Today’s Santa Cruz autonomy referendum is under way. There won’t be much news until later, of course. But the morning news highlighted problems in Yapacaní & San Julian.
In Yapacaní, MAS supporters attacked a number of pro-autonomy installations, including private residences w/ “Sí” propaganda (a few entered at least one house, and threatened the woman who lived there). A photojournalist from La Razón was attacked; another from El Deber was threatened. The police, 200 meters away (according to reports), did nothing.
In San Julian, things are more calm, but MAS supporters made clear their plan to burn all the ballot boxes in the area. Residents of the Los Ángeles neighborhood protested the decision to not allow their school (built by their own labor) to be used as a polling place. The neighbors then offered their guarantee of protection for the local election officials, who moved their headquarters there.
When local officials asked the police to come to prevent violence on election day, the police refused, since they had not been sent to the area to guard ballot boxes. (A large police reinforcement was sent by the government to Santa Cruz in anticipation of the referendum.)
The rest of the department seems calm. About a million residents are registered to vote. Department officials have vowed to punish anyone who disrupts the electoral process, but also urges calm during the day. We’ll see what happens.
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Also check out MABB, currently in Santa Cruz. He reports that television shows an armed group of 30-40 being driven around Yapacaní, specifically targeting polling places & referendum election officials.
Global Voices Bolivia also has a very good roundup of Bolivia bloggers’ reactions.
