September 3, 2024, 9:01 PM
September 3, 2024, 9:01 PM
A 24-hour strike for this Friday, September 6, was one of the main decisions made by the Cruceñidad Assembly, the same which took place this Tuesday at the Bolivian Society of Engineers.
The measure is in protest against the results released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on the 2024 Population and Housing Census.
The other determinations are:
1. Strongly reject the results of the Population and Housing Census conducted on March 23, 2024 and to denounce the deprivation of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of the Bolivian people in general, and of those who reside in Santa Cruz in particular, who are deprived of fair and equitable access to fiscal resources that should finance the attention of basic needs to improve their quality of life, as well as the correct reallocation of parliamentary seats being denied to us once again.
2. Formalize the constitution of a technical commission between the departmental government, the municipal government, the Gabriel René Moreno University and the Pro Santa Cruz Committee, to continue with the necessary technical work, surveys or counts, which will allow for the documentation and corroboration of the irregular and fraudulent execution of the Census by the National Institute of Statistics, in order to manage the opening of a criminal process and a trial of responsibilities against those who are implicated in such fraud.
3. Demand that the Santa Cruz Parliamentary Brigade immediately draft and process the bill in the Legislative Assemblythe approval of a Corrective Intercensal Law, so that in the next legislature there will be reliable and updated demographic indicators for their immediate application in the allocation of economic resources to autonomous entities. And to make extreme efforts in the National Legislative Assembly to achieve the repeal of incendiary laws, as well as to urge the National Executive to carry out the repeal of the supreme decrees that are part of the incendiary norms.
4. Build and promote the agreement of a Fiscal Pact project throughout the country which, together with the rest of the departments and municipalities of Bolivia, generates a new structure of percentage distribution of public resources that is monopolized by centralism to the detriment of departments, municipalities and universities.
5. Urge all opposition political forces to jointly promote with civil society the need to deepen the application of autonomy as the only way for each region to manage better and in accordance with its needs and potential, both economic resources and their powers, and thus free the country from corrupt and inefficient centralism that threatens our development.
6. Urge to parliamentarians so that pdecisively promote change in the current and disastrous economic modelwhich is leading the country to bankruptcy, affecting the poorest and most unprotected and destroying our productive base.
7. Urge departmental and national authorities to declare Santa Cruz a departmental and national disaster zone.
8. Demand that the Judiciary does not lend itself to political manipulation and enforce the independence of powers, an essential condition of democratic institutions.
9. As a protest, In the face of the INE census fraud promoted by the central government, a 24-hour departmental civic strike is declared, the same that will be effective from midnight on Friday, September 6.
10. Unity must be the principle for future electionsin order to achieve a real change in the direction of this country from the central power.
11. Grant absolute decision-making power to the board of our Pro Santa Cruz Committee and its presidentto decide on any other measures necessary to carry out the decisions of this Assembly.
The request for a strike was the common denominator
During the course of the Assembly of the Cruceñidad, the request for a strike was the common denominator of the majority of the speakers. Of a total of 20 interventions, at least eight expressed the desire to go on a departmental civic strike for at least 24 hours.
Paola Toledo, representative of the civic ladiesstated that as a “strong pressure measure” to make the voice of rejection of Santa Cruz heard, he launched the proposal of a civic strike of “at least 24 hours.”
César Pinto, from the Neighborhood Councilsreiterated the same request in order to reject the results of the Population and Housing Census.
Along the same lines, Ernesto Vaca, president of the Cruceñista Youth Union, He proposed that two measures be implemented immediately: “an international audit against the fake Census and the theft that was committed against the nine departments and a 48-hour strike, with vigils in the institutions and closure of departmental borders.”
Other speakers also suggested border closures, demonstrations, and other measures.
What’s more, Former Civic President Rómulo Calvo and Civic Vice President Stello Cochamanidis, They agreed when observing the actions and statements of some parliamentarians because they were not summoned to the Assembly of the Cruceñidad.
For these authoritiesthe role and function of legislators is in other instances and they should be more efficient to improve the social, economic and even environmental conditions of the department.
