This Sunday, the inevitable march towards heightened regional divide in Bolivia was cemented with yet two more regions in Bolivia – Beni and Pando – voting overwhelmingly to declare further autonomy from the central government.
Whilst local citizens took the streets in celebration, the central government tried - as in the Santa Cruz province a couple of weeks back – to call the election illegal and unconstitutional and somehow draw some grain of solace from the ‘high’ levels of absenteeism. As one government minister Alfredo Rada optimistically tried to put it, "en el departamento de Pando, podemos decir con toda claridad que este intento ilegal e inconstitucional de imponer estatutos ha sido firmemente rechazado por el pueblo pandino". And added, "el pueblo dijo autonomía SÍ pero estatutos NO".
In a few weeks it’ll be the turn of the Tarija department (the last of the so-called ‘Media Luna’ group) to go down this predictable electoral path in their own autonomy vote.
How in the world will Evo Morales and the central government ever be able to reconcile the yawning geographic divide that is driving this country apart? If you think the problems are bad now, I’m sure they could get a whole lot more conflictive if Evo Morales survives the recall referendum on his presidency (penciled in for August) and then pushes for the public referendum on his draft constitution. A constitution that was approved last year by his MAS party, but conveniently boycotted by the opposition politicians who are now behind this regional autonomy move.
Unfortunately along with this geographic divide, a more serious anti-indigenous racial divide continues to be unleashed. But more on this later…
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