The Bolivian government has started implementing provisions outlined in the new constitution [2] that give indigenous people the right to govern themselves. On Aug. 2, President Evo Morales enacted a decree setting out the conditions for indigenous communities to hold votes on autonomy. These referenda will take place in December, along with presidential and congressional elections. The provisions allowing for votes on indigenous autonomy were presented in a ceremony in Camiri, the eastern region of Santa Cruz. Morales called it "a historic day for the peasant and indigenous movement."
"Your president, your companion, your brother Evo Morales might make mistakes but will never betray the fight started by our ancestors and the fight of the Bolivian people," he said. (El País [3], Spain, Aug. 4; BBC News [4], Aug. 3)
See our last post on Bolivia [5] and the world indigenous struggle [6].
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