INRA Reform March
In August and September 1996, the CSUTCB, CIDOB, FNMCB-“BS” and CSCB undertook a joint 35-day march demanding the approval of a law (re-)establishing the National Institute for Agrarian Reform and a wide-ranging law reorganizing rural land rights. The March was known as the “Marcha por el Territorio, Tierra, Derechos Políticos y Desarrollo” and brought together some 5,000 participants (García Linera, Chávez León, Marxa, and Costas Monje, Patricia 2010, 120–21), swelling to some 20,000 on their arrival (Erbol 1996). The march suffered the loss of Irma Irpovi, who died in childbirth along with her newborn, on September 15 or 16. Irma, a mother of three from the Sirionó indigenous people (Presencia 1996a).
Marchers arrived in La Paz on September 26. Once there, marchers made various attempts to enter the central Plaza Murillo and were resisted by police. Sabina Sirpa Choque, a local agrarian union leader, suffocated on tear gas the police released on the marchers one block from the plaza (“BOLIVIA: Muere campesina en violento final de marcha de protesta” 1996; Presencia 1996b). Sirpa Choque had been Secretaria General of the Siquiri Community, Los Andes Province, Sub Central Collo Collo of La Paz (Erbol 1996). Six marchers and one local resident were detained by police while nine were injured (Erbol 1996). Eulogio Mamani, of Machacamarca, was transferred from detention to a hospital because he had suffered multiple broken ribs since he was trampled as the crowd fled from the teargas (Erbol 1996). The marchers rallied instead in the Plaza San Francisco and vowed to remain in La Paz until their demands were met. The COB called a general strike in solidarity for September 27 (“BOLIVIA: Muere campesina en violento final de marcha de protesta” 1996). Once in La Paz, Tacana marcher Edgar Galindo Cuéllar died of illness on September 27 (Presencia 1996c).
Negotiations with the government did not start until October 11, with the government making counter- proposals on the issues of concern. However, the CSUTCB’s official history records that these government positions were not forwarded to the National Congress, and the latter approved Law 1715 on October 18, 1996, with few modifications from that proposed by the movements (García Linera, Chávez León, Marxa, and Costas Monje, Patricia 2010, 120–21).