Luis Escobar / La Paz
The 2012 census established that the population of the municipality of La Paz is declining. Mayor Iván Arias questioned the data and proposed that instead of asking citizens where they spent the night, they should be asked where they carry out their daily activities.
The mayor assured that 2.2 million trips are made every day in the city and a quarter of a million people from El Alto go down to the seat of government to carry out their activities.
“The census question must be arranged. Knowing where you slept in the last 24 hours is not the same as asking where you go about your daily life. There they will answer that in La Paz”, the Mayor told Page Seven.
Having less population subtracts economic resources from the municipality. According to data from the Mayor’s Office, after the 2012 census, the seat of government lost 40 million Bolivians a year and in a decade added more than 400 million.
“That means, for us, fewer resources. But the people are going to demand health, education and paving the streets. We must work with fewer resources because the money went to other municipalities,” Arias said.
The Mayor’s Office questioned the National Institute of Statistics (INE) that to date it has not received a call or a summons to prepare the cartographic map. The commune warned that 290 blocks “with population” are being relocated to neighboring municipalities.
The director of the INE, Humberto Arandia, explained that the entire “socialization” process will be coordinated from the following week with the FAM “at the head of its president and executive director.”
Rodrigo Puerta, director of the FAM, assured that “all census activities” will be coordinated with the municipal associative system such as the departmental associations of municipalities and the FAM itself. “This implies that they will be coordinated with all municipal governments in the country,” he said.
Arias replied the position. “I do not understand why they do not include the Association of Municipalities of Bolivia (AMB), which includes the nine capital cities of the department and El Alto. These cities concentrate between 60% and 70% of the country’s population. How not to consult the municipalities of Santa Cruz, La Paz, El Alto, Cercado and the rest?
“We do not want to oppose. We want to express our observations to agree even in disagreements. They prefer to go through instances controlled by the Government (MAS). What is the FAM going to say? That everything is fine”, warned Arias.
The proposal of the Mayor’s Office in La Paz is based on a triple “C”. The first refers to the Credibility to form a national, departmental and even municipal council so that the census data is transparent. “And what happened in 2012 does not happen, when they took out one figure and then another.”
The second is the “consensus” to work in a coordinated manner and the third is the updated cartography.
The tall
The mayor of El Alto, Eva Copa, for her part, convened the Alteñidad Assembly for May 7 at the Villa Ingenio stadium. The meeting will address issues such as the limits and the permanence of citizens in the city. “How important is it that the people of El Alto stay at home to be registered? On the budget side, there are so many areas that have been created that need our attention. Unfortunately, the financial resources we have are not enough to cover these needs,” she said. She assured that the debate will take place on May 7.
Mayor Copa questioned the people of El Alto. “If you (neighbors) leave (on the day of the 2022 census), you are automatically giving up the resources and the budget that belongs to you; they are hurting their areas and their districts. All these issues are going to be debated in the Alteñidad Assembly”, she explained.
According to the Mayor, work is being done on a draft municipal law that includes various aspects for the benefit of citizens. One of the incentives refers to a reduction in real estate taxes. In this way, El Alto wants people to stay at home on the day of the census and not go to the provinces.
The Catholic Church
- Observation The Bolivian Catholic Church warned about an alleged lack of transparency and the “tendency to politicize” the 2022 Population and Housing Census.
- Statement “Other reasons for concern are the lack of transparency and the tendency to politicize the next census that will take place in our country. This media is the instrument to have the objective reflection of the Bolivian reality, at a demographic, economic, social and cultural and religious identity level. The configuration of legislative representation and the equitable distribution of economic resources in the various regions of our country depend on the result of the census”, according to the text.
