Reply #7: You've got that right, as most of us are well aware by now!

[Judi Lynn]

Here's a quick reference:

Bolivia: New constitution sparks right-wing revolt


Rachel Evans, La Paz
18 January 2008


In December, after 16 months of wrangling, the elected delegates to the constituent assembly finally passed a draft constitution that will be put to a national referendum sometime before September.


A new constitution to re-found the country in order to include the indigenous majority subjected to 500 years of racial oppression has been a key demand of Bolivia’s powerful social movements. Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first indigenous president, was elected in December 2005 promising to convoke an assembly.

The draft constitution recognises the rights of the indigenous peoples and guarantees state control over natural resources, among other progressive changes — including protection for gays and lesbians from discrimination.

After the constitution was passed, right-wing forces backed by the Bolivian oligarchy led a violent campaign that saw four people killed in Sucre.

The main right-wing opposition party, Podemos, boycotted the final assembly session, allowing delegates from the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) — Morales’ party — and allies to pass the draft with the two thirds majority required. Opposition groups — backed by US imperialism — have refused to recognise the draft as legitimate.

In retaliation the oligarchy based in the “media luna” (“half moon” — the four departments in the east of the country home to much of Bolivia’s natural resources) have launched plans to hold referendums to declare “autonomy” from the Bolivian state.

Polarisation

The resource-rich eastern states are the main base of the racist white elite, with the predominantly indigenous, poorer, western departments being main base of support for Morales. The push for autonomy is a move aimed at securing control over gas reserves and land.

More:
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/736/38118

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Some words to ponder from another source, Santa Cruz: The Other Bolivia:

Santa Cruz: The Other Bolivia
October 8, 2006

~snip~
....... Santa Cruz is known for its racial divisions, emphasized and enforced mostly by paler skinned Cruceños (Santa Cruzians), who call themselves Cambas, as opposed to the darker skinned Cruceños, who they call K’ollas. Camba usually means whiter and upper class, while K’olla can mean everyone else, darker skinned and poorer. This terminology was explained to me as semi-scientific by Cruceños who considered themselves Cambas, but was deemed little more than racist and classist euphemisms by other Cruceños I talked to.

Cruceños who seriously identify themselves as Cambas do a lot of creative nationalist myth making, about how Cambas are the real Cruceños, that there aren’t really very many indigenous people, and that the ones who do exist are poor because they are lazy and they want to be. Various Cambas told me that K’ollas are unfriendly, stingy and dirty. There is an interesting binary in Camba discourse which delegitimizes indigenous people while simultaneously usurping indigenous culture and humble farmers as a part of its nationalist myth. On the day I left Santa Cruz, Unitel, the Santa Cruz owned Bolivian equivalent of Fox News, showed milk white Camba teens dancing indigenous dances in the lobby of a shiny new mall and movie theater. Autonomy is a magic word for both Cambas and Cruceños at large, but it means very different things for each. Indigenous nations in Bolivia (of which there are at least 36) are demanding autonomy to be able to make decisions about their land, as well as to get back their land from large estates. Eastern politicians in Santa Cruz, however, demand autonomy as a way to maintain control over resources and neoliberal policies in the face of a new government elected for its promise to re-nationalize formerly state owned industries such as gas, mining, railroads, as well as to redistribute land.

Not surprisingly, the Cruceño elites hate Morales, and they express it in several ways. The press, mostly owned by friends and allies, follow them around like dogs hoping to get a good butt sniff. The same ten old white men from Santa Cruz get at least 50% of the nightly television screen time, and the rest goes to models and soap operas. Papers are no better, usually twisting statements by the administration to sound inflammatory, and publishing daily interviews with members of the right. Newspapers are even less abashed in Santa Cruz itself, where interviews of the public always show different shades of the same perspective. The day I arrived, I bought a copy of El Deber, the local newspaper, in which one man was quoted as saying ” Cruceños need to stop being such fags and go out and confront these Indian niggers. For another, loudmouthed, very privileged social institutions have grown up as “representativesâ€� of the people, when in fact they represent the same 10 white men I mentioned before. The most vociferous of those organizations is the Comité Cívico Pro Santa Cruz.

http://upsidedownworld.org/april/?p=11

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Good comment, mickeyraul. Welcome to D.U. :hi: