The guaranÍ charagua iyambae autonomy in times of emergency: Impacts and responses to the COVID-19 in the first indigenous autonomy of the plurinational State of Bolivia

Abstract

This research analyzes the impacts, responses and perceptions around the Covid-19 pandemic in the Guaraní Charagua Iyambae Autonomy, the first indigenous autonomy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, formed in January 2017 after a complex autonomic construction process initiated in 2009. The study proposes to analyze a phenomenon of global scope, the Covid-19 pandemic, from a local perspective, with the aim of providing a situated understanding of the effects of the pandemic on indigenous peoples, as well as of its response capacity through the exercise of indigenous self-government. Through an in-depth analysis of the main socio-environmental dynamics of a territory subjected to multiple processes of ecological pressure and socio-economic transformation, we will understand structural and internal limitations to the exercise of autonomy and indigenous territorial sovereignty that condition the capacity to response to the pandemic from this new indigenous autonomy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.