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Prisoners of "Democracy"


The Other Documentary- Subcomandante Marcos


Our Word is Our Weapon

Neo-liberal Opposition

The current political and social climate in Latin America is conducive to the success of mobilized groups as more Leftist candidates, such as Chavez in Venezuela and Correa in Ecuador, push for the recognition of indigenous communities and their land rights. I think the rise of these types of leaders is a direct result of action against corporations like Bechtel in Bolivia and the success of the Zapatista movement in Mexico.

The implication for women of the success of these types of movements is that they play some part in the organization and solidarity within the movement. Also, they are able to experience the benefits of success as they can educate their children using indigenous language and methods, their families have the autonomy to use land for growing subsistence crops rather than crops allocated to them by neo-liberal agricultural policies, and they likely have more personal autonomy. In current movements such as Morales's policy, women are specifically allotted land and the right to own land, which doesn't usually exist in state policies.

The success of Morales, Macas, Bolivian's against Bechtel, and the Zapatistas are all examples of indigenous people mobilizing against neo-liberal policies of the North. These movements could be characterized as anti-capitalist, but mostly, they are interested in the continuation of indigenous ways of life and respect for their culture and rights.

Success through Community Action

I would define two types of success for indigenous groups engaging in community action- direct success in getting land reforms past or eradicating companies bent on privatization and success in consciousness raising for their cause. Evo Morales has achieved direct success by implementing his own land reforms in Bolivia while Macas has raised consciousness levels in Ecuador among the government as well as people in the country.

Water and land are necessities for a community to thrive, thus when access to these resources is limited by an outside force, it is easy for a community to mobilize around the issue. Neo-liberal reforms mandated by agencies such as the IMF and World Bank are a result of capitalist yearnings for domination of natural resources. Indigenous groups long quieted by the denial of access to the media and government are now mobilizing to take back and protect resources important to them for survival and spiritual purposes.

Mexico's Zapatistas

"Primarily the women, it is they who feel the pain of childbirth. They see their children die in the arms of malnutrition, for lack of care. They also see their children without shoes, without clothing, because they do not have enough money to buy them, because it is they who care for the homes, they see that they do not have enough for food."

-Comandanta Esther

The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) is probably the most well known indigenous movement mobilized by land rights in Latin America. The EZLN orignated in the Chiapas region of Mexico, but through the internet it has become an international phenomenon. Anti-neoliberal rhetoric is beginning to permeate the consciousness of many indigenous groups who have long been disadvantaged by these types of programs coupled with elite colonial rule.

The Zapatistas staged a revolt on January 1, 1994 in answer to the start of NAFTA, which they believed would further degrade human rights and the ability for indigenous people to survive in the region (Chiapas Magazine). EZLN is a militarized group with a strong female base as indicated by the 5000 women who left their communities in 1996 to march on the city of San Cristobal (Otero, 1996). The Zapatista women did this in order to make visible their presence and solidarity with the movement.



Despite being depicted in the media as a violently militarized group, the Zapatistas have had success in achieving autonomy by not producing large-scale violent retaliations against the military and paramilitary groups since the initial uprisings in 1994. So while the Zapatistas have not had incredible success in the area of land reform for all of Mexico, they have achieved a degree of automony in the Chiapas region- they run their own schools, clinics, and small businesses in the area (Schuster, 2004).

Bechtel- The Bolivian Water Revolt

Bechtel is a US based corporation with "development" projects in many parts of the Tw0-Thirds World. Together with the World Bank, in 1999 a subsidiary of Bechtel convinced the Bolivian government that a privatization plan of the water supply for the third largest city, Cochabamba. After succeeding in this effort, the company proceeded to raise water prices so high that families could no longer afford to pay for food and water.

Due to the dramatic rate increases, Bolivians organized into a group called the Coordinadora began to revolt and they shut down Cochabamba for three days. The government gave into their demands and agreed to review the company and the rate increases, but when the time limit given to them by the Coordinadora expired and nothing had been done, the people of Cochabamba took to the street again to protest. This time however they were met with over 1000 riot police brought in from other towns to quell the protest. In this clash, around 175 people were injured and the government agreed to act on the demands for a rate cutback.

After reviewing the contract between the Bechtel subsidiary and the government however, members of the Coordinadora decided that the only way to truly free themselves from dangerous rate increases was for the contract to be revoked. So they issued a referendum for which 90% of the more than 60,000 participants answered yes, that the contract should be canceled. They shut down the city once again and met with government officials. At the negotiation meeting, the leaders of the Coordinadora were arrested, revealing the meeting as a trap by the government. Protests continued and just days after the arrests, violence again broke out in Cochabamba when the President declared a state of martial law in the city. A 17 year old boy was killed and many more Cochabambinos were arrested while the corporation refused to take any responsibility.

However, on the Monday following the confrontations, protests continued and the government announced that Bechtel officials would leave the country and the contract would be canceled (Shultz, 2003). The saga does not end there as Bechtel decided to sue the Bolivian people for $25 million in a secret World Bank court (Chavez, 2006).

While the Coordinadora was not run solely by indigenous groups, it is an indication of what political motivation can do because shortly after, in 2002, Evo Morales made his first run for president. While it took a few more years for him to win the election, he did get a high percentage of the vote in his first run. Water rights are an issue that indigenous people deal with all the time, but once the middle class became affected, the movement gained legitimacy and Morales was able to become president.

Even though a preliminary settlement has been brokered between Bechtel and the Bolivian people it is important that this corporation get the message that they cannot carry out legal action against impoverished groups in secret. It is also important to note that Bechtel has major contracts in Iraq. Go here to let Riley Bechtel (the CEO of Bechtel, Inc.) that you do not appreciate the actions of his company in Bolivia.

Las Mujeres

Women and the women's movement have played integral roles in the success of indigenous leaders and political action within Latin America and, especially, the Andean Region. Much like the women from mining regions in the Appalachian region of the US, indigenous women in Latin America are interested in equality and fair use of the land they live on or have claims to through generational or spiritual ties. Women in the region fear for the physical health of their families in the face of water privatization and the exploitation of land for agricultural purposes or to extract oil or minerals from the subsoil. Physical health, however, is not the only thing at stake when land begins being exploited by multinational corporations.

Cultural extinction and homogenization are major consequences of the neo-liberal policies mandated by Northern agencies such as the IMF. In answer to this, indigenous groups, such as C0naie in Ecuador, are advocating a policy of bilingual education so their children can learn in Spanish as well as their native language. This group also promotes traditional healing practices and ceremonial participation.

A sense of cultural awareness is important to the success of mobilizing social movements, especially those based on land rights. If the children of indigenous people were uninterested in the plight of their parents or unaware of their unique cultural heritage, there would be no one to continue fighting for recognition of indigenous rights. Indigenous education also serves the purpose of breaking Northern and elite driven knowledge monopolies that frame the conquest as a positive factor in Latin American history and perpetuate the status quo. Political mobilization and having people in office that are interested in seeing indigenous groups thrive is necessary to continue the programs of bilingual education and cultural awareness.

So, not only do women protest for and with their families, but efforts driven by women's groups are restructuring the way children from the community learn. Solidarity with women's groups has helped make indigenous groups more prominent and stronger in their claims for land and water rights.

Ecuador's Luis Macas

Luis Macas was a presidential candidate running in Ecuador's October 2006 elections. He ran under the Movimiento Indigena Pachakutik (Pachakutik Indigenous Movement), or MPK, which is the political arm of the Confederacion de Nacionalidades Indigenas de Ecuador (Conferderation of Ecuadorian Indigenous Nationalities), or Conaie.

Macas is a founder and former president of Conaie, which seeks to promote development projects that are compatible with indigenous patterns of land use and Western science. Conaie is an excellent example of political action driven by the common desire within the indigenous community for land rights. The organization promotes indigenous methods for farming as well as raises awareness about the depletion of airable land and deforestation. Consciousness raising was the main motivation for producing Macas as a candidate for president of the state.

The organization never expected Macas to be victorious, only raise awarenes for the indigenous cause and increase the visibility of the indigenous movement in Ecuador. Conaie entrusted this task to a leftist candidate with few real ties to the movement in 2002, and were sorely disappointed when he continued promoting IMF policies after the election and even went so far as to promote destabilization of the indigenous movement.

After this set back leaders within Conaie and the MPK decided to go with their own candidate and try to raise awarness rather than become involved in the government through alliances. Luis Macas has said, "We are in this because we are constructing a solid process from the roots, a political project with our own hands, using our own minds. This is how we will advance. It doesn't matter if we win or lose.".

So while Macas may not have won the most recent elections, the winner, Rafael Correa, has taken notice of the popularity of the indigenous movement and the necessity for change. He, like Morales in Bolivia, is anti-neoliberal and hopes to sever ties with the IMF and World Bank.

Bolivia's Evo Morales

Morales, elected in December 2005, is Latin America's first indigenous head of state since the Spanish conquest. He leads the MAS, or Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism), which is a socialist group rooted in the cocalero (cocaine growers) movement. It is interesting to note that Morales himself is a cocalero and belongs to the indigenous Aymara group.

A major part of his platform, for which background can be found on his website, has been a rejection of the neo-liberal policies of the North in favor of directing money earned from the country's natural resources to combate poverty within the state. During his campaign, he favored nationalization of hydrocarbons and since being elected has passed legislation and made deals with investors that allow him to follow through on this campaign issue. This rejection of neo-liberal programs is an indication of where indigenous communities that are directly affected stand on the issue.

Morales received 53.7% of the vote with an 84.5% participation rate (according to his website). Despite the fact that "Bolivia has the highest proportion of indigenous people in all of Latin America", those numbers for an indigenous candidate had previously been unheard of. Mobilization within the indigenous community is the result of post-colonial backlash that has arisen out of the dire poverty in which indigenous Bolivians find themeselves since the implementation of neo-liberal policies by such groups as the IMF and World Bank. Morales has positioned himself specifically against neo-liberalism: "The time is approaching when us Bolivians will be able to govern ourselves, without programs imposed by the IMF and without corruption."

To watch a video profile of Morales go here.