INDIGENOUS AUTONOMY IN BOLIVIA: BETWEEN SELF-DETERMINATION AND COLONIALITY

Abstract

Contextualization: As one of the achievements of Latin American constitutionalism, the Political Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia normatively recognized the right “to autonomy, to self-government, to culture, to the recognition of its institutions and the consolidation of its territorial entities, by the Constitution and the law". The Plurinational State assumes a commitment to guarantee the self-determination and self-government of native peasant nations and indigenous peoples and, to make this possible, it provides for the creation of indigenous autonomy from peasant origins, provided for in article 289 and following and regulated by the so-called Marco Law of Autonomies and Decentralization. “Andres Ibáñez”. However, the regulatory provisions and procedures required for the configuration of indigenous autonomy require that peoples adopt the logic of thinking and structuring that underpin the State itself, such as a referendum, statute, and control of constitutionality by the Plurinational Constitutional Court..

Objective: The general objective is to analyze the process that resulted in the creation of the Autonomía Guaraní Charagua Iyambae, in Bolivia, addressing the contradictions and the persistence of the colonial logic in the instrumentalization of the commitment to guarantee the self-determination of peoples.

Method: The methodology used results from the combination of inductive and dialectical methods, monographic and comparative procedure methods and techniques of bibliographic and documentary research, and technical visit to the analyzed region.

Results: As a result, it appears that the self-determination guaranteed by the constitution encounters obstacles to the demands made by the constitutional text itself and regulatory legislation. However, there is evidence that these peoples have been using these instruments to confront the State from the outside and, at the same time, from within.