A FIRST UPRISING

A FIRST UPRISING

07.03.1994


The events of the weekend March 5-6 were unexpected, dramatic, perturbing at times, but uplifting and gratifying on the other hand.

Early on Saturday morning (about 8 o'clock) after Robert had left and I was on my way to Chimoré, one of the drivers flagged me down on the road to ask how he could contact Robert because the truck which was collecting the milk for the project dairy had been detained at Entre Ríos by the campesinos who had mobilized during the night and all the tracks were blocked.  I raced to the Chimoré office where Robert was supposed to be but he was not there.  However, the watchman said that he had heard him on the radio to the driver, a young fellow called Oswaldo and only about 18, trying to reassure him, but they had not been able to make direct contact with each other.  This probably meant that he was making his way to the scene so I returned home.

Robert had come back to the dairy plant to pick up René, the manager, who would be able to direct him to where the driver was.  Radio communication was out of the question from then on because the campesinos are highly suspicious of anyone using a radio since they think that they are probably spies passing on information to the security forces.  Robert and René had to talk their way past all the blocks, but progress was slow as at every block they had to convince the people that they were from UNIDO and that they were only trying to get their driver out and what was the point of establishing good relations if they were going to be put in the same class as everyone else when it came to the crunch etc. etc.  They left Marcelo, a vet who had just started work at the plant that very day, as a voluntary hostage at one point and continued on their way.  They allowed a campesino to drive the vehicle so that there would be no suspicion.

About 10:30 the helicopters started to arrive.  They were swooping over the roof of the house where they then turned around and went back to the area where most people were concentrated.  Robert and René had to abandon the vehicle several times and run for cover because they were firing tear gas grenades and smoke bombs.  The confusion was great.  Finally they managed to reach the milk vehicle.  Fortunately Oswaldo, young as he is, had had enough presence of mind to turn around and go back to the milk producers and return their milk to them, since by the time he got to the dairy it would have been no use.  It was 2:30 in the afternoon when they returned.  Oswaldo was pale and shocked because at one point a number of people who had been hired by DIRECO, a government body for the forcible eradication of coca, had jumped on the back of the truck narrowly escaping machete blows from the campesinos who were in hot pursuit behind them.  One of the fugitives was his own cousin but, despite this, after a few hundred metres he stopped the truck and told them he was sorry but he could not allow them to travel in it and they got off. His cousin's head had been split by a machete blow and he is now in coma in Santa Cruz. The others have all disappeared.


In the middle of all this commotion two UNIDO people had come to do a study for the setting up of micro-industries plus the travel writer from the Financial Times.  We had something to eat at the dairy dining-room until word came that the main road was going to be blocked by a march so they had to be to be removed.  Off they all went and I stayed.

As evening fell, one of the dairy workers and the new vet who had gone to the village came to say that there was talk in the village, where 15,000 people from all over the countryside were now gathered, that one of the UNIDO drivers had once worked for DIRECO and people were talking of coming to the dairy.  All these thousands of people had been out in the blazing sun all day long with nothing to eat or drink.  The adults keep going by chewing coca leaves which mitigates hunger, but what about the children?

From the description they had I could work out which driver it might be, so I decided to go with one of the workers to Chimoré to try and contact Robert.  Fortunately when we were about half way there we saw his car coming back so we turned around.  When we gave him the news he went pale and raced back to the office to try and find out if this was true.  In the meantime all communication in Spanish ceased on the radio.  Only Quechua could be heard as the campesinos sent messages to their families to prepare food and bring it down and they would meet them at predetermined points.

When he and Edgar came back, they said that Mr. Baker's wife (he is the essential oils expert) had arrived (which was true) and had invited us to a cocktail party!, (which wasn't) so I went and got changed, packed overnight things in a bag plus the dogs' food and we set off.  Since there was a shortage of food in the village with so many people around and the men were drinking chicha, the possibilities of people assaulting the dairy, which is on the opposite river bank from the village,  were quite real, so we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and it was more prudent not to provoke them by having these "gringos" around the place.  It turned out that this driver, the son of an Italian, had indeed worked for DIRECO, so we drove to Villa Tunari where he lived, about an hour and a half away, and stayed the night at a hotel there.  Another worry was that this driver was the one in charge of transporting the two UNIDO personnel!  

On Sunday morning Robert and I went on a recce to find out where this guy lived.  We found the UNIDO car and then Robert and Edgar went to speak to him.  He was dismissed there and then and they collected his UNIDO  polo shirt and hat.  That was a relief to get rid of him, because his presence on the team could have been a danger to everyone.

When we reached the dairy, to our surprise we found that the staff had baked a cake for Robert's birthday, so we had birthday cake and decided what steps to take next.  There was still a shortage of food in the village, of course, and the village authorities were appealing to everyone to share what food they had with the people from other places who had none.  In view of this, and as a means of repairing any possible damage which might have been caused by the talk on the previous night, it was decided that the truck should take fresh water and two smaller vehicles would take 1,000L. of milk and 200Kg. of cheese to be distributed.  Edgar Tapia, who is well versed in political manoevrings, prepared a statement in Spanish which was then translated into Quechua to be read on the radio.  Basically the message was that in response to the appeals of the authorities and as a humanitarian measure the dairy was providing milk and cheese for the women and children.


At 1p.m. we set off for the village.  As we entered people surrounded the vehicle.  Most of them cannot read so they just stared at the UNIDO emblem and eyed us most suspiciously, especially since Marta, René's wife who is Mexican, her two children and I are all fair-skinned and, in comparison to these people, so is Robert and we all have European features.  We smiled and waited until Robert and Edgar spied someone they knew, whereupon they got out and went off to talk to him.  At that point Roberto Céspedes, one of the chief campesino leaders and the head of one of the Associations involved in Robert's project, saw them and came straight across.  That was our passport to safety.  

When he was told what we planned to do, he immediately arranged for the bus station to be cleared so that the vans could park in there in relative shade.  He then announced that the women and children should form a queue.  The campesino leaders, armed with pointed staves, then took charge of keeping order and thousands of people queued for their glass of milk and slice of cheese.  When the women and children had all been served, what was left was distributed among the men.  Everyone could have water.  It was a gift in itself to see those tiny toddlers gulping down their milk and the women coming up and thanking you for helping them.  Three and a half hours later when all the provisions had run out we packed up and left.

Unfortunately, as we were about to finish, the TV cameras arrived and started filming.  This we did not want, because all these things are interpreted depending on the slant they are given by the TV producer, but they would not listen and carried on filming anyway.  

The scene was totally medieval.  Here were thousands of people milling around, poor and ragged, and the only arms at their disposal were sharpened staffs and in some cases bows and arrows! It reminded me in some ways of what it must have been like in Vietnam, because before Saturday there was not an inkling that a mobilization was planned, but their own jungle drum system works wonderfully well and on Saturday all these thousands of people just materialized as day broke. Many of them had walked for miles throughout the night  and had to make the same trek back again when it was all over.  They had set a deadline till 3p.m. on Sunday for the Prefect to come and discuss their situation, but he did not come.  How could he?  His son is the director of DIRECO which is responsible for the eradication of their coca plantations.  Last night they were waiting for a decision to be made as to whether they should send a delegation to La Paz.  That is less than useless because they do not listen to them.

This is now a crossroads because, depending on how the government decides to tackle the situation, the Chapare will either be militarized or they will start negotiations.  The only people who benefit from all this are the big-time drug-dealers, because in the last week the price of 1Kg. of coca leaf has fallen from 360 bolivianos to 82, so we must ask ourselves who are running this show.  In Villa Tunari, while Robert and Edgar were dismissing the driver, in the full light of day a truck was being loaded up with tons of coca, beautifully packed in white parcels, and it would drive without incident through all the police controls.  This man is well known and nobody says a word while the campesinos are  hounded and beaten: it's crazy!


Depending on how this initiative was interpreted or misinterpreted, Robert might have lost his job, but in any event I think they did the right thing.  Since we have been here, I have come to understand why the situation in Somalia and the war in Bosnia are such a mess.  The UN is a totally useless organization, not because the people on the ground are not competent, but because the fat cats sitting in their plush offices are a shower of incompetent nitwits whose only concern is how to hang on to their post and all the privileges that go with it.  They do nothing and decide nothing.  It is frustrating and appalling. Not only that, but the organization is so hide-bound and procedure-bound that the correct procedure takes precedence over the reasons why the project is being run in the first place. From the point of view of the project, I think the initiative went a long way to dispelling any suspicion regarding the orientation, and in the dairy plant it has served to forge a team spirit and sense of solidarity which were totally lacking.  

On the Saturday, as they were trying to make their way through the blockade, the campesinos kept telling Robert and René that a UNIDO vehicle had already gone through and they assured them that this could not be so, since theirs was the only one.  However, on Monday "intelligence channels" revealed that the armed forces are masquerading as UN people, or not even so much masquerading as using vehicles with UN stickers to gain access to places where they could not normally go.  However, some of these people are going around in combat fatigues, so the only conclusion to be drawn from that is that they want to discredit the UN and the only conclusion which can follow from that is that they do not want these programmes to succeed.  The final conclusion, if you follow that line of reasoning, is that they are controlled by the drug barons.  No other conclusion is possible.  If that is the case, then, no negotiations will take place and they can militarize the whole area.

On Friday March 11th. a government delegation with a retinue of some 50 journalists, both national and foreign, wanted to visit the project accompanied by the chief of UMOPAR  (that is the military body for the forcible eradication of coca financed and trained by the US Drug Enforcement Agency) plus a military convoy.  Robert and Edgar refused to have anything to do with it and told the UN people in La Paz that it was a totally irresponsible move.  They managed to convince them of that, but on the Friday, despite all kinds of protestations, the UMOPAR chief still managed to squeeze through and visit the dairy plant. Robert handed him a yellow overall which he had to put on over his military uniform.  The atmosphere could be cut with a knife!  However, all the military retinue were refused entry and Robert and Edgar have already explained the situation to their association leaders, so for the moment at least the crisis is past.