Bolivia
Intensity: 1
Trend: =
Type: Government, Self-government, Resources
Internal
Main parties: Government, political and social opposition (political parties, authorities and civil society organisations from the eastern regions)
Summary:
At the end of 2003, the then president, Gonzalo Sánchez Lozada, went into exile in the USA after more than 100 lives were claimed in February and October when a series of anti-government protests were violently put down. Following a period of uncertainty during which two presidents took office on an interim basis, Evo Morales won the 2005 elections, becoming the country’s first indigenous leader.
However, his presidency, in particular the agrarian reform or the nationalisation of hydrocarbon resources and the approval of a new constitution, was hindered by fierce opposition to his political project by several political parties and by the eastern regions of the country, which, led by the department of Santa Cruz, demand greater autonomy. In parallel to the political struggle between the government and the opposition, in recent years Bolivia has faced one of the highest rates of social conflict in the entire continent, with protests of different kinds related to the labour demands of various sectors, the activity of mining companies or the rights of indigenous peoples.
The human rights violations and the atmosphere of impunity in the country were made clear in Mexico City on 31 July with the murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa, a contributor to the news agency Cuartoscuro and the magazine Proceso, and four women with him at the time, including Nadia Vera, a student activist and human rights advocate. Espinosa had received death threats due to his reporting work in the state of Veracruz, which caused him to flee Mexico City in early June. According to the statistics of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Crimes against the Freedom of Expression, Veracruz is the state where the highest number of journalists have been killed (11) and disappeared, along with Chihuahua, based on data from the international journalist protection group Article 19.
The multiple killing caused great indignation in the country and raised new questions about Mexico as a guarantor of human rights. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Mexican ombudsman condemned the murder and called on the Mexican government to strengthen mechanisms of protection and communication.
South America
mining and bilateral disputes between Bolivia and Chile over the situation of their borders and access to the ocean all fuelled the political tension in the Andean country during the year. The ruling party, the Movement for Socialism (MAS), announced its intention to modify the Constitution to make it possible for Evo Morales to run for re-election in the next election planned for 2019, which would mean a fourth term after his election in 2005, 2009 and 2014.
The announcement triggered harsh criticism from the opposition, increasing tensions in the country. On 26 September, the MAS-controlled national Parliament gave final approval to the law to amend Article 168 of the Constitution in order to allow the possibility of two consecutive re-elections instead of the one it currently sets out. The text would be reviewed by the Constitutional Court before it is submitted to a referendum planned for 21 February 2016.
Alongside the political debate over the constitutional amendment and in connection with the different mining conflicts shaking the country, the presentation of a new law on mining, debated in March and subsequently reviewed and passed in June, triggered various violent conflicts in the country. The most intense demonstrations occurred on 31 March, when the country’s main highways were blocked. Thirty people were arrested, 43 police officers were taken hostage, 85 miners and 20 police officers were injured and two miners were killed in the clashes that ensued. The protests also led to the fall of the mining minister. Morales’
government later faced a 27-day mining strike, from 6 July to 2 August, in the mining city of Potosí. The strikers demanded government support for the region in the face of falling mineral prices and demanded that it fulfil its promises to build infrastructure and public facilities. As the strike completed its 21st day, on 27 July, the Bolivian government began talks with regional leaders, although they ran aground three days later when the government rejected some demands. Finally, the strikers indefinitely suspended the protest that had fully paralysed the city of Potosí on 2 August, but warned Morales’ government that the conflict remained unresolved. In other developments, territorial tension rose during the year between Bolivia and Chile due to the historic border dispute between both countries over Bolivian demands for access to the ocean. The rising tension was partially caused by the effects of an eight-day strike in the Chilean customs service, which had an impact on the Bolivian economy. Bolivia had presented the dispute before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2013 and was awaiting its decision on how to act. The court ultimately declared that it had the jurisdiction to settle the matter between both states in a ruling adopted on 24 September, with 14 votes in favour and two against.
The ruling party’s decision to amend the Constitution to permit the re-election of Evo Morales, conflicts over
Peru
Intensity: 2
Trend: ↓
Type: Government, Resources Internal
Main parties: Government, armed opposition (remnants of Shining Path), political and social opposition (farmer and indigenous organisations) Summary:
In 1980, just when democracy had been restored in the country, an armed conflict began between the government and the Maoist armed group Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso in Spanish) that lasted for two decades and claimed 60,000 lives. The counter-insurgency policy implemented in the 1990s pushed the state towards authoritarianism under Alberto Fujimori, who in 2000 went into exile in Japan having been deposed by congress and accused of numerous cases of corruption and human rights violations. Since 2008, the remaining Shining Path factions have stepped up their operations significantly in the Alto Huallaga region and especially in the VRAE region (Valley between the Apurímac and Ene Rivers). The government, which claims that the Shining Path organisation is involved in drug trafficking, has intensified its military operations in both regions notably and has refused to enter into talks of any sort. It has also intensified the political and legal struggle against its political arm, Movadef. Meanwhile, several collectives, especially indigenous groups, have organised periodical mobilisations to protest against the economic policy of successive governments and against the activity of mining companies.
No significant violent incidents were reported during the year between the Peruvian Armed Forces and the remaining Shining Path (SP) factions, although there were some military actions against the guerrilla organisation that weakened it even more. Meanwhile, protests continued against mining company activities, leading to different episodes of violence in various regions of the country. As part of the actions taken in the conflict between the Peruvian government and the Maoist guerrilla organisation SP, some suspected SP members were arrested during the first quarter, including one of the alleged ringleaders, nicknamed
“Edwin”, who is accused of being responsible for the death of Captain Nancy Flores Páucar in April 2013. The Peruvian government announced the dismantlement of the column of the armed group in the southern part of the La Convención area in the Cuzco region, with the capture of its two main operational commanders in the Apurímac, Ene and Mantaro River Valley (VRAEM), Alexander Alarcón Soto, “Comrade Renán”, and Dionisio Ramos, “Comrade Yuri” on 10 August, in what was the heaviest blow to the armed organisation all year. Local media outlets reported that five guerrilla fighters were killed in another military operation against another SP column in the VRAEM on 4 September, including the suspected fourth-in-command of the Central Committee, “Comrade Antonio”.
Official reports indicated that SP still had 60 combatants in an area of the VRAEM between north of Cuzco and the central jungle of the country commanded by the
brothers José and Raúl Quispe Palomino. According to the Peruvian authorities, this is the last active column of the group. In June, the US Treasury Department included the suspected leaders of the organisation and Florindo Eleutorio Flores, also known as “Artemio”, on the Kingpin List (considered the black list of international drug traffickers and organisations). It also listed SP as a criminal narco-terrorist organisation. In reaction, the armed organisation’s attorney Alfredo Crespo and its leader Abimael Guzmán rejected the narco-terrorist label and ensured that these leaders are not part of SP, but of a dissident faction operating in the VRAEM that is opposed to Guzmán. On 28 July, the Peruvian police and military reported the rescue of 39 people (26 children and 13 women) who had allegedly been kidnapped by the group in the VRAEM area, according to the Peruvian defence ministry’s deputy minister of defence policies (Mindef) Iván Vega, who also reported that the armed organisation still held between 170 and 200 people captive, of which it is estimated that between 70 and 80 are children.
Concerning the protests against mining activities, at the beginning of the year the US-Mexican company Southern Copper Corporation reported the cancellation of a copper mining project in the southern part of the country due to the opposition of much of the local population and the clashes that occurred between the police and dozens of demonstrators in the town of Pichanaki (Junín province) against the Argentine company Pluspetrol’s prospecting in the region in which one person was killed and other 40 were wounded by gunfire. The minister of the Interior was later dismissed from office after denying that the police used firearms to put down the protests.
In early April, residents of the El Triunfo sector in the district of La Joya blocked the southern Pan-American Highway in solidarity with the farmers of the Tambo Valley, Islay province, who opposed the Southern Copper Corporation’s Tía María mining project. The blockage led to clashes with Peruvian security forces that wounded at least one person. Meanwhile, tension and protests increased in Arequipa, Islay province, in which three people lost their lives and over 200 were wounded. As a result, on 15 May Ollanta Humala’s government decreed a state of emergency in the area, suspending the right to demonstrations, transport and assembly for 60 days.
The population of the region responded by insisting that the demonstrations would not end until the Tía María project was cancelled for good. The government lifted the state of emergency on 22 July, but had to extend the deployment of the military to the area until 20 September, maintaining tension there.
In another mining conflict, on 12 August the government authorised the military to intervene in the province of Yauli, in the Andean region of Junín, where hundreds of workers at the paralysed Doe Run metallurgical complex had blocked the main road in the centre of the country, sparking clashes between the police and miners that killed one person and injured 50. Furthermore, new clashes in the southern Apurímac region in late