Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Could this be the beginning of the end?

The CAO (Camara de Agropecuarios del Oriente) has announced that they will resist Evo's plans of land reform. To do so, they will create defense committees and did not rule out conflict against the 'intruders'. Any casualties will be the sole responsibility of the government, they said. Anapo (Asociacion Nacional de Productores de Oleaginosas) also supports the measure and says that their rights have to be defended by any means necessary. Read it here.

Evo, on the other hand, has started using an strategy to divide the East against itself. He has announced that he will redistribute 20 million ha. in next five years and the first beneficiaries of the reform will be the Eastern tribes of guarayos, chiquitanos, movimas, mosetenes, mojeños e itonomas. It is clear that this strategy is designed to strip the landowners from Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando from any power they may have left. Read it here.

Could this be the beginning of a secessionist civil war?

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8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just curious, does anyone in eastern Bolivia want to see the region joined to Brazil?

6:07 PM  
Blogger CandiaMan® said...

Hi alvicho, i think Land "distribution" always brings trouble and dead people, Brazil is a good example of something that is far to be finished.

11:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Frank:
Economically and geographically, it might make sense, but Cambas are too proud...plus language differences are too great. (spanish & portuguese)

1:42 AM  
Blogger Alvaro Ruiz-Navajas said...

When I was a kid, in the early 80s, I remember hearing something to the effect of Cambas being Brazilian wanna-bes. I have no idea if these rumours had some factual basis or not. Also, I believe galloglass has an interesting point there. And going beyond language differences, I think that the Camba elite would be set to lose too much if they joined Brazil. They would go from ruling minority to provincial bosses, and that would not an ideal prospect for them.

8:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are there any areas in Brazil which have significant numbers of Spanish speakers?

Are there any in Acre province, which was part of Bolivia 100+ years ago?

And where does the word "Camba" come from?

11:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Frank: Acre was and still is basically jungle, so there were no real Bolivian inhabitants to speak of...probably indigenous tribes...the only places where there are Spanish speakers are along the borders...especially with Uruguay and Argentina...about the word "camba" the origins are unclear but Alcides Parejas,
historiador cruceño, said

“El término colla se atribuye por extension a todos los que habitan en la parte occidental de Bolivia y se lo aplica desde hace mucho tiempo. Que se lo haga de una forma despectiva o no, depende de las circunstancias y de la susceptibilidad. Por otra parte, el término camba siempre se lo usó hasta principios del Siglo XX, pero luego el cruceño va apropiándose de ese término y lo va incorporando a sí mismo, le va quitando la parte negativa y lo incorpora como parte de su ser colectivo, incluso se toma como sinónimo de cruceño.

Por algún motivo sociológico o psicológico, los collas nunca han asumido de forma positiva el término de llamarse collas. En cambio los cambas sí lo hemos asumido de forma positiva con acentuado orgullo y no nos molestamos si nos dicen cambas”.

Alvaro: Brasil casts a large shadow in SC and the styles of Brazil are imitated and copied...sometimes Brazilian music is even played on the radio.

2:48 AM  
Blogger Alvaro Ruiz-Navajas said...

Yes Galloglass, it is true that the Cambas hear a lot of Brazilian music and have even modelled their Carnaval after Rio's (In La Paz, radio stations play Argentinian cumbias all the time, but that does not mean La Paz wants to join Argentina).
I think there is a long distance from dancing to their music to actually joining them. As I said in my previous comment, I am not aware of any survey or statistic showing the support for this unification idea. But, if we look at the people who call the shots in SC, it is clear that they would lose too much by joining Brazil. I think they'd rather keep on importing their music and a couple of costumes.

11:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Alvaro: I agree...but I never said Cambas want to be Brazilians...just that Brazil casts a large shadow in the Oriente. ;-)

3:12 PM  

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