Huayllani roadblock
Huayllani roadblock, June 1985: Coca-growing campesinos and their allies carried out road blockades at a variety of locations in support of their demands on the regulation of the controversial crop, including revoking the March 1984 decree on coca and ending eradication. These blockades were part of a larger, nationwide mobilization of campesinos behind related demands, including the implementation of over 30 decrees promulgated the prior year. The CSUTCB had given a 48-hour deadline to the goverment on May 30.
Per a US Embassy cable, thousands of coca farmers surrounded the UMOPAR base in Sacaba on the evening of June 3, where tensions remained high overnight (US Embassy La Paz 1985). At one roadblock, at the Huayllani Bridge in Sacaba, a confrontation took place between the Rural Mobile Patrol (UMOPAR) and campesinos. Per a Presencia report, the fight began when a policeman who attempted to break the blockade was beaten by demonstrators. When he escaped and returned with three police vehicles from Sacaba, they opened fire on the protest (Presencia 1985c). Despite the violence, blockaders persisted and only agreed to remove the blockade on condition of UMOPAR also leaving. Presencia also reported an attempt by coca growers to invade the Sacaba police barracks in retaliation but were unsuccessful.
The CIDR reports that after this moment, the mobilization became less confrontational, and engaged in a variety of peaceful tactics: assemblies, cabildos, and ultimately a march to Cochabamba and La Paz, as well as union actions and new blockades (CIDRE 1990). The government had also made concessions to campesino federation through four decrees and two supreme resolutions issued on June 3 (Presencia 1985a). Eventually, the government conceded that the coca farmers should control the authorization and division licenses to grow coca. (Salazar Ortuño 2008a, 148)
References vary as to the exact number of deaths, with sources claiming two, three (Salazar Ortuño 2008b), or four people (Época 2017) were killed. Two individual campesinos, Luciano Altagua and Leonardo Soto, both 35 years old are named as victims in a Presencia report on June 5, citing official sources (Presencia 1985d).
Per a US Embassy cable, there had been a prior killing during an UMOPAR in Etarazama on June 1. This death was apparently reported as the death of a narcotrafficker in Presencia (Presencia 1985b). In that description, violence broke out as UMOPAR attempted to seize a truck allegedly carrying 4 kilos of cocaine. Per UMOPAR Colonel Carlos Viscarra, the driver rallied campesinos from the area to confront the troops. Police responded to this “ambush” with rifles, killing Roberto Idaurre injuring Plácido Choque and Peregrino Salas. The Embassy cable also refers to “another death in the Clisa [Cliza] area during the night of June 3” that “is being attributed to UMOPAR; almost certainly that is slander” (US Embassy La Paz 1985).
Fernando Salazar Ortuño notes that no police officer was held accountable for the violence (Ortuño 2009, 304).