Soldiers and protesters march towards La Paz
Translated by Zapata (13/10/2003 22:41)
http://www.bolivia.indymedia.org/es/2003/10/3234.shtml

La Paz, 13 october 2003 8:30 pm • Cornered by the masses that cry out for his head, president Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada has called the republican national guard to his aid. From the east and the south, journalists report the hurried shipment of soldiers towards La Paz. Thousands of peasants from the Plateau hurry the same way.

Translated from http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/141029.php

All go to the city of La Paz, where the fate of Sánchez de Lozada will be decided. Here, in "Hoyada", night has begun to fall. Bonfires illuminate the trenches and barricades that have been erected by the locals, the workers and the unemployed. Men and women who have stood up from their villages to reconquer the gas and petroleum from the hands of powerful transnational companies.

In the fields of the plateau, in Achacachi, the fierce aymaran fighters, the locals and the peasants have united in the end of the day and have decided, according to reports the radical network Erbol, to travel down the road to join up with the thousands and thousands of people that are in rebellion in the slums and residential districts of La Paz.

The protestors from Achacachi want to be in La Paz before the 10 thousands from Oruro, made up of manufacturing retailers, workers and peasants, who today have walked much and fast. "It is necessary to arrive fast, this is very serious", one of the leaders expresses, closely listening to a small radio. Those of the town of Oruro march to support their brothers and fellow residents of Huanuni, the thousand miners who already are placed, with much discipline and some dynamite, in the residential areas of El Paz and El Alto.

But the military has also moved, and a lot faster. From Trinidad, close to the border of Brazil, another radio broadcasting station reports that another military division will be flown in. From Tarija, in the south, another deadly contingent is on it's way by air. These troops can increase the already high number of victims.

By the freeway, at the 38, eight military tanks and some ten personnel carries, filled with fully armed soldiers are on their way, ready to carry out any order from their commander in chief. From Washington it was announced that the Department of State and the Organization of American States (O.A.S.) have decided to support Sanchez de Lozada. They declared that they will not recognize any other government, but the neoliberal one.

A national struggle

In other more distant regions, the call is to go to closer by cities. This is the case for the residents of the east, who march towards the capital and warn the blockades if there is repression. They do not want a repeat of what has happened some kilometers away, at the highway blockade in San Julian, where there already have been fatalities. "They shot him from point-blank", say the neighbors who lament the death of Juan Carlos Barrientos (32), killed by a bullet in the head.

In the city of Cochabamba, the third largest city of Bolivia, there's one demonstration after another. At night it is the turn of the many thousands manufacturing workers. They march with torches, shouting slogans against the president and crying for their fallen brothers in La Paz and El Alto, united in height, united in misfortune.

On the central square of Cochabamba, monks and nuns hold a vigil, pledging candals and praying to the skies to watch the people, but a minute before the eight at night they are beaten and pursued by the police, who also attack the demonstrators. Teargas and stones, once again.

In the mining town of Potosi, the strike is complete. Noone works, everyone is in solidarity with the dead and demand that Sánchez de Lozada leaves. The same demand the monks and nuns make.

The church demands Peace

The clergy and the laymen of EL Alto raise their voice and say "We demand the resignation of the President (...) he has made so many errors that he no longer can soothe the country". Father Willy Flores reads on official notice of all the prelates that agree with the native face of Christ and consoles to his congregation: "Happy are those who have thirst for justice, because this thirst will be quenched".

The highest church official does not keep quiet, but demands that the President stops the massacre. Monsignor Jesus Juárez says: "In the name of God, leave the violence, we cannot continue to kill each other ".

But the violence does not stop. At the hospitals ambulances arrive, carrying the wounded. The doctors are not in doubt: "All day it has been like this. This is worse than february the 12th and the 13th (when 33 people died, and 200 had gunshot wounds in the revolt of the population and the police against the tax plans of Sanches de Lozada, who tried to skim the wages of workers and employees).

More murder, more massacre

The reports are not encouraging. "To date we have 31 cases, 14 are burned by the explosion of a tank station and the rest has bullet wounds of varying severity", tells hospital director Eduardo Chávez in a partial summing up

In the Juan XXIII hospital in Munaypata situated in the hills of La Paz, there are also reports of dead and wounded, although many think this is only the tip of the iceberg, that many more will arrive soon.

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