Bolivia: Making the Leap from Local Mobilization to National Politics

...The fall of "communism" in Eastern Europe erased the prospect of a socialist utopia, and at the same time, showed how ethnic problems could escalate if they were not confronted justly and promptly...

...n August, 1993, another milestone was reached: Victor Hugo Cirdenas, an Aymara leader, became vice-president of Bolivia...

...Andean indigenous organizations now recognize that "territory" signifies one's own space in which to live, not simply a parcel of land to cultivate...

...They distrust the law partly for political reasons (including the World Bank's involvement in formulating the law, and opposition from Trotskyist leaders of the teachers' union), but above all because they are afraid of losing the job security that they once had...

...The movement continues to grapple with the question of how to translate together at a solstice celebration in Sipe Sipe in the highland abamba...

...On October 12, 1992, the movement's ability to organize people in eye-catching events was truly impressive, especially in the Andean cities...

...His charismatic fighost alone at the movement's apex...

...While the leadership of the indigenous movement has been suspicious of the new law, the response at the grassroots has been more varied...

...This is the onst difficult-task facing this governause he is part of the government, the e-President...

...First of all, difficulties in the registration and voting process dissuaded many from casting a ballot...

...Within the indigenous movement itself, indigenous organizations have grown stronger by forging alliances across national borders...

...The marchers rejected the gov- ernment's offers, which they considered inadequate...

...Other more centrist parties with greater prospects at the ballot box were quick to follow suit...

...For example, the more than 20,000 Aymaras of Jesds de Machaga, where I live, don't constitute a municipality, as would be obvious...

...3. After the 1993 elections, the MBL entered the governmental coalition and lost influence in the CSUTCB leadership, which is now in the hands of groups such as the coca growers...

...For instance, the zada administration created a National 18NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 18 >_ m NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASREPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS Secretariat of Ethnic, Gender and Generational Affairs...

...Since when have leftist parties been interested in not only proletarians, but indigenous peoples too...

...The state has not tried to improve capacity of these sectors...

...The grassroots indigenous and campesino organizations had been struggling to achieve this kind of power for many years...

...Because of this requirement, we can only know how many votes and council members each "party" got...

...The has not created indigenous peoples of the lowlands, who only recently him who coul entered the political game, are more pragmatic...

...The law ostensibly decentralizes power and resources to new rural municipalities...

...2. The United Confederation of Campesino Farmers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) has deepest roots and the strongest support among Quechuas and Aymaras...

...Xavier Albo is a researcher at the Center for Research and They continued walking...

...They will need to master the difficult art of the game of politics...

...The movement's fears of Some indigenous leaders fear that the Popular Participation Law is a veiled attempt by government to co-opt indigenous groups...

...Wiphala flags stand on the right...

...Headed by allies of the Vice-President, this government agency's principal function is to develop policies and legislative proposals in these areas...

...The environmental movement, which often sees indigenous peoples as its natural allies, especially in areas of virgin rainforest, has grown in global importance...

...The movement itself is divided about the wisdom of collaborating with the government, and has much to learn about how to succeed at the traditional game of politics...

...Then from the northern city of Trinidad to La Paz in President Jaime Paz Zamora, accompanied by a delega- a historic "march for territory and dignity" in 1990...

...There was a significant increase in the number of indigenous candidates (including many women) running for local office throughout the country...

...In concrete terms, the majority of the countryside was a no-man's land...

...The government has dealt with the most glaring disfunctions by creating subordinate "submayoralties" (six of them are classified as "indigenous," in which the traditional authority is at the same time the submayoralty...

...4 nous communit Cirdenas' decision to join the MNR ticket should be is provide basi placed in the context of the complex relationship sectors (among between the state and Bolivia's indigenous movement...

...This more intense contact between indigenous peoples of the Andes and the Amazon lowlands refined the ideology of the movement...

...The mere fact that an Aymara was chosen to run with Gonzalo SAnchez de Lozada, the presidential candidate of the MNR-the same party that years ago argued for the "campesinoization" of the indigenous populationwas an eloquent sign of the times...

...When the ASP was denied recognition by the Electoral Tribunal, it had to borrow the acronym of the deteriorating United Left party in order to participate in the elections...

...author of 20 books on linguistics, and social and rural issues in As they crossed the Andean ridge at 15,800 feet, the Bolivia and the Andean region...

...governments, which have been more concerned about eradicating coca crops than about capturing cocaine drug traffickers...

...International environmentalists have been able to use this power to pressure multilateral lending institutions to require countries to demonstrate that they are taking indigenous and environmental NACI6A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 16REPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS interests into account as a precondition for international loans...

...The PPL has awoken real interest in some groups, while others fear that it is a veiled attempt by the government to co-opt indigenous groups...

...The marchers also succeeded in getting legal recognition of nine areas covering over seven million acres...

...Fueling such suspicions was the memory that 30 years ago the same MNR had pulled such a maneuver on the unions...

...In these instances, the already existing traditional organizations have not been recognized...

...First of all, he has been of Beni, located in the Bolivian lowlands...

...We don't need to become OTBs...

...Because of the distance from residences to polling booths and the many bureaucratic tangles, rural absenteeism was between 40% and 60% of registered voters (compared with 35% of the national total...

...About 700 men and women from a dozen low- route to the capital city to protest logging on indigenous land indigenous groups walked over 400 miles lands and to demand legal rights to these lands...

...The group won 16 of the 40 municipalities in Cochabamba, and came in second in five others...

...This, of course, runs contrary to the law's ostensible intent...

...Now, won't it be the same with the OTBs...

...Bolivia: Making the Leap from Local Mobilization to National Politics 1. See Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui, "Aymara Past, Aymara Future," in NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol...

...The influence of coca producers is also it for a few rec more direct in the CSUTCB...

...Before, they wanted to convert us from Aymaras to campesinos, from first peoples to unionists," says Juan de la Cruz Wilca, a top leader of the CSUTCB and the COB...

...To eliminate misunderstandings, the Secretariat of Popular Participation decided to scrap the term OTB in the registration forms in 1995...

...When they arrived at their final destination-the cathedral in La Paz's central plaza-the old drummer who had led the entire march dropped to his knees, kissed the ground, and collapsed In August, 1993, another milestone was reached: Victor Hugo Cardenas, an Aymara leader, became vice-president of Bolivia...

...Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as sectors of the post-Vatican II Catholic Church have adopted a focus on indigenous rights...

...its local successes and attention-grabbing events into actions that have real impact at the national level...

...The event turned into a fiasco, however, with each group fearing the political manipulation of the other...

...Compadre Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 199617 Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 17REPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS Palenque," CONDEPA's leader, appealed to the grassroots with his radio and television programs in Aymara...

...In addition, the current administration has spearheaded a number of initiatives, including a Popular Participation Law, which have the potential to further indigenous rights...

...That 35-day procession managed to shake up public opinion in this country of seven million inhabitants, four million of whom speak Quechua or Aymara and some 200,000 of whom speak one of the 30 languages of the lowlands...

...After all, just four decades ago, the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR) and its agrarian reform of 1953 discouraged the use of terms such as "indio" and "indigena" with the intent of encouraging all Bolivians to identify themselves as "campesinos" within a modern, homogeneous nation...

...As a consequence, certain leftist parties began to incorporate into their discourse an ethnic component, which Kataristas and lowland indigenous peoples had already been employing for some time...

...A Chimani family stands outside their hut along the Mamore River the CSUTCB because of the arduous struggle they have waged against both the Bolivian and the U.S...

...Bolivia now has an Aymara vice-president...

...4. See Xavier Alb6, "And from Kataristas to MNRistas" in Donna Lee Van Cott, ed., Indigenous Peoples and Democracy in Latin America (New York: St...

...An Aymara had never before been invited to assume such a high position, especially with such good prospects of success...

...With or without these changes in the law, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia now have new ground rules which-for better or worse-have transformed the playing field...

...On its face, the Popular Participation Law contains some noteworthy innovations...

...The first article now makes explicit reference to the pluriethnic, pluricultural and plurilingual (though not plurinational) character of the country...

...By contrast, On the politi there is strong opposition to the government among the take advantage leadership of the CSUTCB of the Andean area, effective indige These divergent stances vis-ai-vis the state reflect the ure appears aln different histories of Bolivia's indigenous groups...

...The subject of ethnic identity was also rendered more precise after heated debates about the validity of such terms as "indio" (embraced by a small more urban minority), "indigena" (used more by the lowland groups), "pueblo" and even "nation...

...One key change in the wider context was the collapse of the class-based model of the traditional left...

...When the legislative deputies decided to modify the Bolivian Constitution three years ago, they agreed not to touch a constitutional restriction which required that all candidates for political office be presented by an accredited political party...

...A year after the law was approved, some 10,500 community organizations had registered with the government, equivalent to only half of the estimated national total, and only 140 of the 308 municipalities had established their oversight committees...

...The great fear of many grassroots organizations was rooted in the law's use of the generic name Territorial Base Organizations (OTB) to refer to any of the traditional organizations so recognized...

...Promotion of the Campesino (CIPCA) in La Paz, Bolivia...

...Almost nobody, not even the Electoral Tribunal itself, knows how many of those elected are really party members and how many are indigenous people preselected locally who had to strike deals with some party in order to be legally eligible to run...

...As a result, in some places, the political initiative has remained in the hands of the parties and, in others, the candidates pre-selected by local organizations had to negotiate with one or another party to be accepted as part of its ticket...

...To make further progress, they will have to go beyond the realm of eye-catching mobilizations and master the difficult art of the game of politics...

...Of course, the reality is always more complex than it first appears...

...Indigenous people marched from their communities on the periphery into the urban centers in Aymaras chew coca symbolic takeovers...

...ias does not see this as a priority, or he been able to do so...

...In turn, the lowland indigenous groups, for whom this broader meaning of "territory" was always more apparent, now better understand the legal implications of the struggle over land...

...It does this by giving these traditional organizations legal standing and by delegating to them the role of supervising the execution of municipal plans...

...In 1992, two years after the 35-day march, the "500 Years of Resistance"-the continent-wide indigenous response to uncritical celebrations of the Quincentenary -was commemorated...

...Let them recognize us as we are...

...The wiphala no longer belonged to the Aymara alone...

...The CIDOB of the lowlands has been more will- indigenous Vic ing to collaborate with the government...

...A cholita (a person of indigenous descent who lives in the city), Loza was the first female national deputy to wear a pollera, the traditional clothing of indigenous women...

...The profusion of department of Coch wiphalas in the central plazas looked like forests, overwhelming the sparse presence of the Bolivian national flag...

...He is the They continued walking...

...According to the 1992 census, more than 50% of Bolivian women were not even registered to vote...

...The number who were actually elected, however, was fewer...

...2 They wanted to mark this year--during which indigenous issues were in the public eye-with the creation of an "Assembly of Nationalities" to better coordinate the indigenous movement...

...In Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 19 Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 19REPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS addition to this seed money, the government can grant additional funds earmarked for the execution of the municipal plans...

...As a consequence, the traditional organizations' initial mistrust is gradually disappearing...

...The clearest case of new indigenous participation was the quasi-party Assembly for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (ASP), created by Quechua campesinos in the department of Cochabamba in association with the coca producers...

...The central innovation of the new law has been the creation of more than 300 municipalities, of which approximately three-quarters have a majority ruraland often indigenous-population...

...s vice-president, Cirdenas has maintained an ethnic discourse, full of symbolic gestures...

...Before, the only true municipalities in Bolivia were the important towns and cities...

...co-optation have some foundation...

...But for that to occur, and to make even further progress, Bolivia's indigenous peoples will have to go beyond the realm of eye-catching mobilizations, where they have already shown such skill...

...Twenty percent of state revenues is being channeled to these municipalities as a whole...

...While its name reflects the historical inertia of an earlier era, its current discourse has a strong ethnic component...

...25, No...

...From the perspective of the MRTKL, the offer of the vice-presidential post was enticing...

...The adoption of this new name and the creation of oversight committees have made many suspicious that the government really wants to liquidate traditional organizations and transform them into entities that would be compliant appendages of government...

...Ethnic consciousness in Bolivia was reawakened in the highlands in the 1970s with the Katarista Aymara movement, named after Tupaq Katari, the eighteenth-century hero who led an anti-colonial uprising in the La Paz region.' Since the 1991 march, however, the indigenous movement has assumed a much more plural character, embracing the diverse smaller indigenous groups that inhabit Bolivia and championing the right to be different, even among indigenous people themselves...

...The root of the problem will only be resolved, however, by making each municipal jurisdiction better fit the sociocultural and economic reality of the area...

...The Perhaps Cdrden CSUTCB, on the other hand, has been broadly affiliat- has simply not ed with the left and in particular the COB since the time Cdrdenas sho of the dictators...

...For the first time, the importance of indigenous roots was officially recognized in the Constitution, a big achievement in a country so marked by Spanish colonization...

...Other factors have also been influential in sparking the indigenous revival...

...sisters 15 miles from La Paz...

...exhausted...

...The first practical problem is that these new municipal jurisdictions have been demarcated according to the boundaries of the old provincial divisions, which were frequently determined without taking into account the natural groupings of the local population...

...uld, however, be given some of the credent government initiatives that are more .e indigenous cause...

...The central objective of the commemoration had been agreed upon over a year earlier by the United Confederation of Campesino Laborers of Bolivia (CSUTCB) and the Bolivian Indigenous Confederation of the Oriente, Amazon and Chaco (CIDOB), the principal organizations of the Andean region and the lowlands respectively...

...The Congress also passed an Education Reform Law on July 7, 1994, whose central objective is assuring better quality primary-school education in both the city and the countryside...

...He an indigenous circle of advisors around d be groomed for leadership roles...

...The coca producers are favorable to th currently the most mobilized and radicalized sector of SAnchez de Lo powerless to influence national eco?he government continues to follow the el, which has been damaging to indigeies...

...This accumulation of symbolic capital is important, but will, in the long run, be sterile and frustrating if the indigenous imprint on national politics doesn't go beyond that...

...He pointed out two: not demanding party affiliation in municipal elections, and facilitating the creation of indigenous municipalities...

...As vice-president, C.rdenas also serves as president of the Congress...

...Their best prospects of success are at the local level, where it is not inconceivable that they will be able to take control of municipal government...

...Jt's still too early to evaluate how the new municipalities are working...

...Neoliberal economic policies have dismantled mines and many factories, debilitating the once-powerful workers' movement organized in the Central Obrero Boliviano (COB), and weakening the organizational base of left-wing parties...

...It's also known that the MBL, now a junior partner in the governmental alliance, showed a great deal of flexibility in allowing Quechua candidates in the south of the country to run on its ticket...

...Indigenous peoples have been particularly receptive to two components: the law's bilingual multicultural focus and its establishment of educational advisory boards at different levels that will make proposals and give communities a measure of control over teachers...

...The government's neoliberal agenda remains at fundamental odds with indigenous interests...

...However, their involvement in the process was not automatic, especially in certain Andean regions, because of the organizations' wariness of the government's true intentions...

...At one event, he invited an old Aymara woman to sit in the presidential chair...

...The consolidation of democracy in the 1980s opened up space for a greater spectrum of actors and perspectives...

...In fundamental ways, Cirdenas' vice-presidency has been an exercise in the department in futility...

...Instead, they belong to the distant city of Viacha, some 50 miles away, which is almost an annex to metropolitan La Paz...

...The principal leaders of the CSUTCB were linked to the Movement for a Free Bolivia (MBL), a party of Marxist and progressive origins that would later ally itself with neoliberal forces...

...W hat made this indigenous resurgence possible...

...However, the teachers, who will be primarily responsible for implementing the new initiatives, have also been the most resistant...

...The municipal elections in December, 1995-the first under the new lawserved, however, as a preliminary test of the degree to which the new structure gives indigenous peoples greater access to at least local power...

...What impelled this transformation of the relationship between the government and Bolivia's indigenous peoples...

...The legislators left the restriction alone because no political party wanted to give up a privilege that it already had...

...Months before the December elections, I asked Carlos Hugo Molina, the independent director of the Secretariat of Popular Participation, what changes he would incorporate in the new law if it were in his hands...

...Will legislators accept these...

...ties are the wor The leadership of the CIDOB and CSUTCB, the two the productive most representative indigenous organizations in biggest-and n Bolivia, have opposing attitudes toward the govern- ment and, becy ment...

...In a number of places, the local authorities have wanted to control the oversight committees and have even set up their own OTBs linked to their party interests...

...3 Other sectors were closer to political groups such as the Campesino Grassroots Movement and the Communitarian Axis (now the Pachakuti Axis), which had split from the Marxist parties and were less open to striking deals with the right...

...tion of cabinet ministers and parliament leaders, went Over the course of 35 days, they trekked from the to meet the procession mid-route at the small sub-trop- Amazon rainforest through the snow-capped Andes on ical hamlet of Yolosa...

...Cirdenas agreed to run, apparently believing that he nomic policy...

...These funds are being distributed in proportion to the population of each municipality...

...Martin's Press and the Inter-American Dialogue, 1994...

...Now, each square foot of national territory is part of a municipality, and those that live within its perimeters have the responsibility to choose and control their authorities...

...The 1992 experience taught Bolivia's indigenous movement that conspicuous mobilizations were much easier to pull off than the slow work involved in creating a solid and representative organization...

...Why did the president and his cabinet feel obliged to go to the jungle in 1990 to talk with the marchers...

...This is how the new concept of "pueblos originarias" (or "naciones originarias") was coined and began to be popularized...

...Cirdenas was the head of the Tupaj Katari Revolutionary Movement of Liberation (MRTKL), practically the only remaining Katarista party of the many that existed in the 1980s...

...Cdrdenas has taken advantage of the few brief moments in which he has served as interim president to play up this symbolism...

...The presence of his wife, Lidia Katari, who also wears a pollera, plays perhaps an even more important role...

...In the midst of wiphalas Vol XXIX, No 5 MARCH/APRIL 1996 15REPORT ON INDIGENOUS MOVEMENTS (Aymara flags) rippling in the wind and the sound of pututus (ceremonial horns), the two groups sealed a solidarity pact with the ritual sacrifice of a llama...

...The most the government has done c social services to the country's poor which the rural indigenous communist off...

...Representatives of the lowland indigenous groups were present at the principal event in La Paz, which should have been followed by the first meeting of the Assembly of Nationalities...

...marchers were greeted by their Aymara brothers and Translated from the Spanish by NACLA...

...The party also cashed in on the ethnicity of CONDEPA's principal legislative deputy, Remedios Loza...

...As a consequence, the party won 15 of the 25 rural mayoralties in the department of Chuquisaca...

...The most important piece of legislation is the new Popular Participation Law (PPL), which in the short term could open the door for greater indigenous participation in the government...

...Concrete political differences also split the movement...

...1 could strengthen the entire indigenous movement from neoliberal mod' the office of the vice-presidency...

...On another occasion, the government palace was inundated with children from the Quechua, Aymara and Guaranf terroritories in a ceremony to mark the closing of the experimental phase of an intercultural and bilingual education program, which has since been extended to other parts of the country...

...Bolivia's oldest and most powerful party finally appeared to realize the important role that the ethnic issue played at the national level and among potential voters...

...For one thing, it treats the diverse traditional organizations of indigenous and campesino communities-such as ayllus (broader Andean communities), tentas (Guaranf communities), cabildos (councils) and unions with their traditional authorities-as participating actors in Bolivian democracy...

...Since that 1990 mobilization, the indigenous movement in Bolivia has made significant strides...

...We already have our own statute...

...it had become the flag of the entire indigenous movement and the symbol of a new national utopia...

...The second difficulty was more political in nature...

...That same afternoon, the marchers arrived en masse in La Paz, cheered on by thousands of city residents who lined the streets to welcome them...

...This outcome is in part the result of the fact that consciousness about political participation and skill in the political game are not acquired overnight...

...With its checkerboard matrix of the seven colors of the rainbow, the wiphala nicely illustrates the idea of a pluriethnic and plurinational country...

...The MNR no doubt selected CBrdenas in part because it feared the growing competition of the catch-all populist party, Conscience of the Country (CONDEPA), especially in the urban districts of La Paz populated by Aymara migrants...

...Some divined a good omen in the sudden change of weather from rain and snow to radiant sunshine...

...3 (December, 1991...

...The main limitations, however, are structural, which have historical roots...

...Before the groups had arrived at any kind of working agreement, a torrential downpour effectively ended both the gathering and the proposed Assembly of Nationalities, which has been shelved since then...

...Despite the striking spectacle, the central political objective of all these mobilizations failed...

...From those two posts, he no doubt helped win approval for the modification of the Constitution in 1994...

...cal front, Cdrdenas has been unable to of his position to build a unified and nous organization...