They present a draft bill before the Departmental Legislative Assembly to promote a ‘Census of Santa Cruz’

A group of sectors made up of activists, platforms, representatives of Indigenous Peoples and a citizen group, presented a draft law before the Departmental Legislative Assembly (ALD) of Santa Cruz, to develop a ‘census autonomous regional’.

The draft law was approved on Thursday, October 3, unanimously by the ALD plenary session, which sent the document for review by the Constitution commission. Among those who appear in this citizen initiative is Agustín Zambrana, from the El Búnker platform; Marcial Fabricano, from the Indigenous Peoples sector; Colonel Jorge Santisteban; Leonardo Roca, from Nuevo Poder Ciudadano (NPC); and Pamela Flores, activist and member of the Búnker.

“We have analyzed that the census did not respond to citizen technical expectations to program and plan how many people we are. By holding on to the Autonomy Framework we see that we people from Santa Cruz can do our own census, we are not saying that national competition should be surpassed,” he stated. Zambrana in contact with EL DEBER.

​He clarified that the law establishes that regions can carry out intercensal processes every five years and studies to help with the counting of population and housing that they consider important for the development and planning of each region, in order to verify the data issued by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and ask other questions focused on Santa Cruz culture and identity.

Zambrana explained that the draft includes with six articles, with two transitional provisionswhich proposes the carrying out of the Cruceño census under constitutional protection, the purpose, the execution carried out by the Cruceño Institute of Statistics (ICE) and the coordination with the INE, the latter which must endorse the process.

For Zambrana, there is an intention of the ALD to open a socialization process to explain the scope of the preliminary project in other municipalities and civil society, to advance step by step.

“This is not a political issue, it is purely an issue of population processing, no matter what government is in place. Of course, this Government is not interested in decentralizing. If it is approved until November, I believe that in January or February we could be carrying out the census,” he said.

For her part, the representative of Creo, Laura Rojas, said that this initiative It is not a priority since the focus must be concentrated for the moment on appeasing the forest fires.

“We can’t breathe, the kids don’t go to class, people line up for food, for diesel. Why do our children have to go through this every year? There must be priorities,” he said.