The New Bolivian Constitution Grants More Rights to the Previously Forgotten Indigenous Citizens

When Bolivian President, Evo Morales, won the elections in 2005, he became the first indigenous president elected in a South American country. Morales promised radical changes to Bolivian laws in order to strengthen his proposed socialist labor revolution and to give more rights to the indigenous original farmer nations and people, including the Aymaras, an ethnic group to which President Morales belongs to.

He soon crashed against a strong resistance from the non-indigenous population, mostly descendants of the Spanish colonizers, that suspected that his intentions or his presidency would be against their interests and already well established rights. Multinational corporations and foreign investors of the oil, gas and mining industries also presented a forceful resistance against his plans because they feared Morales' threats of nationalizing their operations.

At the end, Morales was forced to negotiate with foreign enterprises and rethink his comments during public speeches; nevertheless, this did not cause his socialist labor movement to lose energy or momentum. Morales promised to modify the Bolivian Constitution to give more rights to the indigenous originary farmer nations and people that were marginalized from Bolivian politics during centuries and who were looking for more integration and self-determination.

Backed by a strong regional ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who seeks a socialist revolution in all of Latin-America, and who challenged President Bush in various moments of international politics, Morales has maintained his efforts to change and correct the grave historic injustices perpetrated against the indigenous population of Bolivia.

The Bolivian opposition has said many times that they suspect that Evo Morales and his political project are a danger for the country; however, his mandate has already proven to be longer than those enjoyed by his predecessors.

On February 7th, 2009, Morales inaugurated the new constitutional era in Bolivian by enacting the New Bolivian Constitution, proclaiming the initiation of a new socialist communitarian state in Bolivia and celebrating the change of a political system that was inherited from the Spanish empire. Today, 36 indigenous communities and groups have the right to territory, language and their own communitarian justice. The new Bolivian Constitution also allows Morales to seek a second term of 5 years as President of Bolivia.

To read the New Bolivian Constitution in English, visit http://www.bolivianconstitution.com/2009/06/new-constitution-of-bolivia-in-pdf.html