And the crisis continues...

We just finished watching the mid-day news.  It was intersting.  The news from La Paz and Cochabamba was not good.  Thousands of people in the streets protesting...blockades everywhere, including the main highways into the city...tires burning...people fighting with police...all the usual stuff that happens when Bolivians get annoyed.  In Oruro they even set off pieces of dynamite in the city centre.

As as side note, I was once having breakfast in Cochabamba with a friend (who had just arrived from the States the day before), when a demonstration of miners went by.  All of a sudden there was an explosion that rocked the restaurant.  I remained calm, so that my friend wouldn't be freaked out.  My friend made the comment, "Wow...that sounded like dynamite!"  But I was like, "No, no...I'm sure it wasn't."  Later I asked the father of the Bolivian family where I was staying, if it was in fact dynamite.  "Oh sure" he says, "But just a small piece."

Welcome to the Bolivian protest.

What I think was most interesting today was not who was protesting...pretty much everyone...but rather who wasn't protesting.  That would be us.  By "us" I mean Santa Cruz.  It's relatively calm here so far.  I say "so far" because we're a little slower on the uptake sometimes, but when we evenutally get there, we can protest with the best of them. 

But the thing is, La Paz...Cochabamba...Oruro...those are the bastions of Evo's support.  His strongholds so to speak.  They love Evo there.  But you sure wouldn't know that to see the news today.  There were thousands of people on the streets marching to the Presidential Palace this morning.  And they weren't happy.  Some of the groups that support Evo the most were a bit slow in commenting, but they all eventually came out against the president.

Here in Santa Crua?  Well...we're talking about getting together to rally at 3 PM.  That should give lunch enough time to settle I think.  =)  Other than that...things are pretty much normal.  I got up at 6 AM to drive everyone to work and whatnot, only to find that pretty much all the buses were running normal.  The even funnier thing is, that annoyed the daylights out of a lot of people here.  That the buses were running I mean.  People are upset and they want to see a response from Santa Cruz as well. 

Which is why I say I think things will eventually get going here too.  Right now people are still recovering from Christmas (which was Evo's plan in the first place) and we're also a little less political than the rest of the country.  I wrote on my Facebook that we're lovers not fighters.  That's true...to a point.  When Santa Cruzians eventually get organized, I think we'll see some serious responses.  Who knows though.  If I've learned one thing, it's that you can't predict what people here will do in the political arena.

What we do know for sure, is that this is going to be a difficult time for a lot of people.  We're all trying to prepare.  Grocery stores and markets have already been marking up their prices.  Buses have doubled their fares.  This is going to affect everything.  Like one guy on the news said, "What doesn't need to be transported?" 

Evo has said that this won't affect the poorest in the country.  Sadly, that's who will be affected the most.  The government has promised that wages will go up in February to match inflation and the added cost of living the lack of these fuel subsidies will have.  That's great for people in official type jobs.  But for the majority of the poorest, they'll just have to try and survive on what they're getting now.  Which isn't enough.

The finance minister also said that prices should stabilize by the middle of January.  I can't imagine he actually believes that.  We won't see stable prices here for months..maybe even more than a year...because of this.

I actually do understand the government's reasoning (to a degree) behind removing the subsidy.  But the way in which they've gone about this is incredibly insensitive.  For a government that prides itself on being one with the people, they are completely clueless about what this means for them.  When you're making $140 (or less) a month and suddenly you're paying $40 of that for bus fare.  That's incredibly difficult.  That's why we had the sudsidies in the first place.

Ah well...this is what makes life here in Bolivia an adventure.  Thanks for praying everyone.  As I said before, there are ramifications for us as well, that I'm still trying to think through.  It's going to be interesting time for all of us.