Potosí Civic and Campesino clashes
Account
Young pro-MAS protester Basilio Titi Tipolo (21) has been identified as the first fatal casualty in renewed partisan confrontations in Bolivia. Titi died on November 9th amid intense street clashes, in the city of Potosí, where the Potosí Civic Committee (Comcipo) was leading the second day of a nationwide strike. (Vasquez Carvajal 2021) In Potosí, as in several other major cities of Bolivia, striking opposition protesters mounted road blockades in protest of Law 1386, an anti-money laundering statute that shopkeepers claim will lead to abusive investigations of their books. (Zapata 2021) But the issue primarily serves as a lightning rod for the civic opposition, which previously led October–November 2019 protests that culminated in the overthrow of President Evo Morales, to coordinate a nationwide challenge to what they call the “authoritarian” rule of Luis Arce, who was elected in October 2020. (Vassallo 1636588561) Others claim that the protests aim to stage a coup d’état, or create sufficient dissent that Luis Arce resigns. (Zapata 2021)
During Tuesday’s protests, multiple efforts were on a collision course in urban Potosí:
The Potosí Civic movement intended to paralyze economic life through blockades as part of a national strike. (Zapata 2021)
Campesinos arrived in town as opponents of the strike and as supporters of President Luis Arce.
Bolivia’s National Police were taking a more-hostile-than-usual approach to the blockades, assailed by Arce’s government as economically damaging.
The Departmental government, led by Jhonny Mamani (MAS-IPSP), was preparing to hold an honorary parliamentary session on Wednesday to commemorate the department’s anniversary.
On Tuesday morning, Comcipo announced that it would not allow President Luis Arce and Vice President David Choquehuanca to attend the anniversary festivities. (Zapata 2021)
Once in town, campesinos rallied around and damaged the headquarters of Comcipo.
The Potosí Civic movement mounted a sustained effort to push campesinos out of the central Plaza 10 de Noviembre, eventually achieving this objective.
Security forces and pro-government and opposition protesters were thus pursuing objectives that led to confrontation. Unarmed street battles are not rare in Bolivian political life, but most often involve one group of demonstrators and security forces. Tuesday saw clashes between all three groups, as well as prolonged violent attacks upon individuals isolated in crowds of their political opponents. (Vassallo 1636588561)
Potosí’s mayor reports that fifty people were treated in hospitals in clinics following the confrontations, two remain in intensive care, and one protester died. (“Potosí: Esperan informe del fallecido y Llally dice que hay dos personas en terapia intensiva” 2021) Other reports count sixty-three injured. (Zapata 2021) The deceased protester is Basilio Titi Tipolo, a young man just shy of his 22nd birthday. Basilio had residential ties in Surichata and Potosí, where he had worked as a miner. (“Confirmamos la identidad del fallecido: Basilio Titi Tipolo” 2021) His body lay in state in the Potosí Peasant Confederación headquarters, where he was mourned by his Quechua-speaking mother. (“Confirmamos la identidad del fallecido: Basilio Titi Tipolo” 2021)
The Defensoría del Pueblo has taken charge of compiling information on Basilio Titi’s death. Defensora Nadia Cruz stated that he died in the context of the confrontations, that he reportedly fell in an attempt to reach safety, and that the medical cause of his death was broncoaspiración—the entry of food or other obstruction into the lungs causing suffocation. (“Confirmamos la identidad del fallecido: Basilio Titi Tipolo” 2021) Sources state that Titi had escaped from the point of conflict in the Plaza 10 de Noviembre when he fell and suffered broncoaspiración. (“Defensoría confirma que víctima en Potosí murió por broncoaspiración y registró 63 heridos” 2021) Juan Carlos Manuel, the president of Comcipo, presented video footage of the conflict and pointed out Titi as he fell in the midst of a fleeing crowd, stopping the video as Titi scrambled to get back up and escape as he was being rapidly approached by an unidentified man. (“Comcipo denuncia que se profanó el cadáver de Basilio Titi” 2021) The Potosinista Civic Committee claims that Titi was running to escape police gasification. (“Defensoría confirma que víctima en Potosí murió por broncoaspiración y registró 63 heridos” 2021)
Comcipo issued this comment: “We know that a person has died, a 25-year old who had choked on their coca, surely while running away. There were no signs of violence, and I regret very much that there was a death on the side of our campesino brothers.” (“Comcipo informa de un fallecido y un herido en terapia intensiva” 2021) Further comments alleged that the campesinos were given alcohol, money, and chile pepper (that is, meals) to cajole them into protests. This is a statement so full of hostility and stereotypes that (1) any sincerity to the claimed lament of the death rings hollow; (2) it’s hard to take the claim that the death was accidental rather than caused by violence at face value. (Bjork-James 2021)
Pro-MAS groups demanded a second autopsy which revealed blows to the head as the cause of death. (Vasquez Carvajal 2021) Álvaro Terrazas, the Vice Minister of Health System Management, alleged that violent groups blocked the passage of an ambulance carrying Titi and that “the lack of medical attention has led to the death of one person.” (Vassallo 1636588561) (“Salud denuncia que grupos violentos evitaron paso de ambulancia para atender a campesino que falleció” 2021) Terrazas claims that the forensic medical report established that Titi suffered multiple traumatic injuries, including hematomas from the blows that were struck upon him in the street. (Vassallo 1636588561) He did not cast doubt on the medical cause of death, but rather argued that someone who lost consciousness could suffer broncoaspiración from something as small as a bit of bread. (“Gobierno acusa a bloqueadores de obstaculizar ambulancias en Potosí y les atribuye responsabilidad por la muerte” 2021) Terrazas also accused blockaders of throwing dirt to attack the ambulance carrying Titi. (“Gobierno acusa a bloqueadores de obstaculizar ambulancias en Potosí y les atribuye responsabilidad por la muerte” 2021) Ada Vargas, executive leader of the Bartolinas, stated that he saw Titi’s body battered and with puncture wounds, and asserted that the body suffered injuries on the head, arm, and feet. (Encontrados con Gonzalo Rivera 2021)
The National Director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Forenses (IDIF), Nayra Padilla, reinstated the first autopsy, stating that excoriatory injuries on the face and left lower limb are also in keeping with Titi falling and sliding on a bruised surface. (Vasquez Carvajal 2021) Juan Carlos Manuel, responding to photos of Titi’s corpse circulating on social media which clearly displayed physical wounds, declared that the photos are taken after the autopsy and can be compared to photos from before the first autopsy which reveal no physical wounds. (“Comcipo denuncia que se profanó el cadáver de Basilio Titi” 2021) Manuel insists that this implies that MAS groups desecrated the body in order to blame Comcipo for Titi’s death. (“Comcipo denuncia que se profanó el cadáver de Basilio Titi” 2021)
MAS leaders later recalled that the president of Comcipo, Juan Carlos Manuel, cautioned farmers against demonstrating beforehand, stating that they were going to receive them “with sticks.” (Vassallo 1636588561) In an interview before the protests, Manuel warned Governor Mamani of actions taken against campesinos who mobilized for the parade celebrating the libertarian cry of Potosí of 1810 on November 10th. (“Advertencia de Manuel a campesinos: ‘Si quieren diente por diente, lo van a tener’” 2021) Manuel thus blamed Titi’s death on Mamani, and in his announcement of Titi’s death declared his anger at the campesinos who he claimed were paid and “subsidized.” (“Advertencia de Manuel a campesinos: ‘Si quieren diente por diente, lo van a tener’” 2021)
Confrontations continue historic patterns
The current scenario in Bolivia recapitulates two patterns that have defined the country’s politics since at least 2006: political crises defined by dueling street mobilizations and, especially from 2006 to 2008 and since 2019, often racialized urban–rural struggles for control over space during protest. (Vassallo 1636588561) In the early years of the Morales administration, the president and his Movement Towards Socialism–Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples party only hesitantly deployed the security forces in response to waves of opposition protests, which first demanded regional autonomy and eventually renounced his legitimacy as president. (Vassallo 1636588561) Instead, the government rallied its social movement base to “defend the process of change.” As Carwil Bjork-James describes in The Sovereign Street, this strategy of countermobilization forced movements to measure their strength in numbers and persistence, as well as in occasional violent confrontations.
The violent confrontations that occurred during this period were brief and episodic, but nonetheless claimed the lives of twenty-one Bolivians: thirteen supporters of the Morales government, six opponents, and one soldier. In three of the deadly arenas for confrontation—Cochabamba, Sucre, and Pando—racialized differences between urbanites and rural Indigenous campesinos were significant features of the clashes. As Carwil Bjork-James explored in the “Race And The Right To Speak For The City: Political Violence In Bolivia’s 2006-2009 Stalemate,” the political ecosystem is heavily influenced by class and racial divides and sentiments against creole/mestizo ownership of territory.
Comcipo’s statement regarding the protests recapitulates all of these themes, offering a racially charged description of the “savage” campesinos and stating that the MAS and especially Governor Jhonny Mamani will take responsibility for any injury or death from the mobilization. (“Advertencia de Manuel a campesinos: ‘Si quieren diente por diente, lo van a tener’” 2021) These are near-identical echoes of themes raised by anonymous call-to-action in January 2007 in Cochabamba and by Sucre leader Yamil Pillco in May 2008.
In the aftermath of Titi’s death, Juan Carlos Manuel admitted that there may be repercussions for the campesinos, who he blames for beating a woman. (“Advertencia de Manuel a campesinos: ‘Si quieren diente por diente, lo van a tener’” 2021) Proposing that they be taken back to their communities, Manuel stated ‘they will continue to be mistreated if the problem here continues.’ (“Advertencia de Manuel a campesinos: ‘Si quieren diente por diente, lo van a tener’” 2021) Former President Evo Morales commented on Titi’s death, tweeting, “once again, racist hatred of our indigenous brothers causes death and pain in the Bolivian people.” (Vassallo 1636588561)