Bolivia's rebellious crescent

Bolivia got very close to falling apart this fall; observers used terms like ‘balkanisisation’ and ‘the Kosovo-option’. Thanks to an intervention of the South-American union, a secession of the rebellious crescent region could be avoided and the government received the necessary fiat from the opposition to organise a referendum on the new constitutional law.
The cause of the recent conflict in Bolivia lies with the ample victory of president Evo Morales in the referendum of the 10th of August, where Bolivians voiced their opinion in favour of the prolonging of the president’s and the governors’ mandate. After the referendum, a new public vote to be held at the end of January 2009 was announced by the government. Its objective is the approval of the new constitution. The opposition, aiming at a systematic boycott of the reform process of Morales’ party Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS), reacted with an aggressive plan of action. For weeks, the  atmosphere between the government and the opposition was extremely hostile.
UNTIL BLOOD IS SPILLED
The Bolivian opposition is mainly situated in the eastern departments of the country forming the so called Media Luna or Demi Moon, namely Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni, Pando, Chuquisaca and Sucre. Bolivia’s white oligarchy and families of large landowners live here. Traditionally, they dominate politics and economy, with characters like Branco Marinkovic, leader of the citizen’s committee
of Santa Cruz and also one of the leading figures in the opposition against the MAS. The opposition party Podemos is also rooted there, with Jorge Quiroga as head, one of the pupils of ex-dictator Banzer. When Banzer regained presidential power in 1997,  he continued neo-liberal reforms and privatisations with Quiroga on his side. Now, they see their affairs threatened by the new constitution. In a response to Morales’ victory in august, they organised their own referendum about autonomy for their department.

During the increasing tensions, roads were barricaded and gas installations damaged. On several locations paramilitary groups and youth militia clashed with MAS-supporters, until on the 11th  of September eventually blood was spilled. That morning in El Porvenir (in the department of Pando), governor Leopoldo Fernández commanded paramilitia to use brute force on supporters of the governing party MAS. Thirty deaths was the sad result.

It was the last straw; immediately after the events the state of emergency was proclaimed, governor Fernández was put behind bars and US- ambassador Philip Goldberg was discharged. Goldberg was thought to stimulate the Media Luna to separate. Previously he was ambassador in Kosovo and there as well he was accused of stirring up the separatist movement.

At the urgent request of the South-American Union Unasur, the government and the opposition could be brought together for negotiations to cool down the situation. The attempt turned out to be successful as on the 22th of October a fiat for the referendum on the new constitution of the 25th of Januari 2009 was given by the National Congress – the MAS has the majority in the parliament but the senate is lead by the opposition. On the same moment, the people will vote about the maximum extend of large landownership.
REVOLUTION STEP BY STEP
During the recent negotiations with the opposition, the Bolivian government had to make significant concessions. The agreement provides general elections on the 6th of December 2009, but Evo Morales had to make the commitment to stick to only more candidacy. A third term of office is no longer an option, although it originally would have been possible following the new constitution.
Changes have also been made regarding the interpretation of decentralisation and autonomy, the land reforms, jurisdictional reforms and the management of natural resources.

The opposition requested for instance the prohibition for indigenous people to access natural resources – at the moment a lot of indigenous communities live in regions known to have gas reserves under its soil. Another demand was that everything to do with landownership and agriculture had to become the responsibility of the departments and rules about confiscation of land had to be removed from the constitution. These were all elements considered to be beyond discussion for the government after the whole constitutional law constructing process.

In the end, both parties had to make concessions. The opposition was persuaded with the promise that no confiscations will take place and that the rules on maximum size of landownership will not be retroactive.
CLASH OF TWO MODELS OF SOCIETY
It is clear that between the project of the party in charge and that of the opposition lies a wide gap. On top of that is the Bolivian opposition not to be considered as a complete homogeneous block. On the one hand there are characters like the governor of Pando who incarnates the feudal culture of the large landowners, on the other hand is the main concern for dominant groups in Tarija and Santa-Cruz to ensure the wealth coming from their massive gas supplies. Santa Cruz focuses on large landownership and agribusiness in these times of growing demand for soya and other agricultural products. And Sucre is the historical capital with a white elite that wants to distantiate itself from indigenous people and poor farmers.

What units the Media Luna are the economical interests and the fear of loosing influence. The region struggles with a long history of unsolved problems. On top of the deeply rooted racism between white and native people, there is the unequal division of  land. The only way to face that problem according to the MAS, is to give the natives land for them to see to their own needs. For decades guarani - communities in the region ask a clear demarcation of their territory but no proof of ownership has yet been recognised.

In the period from 1953 to 2002 some progress has been made regarding the redivision of property but the inequalities stay. The government of Evo Morales has now started the reorganising of land, finalising the land registers and the allocation of state property to poor farmers. But officials of the Institute for Land Reform who come to survey land, are being chased with sticks and bullets in certain regions. Armed men hired by large landowners make their jobs impossible.
2009 will, once again, be a tense political year for the Andes country. After the acceptance of the constitution, quite a lot needs to be shaped into law language, a process guaranteed to heat up discussions in the Congress. The bloodshed in Pando and the intervention of Unasur has considerably weakened the prestige of the opposition. But non the less they hope to score better than Morales in the December 2009 elections.

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