The Latest from the El Alto Water Revolt

I just spoke a few minutes ago with one of the lead organizers of the water revolt in El Alto. This morning, representatives of Bolivia´s President sent the draft of a proclamation by which the President would announce the immediate cancellation of Aguas del Illimani´s contract with the Bolivian government. If the neighborhood groups agree that the proclamation is a sufficient guarantee of the company´s departure to lift the blockades and end the general strike in El Alto, President Carlos Mesa will sign and release the decree formally, perhaps as early as tonight.

Nothing is certain in Bolivia until it actually happens, but it seems very likely that the groups leading the protests will accept the President´s proposal and that corporate water privatization will come to an end in El Alto and La Paz, just as it did five years ago in Cochabamba. However, this water revolt is very unlike the Cochabamba battle against Bechtel-Abengoa in 2000. To the government´s credit, no state of martial has been declared, no one has been arrested, no city has been militarized, no one has been injured or killed.

If water privatization ends in El Alto and La Paz in a peaceful and non-violent way, the victory for Bolivians will be double.