The opposition in Bolivia has announced new general strikes, even a nationwide hunger strike starting next Monday if the government does not resolve the demands of the Santa Cruz authorities, who are seeking the repeal of the decree establishing the new population census for the year 2024.
Thus, citizens’ committees from all over the country, the National Committee for the Defense of Democracy (Conade), opposition MPs and other civic platforms have come together to demand that the census be carried out in 2023, setting a new 72-hour strike. this Monday, reports the newspaper ‘El Deber’.
“We are taking these drastic measures because the government has dragged us into this. Registration is a necessity that we are all looking for to be carried out in 2023”, insisted the president of the Tarija Civic Committee, Adrián Ávila.
Conade has gone a bit further and reported that as of Thursday, some of its members have begun an indefinite hunger strike as a prison measure and that they are preparing a lawsuit against Bolivian President Luis Arce and other authorities for violating laws and excessive use of force.
Several citizens and opposition platforms in Arce have come out this week to protest in the streets across the country in solidarity with the department of Santa Cruz, which this Friday celebrates two weeks of general strike and general strikes to demand that population census. performed next year.
Protests against the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) regime are once again centered in the department of Santa Cruz, traditionally one of the strongholds of the opposition since Evo Morales took the reins of Bolivia more than fifteen years ago.
Its leaders, especially the governor, Luis Fernando Camacho, have demanded that the registration be done as originally planned for the first half of 2023 and have not taken well to the government’s explanations about the technical impossibility of its realization due to the consequences. of the pandemic.
