Street clashes, on the first day of blockades and demonstrations in the Santa Cruz region of Bolivia to demand an early census, left one dead on Saturday, October 22, near the Brazilian border, the government announced.
The Santa Cruz region was paralyzed on Saturday by protesters demanding that the leftist government of President Luis Arce bring forward the population census scheduled for 2024 by a year. In Santa Cruz, public transport was paralyzed and the streets almost deserted . Violent clashes with stones, sticks and firecrackers broke out at a bridge blocked by government opponents and defended by local residents. These clashes left one dead, Pablo Taborga, who was part of this group of residents opposed to the blockade.
The census is used to recalculate the distribution of congressional seats and public resources. However, the region of Santa Cruz, the economic locomotive of Bolivia and the most populated, governed by the right-wing opposition, considers itself disadvantaged by an obsolete census dating from more than 10 years ago.
This political crisis has been unprecedented since 2019, when the right-wing opposition denounced electoral fraud and pushed former indigenous president Evo Morales to resign. The government says it cannot bring the census forward to 2023 and calls for negotiations.
Leftist President Luis Arce condemned the violence on Twitter. He called for shedding light on this drama “ which caused the irreparable loss of human life » and that the investigation allows to « punish those responsible “.
Condenamos the violence ejected during a civic paro that provoked the irreparable perdida of a human life in Puerto Quijarro. Nuestras más sentidas condolencias a la familia y seres queridos. Este trágico hecho debe investigarse y sancionar a los persons in charge.
— Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (Lucho Arce) (@LuchoXBolivia) October 22, 2022
Right-wing Santa Cruz Governor Luis Fernando Camacho accused the ruling party of bringing in residents from other parts of the country to counter the protest. ” This obviously generates violence “, he accused. The UN has urged political and social actors to avoid scenarios of violence and confrontation », the EU calling for its part « to find reunion scenarios between Bolivians “.