Sacrificing Indigenous Bodies and Lands: The Political-Economic History of Lowland Bolivia in Light of the Recent TIPNIS Debate

Evo Morales's plan to build a massive highway through indigenous lands and territory created a political firestorm that shook contemporary Bolivia. We argue that this conflict cannot be understood outside the history of lowland extractive industries and agricultural production because both have created racialized patterns of oppression and labor exploitation that have structured Bolivia's lowlands since the colonial period. Tracing the political economic history in the lowlands, we show how the globalized demands for commodities have pitted highland and lowland peoples against one another, creating tensions around land, resources, and cultural differences that continue into the present. Second, we show that both the Morales government and the lowland elite have defended their own positions in the debate over the highway by obscuring this political and economic history and claiming to protect lowland indigenous people; yet once again such Bolivian development projects will disrupt social organization and modes of production.