Part Four: Resistance and Resurgence in Practice: Case Studies “Latin America: From the Zapatistas to Evo Morales” Outstanding Questions in Latin American History • “the Indian question”—race/ethnicity • “the social question”—class, inequality • “the national question”—independence from imperialism 1
What is Neoliberalism: A Brief Summary • divestment of state enterprises • privatization of public resources • deregulation of the economy and currency • lowered tariffs on imported goods • end to subsidies of local industry • decreased social spending • increased taxes on the working class • change in political models: emphasizing individualism and personal responsibility 2
The Zapatista Rebellion in Chiapas, Mexico � New Year’s Day, 1994—the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), war on the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) � NAFTA (North American Free Trade Area) � Other factors: • political authoritarianism • lack of state support for peasants and farmers in the south • lack of financial credit, price supports • lack assistance in bringing goods to market • fall in prices for key commodities such as coffee • demographic pressure on dwindling collectively owned lands • decades of government neglect for peasant and indigenous peoples’ basic needs (land, housing, work, health services, and schools; justice and democratic representation for all of Mexico’s citizens) � Chiapas benefitted very little from the Mexican Revolution of 1910 3
� Emiliano Zapata, collective land rights of Indigenous communities � Lynn & Collier (1997, p. 4): “The Zapatistas were predominantly Mayan speaking indigenous men, women, and children equipped with rubber boots, homemade uniforms, bandannas, ski masks and weapons ranging from handmade wooden rifles to Uzi machine guns. They called for Mexicans to depose the ‘illegal dictatorship’ of President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in printed communiques, radio broadcasts, and interviews”—about their masked leader, SubComandante Marcos, he was “a charismatic, urbane, and patently non-Indian spokesman”—in fact, he was a former professor of Communications at UNAM, named Rafael Sebastián Guillén Vicente � Government response: military containment, followed by “peace deals” � International solidarity with the Zapatistas, the role of the Internet, “anti- globalization” � The demands of the EZLN: economic and political 4
� 1992 law that threatened Article 27 of the Constitution of 1917 guaranteeing communal, Indigenous peasant landholdings known as ejidos . � Neoliberal reforms ushered in by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari: • the withdrawal of subsidies in the form of credit • cutbacks or discontinuation of government programs providing technical aid and marketing assistance • privatization of nationalized companies that often sustained regional economies • the elimination of price subsidies � Zapatistas: new vision of Mexican federalism that would enshrine Indigenous autonomy, a multinational state, with cultural autonomy for Mexico’s Indigenous Peoples: rejected by the Mexican government and the National Indian Congress � February 1994, the Zapatistas met with government officials to discuss 34 of their demands during peace talks, in which they secured agreement on 32 demands by March…later relegated to the sidelines by the Mexican government 5
� Ruling PRI won reelection in 1994; Zapatistas hemmed in militarily; EZLN’s failure to produce a large turnout for a National Democratic Convention— sidelined, ignored, then a breakdown in the truce with the government � Demands unmet, a movement contained � EZLN rejects taking state power � Critical distance from Evo Morales and Hugo Chávez 6
The Bolivian Water War, Gas War, and the Rise of Evo Morales � October 2003 Indigenous and other sectors mounted protests against neoliberal economic policies involving the exploitation of Bolivia’s oil and natural gas � Bolivia: second-largest natural gas reserves in the hemisphere � Protests forced the resignation of the president, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada � Evo Morales, head of the coca growers union. � What did it mean? � Fusion of the Indian question with the Social question, and, addressing: � Bolivia’s long-standing subordination to U.S. power � Bechtel, the “Water War” of 2000 in Cochabamba � December 18, 2005, election of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) under Evo Morales, 54.7% of the vote 7
� January 22, 2006, vested with the power to rule by amautas (Indigenous traditional authorities) at the pre-lncan ruins of Tiwanaku: “With the strength of the people we can put an end to the colonial and neoliberal state. We need the support of all of you, a serious and responsible commitment to bend the hand of the empire.... If I can’t advance, push me. It’s possible that I’ll make mistakes, but I’ll never betray the struggle of the people and the fight for the liberation of the Americas.” � Morales cut his own salary by 57%, and lived in an apartment with other MAS party members � Internal decolonization + external anti-imperialism 8
“After more than 500 years, we, the Quechuas and Aymaras, are still the rightful owners of this land. We, the indigenous people, after 500 years of resistance, are retaking the power. This retaking of power is oriented towards the recovery of our own riches, our own natural resources such as the hydrocarbons. This affects the interests of the transnational corporations and the interests of the neoliberal system. We are convinced that capitalism is the enemy of the earth, of humanity and of culture. The US government does not understand our way of life and our philosophy. But we will defend our proposals, our way of life and our demands with the participation of the Bolivian people.” � Morales’ first term: • Nationalized the oil and natural gas industry • Halted the mandatory eradication of coca • Alliance with Hugo Chávez • “Washington’s worst nightmare” • Opposed/terminated plans for FTAA, or ALCA • New Bolivian Constitution: Bolivia as a Plurinational State • National agrarian reform law that granted the state the right to confiscate lands that were not fulfilling a social function 9
� Morales won a second term as president, for the 2010-2015 period, 115 of the 157 seats in the legislature, 64% of the popular vote (Had also won a recall referendum in 2009) � Other achievements: • building new schools • accessible higher education system, scholarships to study abroad • Healthcare • Foreign debt reduced by 50% • Minimum wage was increased by more than 2300% • Increased foreign investment • doubling in job creation • GNP increase • Six-fold increase in foreign currency reserves 10
References: Arizpe, Lourdes. (1996). “Chiapas: The Basic Problems.” Identities , 3(1-2), 219-233. Ballvé, Teo. (2006). “The Declaration of Tiwanaku.” NACLA Report on the Americas , March-April, 3. Dangl, Benjamin. (2003, December 2). “An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas.” CounterPunch . http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/12/02/an-interview-with-evo-morales-on-the-colonization-of-the- americas/ Dunkerley, James. (2007). “Evo Morales, the ‘Two Bolivias’ and the Third Bolivian Revolution.” Journal of Latin American Studies , 39, 133–166. Esteva, Gustavo. (2001). “The Meaning and Scope of the Struggle for Autonomy.” Latin American Perspectives , 28 (2): 120-148. Fuentes, Federico. (2007). “The Struggle for Bolivia's Future.” Monthly Review , July-August: 95-109. Golinger, Eva, and Parada, Maria Elena. (2010, January 29). “Indigenous Leader Evo Morales Ayma Re- elected in Bolivia.” Correo del Orinoco International – English Edition , p.2. http://centrodealerta.org/documentos_desclasificados/correo_del_orinoco_internat_2.pdf Harvey, Neil. (1998). The Chiapas Rebellion: The Struggle for Land and Democracy . Durham, NC: Duke University Press (Ch. 8, The Zapatista Opening, 199-226) 11
Nash, June. (1995). “The Reassertion of Indigenous Identity: Mayan Responses to State Intervention in Chiapas.” Latin American Research Review , 30 (3): 7-41. Postero, Nancy. (2005). “Indigenous Responses to Neoliberalism: A Look at the Bolivian Uprising of 2003.” PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review , 28 (1): 73-92. Stephen, Lynn. (2002). Zapata Lives! Histories and Cultural Politics in Southern Mexico . Berkeley: University of California Press. Stephen, Lynn, and Collier, George A. (1997). “Reconfiguring Ethnicity, Identity and Citizenship in the Wake of the Zapatista Rebellion.” Journal of Latin American Anthropology , 3(1), 2-13. 12
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