Bolivia launches constitutional reform

by Lisa Garrigues
CUSCO, Peru
It began as a long march by indigenous people through the Amazon jungle in 1990, shook the streets of Bolivia in 2003 and 2005, brought down two presidents and elected the first Indian president of Bolivia in December 2005.

On July 2, the people of Bolivia will finally begin the process which indigenous groups and social movements have been demanding for 15 years: the rewriting of Bolivia's constitution.

Two hundred and fifty-five representatives will be elected, with a quota of women, who will draft the new constitution over the next year. Simultaneously, Bolivians will vote on a referendum for greater autonomy for the country's wealthy eastern region.

In the four months he has been in office, Bolivian president Evo Morales has cut his own salary and the salary of other government officials, nationalized Bolivian oil, begun ambitious land reform and literacy programs, and imported Cuban doctors to work in poor, rural communities.

Now, in his proposal for the new constitution, Morales reframes Bolivia, which is 65 percent indigenous, as a state based on ''plurality, equality, and the dialogue between cultures.'' But as the elected representatives add their own ideas to Morales' proposal, he will be challenged not just by conservatives who opposed his election but by some Indian and campesino organizations who say they have been excluded from the constitutional assembly process.

''Refundar Bolivia,'' a document released by Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) in May, specifically mentions the struggles of Andean indigenous heroes.

It lessens the power of the Catholic Church by redefining Bolivia as a lay state with respect for all religions and beliefs. It makes the Wiphala, a flag that has been a symbol of Latin American Indian unity and resistance, the official flag along with the current one. Aymara, Quechua and Guarani are named as official languages along with Spanish, and Bolivia's indigenous population is ensured the right to their political systems, cultural traditions and natural resource management. The coca leaf, as a cultural tradition, is guaranteed protection by the state.

Several campesino and Indian organizations are mentioned as having worked on the MAS proposal, including the Confederacion Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB) and the Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Marqas de Qollasuyo (CONAMAQ).

But in April, some of the leaders of CONAMAQ, a nongovernmental organization headed by Martin Condori, took to the streets and burned papers representing agreements with MAS, officially ending the relationship. They claimed that MAS had not given them enough representation in its selection of candidates for the constitutional assembly. Vice President Alvaro Linera responded that MAS could not give them more without excluding other groups.

''Evo is one of our sons,'' said Jaime Perez Castro, one of the mallkus, or authorities, of CONAMAQ, ''but is he paying attention to his ancestral culture?''

Castro says CONAMAQ will present Morales with its own proposal, emphasizing indigenous forms of political organization.

''We're not interested in communism or capitalism,'' he said. ''We want to return to the system of Ayllus we had before the colonization.''

Leaders of CSUTCB, which was once headed by Felipe Quispe, Morales' opponent in the 2002 presidential elections, have also expressed dissatisfaction with Morales, ranging from accusations that he is still surrounded by too many members of the previous government to charges that his proposal is ''too European'' or that Hugo Chavez is wielding too much power in Bolivia.

Quechuan activist Marta Orozco, who worked with Morales before his presidency, said some of the dissatisfaction from Indian groups is because ''Morales is a syndicalist, not an Indianist. But it's all healthy self-criticism, a necessary part of the process.''

Faustino Aricagua, Mallku of the indigenous group El Consejo de Suyus Aymaras y Quechuas del Qullasuyu (CONSAQ), emphasized the need for unity.

''Evo is working hard to incorporate all 36 of our national indigenous cultures,'' he said.

''What we need to do is change the cultural self-esteem of every single Bolivian,'' said Aricagua. ''This can't happen in three or four months.''

One of the major criticisms from indigenous organizations and social movements has been that the hurried deadline for gathering signatures made it impossible for them to present candidates, essentially handing over the assembly to political parties and excluding other organizations.

Democracy Center Director Jim Schultz has commented in his Web blog from Bolivia that this may be one of the reasons for the relative lack of enthusiasm for the constitutional assembly elections compared to the presidential elections of December. Without the enthusiasm MAS was able to generate in December, he said, Morales may end up with a majority of assembly members from opposition parties, who have opposed his land reform project and seek greater autonomy for the wealthy, largely European area of Santa Cruz.

Those within MAS see the constitutional assembly as ''the beginning of an important change'' for the indigenous people of Bolivia.

''The peoples of Bolivia, the Guarani, the Aymara and others, were excluded from the writing of earlier constitutions. Now it's our turn,'' said Lorenzo Mamani, Aymaran director of unemployment for MAS.

Mamani said the MAS proposal is a work in progress, and authorities from indigenous communities will continue to be consulted in its development.

He took the criticisms of Morales and MAS in stride. ''You are never going to be able to satisfy everyone,'' he said. ''There will always be criticism.''

In La Paz, women in traditional Aymaran clothing mingled with university students in blue jeans and office workers in suits and ties, at a meeting of Santucos or ''busy little devils,'' a grass-roots MAS group, which has sprung up separately from the MAS leadership to organize for the new constitution on a community level. There, organizers spoke of how to gather suggestions from people on the street to add to the MAS proposal.

''It's not the job of MAS to preach to the people,'' said one organizer, ''it's our job to find out what kind of Bolivia they want.''