2000 Cochabamba protests
Encyclopedia
Cochabamba
Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
, Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
's third largest city, between January 1999 and April 2000 in response to multinational participation in the infrastructure and management of the city's municipal water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
.
Economic background
The restoration of civilian rule to Bolivia in 1982 ended decades of military dictatorshipMilitary dictatorship
A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
s, but did not bring economic stability. In 1985, with hyperinflation
Hyperinflation
In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or out of control. While the real values of the specific economic items generally stay the same in terms of relatively stable foreign currencies, in hyperinflationary conditions the general price level within a specific economy increases...
at an annual rate of 25 thousand percent, few foreign investors would do business in the country. The Bolivian government turned to the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
as a last refuge against economic meltdown. For the next 20 years, successive governments followed the World Bank's provisions in order to qualify for continued loans from the organization. In order to move towards independent development, Bolivia privatised its railways, telephone system, national airlines, and hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons from which one hydrogen atom has been removed are functional groups, called hydrocarbyls....
industry.
Demand of the World Bank
According to The EcologistThe Ecologist
The Ecologist is a British environmental publication founded in 1970 by Edward Goldsmith. It addresses a wide range of environmental subjects and promotes an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles. The Ecologist encourages its readers to...
in 2000, the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
declared it would not "renew" a 25 million USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
loan
Loan
A loan is a type of debt. Like all debt instruments, a loan entails the redistribution of financial assets over time, between the lender and the borrower....
to Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
unless it privatized its water services
Public services
Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...
. According to Jim Shultz, executive director
Executive director
Executive director is a term sometimes applied to the chief executive officer or managing director of an organization, company, or corporation. It is widely used in North American non-profit organizations, though in recent decades many U.S. nonprofits have adopted the title "President/CEO"...
of the Democracy Center in Cochabamba
Cochabamba
Cochabamba is a city in central Bolivia, located in a valley bearing the same name in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cochabamba Department and is the fourth largest city in Bolivia with an urban population of 608,276 and a metropolitan population of more than 1,000,000 people...
, the World Bank believed that "poor governments are often too plagued by local corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
and too ill equipped to run public water systems efficiently. ...[and that the use of private corporations] opens the door to needed investment and skilled management,"
In a 1999 Public Expenditure Review, the World Bank stated that "no subsidies should be given to ameliorate the increase in water tariffs in Cochabamba". The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
reported on the World Bank's motives, "Most of the poorest neighborhoods were not hooked up to the network, so state subsidies to the water utility went mainly to industries and middle-class neighborhoods; the poor paid far more for water of dubious purity from trucks and handcarts. In the World Bank's view, it was a city that was crying out for water privatization."
In a 2002 publication the World Bank acknowledges that one of its loans, the "Major Cities Water and Sewerage Rehabilitation Project", included a condition to privatize the La Paz and Cochabamba water utilities. The privatization was required to allow a two-year extension of the project that was due to close in 1995. The World Bank project that began in 1990 had covered three cities, leading to sharply diverging outcomes: Access increased and service quality improved in Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
where a successful cooperative provided services, which enjoyed, according to the World Bank, "the reputation as one of the best-managed utilities in Latin America." However, results were mixed in La Paz and poor in Cochabamba. In the latter access to piped water had actually decreased from 70% to 40%, water losses had remained high at 40% and water supply had remained unreliable at about 4 hours a day despite the funds made available by the World Bank to support the public utility. Interestingly, the World Bank did not include a conditionality to privatize water in Santa Cruz where the local utility had been able to improve services, but only in the cities where the utilities had failed to improve services.
The World Bank acknowledges that it provided assistance to prepare a concession contract for Cochabamba in 1997. However, its involvement with water in Cochabamba ended in the same year. At that time the bidding process for the concession had been declared void by the Supreme Court in response to a legal challenge by the municipality of Cochabamba. In the same year the World Bank project in the three cities ended. The World Bank thus was not included any more in the subsequent phase of the privatization. The new concession included the Misicuni project that involved construction of a new dam. The dam had been opposed by the World Bank as being unnecessarily expensive compared to a cheaper alternative. The alternative, the Corani project, would have supplied water to Cochambamba from an existing dam. The high expected cost of the Misicuni project was later used as a justification for the immediate 38% tariff increase imposed at the beginning of the concession. Had the advice of the World Bank been followed, the construction of the dam would not have been part of the concession, the tariff increase would have been unnecessary and Aguas del Tunari would have had to face competition in its drive to win the Cochabamba concession. Such competition would have made it much more difficult to obtain some of the abusive conditions that were ultimately included in the concession.
The Misicuni project was later pursued by Evo Morales when he became President of Bolivia. It was justified through its benefits for hydropower generation and irrigation in addition to potable water supply for Cochabamba. In 2010 the dam was under construction.
Aguas del Tunari consortium
Prior to privatization the water works of Cochabamba were controlled by the state agency SEMAPASemapa
Semapa - Sociedade de Investimento e Gestão is a Portuguese conglomerate holding company with interests in the cement, pulp and paper and environmental services sectors....
. After pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government put SEMAPA up for auction for privatization but not capitalization. Only one party was willing to bid on the project. This was Aguas del Tunari, a consortium led by International Water Limited (England), the utility firm Edison
Edison S.p.A.
Edison S.p.A is the fifth largest energy company in Italy in the field of electricity and natural gas. It produces, imports and sells electric power and hydrocarbons.-History:...
(Italy), Bechtel Enterprise Holdings
Bechtel
Bechtel Corporation is the largest engineering company in the United States, ranking as the 5th-largest privately owned company in the U.S...
(USA), the engineering and construction firm Abengoa
Abengoa
Abengoa is a Spanish multinational corporation, which includes companies in the domains of energy, telecommunications, transportation, and the environment...
(Spain) and two companies from Bolivia, ICE Ingenieros and the cement maker SOBOCE. The water network that they envisioned was projected to provide drinking water to all of the people of Cochabamba. This was set to double the existing coverage area and also introduce electrical production to more of the region.
Without regard for its weak bargaining position, the Bolivian government under President Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, dictator and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.-Military and ideological...
agreed to the terms of its sole bidder Aguas del Tunari and signed a $2.5 billion, 40-year concession "to provide water and sanitation services to the residents of Cochabamba, as well as generate electricity and irrigation for agriculture." Within the terms of the contract the consortium was guaranteed a minimum 15% annual return on its investment, which was to be annually adjusted to the United States' consumer price index
Consumer price index
A consumer price index measures changes in the price level of consumer goods and services purchased by households. The CPI, in the United States is defined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as "a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of...
. The implementation of Aguas del Tunari's program was set to correlate with a government plan to present a $63 million rural development package to peasants with funds for crop diversification, and extending electric and telephone services to remote areas.
Law 2029
To ensure the legality of the privatization the Bolivian government passed law 2029, which verified the contract with Aguas del Tunari. To many the law appeared to give a monopolyMonopoly
A monopoly exists when a specific person or enterprise is the only supplier of a particular commodity...
to Aguas del Tunari over all water resources. Many feared that this included water used for irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
by peasant farmers(campesinos), and community-based resources that had previously been independent of regulation. The law was seen as "enabling the sale of water resources that had never really been a part of SEMAPA in the first place." Many became worried that independent communal water systems which had yet to be connected with SEMAPA would be "summarily appropriated by the new concession." By Law 2029, if Aguas del Tunari had wanted to, not only could it have installed meters and begin charging at independently built communal water systems, but it could have also charged residents for the installation of those meters. The broad nature of Law 2029 led many to claim that the government would require a license be obtained for people to collect rainwater from their roofs. The first to raise concerns over the scope of the law was the new Federación Departamental Cochabambina de Regantes (FEDECOR) and its leader Omar Fernandez. FEDECOR was made up of local professionals, including engineers and environmentalists. They were joined by a federation of peasant farmers who relied on irrigation, and a confederation of factory workers' unions led by Oscar Olivera
Oscar Olivera
Oscar Olivera Foronda was one of the main leaders of the protesters against the water privatization in Bolivia. The result of these protests was an event known as the Cochabamba Water Wars. Now he is one the main leaders of the protests in the Bolivian gas conflict.Oscar Olivera was awarded the...
. Together these groups formed Coördinator for the Defense of Water and Life, or La Coordinadora which became the core of the opposition to the policy.
Rate hike
As a condition of the contract Aguas del Tunari had agreed to pay the $30 million in debt accumulated by SEMAPA. They also agreed to finance an expansion of the water system, and begin a much needed maintenance program on the existing deteriorating water system. Dider Quint, a managing director for the consortium, said "We were confident that we could implement this program in a shorter period of time than the one required by the contract. [To accomplish this] We had to reflect in the tariff increase all the increases that had never been implemented before."On top of this, in order to secure the contract Aguas del Tunari had to promise the Bolivian government to fund the completion of the stalled Misicuni dam project. The dam was purportedly designed to pipe water through the mountains, but the World Bank had deemed it uneconomic. While the consortium had no interest in building the dam, it was a condition of their contract, as it was backed by an influential member of Banzer's megacoalition, the mayor of Cochabamba, Manfred Reyes Villa
Manfred Reyes Villa
Manfred Reyes Villa is a Bolivian politician, who was mayor of Cochabamba four times and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2002 and 2009 against Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and Evo Morales Ayma. He founded and led the Nueva Fuerza Republicana political party...
. An attempt to privatize the water system had been made without the condition of building the dam in 1997, but Reyes Villa had used his influence to squash the deal. Critics of Reyes Villa held that the dam was a "vanity project" which would profit "some of his main financial backers".
The officials in Bolivia for Aguas del Tunari were mostly engineers lacking marketing training. They were also foreigners unaware of the intricacies of Bolivian society and economics. Upon taking control the company raised water rates an average of 35% to about $20 a month. While this seemed minuscule in the developed nations that the Aguas del Tunari staff had come from, many of their new clients only earned about $100 a month and $20 was more than they spent on food. In complete ignorance of the reality of his situation, a manager for the consortium, Geoffrey Thorpe simply said "if people didn't pay their water bills their water would be turned off." The poor were joined in their protest by January 2000, when middle-class homeowners and large business owners stripped of their subsidies saw their own water bills increase. As anger over the rates mounted, Reyes Villa was quick to distance himself from Aguas del Tunari.
Protests and state of emergency
Demonstrations erupted when Aguas del Tunari imposed a large rate increase, reportedly to finance the Misicuni DamDam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
project, a week after taking control of the Cochabamba water supply system. In a country where the minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
was less than US$70 per month, many dwellers were hit with monthly water bills of $20 or more.
Starting in early January 2000 massive protests in Cochabamba began with Oscar Olivera among the most outspoken leaders against the rate hikes and subsequent water cut-offs. The demonstrators consisted of regantes (peasant irrigators) who entered the city either under village banners, or carrying the wiphala
Wiphala
The Wiphala is a square emblem, commonly used as a flag, representing the native peoples of all the Andes that include today's Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and parts of Argentina, Chile and Colombia...
; they were joined by jubilados (retired unionized factory workers) under the direction of Olivera and cholitas. Young men began to try to take over the plaza and a barricade across incoming roadways was set up. Soon they were joined by pieceworkers, sweatshop employees, and street vendors (a large segment of the economy since the closure of the state-owned tin mines). Self-styled anarchists from the middle-classes came from the University of Cochabamba to denounce the World Bank and International Monetary Fund
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...
and neoliberalism
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
. The strongest supporters of the demonstration were drawn from the city's growing population of homeless street children.
Protesters were able to halt Cochabamba's economy by holding a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
that shut down the city for four straight days. A ministerial delegation went to Cochabamba and agreed to roll back the water rates; still the demonstration continued. On February 4, 2000, thousands marching in protest were met by troops and law enforcement from Oruro and La Paz. Two days of clashes occurred with the police using teargas. Almost 200 demonstrators were arrested; 70 protesters and 51 policemen were injured.
Throughout March 2000 the Bolivian hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church tried to mediate between the government and the demonstrators. In the meantime, the Coordinadora made their own referendum and declared that out of fifty thousand votes, 96% demanded the contract with Aguas del Tunari be cancelled. The government's reply was that "There is nothing to negotiate."
In April 2000, demonstrators again took over Cochabamba's central plaza. When the leaders of the Coordinadora (including Óscar Olivera) went to a meeting with the governor at his office they were arrested. Though they were released the following day, some, fearing further government action, fled into hiding. More demonstration leaders were arrested, with some being transferred to a jungle prison in San Joaquin, a remote town in the Amazon rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
on the border with Brazil. The demonstrations spread quickly to other areas including La Paz, Oruro, and Potosí as well as rural areas. The protesters also expanded their demands calling on the government to resolve unemployment and other economic problems. Soon demonstrators had most of the major highways in Bolivia barricaded. The protest even inspired officers in four La Paz police units to refuse to leave their barracks or obey superiors until a wage dispute was settled.
State of emergency
The Bolivian Constitution allows the President (with the support of his Cabinet) to declare a 90-day state of siegeState of Siege
State of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
in one or more districts of the nation as an emergency measure to maintain public order in "cases of serious danger resulting from an internal civil disturbance". Any extension beyond 90 days must be approved of by the Congress. Anyone arrested at this time must be released after 90 days unless criminal charges are brought against them before a court. With the roads cut off and fearing a repeat of past uprisings, President Banzer on April 8, 2000 declared a "state of siege". Banzer said, "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order." Information Minister Ronald McLean described the rationale for the decree, saying "We find ourselves with a country with access roads to the cities blocked, with food shortages, passengers stranded and chaos beginning to take hold in other cities." The decree suspended "some constitutional guarantees, allowing police to detain protest leaders without a warrant, restrict travel and political activity and establish a curfew." Meetings of over four people were outlawed, and the freedom of the press was curtailed with radio stations being taken over by the military and some newspaper reporters being arrested. The police moved in to enforce the policy with nighttime raids and mass arrests. At one point 20 labor union and civic leaders were arrested. The police's tear gas and rubber bullets were met by the protesters' rocks and Molotov cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
s. Continuing violent clashes between the demonstrators and law enforcement led to internal exile, 40 injuries, and five deaths. International Human Rights Organizations decried the "state of siege" declaration. This was the seventh time since Bolivia returned to democracy in 1982 that the "state of siege" decree had been employed.
On April 9, 2000, near the city of Achacachi, soldiers met resistance to removing a roadblock and opened fire, killing two people (including a teen-age boy) and wounding several others. Angry residents overpowered soldiers and used their weapons against military leaders. They wounded Battalion commander Armando Carrasco Nava and army captain Omar Jesus Tellez Arancibia. The demonstrators then found Tellez in hospital, dragged him from his bed, beat him to death and dismembered his body.
Also on 9 April 2000, 800 striking police officers fired tear gas at soldiers (to which the soldiers then fired their weapons in the air). In response the government gave a 50% pay raise to the La Paz police to end the strike. This brought their monthly income up from the equivalent of $80 to $120. The police then returned to enforcement procedures against those still demonstrating. A group of soldiers soon demanded their own raise, declaring that there was racial discrimination in the pay scale. Police in Santa Cruz, the nation's second largest city, also went on strike demanding a raise.
Government view of the demonstrators
The coca growers of Bolivia led by then-Congressman Evo MoralesEvo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...
(later elected President of Bolivia in December 2005
Bolivian presidential election, 2005
The 2005 Bolivian presidential election was held on December 18, 2005. The two main candidates were Evo Morales of the Movement Towards Socialism Party, and Jorge Quiroga, leader of the Democratic and Social Power Party and former head of the Acción Democrática Nacionalista Party. Felipe Quispe,...
) had joined the demonstrators and were demanding an end to the US-sponsored program of eradication
Coca eradication
Coca eradication is a controversial strategy strongly promoted by the United States government starting in 1961 as part of its "War on Drugs" to eliminate the cultivation of coca, a plant whose leaves are not only traditionally used by indigenous cultures but also, in modern society, in the...
of their crops (while coca can be heavily refined and made into cocaine it is used legally by many in Bolivia for teas and for chewing). Seeing the involvement of the coca growers, the Bolivian government claimed that the demonstrators were actually agents or pawns of drug traffickers. Ronald MacLean Abaroa
Ronald MacLean Abaroa
Ronald MacLean Abaroa is a Bolivian politician and leading international expert in anti-corruption programs. MacLean-Abaroa was the first democratically elected mayor of La Paz, Bolivia, and was reelected four times between 1985 and 1991 to this office...
, the Minister of Information, told reporters the demonstrations were the work of drug traffickers trying to stop the government program to eradicate coca fields and replace them with cotton, pineapples, and bananas. He said that "These protests [were] a conspiracy financed by cocaine trafficking looking for pretexts to carry out subversive activities. It is impossible for so many farmers to spontaneously move on their own." MacLean said President Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer
Hugo Banzer Suárez was a politician, military general, dictator and President of Bolivia. He held the Bolivian presidency twice: from August 22, 1971 to July 21, 1978, as a dictator; and then again from August 6, 1997 to August 7, 2001, as constitutional President.-Military and ideological...
was worried because "political groups and traffickers are instigating farmers to confront the army." Felix Santos, a leader of the farmers rejected such claims, saying "We are protesting because of higher gasoline and transportation prices and a law that will charge us for the use of water."
Protesters' demands expand
Teachers of state schools in rural areas went on strike calling for salary increases (at the time they made $1,000 a year).In the capital city of La Paz students began to fight running battles with police. Demonstrators put up roadblocks of stones, bricks and barrels near Achacachi and Batallas, and violence broke out there as well (one army officer and two farmers were killed and dozens injured). Soldiers and police soon cleared most of the roadblocks that had cut off highways in five of the country's nine provinces.
Resolution
After a televised recording of a Bolivian Army captain, Robinson Iriarte de la Fuente, firing a rifle into a crowd of demonstrators wounding many and hitting high school student Víctor Hugo DazaVíctor Hugo Daza
Víctor Hugo Daza was a 17-year old Bolivian citizen killed by the military during the protests of early 2000 in the city of Cochabamba. People in Cochabamba protested against the privatization of local water supplies by the Bechtel Corporation that forced the poor to pay as much as 25% of their...
in the face, killing him, intense anger erupted. The police told the executives of the consortium that their safety could no longer be guaranteed. The executives then fled from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the capital of the Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia and the largest city in the country...
. After coming out of four days of hiding, Oscar Olivera signed a concord with the government guaranteeing the removal of Aguas del Tunari and turning Cochabamba's water works over to La Coordinadora. Detained demonstrators were to be released and Law 2029 repealed. The Banzer government then told Aguas del Tunari that by leaving Cochabamba they had "abandoned" the concession and declared the $200 million contract revoked. The company, insisting that it had not left voluntarily but been forced out, filed a $40 million lawsuit in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes , an institution of the World Bank Group based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1966 pursuant to the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States...
, an appellate body of the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...
, against the Bolivian government, "claiming compensation for lost profits under a bilateral investment treaty." On the day following Víctor Hugo Daza's funeral, Óscar Olivera climbed to his union office's balcony and proclaimed victory to the exhausted crowd. The demonstrators declared that they would not relent until Law 2029 was changed. To get a quorum
Quorum
A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly necessary to conduct the business of that group...
to amend the law the government even rented planes to fly legislators back to the capital. In a special session on 11 April 2000 the law was changed.
World Bank and continuing protests
On 12 April 2000 when asked about the outcome in Bolivia, World Bank President James Wolfensohn maintained that free or subsidized delivery of a public service like water leads to abuse of the resource; he said, "The biggest problem with water is the waste of water through lack of charging."In Washington, D.C. at the 16 April 2000 IMF and World Bank meetings, protesters attempted to blockade the streets to stop the meeting. They cited the Water Wars in Bolivia as an example of corporate greed and a reason to resist globalization. Oscar Olivera attended the protests, saying, "The people have recaptured their dignity, their capacity to organize themselves - and most important of all, the people are no longer scared."
On 23 April 2002 Oscar Olivera led 125 protesters to the San Francisco headquarters of Bechtel, the only member of Aguas del Tunari located in the Americas. Olivera said "With the $25 million they are seeking, 125,000 people could have access to water." Bechtel officials agreed to meet him.
The victory gained the cocalero and campesino groups international support from anti-globalisation groups. Oscar Olivera and Omar Fernandez have become sought after speakers at venues discussing how to resist resource privatization and venues critical of the World Bank. His actions in the Water Wars raised the profile of Congressman Evo Morales
Evo Morales
Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...
and he became President of Bolivia in 2005. Omar Fernandez joined Morales' socialist party Movimiento al Socialismo
Movement for Socialism (Bolivia)
The Movement for Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples , alternately referred to as "Movement Toward Socialism" or "Movement to Socialism", is a left-wing, socialist, Bolivian political organization led by Evo Morales, founded in 1995...
and became a Bolivian senator.
The Cochabamba protests of 2000 are chronicled by Olivera in his book Cochabamba! Water Rebellion in Bolivia.
Legal settlement
On 19 January 2006 a settlement was reached between the Government of Bolivia (then under the Presidency of Eduardo Rodriguez Veltze) and Aguas del Tunari, it was agreed that "the concession was terminated only because of the civil unrest and the state of emergency in Cochabamba and not because of any act done or not done by the international shareholders of Aguas del Tunari". With this statement both parties agreed to drop any financial claims against the other.Iriarte case
When no sitting judge would hear the case against Captain Robinson Iriarte, it was transferred to a military tribunal (that had final jurisdiction over which cases it hears). In March 2002, Captain Iriarte was acquitted by the tribunal of any responsibility for the death of Víctor Hugo Daza. After Iriarte's acquittal, he was promoted to the rank of major.Continued lack of water in Cochabamba
In the end water prices in Cochabamba returned to their pre-2000 levels with a group of community leaders running the restored state utility company SEMAPA. As late as 2005, half of the 600,000 people of Cochabamba remained without water and those with it only received intermittent service (some as little as three hours a day). Oscar Olivera the leading figure in the protests admitted, "I would have to say we were not ready to build new alternatives." SEMAPA managers say they are still forced to deal with graft and inefficiencies, but that its biggest problem is a lack of money (it can not raise rates and no international company will give them a loan). Luis Camargo, SEMAPA's operations manager in an interview with the New York Times said they were forced to continue using a water-filtration system that is split between "an obsolete series of 80-year-old tanks and a 29-year-old section that uses gravity to move mountain water from one tank to another." He stated that the system was built for a far smaller city and worried about shrinking aquifers. A system to bring water down from the mountains would cost $300 million and SEMAPA's budget is only about $5 million a year. The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
reports "in Cochabamba, those who are not on the network and who have no well, pay ten times as much for their water as the relatively wealthy residents who are hooked up", and with no new capital the situation can not be improved. A local resident complained that water-truck operators "drill polluted water and sell it. They [also] waste a lot of water." According to author Frederik Segerfeldt, "the poor of Cochabamba are still paying 10 times as much for their water as the rich, connected households and continue to indirectly subsidize water consumption of more well-to-do sectors of the community. Water nowadays is available only four hours a day and no new households have been connected to the supply network." Franz Taquichiri, a veteran of the Water War and an SEMAPA director elected by the community, said "I don't think you'll find people in Cochabamba who will say they're happy with service. No one will be happy unless they get service 24 hours a day." Another Cochabamba resident and activist during the unrest summed up her opinion of the situation by saying, "afterwards, what had we gained? We were still hungry and poor."
Aguas de Illimani
Similar protests took place in La PazLa Paz
Nuestra Señora de La Paz is the administrative capital of Bolivia, as well as the departmental capital of the La Paz Department, and the second largest city in the country after Santa Cruz de la Sierra...
over Aguas de Illimani, a subsidiary of the French multinational Suez. Aguas de Illimani's contract with the state was broken after allegations were made by the Bolivian government that it did not respect all of the clauses of the contract. According to the Bolivian ambassador Pablo Solón Romero
Pablo Solón Romero
Pablo Solón Romero served as Ambassador of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to the United Nations from February 2009 to July 2011. He is the son of the famous Bolivian muralist Walter Solón Romero Gonzáles.-Career:...
, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
, was a share-holder of Aguas de Illimani. The ambassador pointed out that since the case was brought before the ICSID
ICSID
ICSID may refer to:* International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes* International Council of Societies of Industrial Design...
, which is an arm of the World Bank, a conflict of interest arose in this affair.
Film documentaries
- The Corporation
- Blue Gold: World Water Wars by Sam BozzoSam BozzoSam Bozzo is an American film director and author.Bozzo wrote, directed, and edited three short films. For Which It Stands was screened in the Sundance Film Festival. The Shadowed Cry was created as a Top 10 Director assignment for Project Greenlight, run by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck...
- Thirst (film)Thirst (film)Thirst is a 1949 Swedish drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman.-Cast:* Eva Henning – Rut* Birger Malmsten – Bertil* Birgit Tengroth – Viola* Hasse Ekman – Dr...
- The Big Sellout by Florian Opitz
In popular culture
The water supply issue in Bolivia was the main theme of the James BondJames Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie Quantum of Solace. The movie's story was based on the Cochabamba Water Revolt.
Even the Rain
Even the Rain
Even the Rain is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín about Spanish director Sebastián and executive producer Costa who travel to Bolivia to shoot a film depicting Christopher Columbus’s conquest...
(Spanish: También la lluvia) is a 2010 Spanish drama film directed by Icíar Bollaín
Icíar Bollaín
Icíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez is a Spanish actress, director and writer.Her father was an aeronautical engineer and her mother was a music teacher. She made her début when she was 15 years old. She is a member of the Academia Española de Cinematografía.She began her work in cinema at the age of...
about filmmaker Sebastian (Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
) who travels to Bolivia to shoot a film about the Spanish conquest of America. He and his crew arrive in 2000 during the tense time of the Cochabamba water crisis.
See also
- ICSIDInternational Centre for Settlement of Investment DisputesThe International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes , an institution of the World Bank Group based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1966 pursuant to the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States...
(International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes) - Bolivian Gas WarBolivian Gas WarThe Bolivian gas conflict was a social confrontation in Bolivia centering on the exploitation of the country's vast natural gas reserves. The expression can be extended to refer to the general conflict in Bolivia over the exploitation of gas resources, thus including the 2005 protests and the...
- Bolivian presidential election, 2005Bolivian presidential election, 2005The 2005 Bolivian presidential election was held on December 18, 2005. The two main candidates were Evo Morales of the Movement Towards Socialism Party, and Jorge Quiroga, leader of the Democratic and Social Power Party and former head of the Acción Democrática Nacionalista Party. Felipe Quispe,...
- Water supply and sanitation in BoliviaWater supply and sanitation in BoliviaBolivia’s water and sanitation coverage has greatly improved since 1990 due to a considerable increase in sectoral investment. However, the country continues to suffer from what happens to be the continent’s lowest coverage levels as well as from low quality of services...
External links
- PBS program NOW on the Water Wars
- Bechtel's version of events
- Jim Shultz's version of events
- Shultz's blog during the events
- "Leasing the Rain" June 2002 Co-Production of NOW with Bill Moyers and Frontline/World.
- "Bechtel battles against dirt-poor Bolivia: Nation severed water deal after hefty rate increases led to protests"
- "Cochabamba's Water Rebellion -- and Beyond" February 11, 2001 San Francisco Chronicle
- The Cochabamba Water Wars: Marcela Olivera Reflects on the Tenth Anniversary
- "Multinational Company Thwarted by Local Bolivian Community" July 21, 2000 BBC News
- "Protests in Bolivia" April 11, 2000 NPR's Morning Edition
- "Violence Erupts in Bolivia" April 8, 2000 BBC News
- Olivera, Oscar, "The voice of the People can dilute corporate power" Wednesday July 19, 2006 The Guardian
- Rocio Bustamante Zenteno, Researcher, Centro Andino para la Gestion y Uso del Agua (Centro AGUA), Universidad Mayor de San Simon, Cochabamba: The ‘Water War’ to resist privatisation of water in Cochabamba, 2002
- Dignity and Defiance: Stories from Bolivia’s Challenge to Globalization - video report on Democracy Now!Democracy Now!Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...