over those stations throughout the day. Local residents reported deaths and injuries. Julia and Lydia listened to the radio closely. The radio host announced the successful obstructions of the main roads leading to La Paz and the arrival of thousands more protestors from neighboring cities, while the death toll continued escalating.
“It’s a massacre!” a woman cried on the radio. “They killing us like animals!” she continued. Locals reported injuries with rubber bullets, tear gas. Other callers cited helicopters and snipers shooting randomly at passersby.
On October 12, the president ordered the initiate the gas export. A caravan of oil trucks escorted by tanks with machine guns and military troops approached El Alto to break the barricade. With both her sons active in the protests, her husband looking after the grandkids at home, Julia and Lydia saw no other option but to join the highway blockade. It was the longest and worst day of the Gas War.
“Never in my life had I felt so scared and angry at the same time,” Julia said. “I wanted to cry from the exhaustion but I saw my daughter carrying stones tirelessly,” Julia continued. Thousands of women filled the highways with stones as the tanks approached. Throughout the night the sound of bullet shots were constant, only to be drowned by sound of dynamites.
By October 14, the death rose to 77 and over 400 injured. The military repression ceased. Hundreds of thousands of protesters surrounded the seat of government in an act of pressure. The country fell into a state of silence. The neighborhood assemblies in El Alto and accompanying social groups remained organized. They demanded the resignation and prosecution of the president or the blockades would continue.
The following day, the vice president and other ministers joined the protesters in demanding the president’s resignation. This was the catalyst that triggered the collapse of the government. Julia and the rest of the residents were instructed to march toward La Paz to intensify the measures of pressure. While Julia and Lydia began their march, they were joined by Freddy, who assured them that the rest of their family was safe.
While government representatives asked to open the lines of communication. The masses responded with a resounding no. Rumors began to spread that the national armed forces would withdraw their allegiance to the government. More high level government officials pronounced their resignation or asked the president to resign.
On October 17, the entire country reached a state of paralysis. “My knees gave out,” Julia said. “And then I heard screams!” Julia continued. Julia and her two children never reached La Paz because before they reached the border the radio announced the president fled the presidential palace in a helicopter and submitted his formal resignation to congress. The crowd around Julia broke into a spontaneous celebration and she, with her children, returned home. As they reached the bridge that marked the El Alto border, students hanged a sign from the bridge that read: “if you want to overthrow the government, call us”