I think its fair to say that our trip to Canada was just the beginning of the story. Several years from now, when someone decides to write the history of synchro in Bolivia, I hope Allison’s contribution and Aracely and Milenka’s trip will be described as the big push that finally got the ball rolling.
Aracely, Milenka and I arrived back in Bolivia on September 7th. We landed into a country that had reached a critical state in our absence. In the time that we were gone the tensions between the national government and the wealthy eastern departments of Tarija, Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando, had been rising. The day after our arrival civil strikes began and all activity was suspended, including swim practice. Blockades were erected throughout the eastern departments and public offices taken over. By the end of the week the situation became critical: over 16 peasant farmers were massacred, 37 injured and 106 disappeared in the Pando department in Northern Bolivia; violence increased in other departments; and the President expelled the US Ambassador under charges of conspiring against his government.
On September 11, the civic committee in Tarija attempted to over take the farmers market. A violent outbreak occurred in which over 80 people where injured and one person lost their hand. Right wing media outlets used the event to incite further fear and racism in the population. They claimed that Campesinos (rural farmers) were descending into the centre of Tarija to attack the population and the civic committee was blocking their way. According to friends of mine who own business in the farmers market, they heard that the civic committee was coming to overtake the farmers market, and headed to the entrance of the market to keep the committee from entering. The location of the battle, at the doors of the market, kilometers from the centre of town, suggests whose story was most likely.
The right wing media painted the battle as one between rural farmers and urban dwellers. First hand accounts, say it was a confrontation between business owners trying to protect their shops, and students paid by the civic committee to attack them.
Over the last few weeks the stories of the violence incited throughout the country have been described in such diametrically opposing ways by the right and left wing media that it’s dizzying. Sadly, there are few people that make an attempt to critically analyze what they read in the paper or watch on TV. The result is growing sentiments of racism and regionalism that are sharpening divisions in the country in a time where Bolivia needs to build unity.
Last week, I was with an engineer from my office and a campesino woman. The campesino woman said, “Compañero Evo, is not as bad as they are make him out to be”
“He is” said the engineer, “just watch, if the new constitution is passed things here are going to be terrible, you’ll loose your home and all your land.”
“Why” said the woman.
“Under the new constitutions” claimed the engineer “all property that is not being used will revert back to the state. Just wait and see they will take over everything. It’s going to become a communist country.”
The Engineer continued on, trying to convince the woman, that a law written into the constitution, to redistribute large and unproductive landholdings of the elite, was in fact a scheme by the government to give land to the lazy and take it away from hardworking people. He tried to scare her into believing she was going to loose her small home and plot of land if she left it unproductive for a few months.
I was furious, and asked the engineer if he had actually read the constitution. He replied no. I recommended to the woman that she read the constitution and form her own opinion about it, rather than allowing others to tell her what to believe.
The most infuriating thing about the present situation in Bolivia is that it’s propagated on misinformation that is spread by the very professionals who are supposedly informed and know what’s going on. Interestingly, it’s the supposedly “uneducated” rural farmers that seem to have a far sharper political analysis.
So what does this have to do with synchronized swimming? I figure you can’t take the context away from the sport. In Canada, we don’t have to deal with the pool being shut down for two weeks because of a Primer that decides to promote a violent civil strike. Nor do we have to deal with the uncertainty and inability to plan that politics here provokes. Planning for sports development in Tarija requires having a second a third and a fourth contingency plan always. The anti-Chavez sentiment prevalent in the Departmental Government has also made it impossible for me to recommend bringing in a Venezuelan or Cuban coach to replace Allison – the only option we have at present.
Fortunately, things over the last week have calmed down and we are now back in the pool. I’m feeling overwhelmed by things, because I’m working full time and trying to fill the void Allison has left. It’s not ideal. I coach the girls from 7 – 8 in the morning, then have to leave them a plan to follow on their own over the next hour. I’ve had to leave the afternoon group entirely in the hands of Doña Beti, a woman my age who has swum with me for several years. She’s doing the best she can, but doesn’t have any coaches training.
Over the next few months I’m focusing my energy on organizing a training course for new coaches and judges, with Ana Maria Loba, a trainer from Brazil. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will come together for December, and that we will soon have local coaches so that I can finally have a bit of a rest.
I hope my next installment will be written in a time of peace, not conflict.
