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CHAPTER FIVE. Bolivia: Protests and Proposals
- University of Arizona Press
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Evo Morales of the MAS made history on January 22, 2006, when he became Bolivia’s first indigenous head of state. The MAS captured 54 percent of the total national vote, the only party to win an absolute majority since the country’s democratic transition. In December 2009, Morales was reelected to a second term in office with 64 percent of the total national vote. As in Ecuador, indigenous peoples in Bolivia have played a central role in recent social upheavals in the country. Through the use of parallel or solidarity protest events, indigenous and popular-sector actors have been able to effectively shut down the entire country until their demands are met. Social protests in Bolivia have increased in frequency and intensity since the late 1990s (Arce and Rice 2009; Crabtree 2005; Dangl 2007; Kohl and Farthing 2006). A sense of marginalization, frustration over failed neoliberal economic policies, and a political system that produces strong barriers to genuine participation have all contributed to the resurgence of protest politics in the country. Bolivia’s indigenous and popular movements have effectively utilized antineoliberal protest coalitions to capture state power and introduce an alternative political and economic project for the nation. Why were indigenous and popular-sector actors in Bolivia able to translate antineoliberal sentiment into partisan support? Most scholars of indigenous peoples’ parties in Latin America have suggested that permissive institutional rules and arrangements allowed indigenous groups to launch effective electoral vehicles (Collins 2004; Muñoz-Pogossian 2008; Rice and Van Cott 2006; Van Cott 2003, 2005). A more complete account of CHAPTER FIVE Bolivia Protests and Proposals 68 indigenous political dynamics, however, must also include an analysis of how historic patterns of popular political incorporation frame and constrain collective identities and organizational repertoires. This chapter suggests that Bolivia’s historic mode of popular incorporation proved conducive to the eventual politicization of ethnic identities. The decline in class-based forms of organizing and mobilizing that followed the onset of market reforms in the mid-1980s has been met by renewed emphasis on indigenous identity as a collective action frame. Concurrently, Bolivia’s weak and ineffective channels of social representation have exacerbated state–society tensions and led to elevated protest levels. Evo Morales and the MAS were able to capitalize on these dynamics, channeling grassroots mobilizing efforts into the electoral system to produce far-reaching and durable change in Bolivia’s political topology. The chapter begins with an in-depth examination of the shift in the pattern of protest activity that occurred as a result of the introduction of neoliberalism. Bolivia has a long history of popular rebellion and revolt. It is the only country in South America to experience a social revolution. It is also the only country with a majority indigenous population. Bolivia has traditionally had a strong and well-organized civil society, including a militant labor-union movement that grew out of the country’s mineralexport economy. The neoliberal-inspired shock-therapy program of 1985 dramatically curtailed the power of organized labor. The consolidation of market reforms in the 1990s further demobilized civil society. The late 1990s, however, saw a dramatic surge in protest events on the part of new social and political actors that ultimately led to the unraveling of the neoliberal model. The second section of the chapter delves into the historical conditions that shaped these events. The final section examines the new indigenous activism in Bolivia and the ways in which indigenous and popular-sector groups have managed to bridge electoral and protest politics in the country. Market Reform and Protest Activity Neoliberalism officially arrived in Bolivia on August 29, 1985, when newly elected President Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1952–1956, 1960–1964, 1985– 1989) of the MNR launched Supreme Decree 21060. Ironically, Paz Estenssoro and his party had been the vanguard of the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952 that introduced a state-led model of development. Introduced as he entered on his third presidential term, Paz Estenssoro’s so-called New Economic Policy (NEP) was one of the most draconian neoliberal economic programs in the history of Latin America. His administration inherited a country on the brink of disaster. In 1982, the collapse Bolivia 69 [100.25.40.11] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 11:01 GMT) in commodity prices and the halt in the flow of foreign capital, which were fallout from the international debt crisis, sent Bolivia’s economy into a tailspin . By 1985, inflation had risen to an annualized...