Evo Morales, the 'Two Bolivias' and the third Bolivian revolution

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 133-166

  Dunkerley, James ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Alvaro Garc a Linera; Armed forces; Bloqueo; Bolivia; Evo Morales; Indigenous politics; Movimiento al Socialismo; Plebeians; Poverty; Revolution

Indexed keywords

ARMED FORCES; POLITICAL CONFLICT; POLITICAL IDEOLOGY; POPULAR PROTEST; POVERTY;

BOLIVIA; SOUTH AMERICA;

PLEBEIA;

EID: 33847071189     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: 1469767X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X06002069     Document Type: Article

References (105)

1. G. Gray (ed.), La economía más allá del gas (2nd edn., La Paz, 2005), p. 258.
2. Council on Hemispheric Affairs, Washington, Memorandum, 6 May 2006.
3. Quoted in H. C. F. Mansilla, El carácter conservador de la nación boliviana (Santa Cruz, 2004), p. 14.
4. The Economist, 17 July 2004.
5. The Paranoid Style in American Politics (New York, 1965), pp. 3 and 5.
6. F. Hylton and S. Thomson, 'The Chequered Rainbow', New Left Review 35 (2005), p. 44.
7. La Razón, 25 Feb. 2005. In 2002 only 2.2 percent of Bolivians used the internet, but there is ample anecdotal evidence of subsequent growth (Google has an Aymara translation facility), and the speed of general technological change was such that by 2004 there were three times more mobile phones than telephone land-lines: La Razón, 14 Feb. 2005.
8. Quoted in Julio Cotler, 'Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru 2003-04: A Storm in the Andes', Real Instituto Elcano, Madrid, Working Paper 51/2005 .
9. El Diario, 30 Feb. 2002.
10. Evo Morales y El Retorno de la Izquierda Nacionalista (La Paz, 2006), p. 19.
11. T. Platt, T. Bouysse-Cassagne, O. Harris, with T. Saignes, Qaraqara-Charka. Mallku, Inka y Rey en la Provincia de Charcas (Siglos XV-XVII) (La Paz, 2006).
12. J.-P. Lavaud, L'instabilité politique de L'Amérique Latine: Le cas de Bolivie (Paris, 1991), p. 19;
13. C. Mesa Gisbert, Presidentes de Bolivia: Entre urnas y fusiles (La Paz, 2003).
14. It is a little disappointing to see how little has changed since I wrote over two decades ago: 'The newspapers trot out the mathematics of disorder - all of it fifth-hand and incorrect - but do not pose the question that if disorder is so prevalent, might it not be order itself? Could there not be a system in the chaos? Should it not be understood less as interruption than continuity?' See James Dunkerley, Rebellion in the Veins. Political Struggle in Bolivia, 1952-1982 (London, 1984), p. xi.
15. La Razón, 12 March 2005.
16. Democracy in America (New York, 1990 [1835]), II, p. 269.
17. 'Las masas en noviembre', in R. Zavaleta Mercado (ed.), Bolivia boy (Mexico City, 1983), p. 51.
18. El Juguete Rabioso, 26 Oct. 2003;
19. 'La crisis del estado y las sublevaciones indígeno-plebeyas', in A. García Linera, R. Prada, and L. Tapia, Memorias de Octubre (La Paz, 2004), pp. 51 and 58;
20. O. Oliveira, in collaboration with T. Lewis, Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia (Cambridge, Mass. 2004).
21. La Razón, 18 March 2003, and 14 Dec. 2005.
22. Isabel Hilton, The Guardian, 21 Oct. 2003.
23. Johann Hari, The Independent, 9 March 2005.
24. The Guardian, 20 Jan. 2006.
25. The Bankers Can Rest Easy. Evo Morales: All Growl, No Claws?', 4 Jan. 2006, Cislac Digest, no. 433, sent via LATAM-INFO, 11 Jan. 2006 .
26. 'The Chequered Rainbow', p. 41.
27. For a radical account that is unusually well-informed, see B. Kohl and L. Farthing, Impasse in Bolivia: Neoliberal Hegemony and Popular Resistance (London, 2006).
28. For a variety of stimulating academic accounts, see the special section edited by S. Lazar and J. A. McNeish, 'The Millions Return? Democracy in Bolivia at the Start of the Twenty-First Century', Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 25, no. 2 (2006), pp. 157-263.
29. Evo Morales y el retorno, pp. 98 ff.
30. Pulso, no. 250, 4-10 Feb. 2004.
31. 'Chequered Rainbow', p. 50.
32. Pulso, no. 224, 21-27 Nov. 2003.
33. El Nuevo Día, 24 Dec. 2003,
34. quoted in Tinkazos, no. 16 (May 2004), pp. 17-18.
35. The Economist, 23 Apr. 2005.
36. 'And why, exactly, Aymara? To discuss, in Aymara, with "Brother" Hugo Chávez? To rave against the system? To recover the sea along the lines of "Q¡ue se rinda tu abuela, carajo!" To compare Andean and US technologies? To have fun with the NGOs? To gas away with the Spaniards?' Pedro Shimose, 'Bibliófilos y bibliófobos', La Razón, 11 Apr. 2006.
37. Compare these two quotations: 'In social theory, the "truths", the evidence, the legitimations are cultural caprices resulting from the historical trajectory of the structure and the operation of the intellectual field, of its processes of accumulation, verification and internal competence that have enshrined a certain mode of understanding, investigating and naming the world.' ('Qué es la democracia?', in A. García Linera, R. Gutiérrez, R. Prada, L. Tapia, Pluriverso. Teoría política boliviana (La Paz, 2001), p. 81),
38. and 'No tibilín (little twit), no little Red Riding Hood, no Tuto, can reverse the nationalisation of hydrocarbons... Podemos would benefit from a little reading, a little visiting of barrios and communities, a bath in the reality of the people's needs, that would improve their speeches a bit.' (La Razón, 20 June 2006)
39. or 'We have beaten the anti-nation, the anti-history, the iniquity that is Podemos'. (Pulso, no. 329, 22-29 Dec. 2005).
40. La producción del conocimiento local: Historia y política en la obra de René Zavaleta (La Paz, 2002);
41. La velocidad del pluralismo: Ensayo sobre tiempo y democracia (La Paz, 2002).
42. La Razón, 11 Apr. 2006.
43. Pagina 12 (Buenos Aires), 10 Apr. 2006.
44. 'We want to refound the country, politics, democracy with our own hands: campesinos, workers, professionals, businessmen, different ethnic groups and indigenous peoples, all united, a country for us, for all. Political life is a right to all and not just for a few. It is not practised exclusively through the vote at elections. It is a daily practice, incarnated in the opinion, viewpoint, demands and campaigns of all and any individual and collectivity.' Comunicado del Movimiento al Socialismo, 13 Oct. 2003, in Observatorio social de América Latina, vol. 4, no. 12 (Buenos Aires, 2004), p. 72.
45. La Razón, 6 March 2006.
46. The Guardian, 3 May 2006.
47. Rostros de la democracia (La Paz, 2006), p. 15.
48. Juguete Rabioso, 26 Oct. 2003.
49. Ibid.
50. States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge, 1979), p. 4.
51. No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991 (Cambridge, 2001), p. 9.
52. 'Ironed Corpses Clattering in the Wind', London Review of Books, 17 Aug. 2006.
53. Pulso, 244, 23-29 Apr. 2004.
54. See also F. Patzi Paco, 'Rebelión indígena contra la colonialidad y la transnacionalización de la economía: Triunfos y vicisitudes del movimiento indígena desde 2000 a 2003', in F. Hylton, F. Patzi, S. Serulnikov, S. Thomson, Ya es otro tiempo el presente: Cuatro momentos de insurgencia indígena (La Paz, 2003).
55. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (Yale, 1985), p. xvi.
56. 'The Contaminations of Contingency', in One Earth, Four or Five Worlds (London, 1985), p. 192.
57. La Jornada (Mexico City), 26 Jan. 2006.
58. 'Revolutionary Memory in Bolivia: Anticolonial and National Projects from 1781 to 1952', in M. Grindle and P. Domingo (eds.), Proclaiming Revolution: Bolivia in Comparative Perspective (Harvard and London, 2003), pp. 130 and 119.
59. We Alone Will Rule: Native Andean Politics in the Age of Insurgency (Madison, 2002), pp. 271-2.
60. J. L. Roca, 1809. La revolución de la Audiencia de Charcas en Chuquisaca y en La Paz (La Paz, 1998);
61. G. Mendoza (ed.), José Santos Vargas. Diario de un comandante de la independencia americana, 1814-1845 (Mexico City, 1982);
62. R. Arze, Participación popular en la independencia de Bolivia (La Paz, 1979).
63. 'The Bolivian Constitution (1826)', in D. Bushnell (ed.), El Libertador. Writings of Simón Bolívar (New York, 2003), p. 65.
64. N. Robins, Native Insurgencies and the Genocidal Impulse in the Americas (Bloomington, 2005), p. 50.
65. M. E. del Valle de Siles (ed.), Francisco Tadeo Diez de Medina. Diario del Cerco de La Paz, 1781 (La Paz, 1981), p. 120;
66. Testimonios del Cerro de La Paz. El Campo contra la Ciudad, 1981 (La Paz, 1980), p. 86.
67. 'Rebelión indígena', in Ya es otro tiempo, pp. 215-6; 219-20. La Paz has only eight exit roads, and the three that do not pass through El Alto do not provide a route beyond surrounding velleys.
68. 'The Patricians and the Plebs', in Customs in Common (Harmondsworth, 1993), p. 18.
69. La Razón, 3 July 2005.
70. 'In Europe... there have emerged postmodern social movements, such as the movements of women, ecologists, homosexuals, etc.... in Bolivia the middle class and certain intellectual circles previously affiliated with the left are not analysing their own condition because of their pastiche behaviour... the only option is to imitate what comes from outside.' See 'Rebelión indígena', in Ya es otro tiempo, p. 202. María Galindo, the driving force behind Mujeres Creando and author of the slogan 'Indias, putas, lesbianas juntas revueltas y hermanadas', is fully Patzi's match in the hard-fought contest to be Bolivia's lippiest iconoclast: 'Evo is beautiful, his skin is coffee like cacao, his political record is of demonstrations and yet more demonstrations, and his anti-imperialism is today by far the most important thing. That he might be an irresponsible father who pays nothing to his family and up to today has refused to recognise his daughter has had, still has, and will have no importance, none at all. What's more, it makes him all the more "authentic", especially because Evo is not Eva and has no story to tell about his body, his desires and his defects': 'No saldrá Eva de la costilla de Evo', circulated by email, 15 Feb. 2006.
71. C. Méndez, 'Incas Sí, Indios No: Notes on Peruvian Creole Nationalism and Its Contemporary Crisis', JLAS vol. ? 8, no. I (1996), pp. 197-225. I am most grateful to Natalia Sobrevilla, preparing a new biography of Santa Cruz, for the information on the registry of his birth.
72. R. Barragán and J. L. Roca, Regiones y poder constituyente en Bolivia (La Paz, 2005);
73. L. Gotkowitz, 'Revisiting the Rural Roots of die Revolution',
74. and B. Larson, 'Capturing Indian Bodies, Hearths and Minds', in Grindle and Domingo (eds.), Proclaiming Revolution;
75. L. Gotkowitz, A Revolution for Our Rights: Indigenous Struggle for Land and Justice in Bolivia, 1880-1952 (Durham NC, forthcoming).
76. Evo Morales y el retorno, p. 18.
77. Interview with Miguel Gómez Balboa: www.geocities.com/laserna. The term might, in this connotation, incorporate two phonetically similar Quechua verbs - ch'in kay (to be silent) and ch'anqay (to throw stones, which is the favoured means of the bloqueo).
78. Evo Morales y el retorno, p. 125.
79. Ibid., pp. 60 and 80.
80. Quoted in ibid., p. 126; 75 Evo Morales y el retorno, p. 125.
81. El Juguete Rabioso, 18 Sep. 2006.
82. Gray, La economía más allá del gas. The other four models assessed by the UNDP teams are: 'informalidad y ejército industrial de reserva; la subsunción o subordinación; micro-empresas; distrito industrial, clusters y aglomeraciones productivas'.
83. 'Masas en noviembre', pp. 17 and 19.
84. Ibid., p. 40.
85. Pulso, no. 185, 21-27 Feb. 2003.
86. Hardt and Negri see the multitude as 'all those who work under the rule of capital and thus potentially as the class of those who refuse the rule of capital': Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (Harmondsworth, 2005), p. 106.
87. In his critique of this position Malcolm Bull provides a useful historical tour d'horizon of theories of the masses and mass action, maintaining that 'from Cicero onwards, it was axiomatic that only when unified into a people could a multitude become a political agent'. New Left Review no. 35 (2005), p. 38.
88. J. Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds. Why the Many are Smarter than the Few (New York, 2004).
89. 'Masas en noviembre', p. 49.
90. John Tierney, 'Reading the Coca Leaves', New York Times, 23 Sep. 2006.
91. G. A. Williams, Artisans and Sans-Culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution (London, 1968), p. 5.
92. Customs in Common, p. xiii.
93. Ibid., p. 66;
94. R. Ekirch, At Day's Close. A History of Nighttime (London, 2005), p. 221.
95. Customs in Common, p.51.
96. La Razón, 30 July 2006.
97. This is not really my specialist field, but I would say that Miss Durán's style is very much that of Raquel Welch, also a cruceña, updated to the conditions of the early 21st century: Desirée is 19 and 5′10″ tall but also training to be a petroleum engineer. Unkind tongues suggested that Don Alvaro might not have gone to watch Miss Durán in the style of a mathematician or even a human geographer: 'In last year's vice-presidential debates he was asked by the moderators - one suspects that this was not a neutral question - whether he had ever engaged in "homosexual relations." "Not yet," he answered nonchalantly. The nation gasped.' A. Guillermoprieto, 'The New Bolivia II', New York Review of Books, 21 Sep. 2006, p. 68.
98. 'Politics as a Vocation', in H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber. Essays in Sociology (London, 1948), pp. 78-9.
99. 'Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft', quoted in D. Beetham, Max Weber and the Theory of Modern Politics (2nd edn., Cambridge, 1985), p. 266.
100. For general discussions, see P. Tamás, 'Socialism, Capitalism and Modernity', Journal of Democracy, vol. 3, no. 3 (1992);
101. D. Collier and S. Levitsky, 'Democracy "With Adjectives". Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research', Dept. Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, Working Paper 230, Aug. 1996;
102. P. Mair, 'Partyless Democracy: Solving the Paradox of New Labour?', New Left Review no. 2 (2000), pp. 21-35.
103. Quoted in Stefanoni and Do Alto, Evo Morales, pp. 157-8.
104. S. E. Finer, The History of Government from the Earliest Times (Oxford, 1997), vol. 1, p. 399. On 15 August 1805, Simón Bolívar made his vow to secure the emancipation of Spanish America at Rome's Monte Sacro, where Sicinius had led the protest of the plebeians in 494 BC.
105. Anti-Politics (London, 1972), p. 20.