Today will be an interesting day in Bolivia. In La Paz, the government & its supporters are celebrating the new constitution (CPE), w/ a march through the city. Meanwhile, many in Santa Cruz will celebrate the region’s self-declared autonomy. So will Beni, Pando, and Tarija. And Chuquisaca is moving in that direction, too. All five departments have either finished “autonomic statutes” or are working on them. Santa Cruz is preparing to hold its own referendum election.
Technically, of course, none of the autonomic statutes are “legal” (in the sense that the state empowered people to draft them). Then again, very little of the process by which the CPE was approved was “legal” (in the sense that it followed established procedures set by law), either. So if the measure of validity is “popular” legitimacy (as if a Rousseauian “popular will” can ever be divined), then it’s going to be a very prickly business to determine which is more legitimate—or if they both are.
Meanwhile, the government is sending as many as 400 police to Santa Cruz & reinforcing its garrisons elsewhere. Social organizations loyal to MAS have also mobilized against Santa Cruz, closing the city off from the rest of the country w/ road blockades. So, even as we head into the holidays & the “typical” protest season has long come to an end, the tension continues to escalate.
