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Bolivia’s current politics fuels indigenous discrimination
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/could-bolivias-current-politics-be-fueling-indigenous-discrimination
Could Bolivia’s current
politics be fueling indigenous discrimination?
World Nov 25, 2019 5:46 PM
EST
In La Paz, Bolivia, protesters
carried the “Wiphala,” a flag representing
the nation’s 36
recognized indigenous groups, through the capital city recently as they
called for the interim president, Jeanine Áñez, to step down.
“Áñez, murderer, we want your
resignation!” they
chanted.
The protest followed the lowering
of the Wiphala from its perch in front of the national Legislative
Assembly — a gesture that speaks to the nation’s growing racial tensions that
played a role in the country’s presidential election last month and the ensuing
political turmoil.
“There’s been a great deal of racism,
a great deal of polarization, a great deal of hatred, aimed at indigenous
communities because of this election.”
Evo Morales — the first
indigenous president of Bolivia who served for more than a decade — won
reelection in October, but was immediately met with accusations of fraud and
defying constitutional term limits. In protests that followed, at
least 32 people died and more than 700 were injured.
In the backlash against
Morales, some Bolivians — and Áñez supporters — have used the moment to express
anti-indigenous sentiments. “Fuera Indios,” or “out with Indians,” has been
spray-painted across walls of universities and highway
divides.
Bolivia’s indigenous people
commonly face prejudice due to their social status tied to poverty and
ethnicity. Sixty percent of Bolivians identify
as Quechua or Aymara, ethnicities native to the Andes region.
Morales, his vice president
and other
socialist party leaders resigned on Nov. 10 amid pressure from top
military officials who claimed Morales had tampered with the vote tally during
the country’s presidential elections during a 24-hour
blackout of early polling results.
The Organization of American
States, an alliance of nations that includes the United States, determined that
the election was illegitimate in
an audit, which pointed to major polling booths being burned down during
protests and electronic count failures. The audit conclusions sparked another
wave of demonstrations, driving Morales
to flee to Mexico earlier this month, while promising to return soon “with
strength.”
Áñez was fifth in the line of
succession to be president. She declared
herself interim president because the officials who ranked above her
resigned the same day as Morales out of solidarity. She was sworn in with a
Christian bible, which The Guardian described as
an “explicit rebuke” of Morales, since Morales had banned
using a bible in the palace. Since then, Áñez has called for a new election
in 90 days, but her record has already heightened Bolivia’s divisions.
Áñez has been accused of
having an anti-indigenous bias. Critics have rehashed a disputed 2013 tweet in
which she reportedly wrote: “I want a Bolivia free of satanic
indigenous rituals. The city is not for the indigenous. They should go to the
mountains or plains.” Áñez also called Morales
a “poor Indian” in another tweet earlier this year.
Áñez, a fiercely
anti-socialist politician, has denied writing “ill-intentioned” tweets.
“I’ve seen a couple of tweets
that I never wrote and that we already stated were
false,” Áñez stated during a Nov. 15 press conference, without pointing to any
specific tweets.
In the last two weeks, Áñez
has encouraged using police force to repress demonstrators who support Morales,
mostly indigenous. “To those who have caused damage or committed any crime, God
and justice will judge you,” Áñez
said days after taking office.
Maya Ajchura Chipana, a
Quechua author and organizer, worries that Áñez’s anti-indigenous rhetoric will
fuel hate crimes aimed at her community.
“She publicly says that she’s
against indigenous people and now she’s in power,” Chipana said. “My main
concern is how this has opened the flood gates to racism and discrimination.”
Áñez is the face of opposition
protests, according to Danny Shaw, a Latin American history professor at the
City University of New York. She has represented “a counterrevolution that has
burned the Wiphala and persecuted local and national leaders of the MAS
movement,” Shaw told the PBS NewsHour.
Morales identifies as Aymara,
an ethnic group descendant from the Incas and native to the Andes region. He
was elected to Congress in 1997 and established Movement
for Socialism, or MAS, a socialist political party.
“There’s been a great deal of
racism, a great deal of polarization, a great deal of hatred, aimed at
indigenous communities because of this election,” said Kathryn Ledebur,
director of the Andean Information Network, a human rights nonprofit in
Cochabamba. “It’s been a problem since Morales first won in 2006, but now there’s
a reason to raise the issue.”
As president, Morales “did
good things for this country in terms of indigenous representation,” Ledebur
said. “It’s been a growing pie contributing to the improved lives of rural
people, low-income people.”
Although Morales opened
channels for indigenous engagement in politics, some Bolivians are simply happy
for new leadership. They’ve said Morales had been in power for too long and
that he’s lost the trust of the people.
“Fourteen years of government
and he wanted to extend it for another five. The people are tired,” said
Mauricio Ramirez Parra, a resident of Cochabamba, Bolivia’s third largest city.
Áñez told
members of the national assembly she “will do everything necessary to
pacify the country,” but Morales’ supporters worry her politics will escalate
discrimination against indigenous communities.
Who is Evo Morales?
Morales, who became the
longest-serving president in the Americas, broke into politics by rising
through the ranks of the campesino, or rural laborer, union. He protested the
government’s war on coca, a crop used in traditional Andean medicine and
a crucial export to
the Bolivian economy. Since assuming the presidency in 2006, Morales has prioritized
improving rural education, poverty and opportunity.
“For the first time, there
were policies that put the last first. He prioritized the pueblo and the
indigenous, which really helped many climb out of poverty,” said Shaw.
Morales spearheaded social programs
like “Yes, I Can,” which eradicated
illiteracy in 2014. Poverty in the country was
nearly halved from 60 percent in 2006, the year Morales took power, to
34 percent in 2017 and extreme poverty dropped from 38 to 15 percent over the
same period. Bolivia, the poorest country in Latin America, has also enjoyed
stable economic growth under Morales’ leadership.
Through his tenure, Morales
elevated the status of indigenous Bolivians in politics. 2006 was the first
year that indigenous academics and activists assumed majority in the highest
government roles, including 14 of the 16 executive cabinet seats. His political
party, MAS, won a majority in the National Assembly, which paved the way for
indigenous people to assume local and national offices.
One of his most significant
accomplishments was reforming the
Bolivian constitution to create a plurinational state that officially
recognized the 36 indigenous languages. The constitution pays respect to
Pachamama, the Andean mother Earth, and the national emblem for the first time
flew the multicolored Wiphala. In his inaugural address, Morales
predicted there would be 500 years of indigenous rule.
But over 14 years, Morales
gradually lost voter support. In 2009, Morales won 64 percent of votes; in
2013, he got 60 percent, and allegedly 47 percent in the latest election.
When Áñez assumed power,
indigenous people lost the representation they had in the Cabinet. Out of
11 Cabinet
members she appointed, none are Native.
Bolivia said no
“Bolivia dice no.” It’s a
slogan handwritten on poster-board signs seen hovering above crowds in street
protests that have been happening throughout the country for over a month. The
slogan, which means that the people of Bolivia “say no” to the latest election
results, evolved into
a political campaign that worked to remove Morales.
The movement against him began
to gain traction after he proposed a public referendum in 2016 to abolish
presidential term limits in the constitution, so that he could run for a
controversial fourth term.
Bolivians narrowly
voted against the referendum 51 to 49 percent in February of that
year. But Morales’ political party appealed to the Supreme Court. In November
2017, the
high court ruled that term limits violated a candidate’s human right
to run for leadership, which cleared Morales’ way to run again.
“The court’s decision, which
was very much in favor of MAS, added to the tensions and distrust leading into
this election,” said John Walsh, Andes Director at the Washington Office on
Latin America. “It’s also just hard to be in power for that long and not lose
popularity.”
The U.S. State
Department expressed
deep concern after the 2017 Supreme Court decision and urged the Morales
administration to abide by the “voice of the people.”
Many Bolivians lost trust in
Morales after he ignored the results of the popular vote in 2016, and thus
suspected fraud in the latest election had swayed the results in his favor.
Members on the electoral tribunal, the official government body that first
declared Morales the winner, have since been removed and will likely be
replaced in the December vote.
The U.S. supported the results
of the OAS report, which laid the foundation to remove Morales from power. U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo applauded
the interim president in a statement on Nov. 13, saying that the U.S.
looks forward to working with the OAS to stage “free and fair elections” later
this year.
Áñez has barred Morales from
entering the upcoming presidential race and it’s unclear at this point who will
be elected in December. Áñez has not yet said if she’s considered a bid. Carlos
Mesa, the runner-up in the latest election and a former president of Bolivia
from 2003 to 2005, is expected to run again.
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