Headlines, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean

BOLIVIA: Complex Challenge of Making Decentralisation a Reality

Franz Chávez

LA PAZ, Jun 10 2010 (IPS) - Putting together the complex puzzle of the different kinds of provincial, municipal and indigenous autonomy in Bolivia will be a delicate task that will have to overcome struggles over funds, jurisdiction and ideology, said analysts consulted by IPS.

For instance, the authorities in Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s wealthiest province, say they will design 80 percent of the educational curriculum, leaving only 20 percent to the national government.

But that would deprive the Bolivian state of jurisdiction in a key area, education, running counter to the constitution in force since 2009, said Mario Galindo, an expert on the question of decentralisation, which in Bolivia is taking shape through different kinds of autonomy.

The case of Santa Cruz is an example of the kind of battles that the left-wing government of Evo Morales will be waging over the next few years, he told IPS.

“Not even a conservative government would yield its authority on these matters,” said Galindo.

The governors of Bolivia’s nine provinces (known as departments), who include three representatives of the right-wing opposition, were sworn in May 30 by Morales in Sucre, after the Apr. 4 provincial and municipal elections.

Morales says there was a conspiracy to overthrow him in 2008, led by radical right-wing groups in Santa Cruz linked to reelected Governor Rubén Costas.

Morales and Costas met Jun. 2 in the presidential palace in La Paz to try to leave behind the tensions of the past and reestablish channels of communication. They both said the meeting was positive.

But the differences between the president and governors Ernesto Suárez of Beni in the north and Mario Cossío of Tarija in the south have yet to be overcome.

Morales, the country’s first indigenous president, was reelected in December by an even bigger landslide than he had enjoyed in 2006. He has led a process of change in which the country’s impoverished indigenous majority has been given greater political participation, under the new constitution which recognises that Bolivia is a “multi-national” state made up of peoples who have the right to autonomy and to preserve their culture.

Alongside the Dec. 6 presidential and legislative elections, 12 of Bolivia’s 327 municipalities voted in favour of indigenous self-government, which will give them control over the natural resources on their land and a greater say in how to use funds transferred from the central state.

In addition, legal disputes and crimes in those municipalities will be tried in traditional local courts, and elections will be organised and community leaders appointed according to native customs, which are based on a tradition of consensus-building.

But because the concept of indigenous autonomy is new, the details on how it will actually function must still be legislated by Congress in such a way that it does not clash with the autonomy of the provinces.

The three conservative governors, meanwhile, are worried that they will be suspended as a result of investigations into charges of embezzlement and corruption.

On May 24, the legislature passed a “transitional law for the functioning of autonomous territorial entities”, which will be in effect until a definitive “framework law on autonomies” is approved to govern the decentralisation process. That vote is scheduled for Jul. 22, and approval is considered a given, since Morales’s allies have a comfortable majority in both houses of Congress.

Article 8 of the “transitional law”, which stipulates the suspension of governors who are facing criminal action, was criticised by the opposition as an attempt by the government to gain greater control.

When the governors were sworn in, jurisdiction over 36 areas was transferred from the central to the provincial governments, which will now be responsible for human development planning, promotion of employment, zoning and land use, and highway, railway and airport administration.

They will also be responsible for policies on tourism, promotion and conservation of culture, and the historical, artistic, architectural, archaeological, scientific and intangible heritage.

Voters first demanded provincial autonomy in referendums held in 2008 in the provinces of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija, known in Bolivia as the “eastern crescent”, which account for most of the country’s natural gas production, industry, agribusiness and GDP.

Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, is basically divided between the western highlands, home to the poor indigenous majority, and the much wealthier eastern and southeastern provinces The population of eastern Bolivia tends to be of more Spanish and mestizo (mixed-race) than indigenous descent.

The chief support base of Morales and his Movement to Socialism (MAS) party is the country’s indigenous population, who have long suffered discrimination and were not even allowed to vote until 1952.

The autonomy referendums by the “eastern crescent” provinces were a challenge to the Morales administration by their right-wing governors, and were criticised as an attempt at secession.

Their aim was decentralisation and greater control over the revenues from the natural gas — the country’s main source of foreign exchange — and other resources in their provinces by means of the creation of provincial assemblies and local tax collection mechanisms.

But in the December elections, the provinces of Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro and Potosí also voted for provincial autonomy, which means all nine now have the same legal status.

Questions of jurisdiction and financing will be caught up in a constant “tug-of-war” between municipal, provincial and indigenous authorities, aggravated by the central government’s problems in providing the funds for the functioning of the various levels of government, Galindo said.

Franco Gamboa, an analyst on constitutional issues, remarked to IPS that “the essential thing is to move ahead with the ‘framework law on autonomies’ and approval of development projects in which each autonomous government will have the commitment to show results.”

If the new governments fail to do so, he said, “differences could emerge between civil society in each province and their new autonomous governments. The disappointment of civil society should be avoided, and the important thing is to have realistic plans, in order to come up with results.

“The mentality of the politicians will have to change, so that they learn to govern with the opposition,” he said. “They won’t have total control, and the opposition will always be present at all levels of government.”

The analyst said the capacity of the Bolivian political system to address society’s increasingly complex demands, despite the enormous challenge represented by the actual implementation of solutions, should be recognised.