November 9, 2022, 4:00 AM
November 9, 2022, 4:00 AM
Yesterday morning the annoyance in the technicians could not be hidden. The work of the technical commission had not been reinstated and they did not receive any official information. They left after noon and returned two hours later to the Trinidad university campus. There was no progress and As night fell, the delegations from Santa Cruz, Tarija and La Paz left the technical table. Beni signed the withdrawal certificate, but stayed in the meeting. The reason for the departure: that the National Institute of Statistics (INE) rejected without explaining all the technical proposals. The Government signed 2024 as the year of the census and questioned the attitude of those resigning from the commission, which continued to work yesterday.
Annoyed and tired. This is how the technicians of the Inter-institutional Committee of Santa Cruz left the building of the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the Autonomous University of Beni. They denounced that all their arguments were rejected by the INE without any explanation. Jorge Akamine, a technician from the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (Uagrm), reported that it was demonstrated in the technical tables that the time of several activities can be shortened; however, he questioned that the INE and the Government have not considered the proposals. The expert sees that the date is already decided before the commission’s work is finished.
“We know that these are complex issues, but today (yesterday) we did nothing.” He assured that Santa Cruz and other regions showed that it is possible to shorten deadlines, but that they were not listened to by the INE.
Demographer Melvy Vargas said thate “the discussion has already passed the technical phase” and added that now it must be a political decision of the national government that defines the date. “It’s the only solution there is,” he assured.
From the Santa Cruz team, the delegates from the Uagrm and the Santa Cruz Governorate left the technical commission. The Mayor’s Office of Santa Cruz de la Sierra also left the meeting, but not with delegates of the Interinstitutional Commission. The representative of the Santa Cruz municipality, Andrea Daza, regretted yesterday morning that the INE did not accept her proposals and described the work in Trinidad as a “waste of time”.
“Proposals are prepared, they are presented, they are defended and it is shown that it is feasible to make the cut within the times of the schedule and there is no reception to accept those proposals. Negative arguments of rejection are simply sought and that is what is showing us that this table is practically a waste of time because if there is no such reception by the INE, we are going to be here for months and if there is no willingness to receive those proposals that are being put forward by the technical committees, then the work we are developing is a waste of time”, Daza questioned.
The accredited delegate of the Promotion Committee of the census in 2023, Melvy Vargas, reported that in the technical meetings the INE had a “resounding no” to all the proposals that were exposed and presented. “Any possibility of contributing or wanting to reduce the times to the INE schedule was a resounding ‘no’. The Government brought us (to Trinidad) to say that we agree with their census activities,” he said, stating that they felt used.
The Tarija municipality’s delegate, Joel Bass Werner, Secretary of Planning for the Tarija Mayor’s Office, withdrew from the Tarija commission. The official regretted that the INE had not listened to the proposals of the delegations and those that were technically verified were rejected with “excuses” by the entity in charge of the census process.
“We feel that the INE instead of working with us, what it does is distort any proposal. Literally: they even tell us ‘you have not taken into account that the tires are punctured’. Well, then let’s take into account that there are pregnancies, that it can hail, we can take into account thousands of things, but if we are going to go to that shredded in a simulation that what we are looking for is for something to be concluded, we are wrong. They put 10,000 stones on everything, so or we’re going to come to nothing,” Bass Werner said.
The Mayor’s Office of La Paz also left the meeting. The delegate of the municipality of La Paz, Diego Chávez, tIt also crashed against the INE for not accepting the proposals that had technical arguments -he said- to reduce the deadlines.
“As technicians we know that there are ways to make hiring more expeditious, therefore, the arguments put forward (by the Government) are notor are they enough to continue at this technical table”Chavez remarked.
The official from La Paz added that the Government was proposed to improve efficiency and performance, reduce times, include more equipment, increase working days and include other types of furniture; nevertheless, the proposals have been rejected by the INE, which argued that these suggestions cannot be accepted due to the “administrative times for hiring”.
The mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, considered that the technical teams met in Trinidad with a “political INE” and that the teams received “disqualifications” for their proposals. “The INE does not accept changes, only the year 2024. The INE leads Luis Arce to make decisions without having exhausted the search for consensus by Bolivia”, considered the burgomaster.
The Beni entourage signed the act of withdrawal of the commission, but he did not do it physically because they are the hosts of the meeting. The academic authorities of the Benian university were in technical work every day.
Government and the census in 2024
The Deputy Minister of Autonomies, Álvaro Ruiz, reported that the commission was still working yesterday with 36 representatives and that only five delegations withdrew from the work. The authority criticized that the representatives of Santa Cruz “There are no proposals” at the table and he said that in the media “they speak well” and it is not like that in the technical commission.
“They tell us that their council gave them a mandate. It was in June and now they say in October. doWhat about your mandate? They came to do a political job. They irresponsibly get up from the table and the way to solve the conflict was dialogue,” said Ruiz.
Yesterday afternoon, Vice Minister Ruiz assured that the census was going to take place in 2024 because no proposal technically established that the registration could be carried out in 2023. “It’s four in the afternoon and so far the census is in 2024,” she said.
According to the Minister of Planning, Sergio Cusicanqui, the delegates from Santa Cruz they were unable to verify that the terms of the census process can be reduced. “Unfortunately once again the representatives of Santa Cruz left the dialogue tablethe exchange of criteria because they have not been able to demonstrate the arguments that they point out,” he said.
The municipal associations of La Paz, Santa Cruz, Tarija and Chuquisaca reported yesterday thate none of them left the meeting in Trinidad. None of them presented a proposal to ratify the census in 2024 or to shorten deadlines.
