Swift militarization

06.10.2005

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Well, not really "swift" (since it took months before anyone bothered to try containing the violence w/ more than honeyed TV discourses), but close enough. And radically shocking. Less than 24 hours after Rodríguez Veltzé was sworn in as Bolivia's third president in less than two years, the military high command mobilized 14,000 troops to restore order. In part, because the Evo-Solares-FEJUVE protesters decided that they weren't really protesting Vaca Díez after all, and they'll stay mobilized until full nationalization of the hydrocarbons industry.

The bulk of the troops were dispatched to La Paz, El Alto, and Santa Cruz. Their orders are to impose order under Article 208 of the constitution. 9,000 sent to the area around La Paz, w/ 5,000 heavily concentrated in El Alto (where FEJUVE & the Solares groups have declared a "parallel state" (which, legally, is an act of sedition) and the remaining 4,000 split around Viacha, Patacamaya, and Oruro. In effect, the altiplano has been militarized and placed under martial law. A force of 5,000 was sent to Santa Cruz as a "preventative" measure.

Interestingly, the Minister of State, Saúl Lara, admitted no knowledge of troop movements outside Santa Cruz. Meaning: the military is doing this from w/in its own chain of command; I don't think they found much in Rodríguez' pretty talk that differed from Mesa's (after all, both are political outsiders, w/ little experience in hardball politics, and over-educated members of the criollo intelligentsia). It's perhaps telling that the military's written statement points out:

"Mientras no se rompa el sistema constitucional, el proceso democrático, seguiremos siendo los supervisores de todo el proceso”

Notice the use of the word "supervisor" (as opposed to "defender" or "guarantor"). After all, the communiqué openly criticizes the administration for "not exercising its constitutional mandate" — leading the military to put itself on "maximum high alert".

This is big news. The military is still clinging to constitutional language — and I believe they do intend to preserve constitutional democracy — but they've decided to act on their own.

Posted by Miguel at 03:12 PM