Bolivia suspends export of products to avoid shortages

( Spanish) — The Government of Bolivia will suspend as of this Thursday the temporary export of grain, cake and soy flour, as well as sugar, oil and meat in order to avoid shortages due to the strike promoted since the weekend from the province of Santa Cruz for the census to be carried out in 2023, reported the state Bolivian Information Agency (ABI).

According to ABI, the Minister of Productive Development, Néstor Huanca, said that the decision “will be extended as long as the civic strike continues in Santa Cruz, which prevents the normal supply of products to the internal market.” According to ABI, the transfer of these products “was slowed down by the strike and blockade that has been in place since Saturday.”

The census was initially scheduled for November this year, but the government postponed it to 2024, citing logistical problems. The leaders demand that it be carried out in 2023. The data from the population study is used for the allocation of resources and representation quotas in the Legislative Assembly.

The government of President Luis Arce has convened this Friday the “National Meeting for a Census with Consensus” in Cochabamba to try to reach national agreements on the conflict, ABI reported.

The civic and other organizations that make up the Inter-institutional Committee of the department of Santa Cruz —which promotes the strike— consider that there are no guarantees to attend the meeting in Cochabamba, so they rejected the invitation and called on President Arce to meet with them at his city.

Despite this, the president of the Pro Santa Cruz Civic Committee, Rómulo Calvo, said this Thursday that a commission from the local Inter-institutional Committee will attend the Cochabamba meeting to transmit the resolution of the group that seeks to have the census carried out in 2023.

“We are not going to negotiate,” said Calvo.

#Latest The civic Rómulo Calvo announces that a commission of #Santa Cruz will attend the meeting for #Census this friday in #Cochabambabut not to negotiate, but “to make the resolution of the council heard” of the Census in 2023. rmation at: https://t.co/AASsXCoiDX pic.twitter.com/tZIOoUw1hE

– South Mail (@correodelsurcom) October 27, 2022

Meanwhile, Omar Ramírez, leader of the Single Trade Union Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB), announced the determination to surround the city of Santa Cruz and even deprive it of food in rejection of the civic strike.

Other regions unemployed

Several groups in the department of Beni carried out a strike in support of the Santa Cruz movement and the indefinite strike for carrying out the census, while in La Paz there was a support march on Wednesday. During his tour there were acts of violence. The mayor of La Paz, Iván Arias, denounced that the demonstrators were attacked with stones and firecrackers.

is looking for a reaction from MAS to Arias’s accusations.

The department of Tarija is also on a 24-hour strike with border closures this Thursday in support of the Santa Cruz strike.