Performing the ‘wounded Indian’: a new platform of democracy and human rights in Bolivia’s autonomy movement

Abstract

This article examines Right-wing political performances in the Bolivian Eastern lowlands where regional elites claim to be living under the authoritarian dictatorship of Left-leaning President Evo Morales. We analyse how regional elites advocate for political autonomy through embodied and spectacular performances linked to discourses of indigeneity, human rights and democracy. Right-wing leaders try to legitimise their claims for justice and territorial control by strategically aligning themselves with lowland ‘Indians’ – who are equally wounded by Morales’s plan to run a massive highway though their communities and territories. Through theatrical exhibits in the plaza and a spectacular assembly spotlighting an indigenous representative as an emblematic hero of TIPNIS, regional elites perform a shared history of marginalisation, while simultaneously presenting themselves as ‘saviors’. We argue, however, that there is a dark side to these performances, as they elide long histories of racialised labour and economic injustice in the region.

Keywords:

• Right-wing performance
• regionalism
• human rights
• democracy
• indigeneity

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the sharp comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers. Thanks also to the members of the Civic Committee of Santa Cruz, NGO representatives from Fundacion Tierra, CIPCA and CIDOB for their time and generous support. Towson University provided Nicole Fabricant with a Faculty Research and Development Grant (FDRC) to partially fund research for this article. Postero is grateful for a grant from the University of California Center for New Racial Studies, which funded this research.

Notes

1. There are several organisations that have led this Right-wing campaign. The Pro Comite Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz Civic Committee) and their female counterpart are unelected civic organisations dominated by business and agro-industrial elites, who have a long history of resisting a centralised form of government. The CAO (Cámara Agropecuario del Oriente) is an association of large-scale producers in Santa Cruz. CAINCO (La Cámara de Industria, Comercio, Servicios y Turismo de Santa Cruz) is an organisation which comprises various business sectors (industry, commercial and tourism).

2. Camba is a Guaraní word used to describe a dark-skinned person tied by debt-peonage to a hacienda or plantation. The term has been appropriated and re-signified by urban elites to refer to all people (including Europeans and mestizos) from Santa Cruz and other lowland regions (Fabricant 2009).

3. Morales’s government has sparked substantial debate about the nature of Bolivian democracy (De la Fuente 2010, Postero 2010). A series of human rights reports details the ways in which Morales has attempted to legitimise his use of force (see Fabricant and Postero 2013).

4. We thank Eulogio (Chiqui) Nuñez of CIPCA Santa Cruz for this point.

5. It is quite common to hear Cruceños describe some indigenous communities as pobre indigenas in need of help or rescue. There is a materiality to this ‘patrimonial’ discourse of Indians in need of rescue, which stems from indigenous debt-peonage relationships on haciendas.

6. Rubén Costas was elected in 2005. He has been increasingly critical of the government of Evo Morales because of political, ideological and regional differences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicole Fabricant

NICOLE FABRICANT is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Towson University in Maryland.

Nancy Postero

NANCY POSTERO is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of California, San Diego.