The driving forces behind a disputed highway project
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2018-08-01
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en
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In 2006, the rise of the revolutionary Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) resulted in the election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president of Bolivia. This signified the defeat of a neoliberal hegemony that had oppressed the Bolivian indigenous majority for decades, and thus the victory of indigenous peoples, who were finally granted more rights and recognition. However, in 2011, the decision of the Morales administration to start with the construction of a highway straight through the Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro-Securé (TIPNIS), which is an area situated in the lowlands, and home to a small number of indigenous peoples, directly opposed the newly formed constitution. As a result, Bolivia appeared once again as an arena for large-scale protests. Through a Gramscian analysis, this thesis seeks to explain the reasons why the Morales administration decided on the construction of the TIPNIS-highway. By looking at the known explanandum retrospectively, this thesis makes use of retroduction to trace the process that resulted in the eventual decision to construct the TIPNIS-highway. The empirical results are presented in an empirical narrative, which demonstrates how various social forces – such as the previously defeated neoliberals, the coca growers from the Chapare-region, and the Brazilian transnational capitalist classes – have been able to access the structures of the state, and influence both the direction of the revolution and the decision-making process concerning the TIPNIS-highway. Meanwhile, the demands from TIPNIS-residents and other anti-road activists are continuously ignored, which has led to the organization of an alternative, counter-hegemonic bloc. Hence, the TIPNIS-conflict was caused by divisions in both the political and civil society, which consequently resulted in a profound crisis for the Morales administration and cracks in their counter-hegemonic revolution. The TIPNIS-case demonstrates that the Morales administration has not yet lost its neoliberal, capitalist demons from the past.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen