Governor Fernando Camacho and civic leaders of Santa Cruz broke off the dialogue with the Bolivian government. | Photo: ABI
La Paz, October 23 (RHC)-- President Luis Arce reiterated this Sunday the predisposition of the Government to dialogue with the promoters of the indefinite strike in Santa Cruz. He regretted that the opposition leadership has abandoned the dialogue without explaining its proposal for the Population and Housing Census to be held in 2023.
"We installed a dialogue table without conditions to present the arguments for the date of the Census. The meeting was broadcast and the Bolivian people witnessed the regrettable attitudes of the strike leadership, which abandoned the dialogue without explaining its proposal," Arce wrote on his Twitter account.
"Our Government demonstrates once again its predisposition to dialogue and comply with the demand of the Santa Cruz people, proposed through a new Supreme Decree, to define the date of the Census based on the analysis of the technical tables," he said.
The governor of Santa Cruz, Luis Fernando Camacho, and the second vice-president of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee, Stello Cochamanidis, abandoned this Saturday afternoon the dialogue table that analyzes the realization of the Population and Housing Census.
After the dialogue restarted, the representatives of the Interinstitutional Committee of Santa Cruz presented a proposal of decree that modifies the Supreme Decree 4760 so that the Census will be carried out in 2023 and in a term of 180 days to make the results known.
Since zero hours of this Saturday, in the department of Santa Cruz an indefinite strike is being carried out to demand the realization of the Census in 2023. At the beginning of the strike, one death was registered in the municipality of Puerto Quijarro.
The Single Federation of Peasant Workers warned that it would encircle Santa Cruz if the strike is not lifted in 48 hours. "We have taken the decision that in case they do not lift their pressure measure in 48 hours, we are going to surround Santa Cruz, with all the regions of our 15 provinces, since they have harmed the most humble people," remarked the executive of the Federation of Peasants of Santa Cruz, Franklin Vargas.
The dialogue table, which was set up in Santa Cruz between the Government commission and the Committee, did not reach agreements after more than eight hours of negotiation. In the meeting there were two intermediate quarters and a harsh exchange of criteria.
The Minister of the Presidency, María Nela Prada, led the government team together with the Minister of Planning, Sergio Cusicanqui, the presidential spokesman, Jorge Richter, and the Vice-Minister of Autonomies, Álvaro Ruíz.
Representing the Santa Cruz committee were the rector of the Gabriel René Moreno Autonomous University, Vicente Cuéllar, the governor Luis Fernando Camacho, the civic vice-president, Stello Cochamanidis, lawyer Jorge Santiesteban, among others.