On September 27, the Bolivian government sent Agriculture Minister Guido Añez Moscoso and Popular Participation Minister Mirtha Quevedo Acalinovic to meet with campesinos in the highlands of La Paz department who have been blocking roads for two weeks to press a series of demands, including a halt to the planned export of natural gas, and rejection of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The meeting took place at the Radio San Gabriel auditorium in the city of El Alto, adjacent to the capital, La Paz. (El Diario (La Paz) 9/28/03; Reuters 9/26/03)

Bolivia holds the continent's second-largest reserves of natural gas. President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada wants to privatize the gas utility and sell the gas abroad, mainly to the United States and Mexico. Under the president's plan, Bolivia would turn over the gas operation to a private firm in return for royalties ranging from 18 percent to 50 percent. A newspaper poll taken during the week of September 22 showed that 52 percent of Bolivians oppose the plan-mainly because previous privatizations and free-market "reforms" have brought only job loss, wage cuts and increased utility rates. Under the export plan, the gas would be shipped out through a port in either Chile or Peru; the percentage of Bolivians opposing the plan jumps to about 65 percent if a Chilean port-the closer and cheaper option-is used. Bolivians have not forgotten that Chile seized Bolivia's Pacific coastline and its copper mines after a bitter four-year war that ended in 1879. (Washington Post 9/28/03) Wages, productivity and employment have been stagnant in Bolivia for 20 years. (Reuters 9/25/03) Those protesting the export plan are demanding that the gas be used in Bolivia to create an industrial infrastructure which would generate jobs.

The gas export plan is being promoted by the multinational consortium Pacific LNG, which includes the Spanish-Argentine hydrocarbons company Repsol-YPF, British Gas and Panamerican Gas, a subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP). While Bolivia was one of the first countries in Latin America to impose "structural adjustment" and privatization policies, starting in 1985, it was Sánchez de Lozada who privatized the national hydrocarbons industry with a secret decree issued on August 4, 1997-two days before the end of his first term (1993-1997). The decree has since faced challenges before the Constitutional Court. Sánchez de Lozada began his current term as president on August 6, 2002. (Econoticias Bolivia 9/25/03 via Colombia Indymedia)

At the September 27 meeting, the campesinos presented Añez and Quevedo with five conditions which must be met before they will begin a dialogue: the government must withdraw military troops from all roads; release all those arrested in connection with the road blockades; dismiss Defense Minister Carlos Sánchez Berzaín; compensate victims of a September 20 confrontation which left seven people dead and 13 wounded in the community of Warisata; and agree on Warisata as the site for the talks. After talking with the ministers, the campesinos agreed to a temporary truce to allow the government time to consider the conditions.

Añez and Quevedo offered a counter-suggestion: that the dialogue be held in El Alto. (ED 9/28/03) The government is wary of going to Warisata; earlier in the week Minister of Government Yerko Kukoc warned that if a meeting were to take place there, the Only Union Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) would have to "guarantee the security of the ministers" because "there are people armed" with old Mauser rifles, as seen in television footage. (La República (Lima) 9/24/03 from AFP) "I don't know why they are scared to go to Warisata," La Paz campesino leader and legislative deputy Felipe Quispe Huanca told the Panamericana radio station. "We guarantee nothing will happen to them, not even a fly will land on them." (Reuters 9/26/03)

Two soldiers and five civilians were killed during the September 20 confrontations in Warisata and Ilabaya. The civilian victims were teacher Juan Cosme and student Ismael Marcos Quispe of the Warisata teacher training school, both killed in Warisata's main plaza; 60-year-old campesino Primitivo Curaca, killed near Ilabaya; eight-year-old Mariela Nancy Rojas Ramos; and Eugenia Condori de Quispe, who was not described in press reports. The two soldiers were conscripts: 19-year-old Carlos Rivas and 20-year-old Sergio Vargas. (La Razón (La Paz) 9/22/03; Bolpress 9/22/03)

By September 24, the continuing roadblocks in the Altiplano region had begun to cause food shortages in the capital. La Paz mayor Juan del Granado said the roadblocks had caused "gradual and worrisome shortages, particularly of vegetables" in the city's markets. Del Granado also said the shortages had caused increases in the prices of vegetables, potatoes and meat. (Miami Herald 9/25/03 from unspecified wire services; LR 9/25/03 from EFE) As of September 26, a group of 118 tourists had been stranded for 12 days at a campesino roadblock in northern Bolivia. (Reuters 9/26/03)

At a September 25 meeting in the mining community of Huanuni, the Bolivian Workers Central (COB) agreed to begin a national general strike on September 29, to support the La Paz campesinos' demands and to push for the resignation of Sánchez de Lozada and his vice president, Carlos Mesa, in order to call new presidential elections. (La República (Lima) 9/26/03 from EFE) A Mori poll published in August showed the president's approval rating at 9 percent. (Reuters 9/25/03)

Campesino coca growers (cocaleros) led by legislative deputy Evo Morales Ayma are preparing to start blockades in the Chapare lowlands on October 6. (Econoticias Bolivia 9/26/03 via Colombia Indymedia) Bolivia's Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) says it will start a new wave of land occupations on October 2. (La Jornada (Mexico) 9/23/03 from DPA, AFP, Prensa Latina, Reuters; Los Tiempos (Cochabamba) 9/24/03).