Culture Shock! Bolivia - A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette

60 CultureShock! Bolivia

to barrel through blockades. I have witnessed episodes in

which gas-masked police attacked fi rst; giant green insects

with shimmering snouts moving in on the crowd.

In Bolivia, these confrontations are not nearly as menacing

as they look. Accompanying the protests are often hunger

strikes, and extreme measures include militants having

themselves nailed to a cross, as was the case with two prison

inmates in 2003, who were protesting lengthy pretrial stays

in prison and demanding a speedier justice system.

For the fi rst edition of this book, I wrote that, ‘In most

countries, a demonstration that chokes the city would be

met with far greater forms of repression,’ and I still believe

that if demonstrators succeeded

in paralysing New York City, we’d

see a lot of heads getting bashed

in. However, I’ve had to eat my

words, as lethal force became

a regular response during the

second presidency of Gonzalo

Sánchez de Lozada. The fact that

Goni was eventually discredited and forced to fl ee the country

tells us that mortal repression is no longer a sustainable

method of the political elites.

With Bolivia capable of earning an award for the most

militant population in the world, it would only be fair to give

these protesters a human face by profi ling one of their most

heroic fi gures.

Oscar Olivera

Oscar Olivera is one of 10 brothers and sisters. He worked as

a child to help support his family. He was diagnosed with a

mortal illness that should have left him dead by the age of 22.

He worked in various factories, was sometimes fi red for his

ideals, and went underground between 1980 and 1982 during

the García-Meza dictatorship. Since then, he has marched

with the cocaleros ( coca growers) and defended the rights of

domestics, shoeshine boys, the unemployed and students.

In 1999, the Bolivian political elites succumbed to ‘structural

adjustment’ demands of the World Bank by privatising the

Tear gas is the preferred method
for quelling social disturbance,
though in the fi rst fi ve years of
the new century, more than 100
protesters were killed by police or
by the military. On the other hand,
protestors killed no one.