On Oct. 20, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales joined tens of thousands of miners, farmers and peasants on the final stretch of a week-long march across Bolivia. They were marching to demand a referendum on a new constitution.
As the march reached La Paz, news spread that an agreement had been made between the opposition and Morales’s government and that the referendum had been approved. The referendum is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2009, with general elections following in December 2009.
If approved, the constitution will increase state control over the economy, limit the size of big land holdings and begin to redistribute wealth to poorer parts of the nation. In order to seal the deal with the opposition parties, concessions were made to the rich, landowning forces, such as greater autonomy for regional governments.
The constitution is a step forward for Bolivia’s Indigenous peoples, who have fought many struggles against privatization and theft of their country’s vast natural resources.
