Evo Morales at the Crossroads: Problematizing the Relationship between the State and Indigenous Movements in Bolivia

Abstract

The conflict around the construction of a road that would cut across the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), exploded in August 2011 and still unsolved, can be considered a turning point in the relationship between the Bolivian government and social movements, and among social movements themselves. This paper provides some insights to understand the recent shift in Bolivian political and social equilibria. After a period of alliances and mutual support in the face of threats from external enemies – in particular, neoliberalism and oligarchic powers – social movements have recently entered into a moment of fragmentation and contention over access to the same physical, symbolic and power spaces. Both recent normative and constitutional reforms as well as new reshaping of social configu-rations and political power contributed to this conflictive scenario, which finds one of its main and most symbolic expressions in the conflicts for land and territory such as the TIPNIS dispute.