Accidentally Advocating Extrajudicial Justice

My work in Cochabamba is quickly drawing to a close. I had a funny experience a few days ago that made me feel like my time here has come full circle, from being mistaken for an angry opposition member to being mistaken for an angry MASista.

In the lull between Carnaval and Easter people are back to protesting. While the difficulties over the Constitutional Assembly, land reform and the Santa Cruz autonomy movement continue, the current protests are focused on the recession and falling real wages. In recent weeks the price of a piece of bread has risen from 30 centavos to 50 centavos, or from about 4¢ to 6¢. While this may still seem like a steal to you and me, it’s a huge issue for ordinary Bolivians, two-thirds of whom live on less than a dollar a day. A lot of families are hurting, their children going hungry.

Perhaps most pathetic, the Bolivian recession is, in part, the result of the Bush administration’s economic mismanagement and insufficient oversight of the mortgage industry. The economic downturn stateside affects Bolivia so severely because most savings accounts and investments here are in US dollars, because Bolivia has some preferential trade deals with the US in return for their cooperation in the War on Drugs and because Bolivia imports most of their food and manufactured goods from neighboring countries, which are also affected. So Bolivians, without savings, without a social safety net, are already feeling it far more than we ever will in States.

Every day this week there has been a different march to raise the minimum wage. A large group of students is camped out in the central plaza, hunger striking for educational funding. On Wednesday there was an all-purpose blockade, bringing together a bunch of different issues. I got stuck behind the blockade, so instead of sitting in traffic in my taxi, I went to see what was happening.

Having learned my lesson with the angry alteños, I introduced myself and asked permission to take this picture. I explained my support for Evo and my solidarity with indigenous Bolivians. While the blockaders were very interested in what I had to say, so was a reporter who overheard me. Reporters seem to be especially interested in what I have to say. I’ve been interviewed for radio three times and on television twice now.

Just before the reporter started his camera rolling one of the blockaders handed me a police baton. Instead of asking why he had given me the stick and handing it back, I held onto it. The reporter, for his part, asked me all sorts of leading questions. Plus, since my Spanish isn’t my first language and I was on the spot, my answers weren’t as nuanced as I would have liked. Instead of saying that I thought the perpetrators of Enero Negro should be brought to justice within the confines of the court system or legally sanctioned community justice forum, I just said they should be brought to justice.

So I was on the news, standing in front of a blockade of burning tires, appearing to advocate lynching, punctuating my points with a police baton. Here’s hoping they let me back in the States. However, I am searching for a copy, since it would be the coolest souvenir imaginable.