A year on, those killed in La Calancha - Sucre, have found no justice

One year ago yesterday (24 November) three people were killed in Sucre during an escalation of violence by those who were demanding that the city is given full capital status.

In fact, the campana por la capitalia, as it became known, came out of nowhere to the surprise of many. It was, in retrospect, the last attempt by a virulent opposition to the government based in the lowlands, to derail the constituent assembly, elected for the purpose of writing a new constitution for the refoundation of Bolivia.

And this they did very well. After the events of the day in which hordes of young people commanded by the ‘civic’ committee of Sucre and led by key personalities in the city such as the major and the university vice chancellor, hundreds of people attacked the police station, stole dozens of cars and weapons and set fire to the prison, before attempting to invade the palace where the constituent assembly was in session.

The day’s events are yet to be fully clarified, in part because of the refusal to collaborate with any investigations on the part of the city’s leadership. The one fact that is known is that two people were killed by bullets not used by the police or the military.

What is shameful is the way in which, one year on, the events, and the dead, have been appropriated by the same virulent, unpleasant, and deeply racist opposition to the current government that organised the violence in the first place, and presented them as ‘our martyrs’ in order to launch a campaign against the new constitution that will be approved in referendum next January.

And so it was that a demonstration yesterday repeated the same chants of “Esto es Sucre carajo! Sucre se respeta!” that have become characteristic in the city and that we would witness again on the racist attacks against indigenous people of 24th May 2008. These events were witnessed and recorded by local theatre director Cesar Brie. His film, “Ofendidos y humillados”, gives a pretty clear idea of the type of people we are talking about here.