As indigenous demonstrators packed up their makeshift camps in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz on 2 December after a fruitless two-month wait for talks with President Luis Arce, protest leaders accused the government of politicking over its refusal to hear their concerns surrounding land invasions. That refusal, protesters maintain, is symptomatic of the tendency of the ruling left-wing Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) to snub social movements that it has been unable to co-opt.
The protesters, from the Chiquitania region in Santa Cruz department, had been in the city since 30 September, when they completed a 550km march from the city of Trinidad in the neighbouring department of Beni. They were seeking talks with President Arce regarding land invasions by migrant farmers on their ancestral lands.
Claiming that these settlers are mostly Aymara and Quechua farmers from MAS strongholds in central and western Bolivia, the Chiquitanos argue that the government is permitting illegal land grabs by groups of its supporters. They accuse the settlers of violence and environmental destruction, and they claim that their cultural identity is being eroded by the new arrivals.
Marcial Fabricano, a protest leader who has previously served as the president of the Santa Cruz-based indigenous organisation Confederación de Pueblos Indígenas del Oriente Boliviano (Cidob), argued that the government’s failure to respond to the demonstration was typical. “This is their way of governing those who do not kneel at the altar of their regime,” Fabricano maintained on 2 December. He contrasted the Arce administration’s silence with its heavy promotion of a massive demonstration by MAS supporters on 29 November [WR-21-48].
Government officials have responded by saying that, as the protesters did not present a formal petition with their demands, there were no grounds for discussion. Since the presidency of Evo Morales (2006-2009), the MAS has not infrequently been accused of neglecting social movements that it has been unable to co-opt.
Whilst the party retains significant influence over indigenous and labour organisations in much of Bolivia, this is noticeably weaker in the east of the country and, in particular, in the opposition bastion of Santa Cruz department. Those dynamics were reflected in the comparatively warm response that the indigenous protesters received from the right-wing Creemos party during their time in the city.
Camacho’s opportunism
Luis Fernando Camacho, the Creemos governor of Santa Cruz, has sought to capitalise on the protests by escalating his calls for increased federalism in Bolivia, which he claims would enable the departmental authorities to resolve the issue. Camacho is not an obvious ally of the Chiquitanos, having frequently been accused of anti-indigenous racism, and his wading into the dispute has been widely interpreted as political opportunism.
Summit on judicial reform
Justice Minister Iván Lima announced on 5 December that the government will hold a summit in March 2022 to discuss judicial reform, calls for which have intensified in the past year amid concerns of political interference in the justice system [WR-21-34].
Lima did not specify who would be invited to the summit, but a similar event in 2016 featured over 1,600 participants, including magistrates, judges, lawyers, and representatives of social organisations and legal faculties. That summit was criticised by the political opposition, which claimed that the invitees were predominantly MAS sympathisers, and it did not result in significant reform. Lima indicated that the rules surrounding the election of judges would be a key area of discussion.