No negotiation bridges

If there were democratic institutions, there would be bridges of dialogue in Bolivia. Unfortunately, there are partisan interests, power struggles and efforts that are far from finding solutions. Six days after the start of the indefinite strike due to the census in 2023, hopes are fading that efforts are directed at avoiding it and, above all, at seeking solutions that remove confrontation from the collective mind.
Lots of locks have been put on the exit doors. The government had no real will to listen to Santa Cruz. The meetings called to the inter-institutional committee already had scripts with the related and functional that attended these meetings. The Interinstitutional Committee advanced on a proposal for the census to be carried out in 2023, but it set closed conditions to present and listen. On both sides, there are radicals who make a lot of noise and who try to occupy the spaces and thus beat rationality.
As if that were not enough, distrust in the other reigns, which means the conviction that one cannot believe in the solution options that arise and mutual disqualifications abound. That is, the situation taken to the extreme and with no way out.
The technical debate has been the big loser, because the political vision of one and the other has won. Can the census be done in 2023?
The Santa Cruz University believes so and has valid arguments. The Government, through the INE, has shown a schedule with excessively long deadlines that, if there was a will, could be shortened with the support of the regions and specialists to reach an agreement. That is if there was a real interest in doing a national survey that shows how many of us there are, where we are and how we are doing. But neither predisposition nor openness is shown to include and create a path in which everyone joins.
If you only look at political interests, you can understand why the radicals are gaining ground. In the Movement Towards Socialism they need an external enemy, because their internal struggle is almost bloody, and what better way for them than to confront Santa Cruz. That opens a parenthesis for them, although later they return to fight without rules, as they are doing at the moment.
In Santa Cruz there are also radicals who gain volume by encouraging strikes and roadblocks and who do not believe that the tools of democracy can be useful in resolving conflicts. They see the solution for the disaster because that is where they gain prominence.
It has always been said of Bolivia that it can reach the precipice, but it never falls into the ravine. And politicians play a lot with this belief. They encourage confrontation and violence.
They do not realize that the situation can boil over at any moment. In the midst of this struggle are ordinary citizens, who watch this coming and going with anguish. An indefinite strike is not good for Santa Cruz or Bolivia; A fence in this department (as some masistas propose) will only cause violence, with the disastrous consequences that everyone already knows.
So, in the days that remain before the onset of indefinite unemployment, neurons should come before hormones. The interest of the citizens, before the desires of the politicians of the day. It is not bad to give up positions, from one to the other, if the gain is for everyone.
Is it possible to hope for dialogue and agreements this week?
Hopefully so, for the good of Santa Cruz and Bolivia.