For information on a nationwide wave of strikes and demonstrations by teachers and other groups in Bolivia in early and mid-April 2000, please refer to BOL38520.E of 12 April 2002. One source summarizes the unrest as follows:

Protesters took to the streets of the Bolivian city [Cochabamba] in the valleys east of the Andes last January, February and April when the new owners of the municipal water system sharply increased the rates. A number of activist groups held parallel protests, including the small-scale coca growers (cocaleros) around Cochabamba, highlands campesinos and teachers' unions. The combined impact rocked the country, forcing the government of President Hugo Banzer to declare a three-month state of siege. By May, when the dust had settled, a social movement which united urban and rural Cochabambinos had forced the government to return the water company to public control. The other protesters pressured Banzer into addressing land tenure laws, the installation of Chapare region military bases and teachers' salaries and working conditions (NACLA Report on the Americas 1 Mar. 2001).

Another source reports on the widespread unrest, with a reference to rural teachers and later a reference to Achacachi:

The marches against water rate hikes began April 3 in Cochabamba, located 350 miles east of La Paz, the capital of this poor, landlocked nation of 8 million. The demonstrations quickly spread to other cities with thousands protesting unemployment and economic difficulties.

Teachers at rural public schools went on strike demanding salary increases and the end of the state of siege. Students fought running skirmishes with police in La Paz.

Protesters manned roadblocks near the Andean towns of Achacachi and Batallas, where one army officer and two farmers were killed and dozens injured on Sunday. Soldiers and police have cleared nearly all of the roadblocks that cut off highways in five of the country's nine provinces for much of the past week (CNN 10 Apr. 2000).

Country Reports 2001, as well as Amnesty International's and Human Rights Watch's annual reports for the years 2000 and 2001 and various news articles, all available through Regional Documentation Centres, include references to the April 2000 unrest and to Achacachi.

Although no specific references to teacher groups in Achacachi for 9 April 2000 could be found among the sources consulted, one source reports as follows:

The week began violently on Apr. 9 in Achacachi, near Lake Titicaca in La Paz department, where a group of soldiers trying to disperse campesino protesters from a roadblock met with resistance and opened fire, killing two people--including a 15 or 16 year old boy--and wounding seven others. Angry residents retaliated by taking some of the soldiers' weapons and attacking local military leaders, injuring army captain Omar Jesus Tellez Arancibia and Ayacucho Battalion commander Armando Carrasco Nava. The protesters later dragged Tellez from his hospital bed, beat him to death and dismembered him (Weekly News Update 16 Apr. 2000a).

In another article, Weekly News Update states:

Amnesty International (AI) has blasted the Banzer government's violation of human rights under the state of emergency, noting that security forces have arrested and interrogated minors to get information about protest leaders...Other cases were reported by the International Children's Defense organization: detainees in Achacachi who were interrogated with hoods over their heads and made to remain for hours in the "tripod" position, with head and feet on the ground; and a detainee who was tied to the back of a military vehicle and dragged through the streets.

Many of the violations occurred in or near Achacachi, where the army was looking for those who killed Capt. Tellez and seeking revenge for his murder. The crackdown also sought to recover the dozens of FAL rifles that protesters took from security forces at Achacachi. Jorge Zabala, Commander of the Bolivian Armed Forces, said his troops had arrested six people for the Tellez killing and handed them over to police after they confessed. The Bolivian Permanent Assembly of Human Rights noted that three of those arrested are adolescents who "say they were threatened, physically attacked and suffered tortures, such as mock execution by firing squad" (ibid. 16 Apr. 2000b)

The same source corrected and added some details in its following issue:

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of the Chamber of Deputies is investigating whether officers of the Ayacucho Battalion in Achacachi committed "military negligence" when they shot at demonstrators on Apr. 9, killing two people and wounding seven others. The parliamentary investigators are also looking into the death of Maj. Omar Tellez, beaten to death by Achacachi residents in revenge for the shootings; a medical report has revealed that the corpse was not mutilated, contrary to what was reported in the press. Local residents have refused to provide any information about the incidents, for fear of retaliation from the military; even the doctor who participated in the exhumation of Tellez' corpse and issued the medical report has asked that his identity be kept secret.

Investigations have also revealed that the military ignored a phone call from a doctor asking that protection be provided for Tellez while he was being treated for injuries received in a prior beating by local residents. Several hours after the request was made, a mob dragged Tellez from his hospital bed and beat him to death (ibid. 23 Apr. 2000).

Country Reports 2001 also refers to the military intervention and arrests in Achacachi:

During the April 2000 state of siege, there were allegations that the military took residents of Achacachi into custody in the middle of the night and beat them in an attempt to learn the names of those responsible for the death of an army captain. The army captain was an officer in a unit believed by demonstrators to be responsible for the earlier death of a civilian in Achacachi. A mob beat the captain, and after he was taken to a hospital, dragged him from the hospital and beat him to death. There also were allegations that arrestees from Patacamaya during the state of siege were beaten by the military prior to being transferred to the custody of the PTJ. Investigations into these events continued at year's end (4 Mar. 2002).

In 2001, Weekly News Update reported:

On Aug. 23 [2001] leaders of the Only Union Confederation of Bolivian Campesino Workers (CSUTCB) signed a 70-point agreement with the government of President Jorge Quiroga, extending until December a temporary truce that ended campesino protests organized by CSUTCB executive secretary Felipe Quispe Huanca in the Altiplano region of La Paz department. ...The accord commits the government to providing 1,000 tractors and $66 million for agricultural development in La Paz department. ...The CSUTCB will present the government with a proposed land law to replace the current National Agrarian Reform Institute (INRA) law; and the teachers' unions will present a proposal for modification of "Education Reform" Law 1.565...

The government pledges to investigate the killing of campesino protesters by police and military troops in April and September 2000 and June and July 2001, and provide compensation to the families of the victims; and to suspend investigations into the death of army captain Omar Jesus Tellez Arancibia, who was lynched by residents of the Altiplano community of Achacachi on Apr. 9, 2000, after soldiers shot to death two campesino protesters there (26 Aug. 2001).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

CNN [Atlanta, Ga.]. 10 April 2000. "Protests Rock Bolivia; Officials Blame Drug Traffickers." http://www.cnn.com/2000/WORLD/americas/04/10/bolivia.protests/ [Accessed 26 June 2002]

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2001. 4 March 2002. "Bolivia." Washington, DC: United States Department of State. http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/ 2001/wha/8299.htm [Accessed 26 June 2002]

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) Report on the Americas. 1 March 2001. No. 5, Vol. 34. Linda Farthing and Ben Kohl. "Bolivia's New Wave of Protest." (NEXIS)

Weekly News Update on the Americas [New York]. 26 August 2001. No. 601. "Bolivia: Altiplano Campesinos Sign Truce." (wnu@igc.apc.org)

_____. 23 April 2000. No. 534. "Bolivia: State of Siege Lifted." (wnu@igc.apc.org)

_____. 16 April 2000a. No. 533. "Bolivians Protest Under State of Siege." (wnu@igc.apc.org)

_____. 16 April 2000a. No. 533. "Bolivia: State of Siege Ratified, Abuses Condemned." (wnu@igc.apc.org)