The central building (right) in Concepción, Bolivia.
The organisation is composed of ‘base’ and ‘leaders’. The ‘base’ includes every
comunario or Chiquitano who does not hold a leadership position within the
organisation. Chiquitano leaders (dirigentes) occupy different roles or offices within the organisation. They are also often referred to as the ‘secretaries’ of certain working areas, e.g., ‘Secretary for Gender’ or ‘Secretary for Land and Territory’.85 They can be men or women; however in all three centrales more men occupy these positions. The highest office in the central in Concepción is the ‘president’. The president is also the legal representative of the Chiquitano organisation.86 The directory (the leaders and the president of the central), are elected every four years in a Great Assembly of representatives of the various comunidades affiliated to the
85
In the following, I translate ‘dirigente’ as ‘leader’, but ‘dirigente/ secretario de salud’ as ‘health secretary’. Many comunarios also use the term ‘líder’ to refer to the religious leaders of a comunidad. A comunaria from Santa Ana noted that she got confused by the use of the term liderazgo by personnel of the NGO Proceso in a leadership workshop for women. She thought that ‘líder’ had a religious function until she was told that the NGO used the term liderazgo and ‘líder’ to refer to political leaders. Workshop: Santa Ana, 20 April 2007. Comunarios generally refer to political leaders as ‘dirigente’ or ‘autoridades’.
86
CICC.87 The leaders work closely together with the so-called ‘técnicos’ or ‘técnicas’ (technicians). They are either hired by the central or provided by NGOs and support its activities by providing outside expertise, either permanently or for the duration of a certain project. For example, there are several forestry engineers (at least one is an APCOB employee) and a technician, who help the central in organisational matters. They helped organise meetings, structure them, write important items on the white- board and took the minutes.88 Another post in the central was that of the coordinator, who performs an administrative function and the leaders appoint him or her internally. Lastly, there were the secretaries that the central employs. Leaders, technicians and administrative staff – who can often be encountered in the central building – are also often referred to as the ‘central’.
Apart from everyday interaction between the people who form the central, activities are organised by the central through ‘open’ or ‘closed’ meetings. ‘Open’ meetings are those that comunarios, leaders, technicians and NGO members can attend. The central held weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually ‘planning’ or ‘evaluation’ open meetings. They are held to plan the leaders’ and technicians’ activities, to announce important events, inform the grassroots about political processes at department or national level, or are called to coordinate group action, such as assemblies or marches.
Besides arranging projects for the comunidades the central also fulfilled other important roles. It was generally there to ‘solve their problems’ and ‘looked after’ the affiliated comunidades.89 In this respect, comunarios and leaders often stressed that the central advanced their causes and solves their problems on a more political level, not least because it can ‘bring the comunarios together’. As a comunario from Candelaria noted:
When the CICC was founded it was with the idea that it had to support the indigenous people, because by ourselves we could not. Now with our organisation
87
Lorenzo Pasabare explained that the idea is that the first year is to learn and the other three years ‘to exercise’ the post. Every comunidad presented their candidates and the one with most votes would become President. The first three or four most important posts, such as President and Secretary of Land and Territory, were elected in a secret ballot. The others were elected in an open vote, by a simple show of hands. Interview: Lorenzo Pasabare, Concepción, 1 June 2007.
88 Most lowland indigenous organisations have such technicians, who provide support or for certain
projects as coordinators or consultants.
89 Workshop: Candelaria, 10 May 2007; Interview: Lorenza Rodriguez (CICC technician), Candelaria,
we can start a fight, because with all the comunidades, they call an assembly to solve the problems.90
Nicolás from the same comunidad stated something similar:
Well, for me the central is above all, the principal matrix, whose obligation it is to strive for all the comunidades, those that are affiliated as well as those who are not, also to defend the rights that correspond to everyone as a human being. Also amongst all the comunidades we support the CICC, so that it stands up firmly. Up to the moment the CICC is working vey well.91
Further, as already mentioned, the central was supposed to ‘provide information’ to the comunidades and keep them informed about any political and economical developments in the area (and at national level) that might affect the comunarios.92 As the CICC Health and Communication Secretary Hugo Hurtado noted: ‘one as leader has the obligation to inform the base’.93 As a comunario noted:
… it is like the compañero says, that we always have to direct ourselves after the
leaders of our centrales, because we are [here] for that, that they direct us and we
also understand that they inform us.94
The central also organises training workshops in the comunidades, for example to enhance female comunarios’ leadership skills, as well as providing stipends for children to attend schools and university.95 Consequently, many of the leaders and technicians mentioned that the central had been an important ‘training ground’ for their professional and political careers. For example, the OTB of Santa Rita, Pedro Solis Pinto, a former central leader and at the time of fieldwork helping out in a CEJIS project (see Chapter III), explained to me how important the formal and
90 ‘Cuando recién se fundó la CICC, fue con el sistema que tenia que apoyar a la gente indígena, por
que solo no podíamos. Ahora con nuestra organización tenemos como empezar una lucha, por que con todas las comunidades ellos llaman a asamblea para resolver los problemas’. Workshop:
Candelaria, 10 May 2007.
91 ‘Bueno para mí la central es más que toda la matriz principal, la cual su obligación es velar por
todas las comunidades, tanto por las que están afiliadas como las que no están, también para defender los derechos que le corresponden a cada uno como ser humano. También entre todas las comunidades le ponemos el hombro a la CICC para que se pare fuerte, hasta el momento la CICC esta trabajando muy bien. Esta ayudando en la carnetizacion, en salud … ayudando con becas de estudio a los jóvenes para otros países’. Workshop: Candelaria, 10 May 2007.
92
Workshop: Comunario from Tierra Nueva, Turux Napez, 19 April 2007; Interview: Hugo Hurtado (CICC Health and Communication Secretary), Alta Mira, 23 January 2007.
93 ‘Uno como dirigente tiene la obligación de informar a las bases’. Interview: Alta Mira, 23 Januray
2007.
94 ‘…es como dice el compañero que nosotros siempre debemos dirigirnos a los dirigentes de nuestras
centrales, por que para eso estamos para que ellos nos dirijan, y nosotros también comprendamos lo que ellos nos informan’. Workshop: Comunario from Tierra Nueva, Turux Napez, 19 April 2007.
95
informal training he had received through the central had been for his political awareness:
… so, in this moment I was exercising a post in the [central] directory which was my first experience, for example, of fighting and seeing so many problems that have presented us, no? and there I kept learning many things… and having contact with older and professional people, like lawyers, engineers… also the Organisation has been a part of school for me, because there I have learned many things that I did not learn in college. So I have learned many things, and also training in many different areas, for example, how to defend your own organisation. I did not know what my rights were but thanks to the assessors we have learned.96
Also many CGTI-MV and CICC técnicos expressed in interviews that central made it possible for them to go to university and that they continued learning when working for the central.
Furthermore, comunarios asked the central for help if problems arose between comunarios or comunidades which could not be resolved at the comunidad level. Comunarios also approached the central if a comunario was seriously ill and needed medication or transport. The central also assists comunarios in legal matters: if a comunario has trouble with the law, officials of the municipality call in. Central leaders to help resolve the matter.97 Moreover, the central aids comunarios in getting legal documents, such as identification cards.98
As can be concluded from the above, the central fulfils many functions for
comunarios that state bureaucratic institutions fulfil for other citizens in the locality.
As such they fulfil ‘state’ functions. That Chiquitano interact with such an array of actors that form part of the state power structure in Concepción also determined my methodology for exploring Chiquitano-state relations, addressed in the following chapter. It was of a necessarily multi-sited character reflecting the fragmented nature of the state power structure, as well as the geographical dispersion of Chiquitano
comunidades in the municipality.
96 ‘Entonce en ese momento yo estaba ejerciendo el cargo en la dirigencia y fue mi primera
experiencia ejemplo de lucha y ver tanto problema que se no ha presentado ¿no? y ahí fui aprendiendo mucha cosa… y tener contacto con persona mayores y profesionales, como ser abogados, ingenieros… también la organización ha sido como una parte de escuela para mi, por que de ahí he aprendido mucha cosa que yo en el colegio no la aprendía ¿no? Entonce he aprendido mucha cosa y también capacitándose uno en diferente área ejemplo no, como defender a su misma organización. …no sabia era mi derecho pero a través de los asesores que gracia a ellos hemos aprendido…’. Interview: Concepción, 1 June 2007.
97 Interview: Lorenzo Pasabare, Concepción, 1 June 2007. 98
Chapter III
Methodology: Of Multi-Sitedness, Shifting Positionalities and the
Politics of Research
Following the clarification of concepts employed in this thesis, this chapter aims to ground this study by providing a methodological discussion, regarding the ‘multi- sited’ ethnographic fieldwork I carried out from September 2006 until August 2007, mainly in the eastern Bolivian municipality of Concepción. A fieldworker should lay open their activities in the field and methods used, so the reader gains enough clarity about the conditions in which the research was carried out and about the origin of the featured data. This is, as Firth’s noted in the 1930s, because:
… even the simplest record of what purports to be the “facts” of a native culture has involved a considerable amount of interpretation, and every generalization about what the people do has meant a selection from the immeasurably wide field of their activity, a comparison of items of individuals behaviour (1936: 3).
In this spirit, this chapter provides a personal narrative of how I developed my research question, as well as explaining methodological choices I made. It reflects upon the multi-sited nature of my research, which allowed for the study of the state power structure for Chiquitano as enacted by different actors and in different sites.1 While many of the state actors reside in Concepción, the Chiquitano comunidades themselves are distributed throughout the rest of the municipal territory. Further, state actors may move around and engage with other state and non-state actors in different geographical settings. Two of the sites I conducted research in, were distinct research projects: one run by Comité de Gestión del Territorio Indígena de
Monte Verde (CGTI- MV – Management Committee of the Indigenous Territory of
Monte Verde) and the other, by the NGO Centro de Estudios Jurídico Investigación
Social (CEJIS – Centre for Legal and Social Studies). The projects not only formed
part of state actor activities, but my cooperation with the project researchers also provided me with access to data gathered through more structured methods of data collection.
1 Also compare Lucero’s (2008) methodology for investigating state-indigenous relations in Bolivia
and Ecuador. This also led him to carry out fieldwork in different sites, follow indigenous leaders around and spend time working in NGOs collaborating with indigenous movements.
Additionally, the chapter reflects on the multiple subject positions I adopted, or that were ascribed to me, in the field. I argue that research ethics depend on the social and cultural context that a researcher encounters. In other words, ‘ethical conduct’, presentation of self, and what constitutes appropriate research methods, are all linked to the socio-cultural context of a researchers field sites. For this reason, this chapter goes beyond dealing with methodological issues to describe how different actors in the locality presented themselves to each other. This is also a further introduction to the local socio-political structures. The final section reflects on the implication of working on the ‘side’ of ‘the Chiquitano’ and their allies. I argue, that taking up the position of an advocate as a methodological choice, must be distinguished from a personal moral position, while I acknowledge that these may coincide. I hold, that by treating the state as a power structure and focusing on the relations between actors, allows me to move beyond my advocate position during fieldwork in the writing up process.
What I Set out to Research, Why and How
My choice of research question and case study location were informed, apart from scholarly literature, by experiences I had before I was a graduate student and a pre- fieldwork mission to Bolivia. In 2003 and 2005, I worked as an intern and seminar assistant for a German NGO.2 It organised workshops for members of different Bolivian state agencies during which the delegates compared the Bolivian decentralised system to that of the German one. They were supposed to find ways of facilitating the coordination between the Bolivian decentralised state instances and making the institutions more citizen-friendly. Reflecting on what I learned developed into a research interest in how (decentralised) political institutions impact on
2
The NGO Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH (Inwent – Capacity Building International) Inwent was founded in 2003 through a merger of the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V. (CDG) und the German Foundation for International Development (DSE). Inwent has it’s headquarter in Bonn, Germany, and operates in the field of international development. It is one of the decentralised implementing institutions of the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). 60 per cent of the work Inwent carries out is commissioned by the Ministry. However, Inwent may also get commissioned for projects from other actors, such UN institutions, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) or the German business sector (see Inwent, 2010). Due to its close relationship with the German Government the ‘non-governmental’ nature of the organisation is highly debatable.
populations and in turn, how populations interact with and perceive state bureaucratic levels.3
To find a research location to investigate indigenous-state relations, I set out in May 2006 for a one-month long pre-fieldwork mission to Bolivia. Initially, I relied on Bolivian contacts resident in La Paz, who I had met at the workshops in Germany, and some of the staff of German international development institutions.4 I decided to concentrate my reconnaissance efforts on the Chiquitanía in the Santa Cruz department, along with two other departments. I travelled to the capital of Santa Cruz department: Santa Cruz de la Sierra (generally simply referred to as Santa Cruz). Here, I received help from Carlos Echegoyen, an employee of the Deutscher
Entwicklungsdienst (DED – German Development Service), who later helped me
gain ‘access’ to the Chiquitano organisations.
Carlos was a sociologist trained in conflict mediation and deployed by the DED to work for the Santa Cruz-based NGO CEJIS.5 He had supported CEJIS and the Chiquitano Organisations in the protection and execution of indigenous rights and conflict mediation since 2005. I learned from Carlos and his colleagues that among ‘hot topics’ in the region were land-problems, the conflicts surrounding claims to Tierras Comunitarias de Origen (TCOs –Original Communal Lands) and
3 Initially, I was particularly interested in the validity of claims by scholars that decentralisation would
promote and enlarge democracy, stimulate social and economic development, make states more accountable and accessible to civil society (for example, Litvack et al., 1998; Llambí and Lindemann, 2001; Lockwood, 1998; Schneider, 2003). Such claims had also led some analysts to consider its potential in reducing levels of conflict and ethnic tensions within states (e.g. Licha, 2002; Treisman, 1999). Bolivia seemed to undermine such optimistic claims, as the introduction of decentralisation reforms in 1994 had had some success in such issues as re-directing of public investment in favour of ‘poorer districts’ (for example, see Faguet, 2003: 1), but not stabilised central government, proven by such episodes as the 2003 ousting of President Sánchez de Lozada in 2003.
4 Especially helpful and accommodating was Aymara Raúl Maydana, Federación de Asociaciones
Municipales (FAM – Federation of Municipal Associations) coordinator, resident in La Paz. Most of
these German organisations have useful libraries, where I could obtain studies and general information about the current state of affairs in different Bolivian municipalities, as well as knowledgeable staff with some of who I discussed my research ideas.
5 The DED was founded in 1963 and has its main seat in Bonn, Germany. Like Inwent it implements
part of the German Federal Governments’ international development strategies and has the ‘legal form of a non-profit-making, limited liability company’ (see DED, n/d). On their website, the DED explains that it ‘is owned jointly by the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the working group “Learning and Helping Overseas”, a registered association. DED is financed by the federal budget’ (n/d). It operates through placing specialist development workers in local civil organizations and municipal structures at the request of governmental and nongovernmental organisations. These specialists engage mainly in training, advisory capacity and planning tasks, if required supplemented by financial support (see DED, n/d).
the question of departmental autonomy.6 A conflict of particular longevity and gravity was that surrounding the TCO Monte Verde in Velasco Province. Chiquitano from the region had claimed the territory since the 1990s and, as later materialised, the territorial struggle presented the main subject of Chiquitano-state engagement. Not long before my arrival in Bolivia, President Evo Morales had announced that he wanted to hand over the legal title for the TCO, to three local indigenous organisations who had jointly claimed the land: the Central Indígena de
Comunidades de Concepción (CICC – Indigenous Organisation of Communities of
Concepción), the Central Indígena de Paikonecas de San Javier (CIP-SJ – Indigenous Organisation of Paikonecas of San Javier) and the Central Indígena de
los Comunidades Originarios de Lomerío (CICOL – Indigenous Organisation of