Conflict

“Bolivia is doing its Bolivia thing.” This was the half-exasperated, half-ironic comment of one North American woman at my English-language Bible study a week ago Tuesday night. I winced at the sharpness of her evaluation—as if to say, “What else can we expect from this country but problems and more problems?” But I had to agree that it’s hard to understand what’s happening these days in Bolivia (perhaps especially to us foreigners).

On Sunday, November 25, people here in Santa Cruz turned on their TVs to the sight of smoke, flying tear gas pellets, and people protesting in the streets in Sucre, Bolivia’s constitutional capital. (The seat of government is in La Paz.) Groups of angry protesters burned police headquarters, and the much-outnumbered police forces, after retaliating with tear gas for a while, were eventually forced to withdraw from the city. An ordinarily peaceful population (Sucre has the reputation of being the most cultured city in Bolivia) was up in arms, burning cars and motorcycles at the police installations. Before they retreated to Potosí, the police apparently liberated most of the prisoners in Sucre’s jail; a group of inmates stayed back, saying they wanted to carry out the rest of their sentence in peace, without creating further legal problems for themselves. I turned to Saúl, who was watching the news with me that afternoon, and said, “The world’s turned upside-down!”

Since then, individuals and groups from across the country have made public protests against what happened in Sucre. The civic groups in Sucre blame the national government for the three deaths and many injuries incurred, and the government blames the civic leaders. On Wednesday the 28th, six of Bolivia’s nine departments (similar to U.S. states or Canadian provinces), including Santa Cruz, observed a general strike; public transport ceased and businesses and public offices closed for the day. There were no violent incidents reported here, and for most of us it was simply a day of rest. But tempers have flared, and it’s becoming harder to see a peaceful end to the conflict. An increasing number of people are calling for civil disobedience against the government.

The source of the problem is complex and has long been brewing. Among the reasons are longstanding conflicts between people-groups, political differences between the ruling party and the opposition, the tug-of-war between a centralist government and the regions’ demand for greater autonomy, and the rivalry between Sucre (Bolivia’s traditional capital) and La Paz (which won the right to being the seat of government in a bloody conflict). The kindling had been ready for some time, awaiting a spark. That came last weekend, with a vote in which Bolivia’s new constitution was approved, but with 119 of the 255 members of the constituent assembly abstaining in protest.

To give a fuller explanation of what’s going on would be beyond my expertise and the space limits of this blog, but I found what seems to be a pretty balanced account on the webpage of the Andean Information Network—I’d recommend a reading of their November 26 article. (Link to http://ain-bolivia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=107&Itemid=32 .) But even if you don’t have time for further reading, please pray for Bolivia. Pray for reason and reflection, humility, reconciliation, and people’s ability to love those whom they see as enemies. Pray that the staff of the Mennonite Central Committee will be witnesses for peace and understanding at this critical time.