The incident occurred November 8, when some 40 paramilitary thugs, with the support of the Bolivian police and army, attacked 250 peasants in the Pananti camp, located near the Argentine border. The camp is one of 18 set up in the last two years by members of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers of Bolivia (MST-Bolivia) to demand a genuine land reform and institution of social programs to aid the rural poor.

At its first national congress held last October, the MST-Bolivia declared "war on latifundism, and the irrational and abusive use of the land." The organization said it would initiate land takeovers and roadblocks if the government failed to respond to its demands. The congress also demanded the government give titles to land already occupied by peasants and end the practice of giving huge estates to large landowners and speculators.

The new organization gained inspiration from the MST in Brazil, whose newspaper carried a full-page article in November on the launching of the sister organization.

Other groups attending the congress included the United Union Confederation of Working Peasants, the National Federation of Peasant Women "Bartolina Sisa," Cocaleros (small coca growers), and other indigenous and political groups.

"Of the 109 million hectares that Bolivia has, hardly 4 million have been given to 550,000 peasant and indigenous families in 48 years of land reform," reads the declaration adopted at a national meeting of landless peasants of Bolivia last June. "However, a social minority of barely 40,000 landowners and land speculators have been benefited with the property of 32 million hectares," the declaration concluded (1 hectare = 2.5 acres).

The Movement of Landless Rural Workers was formed in Bolivia to respond to the conditions faced by hundreds of thousands of peasants and others who have been driven off the land. It has attracted peasants and other growers, miners, and unemployed construction workers to its ranks. As with its counterpart in Brazil, it has organized rural workers to take over and occupy land, challenging the power of the big landowners and capitalists in the countryside.

Meanwhile, thousands of small coca farmers have been carrying out roadblocks demanding the government allow them to grow small plots of the coca plant upon which they had depended for subsistence. At the urging of Washington, the government has carried out a coca plant eradication program, including spraying herbicide on peasant fields from aircraft. The government had promised peasants it would find markets for alternative crops, something it has so far failed to do. Last November, the Bolivian government mobilized 5,000 soldiers and police to keep roads and highways open in response to a call by small growers to block the country's main roads.

The MST, the United Union Confederation of Working Peasants, and the National Federation of Peasant Women "Bartolina Sisa" all denounced the November 9 attack on the Pananti camp and encouraged protests, including roadblocks, around the country.  
 
 
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