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Abstract
In September 2011 Bolivian police raided an encampment of several hundred indigenous people gathered to protest the government’s plan to build a road through their lands. The violence of this event broadened awareness of the TIPNIS protest in Bolivia and abroad, and sparked both a national political crisis and debate about the validity of the government’s credentials as a progressive government that supports indigenous rights. While sustaining that existing analysis has used the TIPNIS controversy to raise important questions about the government, this article questions whether current characterizations of the political dynamics and the interests of the actors involved have been overly simplified. The article demonstrates that the TIPNIS controversy reveals anew the complex and often contradictory dynamics of indigeneity in Bolivia, and argues – in contrast to most recent analysis and media coverage – that indigenous peoples in Bolivia have an intimate relationship with resource extraction. Attention to this intimate relationship and its history is important in order to grasp the claims and aspirations of these communities in the present day.
Keywords:
Notes
[1] These details are taken directly from my personal field notes. I was in Bolivia in September 2011 to carry out research for the Norwegian Research Council funded project ‘Contested Powers: Towards a Political Anthropology of Energy in Latin America.’
[2] The name commonly used in media coverage and discussion to describe the location of the raid.
[3] The other major political crisis faced by the Morales government was the controversy surrounding the hike in gas prices, or Gasolinazo, in February 2011.
[4] Morales’ public support was registered as dropping to 37 per cent (down 7%) in the month following the police raid. See http://www.zcommunications.org/bolivia-dilemmas-turmoil-transformation-and-solidarity-by-kevin-young
[5] Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
[6] Bolivia enacted a new law enshrining the legal rights of nature, ‘Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well’, in October 2012.
[7] Based on my informal conversations with leaders from both highland and lowland indigenous organizations taking part in the TIPNIS march.
[8] See, for example, Postero’s return from a position of ‘post-neoliberalism’ (2006) to one of renewed neoliberalism (2010).
[9] See, for example, http://www.fobomade.org.bo/art-1272
[11] See, for example, the campaign poster on this website: http://www.tipnisesvida.com/index.html
[12] I spent a month together with a Bolivian colleague researching community justice and gender relations within the northern part of the TIPNIS in May 2010. Results of this research are now published in McNeish and Seider (Citation2012). In the period of 2011–2013, several research trips have been made to Bolivia on behalf of several research projects.
[13] In 2001, according to the most recent census, there were then 12,388 indigenous people living in the area.
[14] Interview, September 2011.
[16] Under the current administration, 42 new areas of hydrocarbon exploitation have been approved. In expanding from 11 to 22 million hectares, the area under use for oil and gas extraction in Bolivia’s nine departments is doubled in size. See http://www.fobomade.org.bo/art-1678
[17] Interview with FOBOMADE, September 22, 11.
[20] I was informed of this during my visit to the march.
[22] See http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=780
[23] He was given a new role in the Bolivian diplomatic core.
[27] The controlled hunting of caiman, the gathering of cocoa beans and brazil nuts.
[28] http://eju.tv/2011/11/trampa-evo-saca-del-tipnis-actividades-econmicas-indgenas-ven-una-venganza-poltica/
[29] This was repeated several times during my fieldwork in the TIPNIS in 2010.
[30] ‘Bolivia’s Morales suspends road project,’ Al Jazeera, last modified 30 September 2011, accessed 21 November 2011, http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/09/2011930181931356216.html
[34] See ‘Indígenas ponen en duda los resultados de la consulta,’ Pagina Siete, 23 October 2012.
[35] See ‘Empresa de cocaleros hará el tramo 1 de la vía por el TIPNIS,’ Pagina Siete, 11 October 2012.
[37] https://nacla.org/print/8726
[38] See http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Gobernador-Beni-Pedro-Subgobernacion-TIPNIS_0_1774622583.html
[39] See, for example, http://www.isj.org.uk/?id=780 and http://www.bolpress.com/art.php?Cod=2012050713
[42] See Robinson, William I, ‘Latin America’s Left at the Crossroads,’ Al Jazeera (14 September 2011).
[43] The protestors chanted: Evo decía, Que todo cambiaría, Mentira, Mentira, La misma porquería.
[44] See, for example, http://eju.tv/2011/08/la-defensa-de-los-derechos-de-la-madre-tierra-en-el-tipnis/ and http://e360.yale.edu/feature/in_bolivia_a_battle_over_a_highway_and_a_way_of_life/2566/
[45] Silver, gold, tin, zinc, iron, oil, natural gas.
[46] Timber, coca, soya, cashew.
[47] The Andean form of community organization and membership.
[48] Mother Earth.
[49] The spirits of the ancestors alive in different aspects of the natural landscape.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
John-Andrew McNeish
John-Andrew McNeish is at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003. NO-1432 Aas, Norway (Email: [email protected]).