November 4, 2022, 11:14 AM
November 4, 2022, 11:14 AM
Day 14. The debate over the census is going to Trinidad, the capital of Beni. The Government plans to establish the new date of the great national survey there, but after a national debate. The Inter-institutional Committee of Santa Cruz confirmed its participation to defend the technical viability of the operation in 2023 and not 2024 as dictated by Supreme Decree 4760.
The technical table will be inaugurated tomorrow night at the Convention Center of the capital of Beni and on Saturday, at the facilities of the José Ballivián University, the technical debate will begin “by time and matter” until results are achieved. “That it be a fast, quality, professional, technical job and that in the end it can give us a definite result on the date of the census”. Planning Minister Sergio Cusicanqui stated in time to confirm the agenda.
In Santa Cruz, personnel from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) arrived yesterday at the office of the rector of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Uagrm) to deliver the invitation. The document was formally received by Manfredo Bravo, the coordinator of the Interinstitutional Committee. For last week’s meeting, a similar invitation was pasted on the university’s fence “as an identity card”, which was considered disrespectful by the authorities of that institution of higher learning.
Bravo explained, according to the tenor of the invitation, that the event will begin with a political meeting. Wait so it happens “a true technical debate” in which the “political interests” of the actors who were invited to the meeting, the majority of the MAS, do not intersect.
Bravo affirmed that the INE requested the accreditation of “a technician” from the University to be able to address the discussion of the date of the next population and housing census. In any case, he announced that the technical team that worked on the technical proposal for the census for October 2023 will travel to Trinidad.
Authorities from public universities were also invited to the technical table in Trinidad, a scenario that seems far from political tensions. the nine municipal associations, the mayors of capital cities, in addition to the mayor of El Alto, indigenous government authorities, native, peasants and the nine governors of Bolivia.
The INE also invited representatives of the United Nations Population Fund (Unfpa) and the Latin American Demographic Center (Celade), a specialized division of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC). The experts from both institutions were already on October 11 at the meeting that took place in Santa Cruz when the INE presented the schedule of the census operation based on the observed Decree 4760, the rule that postponed the registration of the census for one day between the months of May and June 2024.
The annulment of that norm was on the table, as revealed yesterday by the rector of Uagrm, Vicente Cuéllar, when he mentioned that there were “coincidences” with the Government during the talks on Tuesday. The idea, then, was to establish a preliminary agreement to lower the tension and deactivate the indefinite strike that began 14 months ago. But, that day, the dialogue did not prosper due to the violence that broke out in La Guardia. There were coincident points under which we should sit down to discuss and those points went through the repeal of Decree 4760 and that a (new) decree establish when the results were going to be known and from when the resources were going to be distributed”, Cuellar stated. The Government has already announced that it was going to apply the results of the census from October 2024 and not in 2025 as was the plan that the INE presented on October 11.
But Cusicanqui reproached the leaders of the Committee for this failure and denied that there are contradictions in the cabinet regarding the management of the conflict. The day the pre-agreement failed, the Government Minister, Eduardo Del Castillo, defended the police operation that took place in La Guardia.
He said that “actions by omission” were avoided in the face of possible clashes between civilians as happened in the political crisis of 2019 and vehemently assured that the census in 2023 was not viable. Hours later, the Ministry of the Presidency issued a statement indicating that the opinion of Minister Del Castillo was not that of the Government with a view to the talks on the census.
“Here we are the members of the technical team. We continue to maintain that the census can be carried out in 2023. All the legal analysis has been done and we have the elements that support our proposal”, remarked Cuéllar, who will travel to Trinidad.
The president of the Civic Committee, Rómulo Calvo, highlighted in the morning the release of the eight young people who were detained on Tuesday in La Guardia, where a journalist from the Unitel television network was also attacked.
He also highlighted the withdrawal of sectors related to the MAS that had left from San Julián to protest against the indefinite strike. At night, the scenario changed, as the San Julián march was reactivated. Last night the column tried to reach Pailón, but the neighbors installed a vigil to prevent their advance. The marchers were being guarded by some 20 Bolivian Police vans, but the vigil could not pass either. “We want a sincere dialogue; now we are still concerned about a march that comes from San Julián,” said Rómulo Calvo. At that time, at the foot of the Cristo Redentor monument, there was a rally led by the civic leaders of Santa Cruz.
At night, residents of the southern zone went to the Palmasola refinery to allow the entry and exit of tanker trucks loaded with fuel.
In La Paz, Flora Aguilar, the executive secretary of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation of Peasant Women, He said that the sectors related to the Government were not going to lift the fence until Governor Luis Fernando Camacho “do not lift the strike”. Thus, he pointed to the authority to “let justice be done” by the political crisis of 2019. The mobilized sectors of the MAS ask for the resignation of the Santa Cruz governor.
“The Government has wanted to delegitimize this movement for the census due to a personal issue with me,” Camacho told reporters last night. “So that this is not confused, I have been away since Sunday, but we have expressed our full support for the Interinstitutional Committee because they are the technicians,” he said.
The governor will not go to Trinidad because he understands that this is a technical scenario. He said that the 2023 census is the “mandate of the council” that will be respected.
