More indigenous ministers join Bolivia’s new cabinet after Constitutional referendum

10.02.200919.14h

The executive’s challenge is to implement the new Constitution approved last January 25th and to overcome the conflict with its opponents · Three Bolivian indigenous peoples have already made use of their right to self-government.

After a long process of debate and Constitutional reform, Bolivia has inaugurated a new political stage in which devolution of indigenous rights and the overcoming of Bolivia's political divide will be the chief issues at stake. Evo Morales announced a new executive last Sunday and labeled it as Bolivia's "first plurinational cabinet". The Bolivian President included leaders of indigenous and peasant movements, intellectuals, trade unionists, mestizos and creoles in the new executive.

Morales also announced the creation of Autonomy, Cultures and Institutional Transparency ministries, and appointed three indigenous ministers (David Choquehuanca, an Aymara, Celima Torrico, a Quechua, and Julia Ramos) and two mestizo trade unionists. Several members of the indigenous community, such as the president of the Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB), Adolfo Chávez, have considered the indigenous quotas as being insufficient. In spite of respecting Morales' decision, Chávez has criticized the fact that Tropic and Western areas are given a higher quota at the expense of Eastern, Chaco and Amazon peoples, and said the decision "discriminates against 34 indigenous nations".

Openly against the move is the pro-autonomy opposition, which regards decentralization established by the new Constitution as unsatisfactory. Since Morales took power, the governors of the country's four richest departments (Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, an area known as the "Half Moon") have emphasized their autonomist leanings in order to evade Morales' socialist and pro-indigenous policies.

New indigenous autonomy
Meanwhile, three Bolivian indigenous peoples have already made use of their right to self-government in accordance with the legal procedures established in the new Constitution. The Chiman, Yuracare and Mojeno-Trinitario have declared autonomy in the Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory, a step that, according to indigenous leader Fernando Vargas, "marks the beginning of a second stage in the struggle, which must culminate in self-determination". Such territory, also known as TIPNIS, is the first in making use of the right to self-government granted by the Constitution. The recognition of the region as indigenous territory came as a result of a mass popular rally held in 1990.

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