Indigenous march in Sucre in defense of the Bolivian Constitution

SUCRE, Bolivia, August 27 (PL).—Campesinos and indigenous peoples from the central department of Chuquisaca are to march through the streets of this capital city in defense of the Constituent Assembly, whose work has been indefinitely detained.

According to Juan Picha, general secretary of the Original Peoples Single Federation of Workers, the march will be peaceful and will advocate national unity.

The leader explained that one of the demonstrators’ demands is that the transfer of executive and legislative powers to Sucre is dealt with in a high-level commission, without affecting the forum’s deliberations.

He likewise affirmed that they would demand a fourth power of social control to be exercised by original peoples’ organizations.

Delegates from Chuquisaca and members of the Inter-Institutional Committee who have called for a strike for tomorrow, Tuesday, said that the campesino and indigenous peoples march will be welcome and they will avoid provocative acts.

Last night Alvaro García, vice president of the Republic, affirmed that the Assembly is being threatened by right-wing violent groups associated to old politicians.

Speaking on the Radio Patria Nueva state radio station, he stated that the government cannot allow opposition interests to be imposed on the majorities, the original peoples, to whose struggles “we owe the Assembly itself as a scenario of change.”

The Constituent Assembly has the challenge of presenting a new draft constitution by December 14, he added.

In that context, García noted, the real sons and daughters of Bolivia have to guarantee the process of national re-foundation in the face of the excesses being organized by the followers of the Hugo Banzer and Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada dictatorships.

García lashed out at the authorities of the central department of Chuquisaca who are using the genuine demands of the territory to make that forum fail.

He likewise welcomed the social movements’ initiative to hold a Cultural and Social Summit in Sucre on September 10 in defense of the Constituent Assembly.

Translated by Granma International