New constitution for Bolivia

Indigenous majority and president gain most from passage

An Aymara Indian cast his ballot yesterday in Walata Chico. "The colonial state ends here," Bolivian President Evo Morales said after voters backed a new constitution. (Juan Karita / Associated Press)

LA PAZ, Bolivia – Bolivian voters embraced a new constitution yesterday that promises more power for the long-suffering indigenous majority and grants leftist President Evo Morales a shot at remaining in office through 2014.

The charter passed easily in a country where many can still recall when Indians were forbidden to vote. But its sometimes vague wording and resistance from Bolivia's mestizo and European-descended minority foreshadows more political turmoil in a nation polarized by race and class.

“Brothers and sisters, the colonial state ends here,” President Evo Morales told a huge crowd in front of the presidential palace after the results of yesterday's referendum were announced. “Here we begin to reach true equality for all Bolivians.”

The constitution – the central reform of Morales' three-year-old administration – won by a 59 percent to 41 percent margin, according to an unofficial quick count with a three-percentage point margin of error. A final official tally will be announced in 10 days.

Morales, an Aymara Indian and Bolivia's first indigenous president, has said the charter will “decolonize” South America's poorest country by recovering indigenous values lost under centuries of oppression dating to the Spanish conquest.


Opposition leaders warn that the constitution does not reflect Bolivia's growing urban population, which mixes both Indian blood and tradition with a new Western identity, and could leave non-Indians out of the picture.

They also object to Morales' vision of greater state control of the economy and his government still faces stiff opposition from Bolivia's eastern lowland states, which control much of the nation's wealth and largely voted against the charter.

Morales has allied himself closely with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in what they call “21st century socialism,” sharing his anti-American rhetoric.

Last year, Morales booted out Bolivia's U.S. ambassador and Drug Enforcement Administration agents after claiming they had conspired against his government.

Yesterday's vote went peacefully, a relief for a nation where political tensions have recently turned deadly.

In 2007, three college students were killed in anti-government riots, and 13 mostly indigenous Morales supporters died in September when rioters seized government buildings to block a vote on the proposed constitution.

The proposed document would create a new Congress with seats reserved for Bolivia's smaller indigenous groups and eliminates any mention of The Roman Catholic Church, instead recognizing and honoring the Andean earth deity Pachamama.

The charter calls for a general election in December in which Morales could run for a second, consecutive five-year term. The current constitution permits two terms, but not consecutively.

At the heart of the constitution is a provision granting autonomy for 36 indigenous “nations” and several opposition-controlled eastern states. But both are given a vaguely defined “equal rank” that fails to resolve their rival claims over open land in Bolivia's fertile eastern lowlands, whose large agribusiness interests and valuable gas reserves drive much of the country's economy.


