The Potosí Civic Committee is an alliance of unions and social organizations in the city of Potosí

Potosí

Potosí is a city and the capital of the department of Potosí in Bolivia. It is one of the highest cities in the world by elevation at a nominal . and it was the location of the Spanish colonial mint, now the National Mint of Bolivia...

, Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. It is currently led by Celestino Condori Mamani, whose slate won internal elections in August 2008 and January 2011. The Committee led a 19-day departmental strike in July and August 2010 in pursuit of central government support for regional development. Unlike other civic committees in Bolivia, Comcipo has not aligned with the right-wing opposition to President Evo Morales

Evo Morales

Juan Evo Morales Ayma , popularly known as Evo , is a Bolivian politician and activist, currently serving as the 80th President of Bolivia, a position that he has held since 2006. He is also the leader of both the Movement for Socialism party and the cocalero trade union...

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Governance and leadership

Comcipo is governed by a committee of officers elected on a common slate. These include a President, two Vice Presidents, two General Secretaries, fourteen Secretaries on specific issues, and two spokespeople. They are elected by 193 delegates representing the 51 organizations that make up Comcipo, with 31 unions or organizations having 3 votes each and 20 federations having 5 votes each.

The most recent elections, held on 21 January 2011, were a three-way contest between incumbent president Celestino Condori's Potosí Rebellion 19 slate, Walter Ramírez's Red and White slate, and Mario Navarro's Autonomous Potosí Civic Organization slate. Potosí Rebellion 19 won with the support of 87 of the 193 votes. The Federation of Cooperative Miners protested the election, arguing that numerous participants in the 2010 strike were excluded from the leadership slates. Condori has endorsed enlarging the organization and popular elections, and offered to cut short his term to hold new elections following restructuring.

In the previous election on 20 August 2008, the Potosí Unity Front , led by Enrique Leytón and including Condori, won with 94 of 169 votes.

Representation of the provinces

Despite several attempts to enlarge to the entire department of Potosí, Comcipo remains an urban organization. Congresses were called by Comcipo to integrate rural organizations in 1998, 2008, and 2010, but failed to achieve results.

Agenda

During the July-August 2010 civic strike, Comcipo advanced a six-point set of demands:

1. Delimitation of the inter-departmental border between Quillacas (Oruro) and Coroma (Potosí)
2. Installation of a cement plant in the Coroma region.
3. Begin production of the Karachipampa metallurgy plant
4. Preservation of the Cerro Rico mountain outside Potosí
5. Installation of an international airport as soon as possible
6. Attention to delayed road construction

In January 2011, Condori announced that Comcipo would press for regional ownership of shares in any lithium

Lithium

Lithium is a soft, silver-white metal that belongs to the alkali metal group of chemical elements. It is represented by the symbol Li, and it has the atomic number 3. Under standard conditions it is the lightest metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly...

 extraction enterprise working in the Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni

Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat at . It is located in the Potosí and Oruro departments in southwest Bolivia, near the crest of the Andes, and is elevated above the mean sea level. The Salar was formed as a result of transformations between several prehistoric lakes...

 and for the industrialization of lithium within the department of Potosí. He also called for a recall

Recall

Recall may refer to:* Recollection, recall from memory* Product recall* Recall election* Letter to recall sent to return an ambassador from a country, either as a diplomatic protest or because the diplomat is being reassigned elsewhere and is being replaced by another envoy* Recall to employment...

 referendum

Referendum

A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...

 on Bolivian Vice President Álvaro García Linera

Álvaro García Linera

Álvaro Marcelo García Linera is a Bolivian politician who has been Vice President of Bolivia since 2006.-Biography:He was born in Cochabamba and graduated from San Agustín High School. Then, he studied at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City and became a mathematician...

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