There are signs of sweet reason starting to have some influence on the government’s plans for constitutional reform in Bolivia. The Vice President here talks of a
… a nation of nations with a common space but also where groups have their history, contribution, identity and participation acknowledged. And also a decentralised state with autonomous regions. In this way the three great historic axes of tension; the modern, the communitarian and state as articulator of the community are synthesised into a complex form that defines our state.
And on being asked whether indigenous peoples will own and administer the natural resources in their regions, he responds like this,
No, because that’s the state’s business, with the participation of the indigenous people. This shows the importance of the debate on sovereignty and the imperativeness of the participation of all nine million Bolivians in the ownership and management of our natural resources. This could never have happened if the indigenous people had remained fixated on the recognition of the local.
I think what this means is that at least the Vice President realises that turning Bolivia into a politically correct, neo-apartheid tribal jigsaw is a bad idea and that the state won’t be handing over control of the country’s only real source of wealth to ethnic groups anytime soon. It seems that a spell in power doesn’t always have negative, isolating consequence for politicians and it may sometimes bring them into closer touch with reality.
