Indigenous regionalism in the Andes

ABSTRACT

Top-down processes of regional integration among the Andean countries of South America are occurring alongside bottom-up processes of Indigenous regionalism in Bolivia and Ecuador that weave together Indigenous peoples’ territories across local administrative units and even national borders. In light of this dynamic, the study asks: What explains the new Indigenous regionalism in the Andes? And, what are its implications for formal processes of regional integration? The study examines the cases of the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA) and the National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyo (CONAMAQ) as examples of Indigenous regionalism in relation to the institutional innovations of the Andean Community of Nations (CAN) to incorporate Indigenous organizations into its structure and agenda. The article argues that the intersections of regional integration, the enactment of the plurinational state, and Indigenous autonomies have provided the necessary institutional space for expressions of Indigenous regionalism to flourish.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous movements
• regionalism
• COICA
• CONAMAQ
• CAN

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ^“Pueblos Indígenas.” Comunidad Andina. 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2019. http://www.comunidadandina.org/Seccion.aspx?id=78&tipo=TE&title=pueblos-indigenas.

2 ^“Derechos de los Pueblos Indígenas en la Comunidad Andina.” Comunidad Andina. 2013. Retrieved February 10, 2019. http://www.comunidadandina.org/StaticFiles/2013819121949indigenasJUL2013.pdf.

3 “Consejo Consultivo de Pueblos Indígenas.” Comunidad Andina. 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2019. http://www.comunidadandina.org/Seccion.aspx?id=45&tipo=SA..

4 “Agenda Indígena Amazónica: Territorios y Recursos Naturales.” COICA. 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2019. http://coica.org.ec/agenda-indigena-amazonica/.

5 ^“Agenda Indígena Amazónica: Ejes Organizadores.” COICA. 2018. Retrieved February 13, 2019. http://coica.org.ec/agenda-indigena-amazonica/.

6 The 2008 Ecuadorian Constitution can be downloaded at. Retrieved February 7, 2019. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Ecuador/english08.html.

7 The 2009 Bolivian Constitution can be downloaded at. Retrieved February 9, 2019. http://pdba.georgetown.edu/constitutions/bolivia/bolivia.html.

8 Víctor Condori Molle, director of communications, CONAMAQ. Author interview, La Paz, Bolivia, March 10, 2004.

9 The Unity Pact proposal is available for download at: www.cebem.org/cmsfiles/archivos/propuesta-organizaciones-indigenas.pdf

10 “Organizaciones Integrantes.” CAOI. 2014. Retrieved February 15, 2019. http://www.coordinadoracaoi.org/web/nuestra-organizacion/nuestras-organizaciones-integrantes/.

11 “Objetivos Estratégicos.” CAOI. 2014. http://www.coordinadoracaoi.org/web/nuestra-organizacion/objetivos-estrategicos/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada: [grant number Standard Research Grant (2011-2014)].

Notes on contributors

Roberta Rice

Roberta Rice is Associate Professor of Indigenous Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Canada. She is the author of The New Politics of Protest: Indigenous Mobilization in Latin America’s Neoliberal Era (University of Arizona Press, 2012) and the co-editor of Re-Imagining Community and Civil Society in Latin America and the Caribbean (Routledge, 2016) and Protest and Democracy (University of Calgary Press, 2019). Her work has appeared in the Bolivian Studies Journal; Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Comparative Political Studies; International Indigenous Policy Journal; International Journal on Minority and Group Rights; Latin American Research Review and Party Politics. She is currently completing a book project on Indigenous rights and representation in Canada and Latin America.