[NYTr] Bolivia: Indigenous majority confronts rich separatists

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Workers World - Dec 27, 2007 issue
http://www.workers.org/2007/world/bolivia-1227

Bolivia: Indigenous majority confronts rich separatists

By Dee Knight

The Indigenous majority of Bolivia mobilized massively Dec. 15-16 to
defend its gains made by the Constituent Assembly that concluded Dec.
12. Leaders of the old racist European-origin oligarchy declared
“autonomy” Dec. 15 in the eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni
and Pando. These provinces comprise more than half the national
territory, but only about a third of Bolivia’s population. They also
hold most of Bolivia’s natural gas and petroleum wealth and the richest
agricultural land.

President Evo Morales placed the armed forces on alert. Government
supporters outside Santa Cruz, the center of the “autonomy” movement,
took up arms and created blockades, according to a CNN report. Tens of
thousands of people mobilized on Dec. 15 in La Paz, the capital, in
defense of the new constitution. “We won’t permit Bolivia to be
divided,” President Morales declared to the crowd. “They must give back
the money they took from us,” he said. “We will retroactively
investigate all the big fortunes, and the corrupt are now trembling
with fear.

“Bolivia is a nation among nations,” Morales said, referring to the
diversity of Indigenous peoples whose traditions date back centuries.
“We are not a country of blue-eyed, green-eyed folks only. It’s a
pluri-national country made up of dark-skinned and white-skinned. This
new Constitution will unite us.” (CNN, Dec. 12)

Morales is a member of the Aymara nation, who together with the Quechua
people and 35 other Indigenous nationalities, make up the overwhelming
majority in this country of 9.5 million. These proud people,
descendents of the centuries-old Inca civilization, were enslaved by
the Spanish conquerors, and have remained essentially oppressed and
exploited until the current struggles, which brought Morales into
office in December 2005.

President Morales’ administration nationalized the oil and gas industry
in 2006, over the protests of the elite and their backers in the large
transnational oil companies. Now, in the new provisions to the
Constitution, the majority Indigenous communities will have local
authority, their 37 languages will become official languages of the
country, and—most horrifying to the oligarchy—they will have the right
to regain land taken from their ancestors over generations. The new
Constitution also provides for new taxation of the rich, in order to
return the national wealth to the people.

Leaders of the oligarchy boycotted the Constituent Assembly, where
these proposals were approved. But they still protested in horror at
the results. “Evo [Morales] is putting us on the road to chaos with
ideas that discriminate against people who are not indigenous,”
declared the president of the separatist Pro-Santa Cruz Committee in a
Dec. 16 interview with the New York Times. The elite “autonomy leaders”
drafted regional charters that would give provincial officials power
over natural gas royalties, agricultural policies, and police forces.
They also propose to limit migration of Indigenous people to the
eastern provinces from the Altiplano (high plain), where the majority
lives.

There is irony in the former slave owners moving to declare autonomy
after the descendents of the slaves and forced laborers have risen up
to reclaim what was stolen from them. And they seem to believe they
have a just claim for “self determination” against the new government
that for the first time in 500 years truly represents the majority of
the people. As ridiculous as it seems, the elitists are dead serious,
and appear to have confidence—possibly due to support from the giant
oil companies and the imperialists in Washington.

But Morales and the Indigenous majority are serious, too, and are ready
to fight to keep their country together and return its stolen riches to
the people. The slogan at a vigil of thousands of Indigenous miners,
peasants, neighborhood organizations and others outside the Constituent
Assembly when the new measures were announced on Dec. 12 was, “Ahora sí
empieza el cambio!” [Now, for real, the change begins!] (Indy La Paz,
Dec. 12)

Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and
distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without
royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww at workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe at workersworld.net