BOLIVIA:
Morales Gets Boost from
UN Declaration on
Indigenous Rights
By Franz Chávez
LA PAZ, (IPS) -
President Evo Morales’
dream of creating a "plurinational"
state in Bolivia, with
territorial and
administrative autonomy
for indigenous peoples,
has just received an
international boost that
is as welcome as it is
unexpected, arising as
it did from what seemed
like a never-ending
debate.
The Universal
Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous
Peoples, approved by the
United Nations after two
decades of to-ing and
fro-ing, came just as
the Aymara indigenous
president is seeing his
legitimacy questioned by
a new rightwing
opposition movement, led
by civilian groups
backed by members of the
business community and
large landowners.
The main targets of the
opposition movement’s
complaints are the
reforms that the
left-wing Morales
describes as a "cultural
and democratic
revolution."
These groups, which were
partially displaced from
power when Morales took
office, have derived new
strength and vitality
through organisations
known as civic
committees, which oppose
the political progress
of Bolivia’s 36 native
ethnic groups, who are
struggling to achieve
autonomous governments,
land and financial
resources.
The scene of the
conflict is the
Constituent Assembly,
which began to rewrite
the constitution in
Sucre in August 2006,
but whose work has been
brought to a halt by a
deep crisis. It has
fallen hostage to
pressure exerted by the
residents of Sucre, who
want the executive and
legislative branches of
government, which moved
to La Paz in 1899, to
return to the city.
In this context, the
U.N. declaration
approved on Sept. 13 has
in fact brought
international support to
indigenous peoples’
centuries-long struggle
to recover their forms
of government, their
lands, their rights, and
their own development
capability.
Until last week,
indigenous peoples’
demands were seen by
many as an isolated
aspiration, and they
were criticised by the
influential business
sectors and landowners
with vast properties in
the eastern regions of
Bolivia, where
agribusiness thrives on
non-traditional exports.
The most pessimistic
observers feared a
violent outcome to the
conflict, but the U.N.
Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous
Peoples will no doubt
cool things down, and
may oblige the
opposition sectors and
rightwing parties to a
greater degree of
openness to discussing
the complex demands of
communities that are
impoverished, isolated
and largely excluded
from political
decision-making.
In the latest national
census, carried out in
2001, which included a
question on whether
respondents identified
themselves as
indigenous, 60 percent
of Bolivia’s 9.3 million
people declared that
they were members of an
indigenous culture.
But the opposition
movement questions that
figure and says a
majority of Bolivians
are "mestizos" or of
mixed-race heritage, in
order to downplay the
numerical strength of
indigenous people in
this country.
The conditions faced by
indigenous people in
rural areas of Bolivia
stand in sharp contrast
to the human rights and
principles enshrined in
the U.N. Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples.
In the Amazon jungle
region in northern
Bolivia, along the
Brazilian border, and in
the Chaco, southeast of
La Paz, many indigenous
people still live in
conditions of slavery.
They do not own any land
and they are not paid
for their work. It is in
these areas where the
worst poverty in this
country, South America’s
poorest, is
concentrated.
As intense debates are
waged in the Constituent
Assembly about the
viability of autonomous
indigenous territories,
Article 4 of the
Declaration affirms
their "right to autonomy
or self-government in
matters relating to
their internal and local
affairs, as well as ways
and means for financing
their autonomous
functions."
Original peoples’
claims, now supported by
an international
resolution, face
resistance because 36
autonomous patches of
territory would not fit
in with the provincial
autonomy sought by four
of the country’s nine
departments (provinces),
which voted in a
referendum for autonomy.
The wealthy, fertile
natural gas-rich
departments of Santa
Cruz, Beni, Pando and
Tarija, keen on gaining
greater local control
over the administration
of natural resources and
the taxies levied on
them, are demanding a
form of autonomy that
would exclude indigenous
governments.
The tension in the
debate between
autonomous provinces or
autonomous indigenous
territories rises when
indigenous people demand
political power and
control over the natural
resources in their
territories, as
supported by Article 26
of the Declaration.
"Indigenous peoples have
the right to the lands,
territories and
resources which they
have traditionally
owned, occupied or
otherwise used or
acquired," the text
says.
Conservative sectors
claim that this would
mean dividing the
country into 36
segments, while
indigenous peoples’
representatives favour a
combination of
indigenous autonomy and
departmental autonomy.
The "plurinational
state," understood as a
united federation of
nations which would each
have land, territory and
self-government,
proposed by President
Morales, is opposed by
the supporters of
provincial autonomy, who
want the Constituent
Assembly to describe
Bolivia as a "democratic
and intercultural
state."
The latter definition
only recognises
traditions and culture,
but would deny
indigenous peoples
self-government.
But self-government is
the end that indigenous
people have been
pursuing with increasing
vigour ever since the
September-October 2003
popular uprisings
against the
administration of
rightwing president
Gonzalo Sánchez de
Lozada.
Sánchez de Lozada called
out the army to clamp
down on the
demonstrations, which
left at least 60
protesters dead and
dozens wounded, before
stepping down and
fleeing to the United
States.
Although the U.N.
declaration appears
tailor-made to Morales’
aspirations, and overall
implicitly backs a
government fighting for
a package of social and
political reforms,
Article 34 could be
difficult for the
governing Movement to
Socialism (MAS) party to
fulfil.
It says "Indigenous
peoples have the right
to promote, develop and
maintain their
institutional structures
and their distinctive
customs, spirituality,
traditions, procedures,
practices and, in the
cases where they exist,
juridical systems or
customs, in accordance
with international human
rights standards."
Taken to extremes, an
indigenous point of view
might call for the
reorganisation of the
Bolivian state and a
reversion to the scheme
of self-governing
productive communities
("ayllus") and regions,
which was in operation
before the arrival of
the Spaniards.
This form of government
only remains today among
newly strengthened
groups of Aymara and
Quechua Indians. The
model is not fully
supported by the MAS,
which is instead
inclined towards
adapting indigenous
autonomy to the present
subdivision of the
country into
departments, cantons and
municipalities.
The U.N. Declaration
will be on trial in
Bolivia and its
Constituent Assembly, to
find out whether its
goals are realistic and
viable in practice.
Meanwhile, the country’s
social unrest is a sign
that cultural diversity
is the one constant, as
Bolivia tries to
reinvent itself in
something closer to its
own image.
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