Bolivia : training of the actors of the insurrection of October 2003

Abstract

In the present article we analyze the gestation of the most important indigenous groups participating in the uprising of October 2003. It looks into their productive life, conditions, identities, strategies, political projects and their ideology. The article goes back to the history of Bolivia and analyzes how the arrival of neoliberal policies, which began in 1985 with the tin mines closure, affected the indigenous populations. Closing the tin mines affected the proletariat base composed mainly by miners, who had threatened the dominating groups so much. Their demise meant the arrival of indigenous groups in the political scene. Finally, this article analyzes the coercive and repressive forms that the neoliberal governments used to put down the indigenous movement.