Controversial highway a step closer in Bolivia.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
| Cargo | Essay |
On July 29, the Bolivian government began an unprecedented popular consultation to ascertain whether the 69 indigenous groups living in the Amazonia supported construction of a highway that would bisect the Territorio Indigena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure (TIPNIS). The 306 km highway would open the door to developing a vast area of the departments of Beni and Cochabamba, which are now are isolated from the rest of the country (NotiSur, Oct. 14, 2011).
The consultation with the communities of the Mojeno-Trinitario, Chimane, and Yuracare peoples was to have lasted until Aug. 25. During this four-week period, "dialogue brigades" would visit each community, following ancestral practices. However, the process did not finish until Dec. 9, and 11 communities refused to participate in the consultation.
Why did a small but highly significant project force the government to expend the effort to organize such a consultation? Why did the consultation take almost four months longer than anticipated? And why did some communities refuse to participate in a dialogue carried out according to their own norms and customs? There is basically one comprehensive answer: President Evo Morales' administration has begun a process of changes that hurts large economic interests. In that process, sectors that have historically governed the country continue controlling the media--opposed to the Morales administration--and their economic power gives them the capacity to penetrate indigenous communities that have little political experience and are often isolated and disconnected from one another.
Consultative democracy at work?
The consultation process has unique characteristics. The main one is that, within each community, decisions are made by consensus and not by majority; discussion continues until differences disappear and a unified position emerges. The dialogue is led by six-member "brigades": one representative each from the Ministerios de Obras Publicos and Medio Ambiente y Aguas; three indigenous facilitators who serve as guarantors and translators; and one logistics coordinator.
The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Union de Naciones Suramericanas (UNASUR) observed the consultation from the sidelines. The Bolivian Constitution (Constitucion del Estado Plurinacional) describes the consultation process as a participatory and consultative construct, a variation of representative democracy.
OAS delegate Enrique Reina says it is "an expression of...
Para continuar leyendo
Solicita tu pruebaCOPYRIGHT GALE, Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
