Concepción Mission Church, with protesters demanding indigenous autonomies, 30 June 2007.
The priests and local bishop play an important religious role in Concepción and the
comunidades. At times, they visit comunidades for the patron-Saint festival but also
train comunarios in delivering church services in their own comunidades. Further, they are among the actors which provide productive and infrastructure projects to Chiquitano comunidades. These range from financing the installation of wells and health posts to loans and technical support for cattle and weaving cooperatives.
The Church owns several artisan workshops which produce goods that are sold as ‘Chiquitano’ artefacts and they train Chiquitano in the production of these
objects. While the church helped set up small weaving projects primarily for women in a few comunidades, most artisan goods are produced in Concepción by the workers affiliated to the Asociación de Artesanos de Concepción (Associations of artisans of Concepción). The association provides technical assistance, credit and commercialises the goods. 80 per cent of all artisanal goods are bought by the Parish who then exhibits and sells them in their own shops. 20 per cent are sold in the artisan shops in other ex- missions (Gobierno Municipal de Concepción, 2007b: 67). The Church also supported comunidades in building chapels and new school buildings. In the TCO Monte Verde it was supporting the comunidades Palestina and Makanaté in building new adobe family houses to replace the ones made of wood and mud. In such projects, the Church helped with raw materials and the comunidad provided the manpower (‘dar aporte’). Comunario Miguel stated with regards to the projects that the Parish had supported in his comunidad Candelaria, one of the larger
comunidades outside the TCO Monte Verde:
I rather thank this institution that is the Parish because they were the ones that were helping, because of them we have the large school, we have a parish home, that we are also using as school rooms for the students, if we would not have this, until now we would have nowhere for the them to get lessons.56
According to Lacroix, the business-orientation of the Priests causes ‘regular conflicts between the Church and the population, as the church is more interested in its financial affairs than in the maintenance of good relations with its believers’ (2005: 47). Comunarios never mentioned to me that they had any types of ‘conflicts’ with the church. However, there is evidence that the priests share prejudices against Chiquitano with members of the concepceño elite and they certainly did not see their economic dealings with the comunidades as charitable acts. The few times I visited the local German Franciscan priest, he expressed that he thought that Chiquitano
comunarios were lazy and that they only came to the Church when they wanted to
borrow money. He stressed how much the Church had done for the comunidades and how ungrateful and forgetful Chiquitanos were in respect to these favours.57
56
‘Más bien yo agradezco a esta institución que es La Parroquia por que ellos fueron los que
ayudaron, por ellos tenemos el colegio, el grande, tenemos el hogar parroquial que lo estamos utilizando de aulas también aurita para los alumnos, que si no tuviéramos eso, hasta el momento no tuviéramos donde pasen clases los alumnos’. Workshop: Candelaria, 10 May 2007.
57
Apart from being concerned about its own finances, Lacroix maintains that the Church intervenes in the local political sphere and decision-making, and is therefore ‘caught in constant political struggles’ (2005: 47). Certainly, the local catholic priests did not keep their political opinions to themselves. When I first met the German Franciscan Priest in October 2006 and he asked me what I was doing in Concepción, I told him that I was carrying out research with the Chiquitano Organisations. He responded: ‘with these MAS supporters, these communists?’. Some weeks later, I witnessed that in his mass he was preaching against Evo Morales and the MAS government, saying that MAS wanted to weaken the Catholic Church, for example, by undermining their role in education. Various sources confirmed that this was not a single incident, but that the priests liked to mix political messages with their service.
State Bureaucratic Institutions
To the right of the Mission church, on the southern corner of the square, is the
Alcaldía Municipal (Mayors’ office), at the time of research occupied by MAS
Mayor Justo Seoane, a veteran of the Chiquitano movement (Seoane’s rise to power and the functioning of the municipal system will be addressed in Chapter VII). This was the local state bureaucratic instance that that Chiquitano leaders and comunarios had most contact with. Frequently, groups of Chiquitano leaders and comunarios were standing outside the building and often leaders would say that they were off to meet with Justo Seoane or other Chiquitano municipal officials – or with those local politicians sympathetic to whatever cause they were pursuing. The interaction generally focused on coordinating the different productive and infrastructure projects for comunidades which the town hall was supporting.
For instance, comunarios from Santa Ana mentioned that the municipality financed their teacher, supported a housing project and a cattle ranching initiative.58 Cattle ranching initiatives are quite popular among comunarios, one reason being
58
Workshop: Santa Ana, group 2, 20 April 2007. Housing projects generally aimed at constructing houses that were made of adobe bricks and would then be plastered and painted. The parish and the national government through the ‘presidential fund’ were also carrying out ‘housing projects’ in some
comunidades in the TCO Monte Verde. Generally, the comunarios are in charge of making the adobe
bricks, while the project provider gives advice on how to build the houses and supplies any additional materials needed. These houses are supposed to provide better shelter and fewer habitats for the beetle that carries Chargas disease, which is known to live in paja roofs and between the wooden slats of Chiquitano houses. Workshop: Makanaté, 15 May 2007.
that they provide milk for the children and allow comunarios to produce cheese.59 Additionally, the comunarios see cattle as a source of cash income to turn to in case of harvest failure, which signifies that they do not need to seek employment on a local cattle ranch. The sale of cattle also pays for the costs incurred by sending children to college in the ex-mission settlements (Balza Alarcón, 2001: 229). Nevertheless, from the comunarios perspective, the utility of such development schemes will depend on the impact on their ability to subsist (see below).
Another state bureaucratic instance with seat in the locality was the Sub- Prefecture, at the time of fieldwork led by PODEMOS-backed sub-Prefect Nataniel Castedo Trujillo. Comunarios stated that they had no direct contact with the Sub- prefecture, as comunario from Makanaté noted: ‘…we hardly have coordination and they do not visit us’.60 The lack of interaction is likely due to the very opposing political views that the sub-prefect – a member of the Concepceño elite – and Chiquitano leaders hold. At the time of fieldwork, these opposing views were being publicly played out through the sub-prefects and Chiquitano leaders opposing claims to autonomy. The sub-prefect, in line with other members of the concepceño elite and departmental leaders, was a supporter of the departmental autonomy claim. He made his position abundantly clear when staging a pro-autonomy rally in the sub- prefecture on 2 July 2007 to support the departmental wide paro cívico (civic strike) aimed at pressuring the Bolivian government into acknowledging departmental autonomies in the new constitution. Green- and white Cruceño flags adorned the building (and the neighbouring Church, perhaps attesting to the political allegiance of the priests) and large speakers blasted out pro-autonomy songs.
A further state bureaucratic instance that some Chiquitano interact with is the Prefecture of Santa Cruz. Those comunarios who mentioned that they had contact with the Prefecture where from San Javier municipality – comunarios from Concepción, in contrast, were adamant that they had no such contact. Comunarios from Rosario in San Javier municipality specified that the Prefecture was helping
59
Workshop: Las Abras, 17 April 2007.Generally, through such projects the comunidad receives two or more cows and one bull. After a certain amount of time, usually five or six years, the comunidad returns the original number of cattle that they received and then these are passed on to another
comunidad. Such projects often involve some credit to buy wire to enclose pastures and veterinary
implements. See Balza Alarcón for similar projects among Chiquitano communities (2001: 229). Apart from the municipality, the ‘presidential fund’, parish and central with the help of NGOs, and some years previously the Bolivian milk company PIL, also supported such projects.
60
them in the maintenance of the paths and had built a bridge for them. They had also asked for electricity and water provision.61 The comunarios saw it as positive change that the Prefecture was now considering them:
Before they did not come and we did not even know them. Now they come here and here one asks them for things that one needs, as we asked them for the path… and it will be done in two months from this date, it will be evened out.62
Another comunario noted ‘yesterday we talked about that now we are not alone any more, now we have…that the Prefecture comes and keeps an eye on whether things go well, if they are carried out’.63 The comunarios further explained that Rubén Costas – the departmental Prefect – had even come to the comunidad twice in person.64 This sudden interest from the side of the Prefecture in the affairs of Chiquitano comunidades in San Javier municipality did not go unnoticed from Chiquitano leaders. Such maintenance work was usually carried out by the municipality or with NGO funding. Margarita the coordinator of the CGTI-MV suspected that this had to do with convincing comunarios to support the departmental autonomy campaign in an effort to de-politicise the comunidades.65 Such political manoeuvres are a testament to ongoing and persistent clientelist tactics employed by different political actors operating in the department.
Non-Governmental Organisations
NGOs also formed an important state actor for many comunidades. They provided welfare, agricultural advisory services and juridical aid and attempted to promote the
comunidades economic development.66 The following description limits itself to the three NGOs that were most active in the area at the time of fieldwork. The NGO with the longest presence in the area is Apoyo Para el Campesino-Indígena del Oriente
Boliviano (APCOB – Support for the Indigenous Peasant of Eastern Bolivian). The
NGO was founded in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in 1980 by German Jesuit Jürgen
61 Workshop: Las Abras, 17 April 2007. 62
‘Antes no venían ni siquiera lo conocíamos. Ahora ya llega hasta aquí y aquí uno le piden las cosas
que necesita, como decir aquí le pedimos que el camino… y será cumplida de aquí a unos meses más va a estar rispiado’. Workshop: Las Abras, 17 April 2007.
63 ‘… ayer hablábamos que ya no estamos solos, ya tenemos que…la prefectura viene y vigila si las
cosas andan bien, si se cumplen’. Workshop: Las Abras, 17 April 2007.
64 Workshop: Las Abras, 17 April 2007. 65 Field notes: San Javier, 17 April 2007.
66 This following description excludes the CEJIS, as the role of this NGO is amply addresses in the
Riester. It has since engaged in supporting lowland indigenous groups in campaigning for the recognition of territorial rights, customary rights, formulating ethnodevelopment strategies and through productive projects. APCOB has also carried out and provided a platform for research regarding lowland indigenous peoples with the aim of raising awareness and respect for lowland groups.67 Even before Riester founded APCOB, he has been active in promoting organisational activities among lowland groups and he was key figure in the emergence of the Bolivian lowland federations (see Chapter V).
APCOB has its headquarters in Santa Cruz, but has some regional offices, one of them in Concepción. The Concepción office is a beautiful large white-washed building with wooden beams and carved pillars, and a large carved wooden APCOB sign over its entrance. The building houses offices for the local APCOB staff, a documentation centre and a radio room. In the latter, a Chiquitano radio engineer worked on creating programmes for the Chiquitano radio station which the regional Chiquitano Umbrella Organisation Organización Indígena Chiquitana (OICH – Chiquitano Indigenous Organisation) was getting up and running.
APCOB had supported comunidades in Lomerío with forestry management projects (albeit with questionable success, see McDaniel (2003)), and had in 1999 started to help comunidades in the TCO Monte Verde, by establishing communal forestry management plans (see APCOB, n/d).68 At the time of fieldwork, such plans were functioning in only one or two comunidades within the TCO. Comments from
comunarios from Santa Ana, a small comunidad in the TCO Monte Verde in San
Javier municipality, serve to highlight why such plans may be contentious and fail. APCOB had proposed a forestry management project to them some weeks before, and the comunarios were debating the pros and cons of such a plan. One comunario noted:
We will have to see because we have to analyse between all of us if it will benefit us, if it is good … because on the one hand is good to also have [it] and partly it is also bad, because the truth [is] that we have to be very careful with the management
67 APCOB’s main funders and partner include the European Union, different German, Dutch and
Belgium development organisations and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). See APCOB (www.apcob.org.bo) and Yashar (2005: 201).
68 Workshop: Makanaté, 15 May 2007. APCOB was founded by German anthropologist Jürgen
Riester, had interacted with the CICC since its foundation. It was generally active in the Bolivian lowlands, in aiding the organisational efforts of the lowland indigenous movement.
because it is not just having it, we have to be very careful. On the other hand it is good because it creates a source of work for the sector.69
Another comunario added: ‘We have to be very careful with the management. Then you cannot chaquear [make and work your fields], you cannot burn … we have to analyse it’.70 Thus, the possibility to have a ‘source of work’ and ‘resources’ was measured against ‘not being able to clear the forest to make fields’. Despite such set- backs, APCOB was still aiming to provide such projects.
A further NGO with constant presence in Concepción was the Bolivian
Centro de Estudios Jurídico Investigación Social (CEJIS – Centre for Legal and
Social Studies). CEJIS is an NGO that specialises in the promotion of human rights and was founded in 1978. Its’ staff is composed mainly of lawyers and social scientists and the NGO’s work has focused on raising awareness about collective and individual rights and on supporting different population groups in exercising these rights and developing political strategies.71 Throughout the 1990s, CEJIS has been involved in organising workshops to inform different ‘disadvantaged’ groups about the content of the LPP and the decentralisation law, to advise them on how to use the newly opened political spaces and on how they could gain access to municipal resources. CEJIS has also developed a specialism in providing legal support to different indigenous, peasant and landless groups to support their struggles for titles to land and territory.
It publishes books on highland and lowland indigenous political issues and has documented indigenous and peasant territorial and land struggles. A comunario from the comunidad Rosario in San Javier Municipality summed up APCOB’s and CEJIS’ roles:
… if we look at the top, there are the NGOs that go with the central, ALAS and the CEJIS … where we can voice our concerns about how we live in our pueblo, which
69
‘Habría que ver porque nosotros tenemos que analizar entre todos si es que nos va a beneficiar, si
es bueno…por que en parte es bueno también tener y en parte también es malo, porque la verdad hay que tener mucho cuidado con el manejo porque no es no más tenerlo, hay que cuidar mucho. Por otra parte es bueno porque cría fuentes de trabajo en el mismo sector’. Workshop: Santa Ana, 20 April
2007.
70 ‘…hay que tener mucho cuidado con el manejo. Ya usted no puede chaquear ya no puede
quemar…hay que analizar’. Workshop: Santa Ana, 20 April 2007.
71 The NGO is largely dependent on international funding organisations, such as Oxfam Great Britain
suffering we feel, how they exploit us, and where we are also going to learn and they teach us also what an autonomy is.72
At the time of fieldwork, the NGO was run by Argentinean human rights lawyer Leonardo Tamburini. A team of about six CEJIS employees was working permanently on advising indigenous and campesino leaders and Constituent Assembly members on policy proposals and the wording and content of proposals for the constitutional text. Another team were supporting the Chiquitano centrals in Concepción, San Javier and Lomerío in the last phase of their territorial claim, and THEY were running a project that focused on developing a proposal for the future governmental structures that would be implemented in the claimed territory (see Chapter III). This last area – research, or elaborating diagnósticos, for example on communal justice procedures, leadership election, or the trajectory of political struggles – is another area CEJIS specialises in. While the CEJIS headquarter is in Santa Cruz, it has some regional offices – one of these in Concepción. The Concepción office is located away from the town centre close to the Chiquitano
central. It is an inconspicuous small concrete building, surrounded by high concrete
walls. That this building is marked by a very small and inconspicuous wooden sign is testimony to the tense relation that CEJIS staff has with many Concepceños and Cruceños. They denounce them as ‘lefties’ who stir up trouble by politicising the indigenous population. This issue is addressed in more detail in the following chapter.
The British NGO Plan International was also very visible in the area, especially through their white four-by-four vehicles with the blue ‘Plan’ logo on the side. The NGO generally provided support in the area of infrastructure, education, early child development, health and leadership workshops. Don Víctor, from Candelaria one of the larger comunidades in Concepción municipality outside Monte Verde, proved very positive about the interaction with the NGO: ‘It works very well,