Huge news out of Bolivia. The largest organization of Andean indigenous communities has officially broken with Evo Morales & his MAS government. The group is CONAMAQ (Consejo Nacional de Markas y Ayllus del Qullasuyu). The specific cause had to do w/ a disagreement over whether to have a quota for indigenous representation in the legislature written into the new constitution (CONAMAQ had insisted on 70 out of 167 proposed legislators; MAS had offered a minimum of one per department). I’ve previously argued that Evo Morales was not truly an “indigenous” political figure (if there is such a thing). He certainly didn’t campaign as such until after 2002.
&mpMAS consists of a broad multi-sectoral alliance, including middle class sectors (such as Juan del Granado’s MSM); but it’s “indigenous” base was sustained by CONAMAQ ; three other organizations: CIDOB (Confederación de los Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia), the Confederación Nacional de Campesinos, and the Federación de Mujeres Campesinas Bartolina Sisa. According to CONAMAQ leaders (cited in the La Razón) article, these three groups may also follow CONAMAQ’s lead. Since many of the legislators (both in the National Congress & the Constituent Assembly) elected to represent MAS were drawn from these organizations, numerous defections are expected.
Additionally, it’s interesting that CONAMAQ’s spokesperson is quoted in La Razón as saying:
“Rechazamos las intenciones convulsivas y distractivas del gobierno de querer, a nombre de civismo popular, enfrentar a indígenas con las poblaciones interculturales urbanas de Santa Cruz, agudizando de manera irresponsable las diferencias sociales y políticas entre tierras altas y tierras bajas que cada vez quieren fracturarse más. Los indígenas no pueden servir de carne de cañón para los intereses de ningún partido ni de ningún gobierno.”[My translation:] “We reject the government’s intent to create distractions and convulsions that seek to, in the name of civic populism, create confrontations between the indigenous and intercultural urban populations of Santa Cruz, irresponsibly heightening the social and political differences between lowlands and highlands, which are constantly more fractured. The indigenous cannot be used as cannon fodder for the interests of any party or government.”
Personally, I don’t think a 42% quota for indigenous representatives is needed. Already by 2002, indigenous representatives made up about 30% of the House of Deputies (w/o any quotas). Additionally, tweaks to the electoral system could increase their numbers (there are already some relatively “gerrymandered” districts, particularly in the Altiplano). And it’s not clear that this break (between MAS & CONAMAQ) is final, either. After all, the typical pattern in Bolivian politics is confrontation first, then negotiated compromise.
But this episode demonstrates the kind of tensions that have long existed between Evo Morales (and MAS) & the indigenous communities of the country, which are often skeptical of all political parties not of their own making. It also demonstrates that “indigenousness” is a contested & complicated subject in Bolivia (where Evo Morales can in a few short years go from “campesino” to “cholo” to “indio”). Perhaps this is why Evo’s biographers often can’t agree on whether he’s Quechua or Aymara (the consensus so far suggests Aymara)—or why he hasn’t seen it necessary to clarify.
