October 24, 2022, 4:01 AM
October 24, 2022, 4:01 AM
By MSc. German Huanca Luna (economist)
The movement of police from La Paz to Santa Cruz, the transfer of a hundred buses full of public officials, the reports that were made public about the transfer of militants from MAS-IPSP, the ruling party, to the city of Santa Cruz and the focus of the news placed on Santa Cruz, is showing us that as of October 2022 there is a shift in Bolivian geopolitics, from the mountains to the plains.
We La Paz have become accustomed to this type of movement from the other departments to the seat of government; however, for the people of Santa Cruz, this situation is new and will be even greater after the new results of the National Population and Housing Census are carried out and released. These mass movements and organizations are nothing more than the prelude to what is to come in the coming years and that is why the government gives the greatest importance to a conflict that was clearly generated by the government itself and is revealing that the next Census It will mark a before and after in the history of Bolivia.
The next Census will reconfigure the Bolivian geopolitical scenario, the population of Bolivia will increase in the number of representatives, that is, it will have more deputies. Santa Cruz is currently the engine of the Bolivian economy, in our history it was once Potosí with the mining boom, and La Paz with the industrial-financial industry and the seat of government, and now it is Santa Cruz, this explains the migration of the Bolivians from other departments in search of greater opportunities. In recent years, the largest investments have been made in Santa Cruz at all levels, confirming the new role that it has to play.
All of us who visit Santa Cruz at some point are amazed at the rapid and exponential urban growth of Santa Cruz and agricultural activity, and each year that growth was evident at a glance, but an empirical finding, a new Census, is lacking. You can no longer cover the sun with a finger, Santa Cruz has grown in people, in economy and now it is giving us a lesson in citizen participation with a civic strike that was clearly forceful and that shows that the people of Santa Cruz are up to take on new and great challenges.
Social, political and economic leadership must be accompanied by actions that allow all Bolivians to fall in love. For example, a mayor who tolerates a sign in the city “kill a colla, and build a country” and does nothing, does nothing more than confirm a high level of racism that does not help the formation of consensus at all. In economics there are both sides of a coin, there are producers and consumers, economic growth is not possible without counting both parties and there is a great opportunity to generate alliances at the national level. Santa Cruz must change its political language, which is very much oriented towards local and departmental vindication, and begin to see what is national.
Congratulations that Santa Cruz begins to play a new role. The government, with its latest intervention in the Santa Cruz civic strike, has shown that Santa Cruz is the new geopolitical center of Bolivia, hence the fear and excessive use of power. Whether we like it or not, Santa Cruz has grown and cries out for its rightful place and deserves a correspondence in political participation and the necessary resources to meet the demands of the increased population, hence the need for a 2023 Census.
