The Santa Cruz Autonomía Movement in Bolivia: A Case of Non-indigenous Ethnic Popular Mobilization?

Abstract

This paper discusses the recent autonomy movement in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, within a theoretical framework typically reserved for ‘ethnic’ political or social movements. The paper begins with a brief chronology of the Santa Cruz autonomía movement as it developed into a powerful political oppositional movement during the rise of Evo Morales. In doing so, the movement's leaders consciously adopted the organizational tactics and forms of discourse typically identified with traditional, indigenous-popular Bolivian social movements. As such, the Santa Cruz case both highlights the fluidity of multiculturalism and challenges our notions of how ethnic identity is publicly constructed.

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Dino Palacios (Universidad Mayor de San Andres) and Gabrielle Kuenzli (Walker Institute, University of South Carolina) for inviting me to present preliminary versions of this paper at their respective institutions. I also thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Disclosure Statement

The author has no financial interest or benefit from the publication of this manuscript.

Notes

1. This is problematic in two ways: first, because it implies that other social groups lack ‘ethnicity.' But second because it reduces multiculturalism to something similar to the earlier ‘integrationist' tendencies in Latin America that sought to accommodate ‘Indians' into the accepted, dominant culture. If multiculturalism is to mean the living together of culturally pluralist societies, then it becomes imperative to approach all groups as having a cultural—or ‘ethnic'—identity.

2. The so-called ‘Gas War' was a series of sustained popular mobilizations that lasted throughout September and October 2003. Although the protests involved a variety of divergent social movements, by October these had been reduced to a common opposition to government plans to export natural gas to the United States through a Chilean port (what Laclau, 2005 might call an ‘empty signifier').

3. The original petition included 498,039 signatures, but was reduced through the verification process by the National Electoral Court (see Casazola, 2009, p. 15).

4. Because it is technically an ‘apolitical' organization, CPSC members cannot be publicly elected officials.

5. According to the convocation law, the Constituent Assembly was charged with approving departmental autonomy for departments in which the ‘Sí' (Yes) vote won.

6. On 29 June 2008, voters in Chuquisaca elected a new prefect, Savina Cuéllar, after the MAS prefect resigned over a regional crisis there (see Centellas, 2010b). The new prefect was exempt from the recall vote.

7. The UJC was founded during a 1957 revolt against the MNR government's land reform policies. That revolt (in which Roca and Coronado died) was put down by a combination of military forces and Andean campesino militias.

8. The 1957–1959 Once Por Ciento movement demanded that producing departments retain 11% of oil and gas rents.

9. A ‘mojon' is simply a post, literally a boundary marker. But within Santa Cruz there is a long-standing legend of a ‘mojon con cara' (a post with a face) that stood protectively near the city square until it was accidentally destroyed during street work in 1947. More recently, the CPSC and other autonomía supporters have sponsored the installation of numerous mojones etched with pro-autonomy phrases and symbols.

10. ‘Camba' identity has a complex relationship to ‘Cruceño' identity. There are two ways to differentiate the two. The first major difference is that ‘camba' includes not only Santa Cruz, but also Beni and Pando. In fact, the Nación Camba movement explicitly identifies these three departments (but not Tarija)) as part of one ‘nation' that deserves independence from Bolivia. Another major difference is that ‘camba' has typically been used to mean something like ‘cholo' in the Andes, a person of mestizo origins. Increasingly, however, most Cruceños also identify themselves as Cambas, at least culturally.