The destructive 36-day indefinite strike in Santa Cruz, Bolivia officially ended on Nov. 26. But presidential spokesman Jorge Richter is warning that this isn’t the end of trouble with the fascist separatists who launched the strike and control the department of Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s wealthiest and most populous.
Speaking to the Erbol news network, as reported by the Bolivian Information Agency Nov. 28, Richter warned that Santa Cruz’s radical leaders will use their time now to “regroup” to pursue their separatist agenda, which they call “redefining their relationship to the state.” There is no doubt that this is what’s going to happen, Richter said, “because this is … the methodology and the logic … of the governor and the civic committee.”
While the ostensible purpose of the strike was to fight for a national census in 2023, Santa Cruz’s fascist Gov. Luis Fernando Camacho has accepted the later April 2024 census date, legislation for which has already been voted up in Congress. He is absurdly proclaiming that the strike was a total victory “for democracy and Santa Cruz’s rights,” and that they achieved all their goals.
Goals? “They are going to want to present themselves again as honorable, as the defenders of the rights, hopes and ideals of the most urban sectors of Santa Cruz, which they will then define as their relationship with the national state,” Richter predicted. In fact, in a Nov. 23 press conference, Camacho bombastically announced that the new relationship with the state “will go beyond the federalism and autonomies of the past,” implying secession. This “will be the battle of all battles.”
The 36-day strike was devastating to Santa Cruz’s economy and especially to its poorer indigenous population. The Santa Cruz Society of Economists estimates losses of $10 million daily due to the strike, while nationwide losses totaled over $1 billion. Local infrastructure was wrecked. The fascist shock troops of the Santa Cruz Youth Union (UJC) burned down houses and small businesses in poorer indigenous communities, beat up residents, and committed numerous human rights atrocities. Four people died.
The Arce government is filing criminal charges against those who burned down the departmental offices of the National Peasants Federation and attacked the departmental headquarters of the Bolivian Trade Union Federation. The Attorney General is filing separate criminal charges against each of the three strike leaders, Governor Camacho; Romulo Calvo, president of the Santa Cruz civic committee; and Vicente Cuellar, dean of Santa Cruz’s local university.
