The leader of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, Rómulo Calvo, announced this Saturday the lifting of the 36-day indefinite strike that had paralyzed the region after the approval, early this morning, of the Census bill in the Chamber of Deputies.
Calvo has attributed the approval to «a triumph of the people» and insisted that work will be done on the «new relationship of Santa Cruz with the State» after more than a month of stoppages and violent protests that have resulted in at least four deaths and 178 injured. However, he warned that the committee «will continue in emergency» in the face of new events, reports the Erbol digital portal.
The protests in Santa Cruz -traditional fiefdom of the opposition to the governments of the Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS)- were called by the decision of the president, Luis Arce, to postpone the population census, which will finally be held on March 23, 2024.
The Bolivian Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) gave the ‘green light’ this Saturday to the Census Law after a marathon session that lasted seven hours and culminated around 2.00 a.m. (local time).
Of the total of 119 deputies present on the floor, 91 voted in favor, 25 against, three others blank. Thus, the proposal has gained the support of more than two thirds of the chamber and will now be sent to the Senate.
The census law has been accompanied by controversy and confrontations in Santa Cruz, the main economic region of the country and where the opposition has become strong in recent weeks with these protests.
Bolivian President Luis Arce had set March 2024 as the date for the population census, while opponents have taken to the streets to demand that this process be carried out one year earlier, in 2023, according to ‘El Deber’.
Bolivian legislation stipulates that the population census must be carried out every ten years, although the last one took place in 2022. The population count could lead to an increase in economic resources, as well as a readjustment of representation in Parliament.
The opposition has accused Arce of trying to delay the allocation of aid, while the President has made successive appeals for calm and has called for the end of a strike in Santa Cruz that has lasted for more than a month.
However, the governor of the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, explained this Wednesday that, as the Census cannot be organized in 2023 due to lack of time, the date of execution is not «determinant», thus desisting from his initial position that urged the Bolivian Government to carry out the national survey next year.
Camacho, who is the main protagonist of the conflict, considered on several occasions that the realization of the Census in 2023 was «unbreakable», but the new position of the governor changes the conflict situation and announced a new scenario.
The Technical Mission in Bolivia of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has condemned the violence of the protests and called for the investigation of any violation of rights.
