Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the racialised conflict surrounding the titling of indigenous territories in the Bolivian Chaco. It is argued that the threat of violence, reflective of competing sovereignty claims, has defined the dynamics of the titling process in ways that have undermined its decolonising potential.

Paper long abstract:

In 1996, as part of a package of multicultural reforms, Bolivia's INRA Law enabled indigenous peoples to claim collective rights to their ancestral territories, as Tierras Comunitarias de Orígen (Original Communal Lands). However, the legal process for titling these territories met with strong, and sometimes violent, resistance from local non-indigenous landowners. This paper examines the evolution and dynamics of one such land conflict, in the Guaraní TCO of Itika Guasu, located in the resource-rich but historically marginal Chaco region. Drawing on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, I explore the racialised discourses and practices through which private landowners defend their claims, highlighting how the ever-present threat of violent conflict has informed negotiations between local actors, and between local actors and the state. The result, I argue, has been a selective and incomplete application of legal norms, which has ultimately frustrated the decolonizing aspirations of the Guaraní land struggle.

Paper short abstract:

Conflict between indigenous people and the indigenous state in Bolivia has brought to the fore paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the concept of indigeneity itself. Only by differentiating between claims of indigeneity can we make sense of indigenous conflict in Bolivia and elsewhere.

Paper long abstract:

Recent conflict between indigenous people and a self-styled indigenous state in Bolivia has brought to the fore some of the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in the concept of indigeneity itself. The contemporary politics of state-sponsored indigeneity in Bolivia has as much capacity to create new inequalities as it does to address old ones, and there is a conceptual deficit in understanding contemporary indigenous rights claims, in particular as they relate to the state. Anthropologists are understandably reluctant to define indigeneity in any objective way, but as indigeneity discourses proliferate we need some conceptual tools to distinguish between competing rights claims based on indigeneity. I propose a conceptual distinction between inclusive national indigeneity for the majority, which seeks to co-opt the state, and a concept of indigeneity for a minority, which needs protection from the state. Only by looking at the kinds of claims people make through the rhetoric of indigeneity can we make sense of indigenous conflict in Bolivia and elsewhere.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores why the constitutional recognition of cultural diversity in Bolivia is insufficient, resulting in protests by some indigenous groups. This can be explained by limitations in the language of modern constitutionalism adopted and the existence of competing demands over recognition.

Paper long abstract:

The election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president of Bolivia, in December of 2005, brought about the greatest increase in the recognition of indigenous peoples' rights in the country's history. The constitution of 2009 includes the right of self-determination to indigenous peoples, defines the Bolivian State as Plurinational, and grants all indigenous languages the same official status as Spanish, among other recognitions. In spite of those changes, some indigenous groups have expressed dissatisfaction through demonstrations and marches, asserting their rights over the land, and arguing for the necessity of decolonizing society. This paper explores the grounds of those criticisms and the reasons why the recognition of cultural diversity in the constitution fell short. My argument is that there are two elements that can explain it: the limitations of the inherited language of modern constitutionalism to include alternative indigenous ways of thinking; and the existence of competing demands over recognition that involve the whole society in what James Tully calls continuous 'processes of mutual disclosure and acknowledgement'. The case of Bolivia challenges liberal and multicultural approaches to the struggles over recognition whose objective is to find a just and definitive solution; and it makes us consider alternative approaches that point out to constant possibilities of dialogue, interaction and negotiation between the actors as necessary conditions to achieve just and stable multicultural democracies.

Paper short abstract:

Se analiza las imágenes contradictorias que se instalan en la sociedad nacional e indígena referidas a la región de la Araucanía y del pueblo mapuche, como un territorio que se distingue por su componente étnico como un valor y fuente de identidad frente a una "zona roja" marcada por un “conflicto étnico”.

Paper long abstract:

Desde 1990, en Chile se generan políticas diferenciadas para la población indígena en un contexto latinoamericano de reconocimiento de los derechos indígenas. Sin embargo, Chile no cuenta con reconocimiento político a nivel constitucional y sólo en el año 2008 se ratifica el Convenio 169 de la OIT. Uno de los principales focos de la implementación de la política indígena es la región de la Araucanía, parte del territorio tradicional del pueblo mapuche. Los diferentes programas de la política indígena han generado espacios de reconocimiento a nivel local privilegiando una visión "culturalista" de la cultura mapuche, considerando "lo mapuche" como un valor y una fuente de identidad y desarrollo local y regional, pero promoviendo escasamente la generación de derechos políticos y de mayores espacios de participación indígena. Por otro lado, la Araucanía también está marcada mediáticamente como la zona del "conflicto étnico" por la presencia en algunos sectores de tensiones vinculadas a demandas de tierra, presencia de megaproyectos, de forestales, entre otros aspectos, que afectan a comunidades mapuches, con una fuerte represión política. La ponencia busca discutir y analizar estos dos lados, aparentemente contradictorios, que constituyen sólo una parte de la compleja problemática de las relaciones interculturales pero también son un espacio privilegiado para la negociación tanto para las organizaciones indígenas como para los representantes políticos.

Paper short abstract:

This paper illuminates the internal dynamics of an agrarian dispute of ejidal property within the zoques community of the Chapultenango municipality in Chiapas, Mexico.

Paper long abstract:

Keywords: agrarian conflics, zoques, interethnic conflicts

This paper illuminates the internal dynamics of an agrarian dispute of ejidal property within the zoques community of the Chapultenango municipality in Chiapas, Mexico. We argue that government land policies and its burocratization deleteriously affected indigenous communities by essentializing them as "harmonious" and "ecological" citizens, the effect of which underscores a paternalistic (i.e. el buen salvaje) and racist approach to policymaking. We begin by examining the process and politics of illegal land redistribution of the impoverished zoques in Chapultenango during the 1940s. We then present how the eruption of the Chichonal volcano catalyzed the Chiapas Government to create a public policy called Reconstruction of the Chichonal Volcano Program (PRVC) which consisted in the relocation of some Chapultenango residents.This policy aimed to give assistance to the victims by providing housing accommodation and giving inhospitable lands to the zoque families in other municipalities nearby Chapultenango.However, this policy placed zoque families in a vulnerable situation in that it started a rivalry between the zoques and the locals. Although some zoques have settled in other villages, some of them returned to Chapultenango and demanded the whole territory for themselves. The place where there have been more conflicts is the cooperative farming of Esquipulas Guayabal. As a result, Zoques have gone to court three times and have not yet found resolution.

Paper short abstract:

The paper propose to analyse the firsts "rondas campesinas" organized by the Army as contrainsurgent strategy against the drug traffic. But,there are several communal conflicts between the indigenous communities themselves.Is this the beginning of a kind of "perunization" of Mexico?

Paper long abstract:

La ponencia se propone analizar la aparición de las primeras rondas campesinas en Michoacán (México), en especial en la zona indígena conocida como Meseta Tarasca, región serrana donde ha habido una larga historia de violencia campesina por la disputa de límites y recursos forestales y antes agrícolas. Con la Guerra al Narcotráfico (2008-2012) se ha transformado este conflicto en un asunto de seguridad, con operaciones y controles militares. De la articulación de los intereses militares y comunales han surgido las "rondas comunitarias" armadas y para el supuesto control del narcotráfico. En los casos de Cherán y Urapicho se ha evidenciado que los conflictos comunales permanecen y se mantienen ocultos tras la acción contrainsurgente. Para las autoridades centrales, Michoacán ha sido pacificado, pero queda la duda que el conflicto tome un giro muy parecido al de las rondas campesinas peruanas en tiempos de la Guerra a Sendero Luminoso.

Paper short abstract:

The exclusion of the indigenous from the modern sovereignty has been the historical hegemonic mode of representation. With Globalization, transnational power entities break down the nation-state sovereignty. As a consequence, Latin American indigenous people are reinventing a new political subject

Paper long abstract:

The discussion on indigeneity has taken on a new turning point and urgent relevance in recent years in view of the shift in geopolitical paradigms associated with globalization. The waning of nation-state sovereignty associated with globalization has given a new impetus to indigenous movements around the planet and Latin America. This paper discusses the critical way in which some Latin American indigenous groups are reinventing a new political subject beyond the paradigm of nation-state. With Globalization, nation-state sovereignty co-exists in a conflictual and dispersal manner alongside transnational power entities; hence it is no longer grounded in territory. This new political order breaks down the continuity between the nation-state and its politics of recognition and multiculturalism; in this current moment, becoming "indigenous" is no longer a problem of inclusion within the nation-state. Nowadays, for Latin American indigenous people, the struggle for recognition is exceeded by a post sovereignty order where the state apparatus is a restricted entity for achieving this. Are the indigenous condemned to a new radical marginalization in this post-state era? Is this moment the opportunity for relaunching a new global transnational citizenship for indigenous people? In order to discuss this issue, this paper will be analyzing this contemporary problem of Latin American indigeneity by focusing on Uwas, Aymaras and Xincas. This paper will use modern political theory (Marramao, Galli, Schmitt) and cultural studies.