• Wednesday, April 27, 2011
• Inter Press Service

It wasn't easy to get to the Bolivian city of Riberalta from Brazil. The adventurous journey included potholes on the Brazilian highway, a rickety boat that ferried us across the Mamoré - the border river - and an unnerving ride on a motorcycle taxi. But the biggest complication was the roadblocks.

On Apr. 14, a week-long strike by teachers and other government employees in Bolivia took a radical turn, when the strikers blocked streets in major cities and highways across the country, demanding a raise. Leftwing President Evo Morales, who used to organise roadblocks as the head of the largest coca growers union, thus got a taste of his own medicine.

'Evo taught us to put up roadblocks,' said Nacira Limpias, a rural schoolteacher who with dozens of her colleagues closed the road a few kilometres outside Guayaramerín in the northern department (province) of Beni, on the Bolivia-Brazil border.

We were planning to attend a workshop for journalists about the Cachuela Esperanza hydroelectric project, a meeting organised by the Centre for Applied Studies on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CEADESC) and the Bolivian Confederation of Press Worker Unions (CSTPB) which was scheduled to start at 7:30 PM local time in the Bolivian town of Riberalta.

According to the bus company, it would only be possible to drive to Riberalta after 6:00 PM, the time the Guayaramerín strikers had announced the roadblock would be lifted for the night. The three of us hoping to participate in the workshop, who found ourselves trapped in Guayaramerín - this correspondent, lawmaker Juan Carlos Ojopi and engineer Walter Justiniano, who was to give one of the presentations - decided to hire a taxi, and leave just before 6:00 PM, to drive on to Riberalta as soon as the traffic blockade had been cleared away.

But the teachers in Riberalta, 93 kilometres west of Guayaramerín, decided to block traffic through the night, using their motorcycles and piled-up tree trunks. So although we made good time on the road from Guayaramerín, which was unpaved but in decent condition, our journey came to an abrupt halt at Riberalta.

We got around the problem by leaving our taxi, walking through the roadblock and taking another car, sent from Riberalta, on the other side. The saga was repeated in reverse the following day, when we had to return to Guayaramerín for the second part of the workshop. Although we started out early, before traffic had been blocked again in Riberalta, the way was barred again at Guayaramerín.

The teachers' base salary of 1,200 bolivianos (170 dollars) a month 'is not enough to eat on,' Limpias complained. (Since Morales first took office in 2006, the overall minimum salary has nearly doubled, from 62 to 114 dollars a month.)

After five days of roadblocks and protests, the government offered some categories of government employees a pay increase of 12 percent, agreed by negotiation with the Bolivian Workers' Federation (COB). Teachers were demanding 15 percent, but agreed to suspend industrial action for the time being, while reserving the option of resuming it later on.

There are 120,000 teachers in Bolivia, the vast majority of whom are women. In Guayaramerín there are nearly 1,000, of whom 165 teach in rural schools, according to Castulia Solares, a member of the strike committee who has put her post as head teacher at risk by taking on the leadership of the local movement.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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