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8. Clashing Cosmologies and Constitutional Contradictions
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164 The preamble to the 2009 Bolivian Constitution reads as follows: In immemorial times mountains arose, rivers were displaced, lakes were formed. Our Amazonia, our Chaco, our highlands and our plains and valleys were covered by greenness and flowers. We populated this sacred Mother Earth with different faces, and since then we understood the current plurality of all things and our diversity as beings and cultures. This is how we formed our towns, and we never understood racism until we suffered it since the terrible times of colonization. The Bolivian people, of plural composition, since the depth of history, inspired in the battles of the past, in the indigenous anticolonial uprising, in independence, in the popular liberation fights, in the Indigenous, social, and union marches, in the water and October wars [Gas War of October 2003], in the battles for land and territory, and with the memory of our martyrs, built a new State. A State based in respect and equality among all, with principles of sovereignty, dignity, complementarity, solidarity, harmony, and equity within the distribution and redistribution of the social product, with the predomination of the search to live well; with respect to the economic, social, legal, political, and cultural plurality of the inhabitants of this land; in collective coexistence with access to water, work, education, health, and housing for everyone. We left the colonial, republican, and neoliberal State in the past. We assumed the historical challenge to collectively build a Social Unitary Chapter Eight Clashing Cosmologies and Constitutional Contradictions Clashing Cosmologies and Constitutional Contradictions · 165 State of Plurinational Communitarian Law, which integrates and articulates the purposes of advancing toward a Bolivia that is democratic, productive, carrier, and inspirer of peace, committed to integral development and with the free determination of its people. We, men and women, through the Constituent Assembly and with the original power of the people, manifest our commitment to the unity and integrity of the country. Complying with the mandate of our people, with the strength of our Pachamama and giving thanks to God, we refound Bolivia. Honor and glory for the martyrs of this constituent and liberating feat that has made this new history possible. (translation by Valle V. et al. 2010, with errors corrected by author) As its preamble might suggest, Bolivia’s 2009 constitution has been heralded as one of the most progressive charters in Latin America. In this chapter, I explore the paradox that while the document grants important new rights for Indigenous peoples and the environment, it has internal contradictions and has been violated by various extractive projects pursued by the administration of President Evo Morales. I first look at some of the historical origins of the constitution, highlighting the importance of mobilization during the 2000–2005 anti-neoliberal rebellion. I then review key conflicts over consultation and consent, showing how Indigenous peoples have proactively used International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 169 and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) to challenge the state’s rights regarding development. Passage of Bolivia’s 2009 constitution resulted from many years of organizing on the part of Indigenous peoples and various social movements. Intense mobilization to rewrite the constitution took place during the antineoliberal rebellion from 2000 to 2005. In 2002, mirroring the Ecuadorian experience, Bolivian Indigenous organizations, supported by the Center for Juridical Studies and Social Investigation (Centro de Estudios Jurídicos e Investigación Social, CEJIS) and other organizations, demanded a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution, echoing a call made by popular movements during the 2000 water war. Mobilization around this end culminated in 2002 in the March for Popular Sovereignty, Territory, and Natural Resources, which led to an agreement with the government and political parties with parliamentary representation that a national constituent assembly was viable (CEJIS 2010). In the subsequent three years, as the Movement Toward Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo, MAS) party consolidated power, election of a constituent assembly to draft a new [44.192.53.34] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 19:21 GMT) 166 · From Enron to Evo constitution became one of the central pillars of Morales’s platform. Six months after Morales became president, 255 representatives (constituyentes) were elected to the Assembly, 137 of them from the MAS. Heated partisan conflict ensued between the government and the opposition over voting rules and document drafting. The process fell short of the transformative and participatory assembly envisioned by left and Indigenous groups during the revolutionary period of 2000–2005 (Webber 2011:99). Although the work...