Fwd: Smuggling in Bolivia
Steve Schear
s.schear at comcast.net
Sat Dec 27 23:04:01 PST 2003
[From another list. I don't often fwd, but I thought these comments would
be appreciated by those on the list who see only an ever expanding
government worldwide.]
>Peruvians are a lot like Bolivians but Bolivia is not Peru.
>
>This is an interview with Antonio Estrado, President of the
>association of "porters" (aka smugglers) of Yacuiba who has, "for
>42 years, devoted himself to carrying contraband from Argentina
>to Bolivia".
>
>Antonio Estrado / Presidente de la asociacisn de bagalleros
>de Yacuiba
>
>Desde hace 42 aqos se dedica a cargar productos de contrabando desde
>Argentina hacia
>Bolivia
>
>http://www.el-deber.net/20031221/economia_10.html
>
>It ends with the following.
>
>-?Ustedes permitirman que vuelva la Aduana y el COA a Pocito Boliviano?
>Will you allow the customs and the police to return?
>
>- Tendrma que consultar con mi gente.
>I will have to ask my people.
>
>- ?Pero, ahora quiin manda en la frontera boliviana?
>But who now controls the Bolivian border?
>
>- Aqum, nosotros los bagalleros. Los militares, policmas y la Aduana no
>son nada. Mientras el
>gobierno siga con abusos contra nosotros y no quiera dialogar no dejaremos
>que entre,
>aunque tengamos que morir todos. El bagallero esta caracterizado, por
>todas las
>autoridades, como lo peor que existe en el Chaco, pero no es asm, es una
>persona humilde
>que el znico medio que tiene para subsistir es su cuerpo.
>Here, we the porters. The military, police and customs are nothing. While
>the government
>continues to abuse us and won't talk we will not let them in, otherwise we
>will all die. The
>porter is denigrated by all the authorities but that is not right, he is a
>decent person whose
>only means of survival is his labor.
>
>One interesting thing about Bolivia is that there is a long
>tradition of "syndicalism". Thus there are organized coca
>growers unions, smugglers unions etc. All these organized
>groups are conceived by Bolivians as part of society and the
>government is considered just another such more of less coequal
>group. Thus you often have, say the coca growers or the
>smugglers negotiating with or going on strike against the
>government on a more or less equal basis and sometimes getting
>their way. There is not the expectation of dominance and Lese
>Majeste by the government which would lead to Waco like
>confrontations in such situations in the US.
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