Following the democratization of many Latin American

Following the democratization of many Latin American countries in the 1980s and 1990s, ending a period of severe atrocities against indigenous peoples and their territories, many social movements and ethnic parties emerged in the political landscape. The election of Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales in 2006 for example has resulted in new forms of political participations that are, at least in part, inspired by indigenous traditions (Rice 2017). However, this major success of ethnic parties is not limited to countries with large a large proportion of indigenous peoples. In Colombia and Venezuela, both countries with an indigenous population not exceeding 3 percent, ethnic parties emerged and elected governors in several states and achieved representation in the national legislature (Van Cott, 2005). Ethnic parties also emerged in countries like Argentina or Peru but with less impressive results. Two exceptions worth mentioning are Panama and Nicaragua in which indigenous territorial autonomy was recognized by the state for particular regions of the country (Van Cott 2010). This development leads us to our first research question