Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Oct 26 (EFE) . – The Bolivian province of Santa Cruz, the largest region of the country and its economic engine, celebrates on Wednesday the fifth day of a generalized strike with new clashes between civilians who reject the call for a national census that will be carried out in 2023 instead of 2024.
The day was marked by clashes between other people who supported the strike for the first census and the opposing teams that blocked the roads, the former mobilized to lift the blockades and reactivate traffic.
The clashes took place along La Campana Avenue, near the Plan 3,000 urbanization, with teams clashing for only about 40 minutes, throwing stones, throwing firecrackers and firing rockets at their opponents.
At least two other people were injured in the melee, according to local media.
Police eventually arrived and separated the two teams creating a motorcycle barrier, but the tension continued for several hours.
Meanwhile, the “fence” around Santa Cruz set up through government-backed organizations at the time, was most commonly felt at the Guillermo Elder Bell oil refinery, near which protesters set up barricades stacking tires and other debris.
The front of the refinery was taken over by an organization that banned the entry and exit of tanker trucks, with many cars remaining outside the facility.
On Tuesday, Bolivia’s state-owned oil company, YPFB, worked with “normal” fuel materials after striking an initial deal with blockade forces, but on Wednesday protesters prevented the refinery from operating normally.
Santa Cruz is the center of not easy protests that the census will take place in 2023, the following year as ordered by the government last July.
The National Population Survey originally scheduled for November 2024.
The national government says that conducting the census in 2024 ensures that knowledge will be of higher quality and that there is a “depoliticization” of the census process.
Santa Cruz’s municipal leaders, however, do not find it easy to get the census taken so that the influence of their burgeoning region in the legislature is felt earlier.
They need to have the knowledge to use it until 2025, the year national elections are scheduled, to use voter list data and allocate seats in parliament, where Santa Cruz is very likely to reap significant benefits.
They must also use census knowledge to ensure a new distribution of fiscal resources.
EFE grb-jct/gb/ag/bp