'Capitolism' Bolivia Style

Readers:

As we reported earlier, Bolivia's politics have been tossed into a new crisis over an issue that few expected to inspire such heat and conflict a year ago – a proposal to move the Legislative and Presidential capital of Bolivia from La Paz to the city of Sucre (already the country's judicial capital). As noted earlier, the fight over moving the capital has led to a shutdown (presumably temporary) of the Constituent Assembly, meeting in Sucre to finalize a new national constitution.

Here is the latest installment in The Democracy Center's continuing on-the-ground reports from Sucre, from Lily Whitesell, Aldo Orellana and Leny Olivera. We will continue our coverage here on this issue in the coming weeks and continue to provide our comments section as an uncensored space for the exchange of views on these important events.

Jim Shultz

The Capital Conflict

Hunger strikes, street protests, and even symbolic crucifixions in the main plaza have taken place in Sucre over the Capitalia issue throughout the last month. Last week, however, the protests got violent. Protesters attacked the headquarters of the State radio station. There were violent conflicts between Assembly representatives and between the police and protesters. Some indigenous Assembly representatives reported that they were afraid to leave their homes. The Constituent Assembly was shut down entirely. Yesterday, an attempt at reconciliation by the federal government’s ombudsman (“Defender of the People”) failed. Protests, strikes, and demonstrations are planned for next week all over the country.

All of this began over the location of Bolivia’s legislative and executive branches. Currently, the Congress and Executive Powers have their seat in the city of La Paz, but the Judicial Branch and constitutional capital of the country is Sucre. The pro-Capitalia protesters want the legislative and executive branches of government be moved to Sucre in the new Constitution.

But last Wednesday, a resolution introduced by the Assembly leadership to take the proposal for Capitalia out of Assembly debate was passed in a full-Assembly plenary session. The reason given for the resolution was that Capitalia was an unnecessarily divisive – and inconsequential – proposal. It is doubtful that the Assembly leadership realized how significant that proposal would become.

Sucre and La Paz

Sucre and La Paz are remarkably different cities, though they share the distinction of hosting Bolivia’s federal political powers and being considered capitals of the country.

Sucre was originally founded to be near the silver mining boomtown of Potosi, which was the center of the Spanish colonial economy. The wealthy inhabitants of Sucre relied heavily on the riches of Potosi for their affluence and political power. When Bolivia declared independence from Spain in 1825, Sucre was a clear choice for the capital, having been a political center of the Spanish colony.

In more recent years, Sucre has been known for its white colonial architecture, tourists, and its comfortable climate. It maintains a socially conservative and traditional society, particularly in the old colonial section in the center of the city. Like many other Bolivian cities, the periphery of Sucre stretches out into poorer, more indigenous neighborhoods, many of which have been built in recent years as people have been drawn to the city from surrounding rural areas.

More than 700 kilometers (435 miles) northwest of Sucre, in full Andean highlands, the city of La Paz tumbles down into a river valley from the edge of the altiplano. La Paz is a very different city – politically, geographically, and socially. At 3,640 meters about sea level, it is a colder, bustling, busy metropolitan city whose underlying currents are far less socially conservative than Sucre. Paceños also voted overwhelmingly for Morales in the 2005 election and the city continues to be one of his largest strongholds of support.

A defining feature of La Paz’s political landscape is El Alto, the city that overlooks the La Paz river valley on the vast plains of the altiplano. El Alto is far less wealthy than its sister city, but very politically active and not known for backing down. It played a key role in many of the social conflicts in the years leading up to the 2005 election through unyielding blockades and strikes. When the proposal to move the Executive and Legislative Powers was first introduced in July, two million people from La Paz and El Alto participated in a march to keep them there, according to organizers and local newspapers.

Why Are There Two Capitals Anyway?

At the end of the nineteenth century, the peak of Bolivia’s silver boom in the southern Potosi had long passed, and the decline was hitting dramatic new lows. At the same time, tin mining in western La Paz was on the rise. That meant a shift in the internal economic and political power dynamics of the country. That shift led to a showdown in 1898 between the nouveau riche Western Liberals of La Paz and the Southern Conservatives of Potosi and Sucre.

The Federal Civil War between these two forces lasted from 1898 to 1899. The Western Liberals’ final victory was in a large part due to the support of Pablo Zarate Willka, the leader of the fierce Aymara people of Bolivia’s highlands. The Aymara agreed to support the Liberals’ cause in exchange for recognition of their lands and self-governance. In the end, the Liberals of La Paz won, but betrayed Zarate Willka and his people when the Aymara leader was taken into custody and shot after the war. But the Liberals had won – the executive and legislative branches of government were moved from Sucre to La Paz, where they have remained to this day.

Who Supports the Move and Why?

The Capitalia manifestations are not your typical Bolivian protest. On Bolivia’s Independence Day, we witnessed pro-Sucre and pro-Capitalia chants in the main plaza turn into anti-Evo slogans. Anti-indigenous and racist epithets were heard from the back of the crowd. Last week, according to local media, the Capitalia chants were alternated with others in favor of departmental autonomy and even racist statements against Silvia Lazarte, the president of the Constituent Assembly.

Capitalia’s most radical supporters are the conservative elite of Sucre, who have bristled at hosting the Constituent Assembly’s indigenous representatives for the last year. To them, the passage of last Wednesday’s resolution showed real evidence that the Constituent Assembly leadership would never take their demands and desires seriously.

Sucre’s residents as a whole also support the move of the capital from La Paz, though many condemn the violence of last week’s protests. Chuquisaca, the department that contains the city of Sucre, is the second poorest in Bolivia, and many residents see a move of the executive and legislative branches as a chance for real development of the region. Sucreños also hold a long-standing, deep grudge over the loss of those two powers like that of Bolivia’s loss of sea access to Chile more than 100 years ago.

Outside the department, the Capitalia issue’s strongest supporters include PODEMOS Assembly representatives and the political leaders of the media luna, the departments that voted for greater departmental autonomy from the national government – particularly those from Santa Cruz. For those in opposition to the current administration, supporting the fight for Capitalia is a strategic move, in several ways.

First, Sucre represents PODEMOS’ best chance for expanding their influence and shifting the balance of the country. Currently, four of Bolivia’s nine departments have voted for greater autonomy from the national government. If the media luna could extend their influence to another department, they could claim a majority of departmental backing. The Capitalia issue has tapped into deep departmental pride and by supporting that issue, PODEMOS may be winning new support in Chuquisaca.

It also reads like a classic play to distract and divert attention away from the other debates of the Constituent Assembly. A recent UN study showed that 74% of the public would support a new Constitution if it has the support of Bolivia’s political leaders. [Here is a link to a recent report on the topic from the Andean Information Network.] The Assembly’s goals do appeal to a large segment of the population. If it can achieve them on some scale, the Constituent Assembly will be a true win for the social movements that led the demand for it and a political win for MAS.

However, if the Assembly fails or is shut down, PODEMOS can undercut MAS' most widely used slogan, "Evo cumple" - the equivalent of "Evo gets the job done." They would be able to claim that this administration has seen no less conflict than the others that came before it, and further erode Evo's support among Bolivia's middle class and the "I just want to work" sector.

Perhaps the current shutdown is only a preview of things to come. Perhaps the Constituent Assembly will never reopen. There are, no doubt, many PODEMOS Assembly representatives who would like nothing better. After all, many of the proposals being debated in the Constituent Assembly would be real changes to a system that has benefited PODEMOS’ leaders and supporters for generations – and many of those changes would directly challenge the economic and political power they hold.

However, as much as Capitalia’s most radical supporters might like to shut down the Assembly, PODEMOS is also invested in the Constituent Assembly’s process. The Constituent Assembly represents a real, nearly guaranteed chance for the media luna to get departmental autonomy.

Perhaps they have another idea in mind in supporting Sucre as the full Capital of Bolivia. After all, having the full capital located in Sucre would, in fact, benefit the media luna a great deal politically. As mentioned above, Sucre is geographically and politically neutral, if not right-leaning – a stark contrast to the militant social movements of La Paz who have been able to leverage political power because of their proximity to the executive and legislative branches of government. And if Sucre is PODEMOS’ best chance for recruiting another department into voting for greater autonomy from the government and shifting the balance of power, in their eyes, it would be great a place to base Bolivia’s political operations.

Autonomy is clearly PODEMOS’ most important issue, and they have done everything to assure that it will be included in the final Constitution. But if the Constituent Assembly is able to continue despite the conflicts that embroil it today, PODEMOS would be looking at a bargaining table where the other side has a lot of requests to make. Perhaps they’re betting they have a chance to get a lot more than just autonomy out of the Constituent Assembly.

On the other side of the aisle, the MAS leadership would do well to think of one of the lessons of pre-Morales social movement marches – the quickest and easiest way to radicalize a group of people is for those in power to fold their ears and close off debate, particularly on an issue that can be taken personally. As trivial as a move of Bolivia’s capital may seem on the surface, there is clearly a lot more depth to it than they first presumed. They may have lost a great deal more than they suspected by not taking the proposal more seriously.

The demonstrations planned on both sides for next week show that this debate is far from over. However, time is ticking. It took representatives from August through December of last year to agree on the procedural rules. In order to get the Constituent Assembly out this conflict, back up and running, and through the settlement commission and the plenary session before December 14, there will need to be some extraordinary effort and compromise – fast.

Written by Lily Whitesell, Aldo Orellana and Leny Olivera