Charagua’s Struggle for Indigenous Autonomy

Abstract

In chapter 6, we saw how three local communities are negotiating the contemporary conjunctures in Bolivia, especially the discourse of economic liberation put forth by the Morales government, which privileges public works, development, and economic well-being. I argued that in some communities, this emphasis has made indigeneity a less salient site of political organizing than ethnic identity, which, as we have seen in previous chapters, was central to emancipatory politics at the beginning of the Morales administration. For these communities, decolonization signified either an empty promise from a cynical government or a means to class advancement. In this chapter, I