And so it began
09.19.2003
Just before 11am, I heard rockets and yelling down the avenue, heading towards the Prado. And so the public strike/protest began, even if a bit late. Traffic stopped, and for about 15-20 minutes, protesters took the west side of the avenue, marching and chanting.
Shops along the Prado closed their gates, as the crowd surged past chanting "El gas no se vende" (We don't sell gas!) and other such denouncements of the sale of gas through (not to) Chile. Eventually, the crowd passed, on its way to the Plaza Murillo (site of the capitol).
It's now been about a half hour since then, and traffic's slowly coming back to the streets, shops & restaurants are opening their doors again. People seem to still be working, and so I'm heading out to lunch in a few minutes. Perhaps by tonight things'll be back to "normal"?
Posted by Miguel at 12:27 PM
Comments
Of course the protest started late. Like abuela Centellas told me, the main thing wrong with this country is that everyone is always late. So true, so true.
Posted by: sam at September 19, 2003 02:23 PM
Ok, wait. This is more related to the post below, but...let me get this straight.
Bolivia found X amount of gas/oil in its land. It wants to export it, but not to America (because we are the devil) but to Mexico and other countries. It wants to do this by way of a course through Chile. In return, they want to have the part of Chile back that connects them to the ocean? I assume this is so Bolivia will have the ability to sail out directly from Bolivia and not have to cross Chile, but I ask: wouldn't Bolivia instantly use this new water border to ship out their oil? I'm confused.
Chile is also a kind of bean soup. Also, Chile looks like it should be pronounced: chiile not chillee.
Love,
Micah
Posted by: Micah at September 20, 2003 01:20 AM
Micah:
I didn't claim the protest made a lot of sense. Most of the protesters now don't want to sell gas/oil to anyone. They want to "industrialize" and "nationalize" production. Never mind that it would take years to develop an industrial capacity for petrochemicals or something else (and w/ what capital?) or that the previous nationalization of oil under YPFB was an economic disaster.
Posted by: miguel at September 20, 2003 10:32 AM