In late October, landless peasants occupied a 5,000-acre farm in La Paz, the country’s capital, owned by the former president’s family.

“What is the government waiting for to resolve the situation of those killed and wounded in the October massacres?” asked the United Confederation of Workers and Peasants of Bolivia (CSUTCB) in a statement to the new government headed by Carlos Mesa. “What is the government waiting for to resolve the occupations of idle lands owned by powerful politicians?” The statement was referring to the killing by government troops of at least 80 protesters in the weeks leading up to Sánchez de Lozada’s downfall. Another 200 were wounded. Mesa, who was the country’s vice president, assumed the presidency after Sánchez de Lozada fled to the United States.

The CSUTCB and the Movement of Landless Peasants (MST) have continued to carry out occupations of land and other properties belonging to government officials, including a mine owned by the former president. They are also demanding the distribution of land promised to them, and relief from the crisis.

In Cochabamba, soldiers and the police attacked a group of peasants with live ammunition and rubber bullets after they occupied lands owned by the former minister of defense, Carlos Sánchez, who the peasant organizations blame for the October killings. The popular revolt that brought down the president was driven by cuts in social welfare programs, the devastation of peasant’s livelihoods by the U.S.-backed destruction of coca crops, and the drive to sell off the country’s patrimony to imperialist investors. In the face of growing discontent the Bolivian rulers were forced to suspend an earlier government plan to export natural gas to the United States. They have promised to organize a referendum to decide on the gas deal.

Tens of thousands of workers and peasants in the southern city of Tarija, where the country’s largest gas reserves are found, marched October 21 to reject the gas proposal.

At the urging of Washington, the government has carried out a coca plant eradication program, including spraying herbicide on peasants’ fields from aircraft, and limiting the areas and amount permitted for local consumption. The cultivation of coca is the primary source of income for thousands of peasants in Bolivia, as well as for small merchants and truck drivers who transport the crop. Primarily grown for local use, coca leaves are chewed by thousands of workers in the countryside and in the mines for medicinal purposes or to mitigate hunger, thirst, and fatigue. The government had promised peasants it would find markets for alternative crops, something it has so far failed to do. On October 24 Mesa reaffirmed his commitment to continue the coca eradication program of his predecessor.  
 
 
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