Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia: Claiming Ownership of Our Own Destinies

Mayra will present an historical perspective to contemporary Indigenous movements in Bolivia and examine how the convergence of class-struggle and Indigenous identity politics created a crucial set of circumstances to their rise to political prominence and capture worldwide attention by bringing about change in the Plurinational State of Bolivia. She will highlight the various political and economic policies paving the way to change starting with the 1952 revolution, the military dictatorship, and the massive privatization of the 80s and 90s leading to the Water and the Gas Wars. Mayra will show how the protests launched a movement of participative democracy propelling the peaceful political transition of 2006, and opening the path to a “refounding” of Bolivia to overcome legacies of political exclusion. And as global concern rises over social and environmental impacts, the speaker will also report on how the current Bolivian government has assumed initiative in the defense of the rights of Mother Earth by convening the social movements of the world to advance a strong position in the global climate policy debate.