Luis Arce’s election win is a huge victory for Bolivian social movements. All eyes are now on MAS’s political project.
Nation-states in the Global South have historically contributed the least to carbon-dioxide emissions but are especially vulnerable to the consequences of climatic shifts because of the damage wrought by extractive industries and the limited resources to cope with such damage.
During the Cold War, the U.S. promoted a discourse of security across the Western hemisphere over fears of the communist threat. We are now witnessing a strategic right-wing political platform whereby democracy is equated with free market capitalism, and “human rights violations” refer to new forms of state control over private interests.
Threatened by new forms of indigenous and populist power, Bolivian agrarian and political elites have regrouped after a series of setbacks since President Evo Morales was first elected in 2005. They are now working within the realm of “popular citizenship,” joining forces across regional bounds to demand territorial “autonomy” and decentralized governance to maintain control over the resource wealth in their departments (states). The new legalistic, human rights frame provides a powerful and distinctive platform for rightists, which once again places them center stage in Bolivian politics.
This article first appeared in the January/February 2011 edition of NACLA Report on the Americas.
