Page Seven / La Paz
Vice President David Choquehuanca warned yesterday that attempts to divide his party seek to weaken the strength of the social sectors of La Paz, which he called on to build unity. He did so at a time of an internal dispute, accentuated by the demands for adjustment in the ministerial cabinet, where the demands of the coca growers’ bloc led by the head of the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), Evo Morales, gained weight.
“From La Paz we have to project unity, from the Aymaras, Tiwanaku, Lake Titicaca… from our Illimani and our grandfather Illampu. We have to propose unity, but not only the peasants or the Bartolinas; we have to unite with those of El Alto, with the neighborhood councils (…) with the Departmental Workers’ Central, with the miners of La Paz, with the unions”, demanded during the inauguration of the XIX Congress of the Departmental Federation of Women Bartolina Sisa, in the Heroes of October Coliseum in the city of El Alto.
“We don’t realize the power we have, that’s why they want to divide us. They want to continue managing us”, he added, after launching the idea of holding a congress of the social sectors of La Paz. “Only in this way are they going to respect us, the people of La Paz, the Aymaras,” he insisted.
In the MAS there are at least three internal currents and among them one identified with the historical leadership that Morales built in the Cochabamba tropics. The other is a brake on the confrontation, with a renewal proposal put forward by Choquehuanca and which is stronger in La Paz.
Morales called the bloc that supports the Vice President a “big mistake.” The second man of the MAS, Gerardo García, joined this criticism.
“We are not worried about his group making. He (Choquehuanca) has never been a union leader. He was simply a technician, who supported us -at the time- politically, organically, technically. We’ve done seminars, everything, but he’s never been a grassroots leader,” he said.
On Friday, the Single Trade Union Federation of Cochabamba Peasants and the Six Federations of the Tropics declared a state of emergency in defense of Morales, and warned that they will not allow parallel groups within the MAS.
“No block or parallel group within our political instrument that tries to divide our parent organizations will be accepted or allowed,” says part of the conclusions read by the head of the MAS caucus in the Senate and coca grower leader, Leonardo Loza. .
