September is a very warm month in the Chapare, Bolivia. In the commercial town of Shinahota even more so, when the weather is dry and the usual tropical rainfall of the season is not by any means on the horizon. Together with Argentinean journalist Tomås Astelarra, we are interviewing what sounded to us like a contradiction in terms: a Chapareño cocalero opposed to Evo Morales.
We met him almost by chance the previous night, while trying to meet up with a dirigente of the Six Federations of Coca Producers of the Tropic of Chapare, whoâdrunk, after a local fiestaâwas giving us one failed appointment after another at different towns of the area: Villa Tunari, Shinahota, Lauca Ă. The appointmentâand the interviewâwith the dirigente never took place; however, we got to know Don Manuel and he agreed to meet us the following morning and give us an interview. An interview that was not destined to be completed.
We sat around the table of a nearby tienda whose owner had agreed to host us, in the heart of the main street of the town, with our voice-recorders visibly placed on the table and started asking questions. However, about half an hour later, the interview was interrupted by the local police:
-Gentlemen, follow us please. All three of you!
We were led to the police station of Shinahota and to our protests we were told to wait for the âothersâ to come. These âothersâ would allegedly know more about our case and the reasons why we had been summoned; the local policemen were âjust following ordersâ after all. Then, the âothersâ came, dressed in their green and black uniforms with their rifles in hand. They led us to their jeep and after a short drive, we reached their camp. At first, still not familiar with the reality of the Chapare, I thought it was the army that was taking us for interrogation. However, I was soon to realize it was not.
Los Leopardos
Leopardos caidos, read the photograph on the wall, with the faces of the fallen soldiers depicted on it. And there we were, in the camp of the most notorious militarized police force of Bolivia, the UMOPAR (Unidad Movil Para el Patrullaje Rural), known locally as leopardos due to the colour of their camouflage uniform and the leopard badge they wear on their arms. And we were soon to be interrogated. What a privileged welcome to the region!
I had read about this force and knew the atrocities they were responsible for during the years of the cocalero resistance: assassinations, tortures, rape. However, I had never imagined I would ever be interrogated by them in their military base in Chimoré,1 the den of the leopardos. We were placed in different rooms and, after the regular interrogation phase (the good cop/bad cop routine), the highest ranking officer of the camp came in and explained to us the reason why we had been summoned. The official explanation was that we were mistakenly taken for narco-traffickers. Needless to say, narco-traffickers interviewing people, with their voice-recorders on public display and having already informed the local authorities (MAS-Movimiento al Socialismo) dirigentes and mayors) about their presence in the area is a rather strange species, but that is the only explanation we received.
It would seem that the leopardos and the cocaleros (those of the Six Federations) are no longer in bad terms with each other. Quite the contrary in fact, the latter are now controlling and directing the former through their political instrument, the MAS, which is now governing both Bolivia and the Chapare.
Some years ago, however, the cocaleros were considering starting a rebellion in the Chapare and the leopardos wereâironically enoughâsent there to control them.âWe are no longer enemies with the leopardos,â I was told by a cocalero dirigente during my fieldwork there, ânow, we work together.â
How and why did the cocaleros decide to abandon their plans for rebellion and opt instead for the conquest of state power through parliamentary means? What factors interacted when these decisions were taken? And, more generally, how do revolutionary social movements decide which âroadâ to social change to follow and which to reject? These are the questions that led me to the Chapare to investigate the political strategies of the Six Federations of Coca Producers of the Tropic of Cochabamba. The same questions led me to Chiapas, Mexico, to investigate the political strategies of a not too different social movement, which had however taken a very different âroadâ to social change, the Zapatistas and their EjĂ©rcito Zapatista de LiberaciĂłn Nacional (EZLN).
The Zapatista movement has its base in a region not too different to that of the Chapare. Chiapas was equally excluded, both geographically and politically, from the centres of power in Mexico as the Chapare was in Bolivia. Situated at a location rich in mountains, rivers, and tropical vegetation, the population of Chiapas (largely indigenous, just like that of the Chapare) has always been excluded from the provision of social services and was relatively ignored in political terms. In addition, Chiapasâlike the Chapareâwas considered the ideal location for the formation of a rebel movement by the revolutionary vanguards of the era. Such a rebel movement did indeed emerge in Chiapas, while in the Chapareâagainst all the oddsâit did not. Furthermore, however strange it may sound, the rebel movement that appeared in Chiapas originally claimed inclusion to the state through the grasp of state power, before demanding autonomy from it later on. On the other hand, the cocaleros of the Six Federations originally enjoyed a rather autonomous existence and self-organization in the Chapare, before opting to take state power through the ballot box later on.
What accounts for the different initial political strategies of these movements? And when those strategies changed, what accounts for their changes? What processes, mechanisms, and factors interacted when those decisions were taken? And finally, how and through what mechanisms do social movements decide which âroadâ to social change to follow and which to reject? And when they shift from one to another, why do they do so? To answer these questions, I set off on the journey of this book. What I came across is written in the pages that follow.
Methodology
Case Selection
My research revolves around the field of interpretive comparative politics (Bayard de Volo 2015), trying to identify the meanings that actors attach to their actions and choices. I have chosen two cases that from my point of view are representative of the phenomenon I intend to study; more specifically, how and through what mechanisms political strategies are chosen by social movements. I follow a case-oriented comparative method that belongs to the most similar system design (Della Porta 2008: 214), selecting for case studies two paradigmatic indigenous peoplesâ movements that faced similar political conditions in similar environments, however, adopted different political strategies in their trajectories towards social change. More specifically, both movements are largely indigenous, in two Latin American countries where the ideology of mestizaje /cholaje was socially dominant; they developed in two rather isolated regions where the state was nearly absent; they both faced repression when they tried to promote their demands through the traditional movement repertoires (protests, marches, etc.); however, when they had to decide between the via armada and the via electoral, or autonomy , they took completely different decisions. The Zapatistas opted for the Insurgent route, while the Seis Federaciones for (relative) autonomy instead. And when they had to make a strategic shift, the Zapatistas adopted autonomy , while the Seis Federaciones opted for electoral politics instead. What accounts for these different strategic decisions? And through what mechanisms were they made? This is the main puzzle behind this research project, and I attempt to solve it by interpreting the actorsâ choices in certain periods of time and under certain circumstances, offeringâI hopeâa deep and detailed description of the historical and political conditions, the localities, and the options available to the protagonists of the âdrama.â I adopt a process-tracing approach through which I try to identify how and through what kind of processes certain outcomes were reached. From the beginning, however, I would like to make clear that in this book the emphasis is placed on the process of social construction, that is, the role of movement leaders, intellectuals, and activist networks in identifying, debating, choosing, and implementing particular strategies and socializing their bases to go along with them.
Methods of Data Gathering
It so very often happens that when a researcher sets off on his/her fieldwork, they have a methodological approach in mind that would be fit in âideal conditions.â However, it is highly probable that once one is actually in the field, the conditions he/she encounters are not by any means âideal,â and he/she has little or absolutely no control over the actual conditions he/she is actually faced with; therefore, his/her methodological approach has to be adjusted accordingly. For those of us who conduct interpretive political ethnographic research, there are cases in which the research cannot be predesigned, or, even if it is, it does not flow as it was designed to do. By its very nature, interpretive political ethnography in the subjectâs own environment needs to be open to surprises in the field, as well as to be flexible and readily adaptive in its methods. As Malthaner summarizes, âWhen confronted with unforeseen difficulties or sudden changes in their environment, researchers may be forced to change and revise their research strategies to cope with emerging problems and take advantage of opportunities, even if this means deviating from research designs and partly abandoning work plansâ (Malthaner 2014). That is the case of my experience with the EZLN and the ex-Fuerzas de LiberaciĂłn Nacional (FLN) in Mexico.
The EZLN is probably one of the most well-researched revolutionary movements in history. For a large part of the 1990s and the 2000s, a huge number of publications about the EZLN filled the shelves of bookstores and university libraries all over the globe. Translated into languages ranging from Greek to English or Turkish, numerous publ...