The strike has managed to position the census within the political agenda

The indefinite strike that lasted 36 days has marked a before and after in the national political agenda, according to the perception of authorities, politicians and analysts. The sacrifice of the neighbors in the streets and roundabouts of Santa Cruz has achieved position the completion of the Population and Housing Census on the national political agenda.

Sixteen days ago (November 12), the President of the State, Luis Arce Catacora, promulgated Supreme Decree 4824 that sets the census for March 23, 2024 and redistributes tax co-participation resources until September 2024.

In the November 13 town hall, one of the mandates was to instruct the opposition parliamentarians to seek the approval of a llaw that guarantees the economic and electoral application from census data before the 2025 national elections.

This law, whose designer was the deputy Deisy Choque, of the MAS, with some changes from the opposition, was approved with more than two thirds in the Chamber of Deputies at dawn on Saturday, November 26.

The spokesman for the Inter-institutional Committee and Secretary for International Relations of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University (UAGRM), Manfredo Bravo, said that with the strike Santa Cruz has been able to assume a role in defining the national political agenda.

“This process, which comes from the town hall on September 30, has been a historic event in terms of making visible the importance of Santa Cruz, not only economically, but also politically and socially,” he said. Bravo.

For his part, former civic president Fernando Castedo stated that the strike has managed to position the demand for the census on the national agenda and, from now on, the national government will have to see how it is going to treat Santa Cruz .

“In the two councils, on September 30 and November 13, the unity of all the inhabitants who live in Santa Cruz has been demonstrated, while the strike has been a very hard fight where we have all sacrificed ourselves for more than a year. month, laying down personal interests and going in line with what are the ideals for democracy to prevail in the country,” said Castedo.

Meanwhile, the Governor’s Institutional Management advisor, Efraín Suárez, indicated that the indefinite strike managed to modify the census agenda that the national government had and made Santa Cruz a bastion in the defense of democracy and freedoms.

“Regarding the census, it was possible to position the issue as a national cause. Until before the indefinite strike, the government had managed to impose the story that the census was a whim of the Santa Cruz people and that the rest of the country supported President Arce’s position. This situation changed because of unemployment, the Government backed down setting March 23, 2024 as the date of the census, but the most important thing is that it promised to redistribute the tax co-participation resources until September 2024 and to send the results of the census to the Supreme Electoral Tribunal also until September 2024 so that the seat redistribution can be carried out.” Suarez said.

He also stressed that the strike caused the Electoral Body to rule on the redistribution of seats and expose the Government, telling it publicly that it needed to have the census data until September 2024 at the latest.

For his part, political scientist José Orlando Peralta also believes that with the councils and the fight for the census, Santa Cruz has marked the national political agenda and therefore it is important that he knows how to sustain it from now on.

“You have to work serenely, using more the intellectual and the reasoning so that this is channeled and institutionalized, this also so that the other departments take it. It must also be taken into account that the national government, because it is something political, will surely want to counteract the idea and will probably maintain that it is separatist,” Peralta opined.

From the ruling party, the Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, questioned the Santa Cruz leaders, whom she accused of campaigning politically during the 36 days of the indefinite strike to seek their repositioning.

“Many of them were on a political campaign, from roundabout to roundabout; because they have seen it that way, as a political repositioning, as a leadership repositioning on the pain of the people. That is absolute irresponsibility in relation to this forced blockade,” said the minister in an interview with state measures.

According to Prada, the members of the Inter-Institutional Committee “have not lost a single peso” and will even receive their salaries without any decrease, unlike other people in Santa Cruz, who “have suffered from hunger and have not been able to move freely.”

With reference to the approval of the norm in Deputies, the ex-president Evo Morales protested against the archist wing. “The so-called renewing traitors not only agreed with the right to approve the census law. They submitted to the order of Tuto Quiroga who instructed the Committee for Santa Cruz that ‘law kills decree’. Thus, they killed the authority of the decree and the word of brother President Luis Arce Catacora,” the former president wrote on his social networks.

From the Governor’s office, Suárez said that after the strike, an agenda of actions is pending that must continue to be worked on and achieved after the census is carried out, such as the fiscal pact, which will balance the administration of economic resources between the different levels of the State.

“It remains pending to clean up the electoral roll that in the last 15 years has generated a deep and justified distrust in the population. Along the same lines, a reconfiguration of the electoral map must also be carried out, to balance the value of the rural vote and the urban vote, ”said the Governor’s advisor.

For his part, former civic president Fernando Castedo said that since the census battle is one of many to come, there will always be things pending. “We are in a state of emergency, because there are many battles to fight. The most important will be the relationship of Santa Cruz with the State, ”he completed.