This paper analyzes Indigenous politics in Bolivia, the 2019 coup against President Evo Morales, and the return of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Movement for Socialism, MAS) with the inauguration of Luis Arce in 2020. Drawing on interviews with Indigenous community members in the lowlands of the Bolivian Amazon, this piece theoretically situates Indigenous autonomy struggles within world systems theory and insights from Max Weber’s ‘iron cage’ of institutional isomorphism to argue that political tensions in Bolivian Indigenous communities can be understood within a context of (1) increasingly strained relations between the MAS and civil society organizations; (2) Indigenous-NGO coalition efforts to protect Tierras Comunitarias de Orígen (Native Community Lands) and; (3) the development of competing parallel leadership organizations within Native communities that threaten democratic processes and cohesive responses to extractivism.
AldermanJonathan2021 “The houses that Evo built: Autonomy, vivir bien, and viviendas in Bolivia.” Latin American Perspectives48 (3): 100–118.
7.
Anaya, JamesS.2005 “Los pueblos indígenas en el derecho internacional.” Investigaciones Sociales11 (19): 384–387.
8.
AnthiasPenelope2012 “Territorializing resource conflicts in ‘post-neoliberal’ Bolivia: Hydrocarbon development and indigenous land titling in TCO Itika Guasu,” pp. 129–153 in HaarstadHavard (ed.), New Political Spaces in Latin American Natural Resource Governance. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
9.
AnthiasPenelope2018 “Indigenous peoples and the new extraction: from territorial rights to hydrocarbon citizenship in the Bolivian Chaco.” Latin American Perspectives45 (5): 136–153.
10.
AnthiasPenelopeRadcliffeSara A.2015 “The ethno-environmental fix and its limits: Indigenous land titling and the production of not-quite-neoliberal natures in Bolivia.” Geoforum64: 257–269.
11.
Arigho-StilesOlivia2021 “New futures of ecological struggle in Bolivia: Researchers Marxa Chávez and Carlos Revilla reflect on the costs of state-led transformation and the impacts of resource extraction on Indigenous territories and livelihoods.” NACLA Report on the Americas53 (3): 288–295.
12.
ArteagaWalter2015 “Building citizenship in the context of the debate on the post-2015 agenda in Bolivia.” Community Development Journal50 (4): 571–588.
BebbingtonDenise H.BebbingtonAnthony J.2010 “Extraction, territory, and inequalities: Gas in the Bolivian Chaco.” Canadian Journal of Development Studies/Revue canadienne d'études du développement30 (1-2): 259–280.
DelgadoAna Carolina2017 “The TIPNIS conflict in Bolivia.” Contexto Internacional39 (2): 145–163.
20.
DiMaggioPaul J.PowellWalter W.1983 “The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields.” American Sociological Review48 (2): 147–160.
FabricantNicolePosteroNancy2019 “Performing indigeneity in Bolivia: the struggle over the TIPNIS,” pp. 245–276 in degaardCecilie Vindal ØRivera AndíaJuan Javier (eds.), Indigenous Life Projects and Extractivism. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
23.
FarthingLindaKohlBenjamin2012 “Supply-side reduction strategies: Bolivia’s experiment with social control.” International Journal of Drug Policy23 (6): 488–494.
24.
FloresPabel C. López2015 “Re-emergencia de conflictos socioterritoriales y movimientos sociales en los gobiernos “progresistas. Los casos del TIPNIS en Bolivia y el Yasuní en Ecuador.” Revista nuestrAmérica3 (5): 40–54.
HinderyDerrick2013From Enron to Evo: Pipeline Politics, Global Environmentalism, and Indigenous Rights in Bolivia. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
29.
HirschCecilie2019 “Between resistance and negotiation: Indigenous organisations and the Bolivian State in the case of TIPNIS.” Journal of Peasant Studies46 (4): 811–830.
30.
HopeJessica2016 “Losing ground? Extractive-led development versus environmentalism in the isiboro secure indigenous territory and national park (TIPNIS), Bolivia.” The Extractive Industries and Society3 (4): 922–929.
KohlBenjaminFarthingLinda2009 “‘Less than fully satisfactory development outcomes’: International financial institutions and social unrest in Bolivia.” Latin American Perspectives36 (3): 59–78.
LarsonAnne M.Cronkleton andPeter J.PulhinJuan M.2015 “Formalizing Indigenous commons: The role of ‘authority’ in the formation of territories in Nicaragua, Bolivia, and the Philippines.” World Development70: 228–238.
MarstonAndreaPerreaultTom2016 “Consent, coercion and cooperativismo: Mining cooperatives and resource regimes in Bolivia.” Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space49 (2): 252–272.
40.
McNeishJohn-Andrew2013 “Extraction, protest and Indigeneity in Bolivia: The TIPNIS effect.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies8 (2): 221–224.
PosteroNancy2007Now We Are Citizens: Indigenous Politics in Multicultural Bolivia. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
46.
PosteroNancy2010 “Morales’s MAS government: Building Indigenous popular hegemony in Bolivia.” Latin American Perspectives37 (3): 18–34.
47.
PosteroNancyTockmanJason2020 “Self-governance in Bolivia’s first Indigenous autonomy: Charagua.” Latin American Research Review55 (1): 1–15.
48.
Reyes-GarcíaVictoriaJonathan Bauchet andÁlvaro Fernández-LlamazaresGodoyRicardo2020 “Variety of Indigenous peoples’ opinions of large infrastructure projects: The TIPNIS road in the Bolivian Amazon.” World Development127: 104751.
49.
RousseauStéphanieHudonAnahi Morales2017Indigenous Women’s Movements in Latin America: Gender and Ethnicity in Peru, Mexico and Bolivia. New York: Palgrave.
50.
Sanchez-LopezDaniela2015 “Reshaping notions of citizenship: The TIPNIS Indigenous movement in Bolivia.” Development Studies Research2 (1): 20–32
WallersteinImmanuel2015 “The itinerary of world-systems analysis; Or, how to resist becoming a Theory,” pp.195–217 in Uncertain Worlds: World-Systems Analysis in Changing Times. New York: Routledge.
55.
WallersteinImmanuel2019“The present state of the debate on world inequality,” pp. 119–132 in SeligsonMitchell (ed.), The Gap Between Rich and Poor: Contending Perspectives on the Political Economy of Development. New York: Routledge.
WebberJeffery R.2011From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation, and the Politics of Evo Morales. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
58.
WebberJeffery R.2012. “Revolution against ‘progress’: The TIPNIS struggle and class contradictions in Bolivia.”International Socialism133.
59.
WebberJeffery R.2013 “ From left-Indigenous insurrection to reconstituted neoliberalism in Bolivia: Political economy, Indigenous liberation, and class struggle, 2000–2011,” pp.149–190 in WebberJeffery R.CarrBarry (eds.), The New Latin American Left: Cracks in the Empire. Lanham: Rowman and Littlfield.
