Police rebellion in Bolivia threatens constitutional government

Striking Bolivian police battle workers, campesinos in La Paz

Mutinous Bolivian police officers clashed with workers and farmers rallying in support of President Evo Morales in La Paz on Monday, after rank-and-file officers rejected an agreement their leaders made with the government over pay hikes

By Reuters, June 27, 2012, posted on Bolivia Rising
Striking police fired tear gas to keep supporters of President Evo Morales from rallying at the main square in Bolivia's capital on Monday on the fourth day of a mutiny over wages by lower-ranking police officers.

Morales, a leftist leader who is Bolivia's first indigenous president, has faced increasingly thorny social conflicts in the past year in the Andean nation, but ruled out deploying troops to end the police rebellion. His government reached a pay agreement on Sunday with leaders of the police protest, but the officer rank and file rejected the deal demanding higher wages, local media reported. "Unfortunately, the president hasn't resolved anything yet," one striking policeman told television reporters. "We are thinking of taking more extreme measures."

Police dressed in civilian clothes and wearing ski masks to hide their faces used tear gas to force back worker and farmers who gathered for a rally in support of Morales in the square outside the presidential palace. "Our march was peaceful but we were dispersed with gases and sticks. The rebel police aren't fighting for salaries, this is political," the leader of the Farmers Federation, Roberto Coraite, told local radio.

Morales has accused his political opponents of being behind the violent mutiny in which dozens of police officers have been hurt and several police stations destroyed. But he vowed to avoid a repeat of a police protest in 2003 that was quashed by the military, causing dozens of deaths. "The president is following these events closely and maintains his decision to achieve a solution through democratic means, avoiding any bloodshed," the government's communication minister, Amanda Davila, told reporters.

Private guards

Banks reopened on Monday after closing partially on Friday, hiring private security guards in the absence of police on the streets. Other police services remained suspended in many areas. "We're going to continue this fight. We don't want crumbs, we want our salaries to be truly in line with those of the military," said Guadalupe Cardenas, leader of an association of police officers' wives that signed the pay offer but later backtracked.

As part of the deal, the government agreed that the wages of the country's roughly 32,000 police officers should match that of other public-sector employees with a minimum monthly wage of nearly $300. It also includes improved pension benefits.

Morales often blames social protests on political rivals bent on destabilizing the natural gas-exporting South American country, which has a history of coups and violent social conflicts.

Vice President Alvaro Garcia said the wage agreement was a good first step toward resolving problems in the police force. "The government has all the operational capacity to retake control of the police, but we hope that the good police officers can prevail, returning to their barracks to resume work," Garcia told a news conference.

Bolivia: As police rebel, Evo Morales rules out troops, warns his supporters will defend the government "to the last"

Reuters, June 25, 2012, posted on Bolivia Rising
Bolivia's left-wing president, Evo Morales, accused political rivals of being behind a violent three-day uprising by police over wages on Sunday but said he would not deploy troops to restore order. Dozens of officers have been hurt and several police stations destroyed during the protests in a fresh challenge to Morales, who has faced an upswing in social conflicts in the past year.
 
Rebel police invaded the downtown square in front of the presidential palace on Sunday, accusing their leaders of betraying them by signing a deal on pay and conditions with the government earlier in the day. Some clashed with officers trying to return to their jobs, local media reported.
 
"The armed forces ... will not be sent onto the streets," Morales told peasant farmers and miners during a televised speech in the Andean highland town of Corocoro, warning that his supporters would defend the government "to the last."
 
"What are they after? ... the right-wingers want there to be deaths, but we're not going to play into their hands," said Morales, an ally of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, who has steadily tightened state control over natural resources and public services. Morales vowed to avoid a repeat of a police protest in 2003 that was quashed by the military, causing dozens of deaths.
 
Morales often blames social protests on political rivals bent on destabilizing the natural gas-exporting South American country, which has a history of coups and violent social conflicts. "We've got no doubt that there are conspiratorial intentions," said Government Minister Carlos Romero, confirming the rebellion continued among some sectors of the nation's police force in several cities. "We've taken an important step, however, toward neutralizing this coup-mongering action," he said.
 
As part of the deal signed on Sunday, the government agreed that the wages of the country's roughly 32,000 police officers should be brought into line with other public-sector employees with a minimum monthly wage of nearly $300. It also includes improvement pension benefits. No serious criminal incidents were reported despite the absence of police patrols.

Bolivia: Social organisations reject attempts at coup and announce mobilizations in defence of democracy

ABI news agency, June 24, 2012, translated by Bolivia Rising

La Paz, ABI--Representatives of various social organisations of workers, campesinos, miners, factory workers, parents, parliamentarians and other sectors from all across the country rejected on Sunday the attempt to carry out a coup, denouncing in the last few hours as being promoted by political groups that have infiltrated the mutiny of low-ranking police officers and announced that they will defend democracy and the process of change led by President Evo Morales.
 
Different social organisations surprisingly showed up at the installations of Radio Patria Nueva and Bolivia TV in La Paz, concerned by the attempts to break the constitutional order. “After having called a meeting we have declared ourselves in a state of emergency and are announcing a permanent mobilization starting tomorrow (Monday) in defence of the process of change” announced the executive secretary of the United Union Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB), Roberto Coraite.
 
He said that faced with the current situation, they will not remain “with their arms crossed” and announced a permanent vigil to defend democracy and guarantee the continuity of the constitutional government of President Evo Morales. “Therefore, the conditions are there to support this process in a unanimous and firm manner, we are prepared to take up certain defense strategies against this attempted coup” he argued.
 
For his part, the executive secretary of the Union Federation of Mine Workers of Bolivia (FSTMB), Roberto Perez, said “we will not allow atrocities to be perpetrated by a small group of oligarchs in this country.”
 
The executive secretary of the organisation Juana Azurduy de Padilla, Maxima Apaza, said that the police officer’s demands were just, as the president himself noted in ordering that these demands be attended to, but said her organisation does not accept the form in which they have are making their demands. In this context, she affirmed that as social organisations, they are “obliged” to defend the process of change and will not allow the same thing to happen as what is occurring in Paraguay, where radical groups removed President Fernando Lugo in a political trial deemed as a congressional coup.
 
The executive secretary of the Federation of Women of El Alto, Mercedes Marquez, also assured that this sector “will not allow anyone to undermine the president” and democracy.
 
The executive secretary of the Federation of Neighbourhood Councils of La Paz, Jaime Vera, also presented himself at the studios of Radio Patria Nueva, to announce that this entity has declared itself in a state of emergency in the face of attempts to destabilise the government and denounced the presence of infiltrators in the police protest “organised by Juan del Granado, head of the Movement of Those Without Fear, by Samuel Doria Medina, head of National Unity, and Guadalupe Cardenas, the supposed representative of the police officer’s wives.”
 
“I am sure that they want to fuse this mobilization with the arrival of the TIPNIS (Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park) march, which is on route to the government headquarters in defense of their territory and against the consultation process” he added.
 
Panfilo Guzman, from the United Federation of Campesinos from Tarija, added that this government was the only one to attend to the problems of the poor, which is why this federation will defend the process of change from their communities and across the country.
 
The vice-president of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Concepcion Ortiz, announced a mobilization for next Monday in defense of the process of change, together with organisations that will arrive from outside the country.  “We are grateful for the support of other countries that are arriving for this mobilization in rejection of the attempted coup and the attitude of the police officers and to denounce that the right wing is intervening in this conflict,” she said.
 
Representatives from neighbourhood councils, parents associations and other women’s and worker’s organisations made similar announcements.
 
Sections of the police rejected the 8 point agreement signed by their representatives with the government on Sunday and have decided to continue their mutinous protest that was denounced by the government as creating the scene for a coup.