Some Theories:Ted Gurr: Relative DeprivationDeFronzo: Mass Frustration DeFronzo: Unifying MotivationChalmers Johnson: X-Factor

• STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENTS IMPLEMENTED IN 1985

• WAR ON DRUGS IMPLEMENTED BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IN 1989

• GROWING DISCONTENT ABOUT U.S., IMF AND WORLD BANK NEOLIBERAL AND CAPITALIST POLICIES

BY 2000, BOLIVIA’S GOVERNMENT HAD PRIVATIZED:

RAIL ROADS

AIRLINES

PHONE COMPANY

MINES

NATURAL GAS

IN FEBRUARY OF 2000: THE CITY OF COCHABAMBA PRIVATIZED THE WATER

Some Recap:

To make things rather interesting: The water supply issue in Bolivia was the main theme of the James Bond movie Quantum Solace.

However, DON’T try to use the movie asStudy guide, or you’ll get it all wrong!

Water War: January - April 2000. Slogan: “Water is Life”

The Privatization of Water happened in the city of “Cochabamba”: Bolivia’s third largest city

After privatization took place, water prices increased by at least 100%

The broad nature of Law 2029 led many to claim that the government would require a license be obtained for people to collect rainwater from their roofs

(HINT: BRINTON’s 4 Uniformity): gov’t doesn’t respond to the needs of the society

Protests, largely organized through the Coordinadora in Defense of Water and Life, a community coalition constituted by Federación Departamental Cochabambina de Regantes (FEDECOR), made up of local professionals, including engineers and environmentalists. They were joined by a federation of peasant farmers who relied on irrigation, and a confederation of factory workers' unions.

HINT: This particular uprising doesn’t fit an actor-oriented theory, its structural (Social & economic conditions + International) Remember Theda Skocpol “Structural forces create revolutionary situations

State of Emergency On February 4, 2000, thousands marching in protest were met by troops and law enforcement

from Oruro and La Paz. Two days of clashes occurred with the police using teargas. Almost 200 demonstrators were arrested; 70 protesters and 51 policemen were injured.

President Banzer on April 8, 2000 declared a "state of siege". Banzer said, "We see it as our obligation, in the common best interest, to decree a state of emergency to protect law and order.“

The decree suspended "some constitutional guarantees, allowing police to detain protest leaders without a warrant, restrict travel and political activity and establish a curfew.“ Meetings of over four people were outlawed, and the freedom of the press was curtailed with radio stations being taken over by the military and some newspaper reporters being arrested.

However, the more military force used by the government, the more the protesters revolted.

What started in a city began to spread around the country…

The spark that unraveled popular dissatisfaction in other areas

The coca growers of Bolivia led by then-Congressman Evo Morales (later elected President of Bolivia) had joined the demonstrators and were demanding an end to the Unites States-sponsored program of coca eradication of their crops.

Teachers of state schools in rural areas went on strike calling for salary increases (at the time they made $1,000 a year). In the capital city of La Paz students began to fight running battles with police. Demonstrators put up roadblocks of stones, bricks and barrels, and violence broke out there as well

People started questioning the efficiency of all privatizations that had taken place since the implementation of the structural programs.

The unifying motivation that sparked the uprisings was the privatization of water, BUT another deeper unifying motivation was forming through the country: Sentiment against neoliberal policies, the IMF, the World Bank and the US.

Structural Conduciveness! : Mitigating Factor Since the start of the demonstrations, the government had been incapable of stopping the chaos

through military force.

In order to prevent the further spread of protests around the country, on April 10, 2000, the national government reached an agreement with the Coordinadora to reverse the privatization.

(This promise by the government became the mitigating factor that prevented a full revolution to form)

Although the protests had stopped, the Cochabamba’s water wars shed light to the country’s dissatisfaction with neoliberal policies, and the government’s support for them.

The water war started a revolutionary situation that will become a revolutionary outcome in October 2003

His actions in the Water Wars raised the profile of Congressman Evo Morales and provided him with the path to the presidency in 2006.

His ability to organize people and to gather support from different social classes (specially the indigenous population) will make him leader of MAS (movement towards socialism)

He will become the central figure during the Gas War/Black October (2003)

In Washington, D.C. at the 16 April 2000 IMF and World Bank meetings, protesters attempted to blockade the streets to stop the meeting. They cited the Water Wars in Bolivia as an example of corporate greed and a reason to resist globalization. Oscar Olivera attended the protests, saying, "The people have recaptured their dignity, their capacity to organize themselves - and most important of all, the people are no longer scared.“

The re-birth of social movements