Fratricide identities: the land conflict between indigenous Leco and peasant unions in Apolo, Bolivia

Abstract

This article explores processes of identity-building and claims-making by rural social groups in the context of recent multicultural and plurinational reforms in Bolivia, focusing on an analysis of the narrative apparatus that underpins a paradigmatic land conflict between an indigenous organization and a peasant union in the Bolivian Amazon. The institutional shift that characterized the country after Evo Morales’ election has been reflected and absorbed at the local level. Here, however, the new claims for recognition cannot be understood only through the –often abused – lenses of ‘resistance struggle’, ‘cultural oppression’ and ‘political discrimination of minorities’. In fact, these claims are the result of a complex interaction between institutional changes, and social actors’ ability to respond to them, proposing powerful narratives that provide society and individuals with new shared meanings and mechanisms of self-identification.

Keywords:

• land conflict
• narrative
• Bolivia
• indigenous
• peasant
• identity

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Margo Huxley for proofreading the article. I also gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the people of Apolo for their willingness to share time and information during my fieldwork.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Translations from original documents and interviews are by the author.

2. One of the ex-officers of the Vice-Ministry in charge of the process of certification explains: ‘We recommended calling the TCO “Leco-Quechua”, to acknowledge the presence of Quechuas in the area. However, the INRA did not accept our recommendation and started the cadastral study as TCOLeco’ (interview, La Paz, 5 August 2010).

3. On 13 May 2007, the government issued a decree that authorized the exploration for, and exploitation of, energy resources in Apolo (El Diario, 2007b).

4. In 2009, a new Constitution was approved through a referendum. Among the most important innovations, Bolivia was declared a plurinational state and a regime of indigenous autonomies was recognized, moving towards the implementation of at least partial forms of self-government.

5. To chew coca leaves.

6. A similar discussion, taking place in the late 1990s in the Santuario de Quillacas municipality, is reported in McNeish (2002, p. 244).

7. Inhabitants of a wooded region far from Western civilization. It is often used with a negative meaning.

8. On the relevance of how rural communities in Bolivia draw on the past to build a narrative and image to support different strategies, interests and collective behaviors, see also McNeish (2002, p. 247).