Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 07:38:27 -0400 To: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> From: Thomas Kruse <tkruse at albatros.cnb.net>
Thanks. Doing fine, though I'm not sleeping at home. Democracy, you know. Warning: ignore AP reports! I will send correctives in the upcoming days.
We're trying to get comment and support in an effort to win local leaders margins of security. They are being hunted; 5 have already been sent into interal exile in the eastern jungles -- taking them out of action. A typical measure under state of emergency here. (Note: ALL deomcratic governments since the return to democracy in 1982 have decreed states of emergency; all have used internal exile, selective repression, etc.)
Here's what we sent to Ralph Nader, distant colleague of a friend here.
Un abrazo- Tom
April 10, 2000 TO: Ralph Nader FROM: Jim Shultz - The Democracy Center RE: BOLIVIA DECLARES MARTIAL LAW TO PROTECT BECHTEL
Dear Ralph,
You may or may not remember me from my years working in the California office of Consumers Union. Our mutual colleagues Harvey Rosenfield, Joan Claybrook, Rhoda Karpatkin, Mike Pertschuk and Harry Snyder can all vouch for me I am writing to you from Cochabamba, Bolivia on a matter of great urgency.
As you may know from wire reports, on Saturday, following a week of enormous public protest over the privatization of water, Bolivian President Hugo Banzer declared "a state of siege", essentially martial law. Soldiers control parts of the country, at least seven people have been killed and more than 30 injured (the military is using live ammo). Radio stations have been invaded and forced off the air by military and police, leaders of the protest have been arrested and flown to a remote prison in the jungle. Those few of us working non-stop to get out information internationally are at risk.
THE BECHTEL CONNECTION
The battle here is over the government's sale of Cochabamba’s (a city of 500,000) water system last year to a private consortium ("Aguas del Tunari", owned by International Water Limited) which then doubled water rates for poor families that can barely afford to feed themselves. It turns out that one of the main investors behind the water corporation in the Bechtel Corporation, based in San Francisco (Source: <http://www.bechtel.com/whatnew/1999artsq4.html>).
I am asking you assistance to help us target Bechtel during the coming week’s mobilization’s in Washington as well as put the spotlight on the fight going on here. For Bolivia, the crisis will not end until Bechtel’s water company agrees to leave and our only hope is citizen pressure from the US . Bolivians understand that connection. Sunday I sent out to press across the U.S. the following statement from the main leader of the Cochabamba water protest, labor leader Oscar Olivera, who is in hiding to escape government arrest:
"The Bolivian government, ignoring the wishes of the people clearly demonstrated in the streets for five days, is protecting the profits of the Bechtel Corporation [and other investors]. The blood spilled in Cochabamba carries the fingerprints of Bechtel."
I also think the Bechtel/Bolivia story and Oscar’s statement is a powerful tool as you try to explain this week the dangers of economic globalization runamok. What more powerful story can you tell than of a country under martial law, civil liberties suspended, a 17 year old boy killed by a government bullet to the head, all to protect the interests of a wealthy corporation like Bechtel over something as basic as water? This is Bolivia this week.
The crisis will not end until the Bechtel affiliate leaves. Late this afternoon it was reported that the government had agreed to break the contract with Bechtel's affiliate but neither the company nor President Hugo Banzer have made any public statement or signed any doccument. It was a similar unconfirmed announcement and reversal on Friday thst preceded the declaration of martial law Saturday morning.
WHAT ELSE IS BEING DONE
Fighting the challenges of government power outages I have sent a complete alert, focusing on the Bechtel connection to more than 1,000 people via e-mail, who in turn are sending it to their networks worldwide. Beginning this morning Bechtel CEO, Riley Bechtel, is receiving hundreds of e-mails and calls calling for "Bechtel Outr of Bolivia". I am arranging companion news coverage focusing on Bechtel in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and the SF Bay Guardian, all of whom I am in contact with. I have also done radio interviews with local Pacifica and NPR stations and others, focusing on Bechtel. The April mobilization in San Francisco is distributing my alerts and I expect them to make Bechtel their lead Bay Area target. I have also distributed this same information to a media list of more than 200.
MY REQUEST
If you were here to witness the thousands of people marching up to 70 miles and filling the plaza here to protest the corporate takeover of their water, the women going door to door for food to feed the protesters, the leaders risking arrest and worse, you would find it one of the most inspiring examples of grassroots activism of your career. There are two things you could do, that you alone can do, to help support this action and bring it to global light:
1) As you craft your own media messages this week please include Bolivia and Bechtel in what you say. You have the power to draw enormous attention to a grave crisis, a profoundly inspiring consumer movement and the most outrageous example of corporate sovereignty I have ever witnessed.
2) We would ask that you send a formal written invitation to Oscar Olivera, the labor leader who is the lead spokesperson for the water protest, to come to Washington and participate in the protests and actions there this week. I am sure that, even if events here were settled, he would not be able to get a US visa, but your invitation would lend enormous credibility to the movement here and would make headlines all over the nation. Bolivia would be so proud to have its struggle recognized internationally.
If you have any other questions, ideas or any need to reach me my information follows. In addition, I will include here an article which I wrote and published in the Saturday edition of the San Jose Mercury News which will give you more background. Hours after it went to print the government reneged on its agreement to break its contract with Bechtel's affiliate, declared a state of emergency and started rounding up protest leaders in the dark of night.
Many, many thanks for your consideration.
Jim Shultz, Executive Director
The Democracy Center
591-4-290-725
Contact Information for Bechtel:
Riley Bechtel, Chairman and CEO, Bechtel Corp E-mail: northame at bechtel.com Tel: (415) 768-1234 Fax: (415) 768-9038 Address: 50 Beale Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
The Following Article Published in the San Jose Mercury News April 8, 2000
BOLIVIAN PROTESTERS WIN WAR OVER WATER
COCHABAMBA, BOLIVIA
In a stunning concession to four days of massive public uprisings, the Bolivian government announced late Friday afternoon that it was breaking the contract it signed last year that sold the region's water system to a consortium of British-led investors.
A general strike and road blockades that began Tuesday morning in Cochabamba shut down the city of half a million, leaving the usually crowded streets virtually empty of cars and closing schools, businesses and the city's 25-square-block marketplace, one of Latin America's largest.
The government's surprise agreement to reverse the water privatization deal follows four months of public protest. It came just as it appeared that President Hugo Banzer Suárez was preparing to declare martial law, possibly triggering fighting in the streets between riot police and the thousands of angry protesters who seized control of the city's central plaza.
Greater meaning
While rumors are surfacing that the government might backtrack on their promise, for Bolivians the popular victory apparently won over water has much wider meaning. ``We're questioning that others, the World Bank, international business, should be deciding these basic issues for us,'' said protest leader Oscar Olivera. ``For us, that is democracy.''
The selling-off of public enterprises to foreign investors has been a heated economic debate in Bolivia for a decade, as one major business after another -- the airline, the train system, electric utilities -- has been sold into private (almost always foreign) hands. Last year's one-bidder sale of Cochabamba's public water system, a move pushed on government officials by the World Bank, the international lending institution, brought the privatization fight to a boil.
In January, as the new owners erected their shiny new ``Aguas del Tunari'' logo over local water facilities, the company also slapped local water users with rate increases that were as much as double. In a city where the minimum wage is less than $100 per month, many families were hit with increases of $20 per month and more.
Tanya Paredes, a mother of five who supports her family as a clothes-knitter, says her increase, $15 per month, was equal to what it costs to feed her family for 1 1/2 weeks. ``What we pay for water comes out of what we have to pay for food, clothes and the other things we need to buy for our children,'' she said.
Public anger over the rate increases, led by a new alliance, known here as ``La Coordinadora,'' exploded in mid-January with a four-day shutdown of the city, stunning the government and forcing an agreement to reverse the rate increases.
In early February, when the promises never materialized, La Coordinadora called for a peaceful march on the city's central plaza. Banzer (who previously ruled as a dictator from 1971-78) met the protesters with more than 1,000 police and an armed takeover of La Cochabamba's center. Two days of police tear gas and rock-throwing by marchers left more than 175 protesters injured and two youths blinded.
February's violent clashes forced the government and the water company to implement a rate rollback and freeze until November, and to agree to a new round of negotiations.
Deal scrutinized
Meanwhile, La Coordinadora, aided by the local College of Economists, began to scrutinize both the contract and the finances behind the water company's new owners. While the actual financial arrangements remain mostly hidden, the city's leading daily newspaper reported that investors paid the government less than $20,000 of upfront capital for a water system worth millions.
Amid charges of corruption and collusion in the contract by some of the officials who approved it last year, La Coordinadora announced what it called la última batalla (the final battle), demanding that the government break the contract and return the water system to public hands. The group set Tuesday as the deadline for action.
Government water officials warned that private investors were needed to secure the millions of dollars needed to expand this growing region's water system. They argued that breaking the contract would entitle the owners to a $12 million compensation fee, and pleaded for public patience to give the new owners time to show the benefits of their experience.
Among the vast majority of Cochabamba water users, however, that patience had run out. Two weeks ago, an inquiry surveyed more than 60,000 local residents about the water issue and more than 90 percent voted that the government should break the contract. During one of the marches this week protesters stopped at the water company's offices, tearing down the new ``Aguas del Tunari'' sign erected just three months ago.
Tuesday, city residents took to the street with bicycles and soccer balls -- only a few cars moved across town to take advantage of the day off from work and school. By Wednesday, armies of people from the surrounding rural areas, fighting a parallel battle over a new law threatening popular control of rural water systems, began arriving, reinforcing the road blockades, and puncturing car and bicycle tires. Thursday night, with another day of wages lost and no sign of movement from the government, public anger started to erupt.
Protesters arrested
A crowd of nearly 500 surrounded the government building where negotiations, convened by the Roman Catholic archbishop, were taking place between protest leaders and government officials. In the middle of negotiations, the government ordered the arrest of 15 La Coordinadora leaders and others present in the meeting.
``We were talking with the mayor, the governor, and other civil leaders when the police came in and arrested us,'' said Olivera, La Coordinadora's most visible leader. ``It was a trap by the government to have us all together, negotiating, so that we could be arrested.''
In response, thousands of city and rural residents filled the city's central plaza opposite the government building, carrying sticks, rocks and handkerchiefs to help block the anticipated tear gas. Television and radio reports speculated all day that the president would declare martial law, and there were reports of army units arriving at the city's airport.
Freed from jail early Friday morning, the leaders of water protests agreed to a 4 p.m. meeting with the government, called by the archbishop. At 5 p.m., government officials still had not arrived and the plaza crowd waited tensely for the expected arrival of the army.
Suddenly and unexpectedly, the archbishop walked into the meeting and announced that the government had just told him that it had agreed to break the water contract. Jubilant La Coordinadora leaders crossed the street to a third-floor balcony, announcing the victory to the thousands waiting below, many waving the red-green-and-yellow Bolivian flag, as the bells of the city's cathedral echoed through the city center.
"We have arrived at the moment of an important economic victory," Olivera told the ecstatic crowd.