<p>The study explores how struggles for social justice by Guatemalan and Ecuadorian indigenous peasant movements are affected by ethno-politics (the strategic political use of ethnicity), by using a comparative historical approach incorporating structural change and strategic agency. The analysis revolves around the partly enduring, partly changing oligarchic structures. The choice of the countries rests primarily upon the composition of their respective oligarchic classes. In Guatemala, the despotic agrarian oligarchs have dominated for much of the past century; whereas in Ecuador, the oligarchy was divided into an agrarian and a modernist fraction.</p><p>Scholars often locate ethnic politicisation in Latin America within the context of a shift from ‘national popular’ and ‘corporatist’ political orders toward political and economic liberalisation. This shift supposedly unleashed ethnic identities which were previously subordinated by the way indigenous communities were politically incorporated. This study shows that dramatic openings for ethnic politicisation in the 1990s occurred where corporatism had been weak and oligarchic structures persisted. But the elites were unable to use ethnicity as a tool for hegemonic control. Due to the oligarchic legacy, class discourses could not be prevented from being reproduced, and ethnic ones were politicised in a way that is dysfunctional to the elites’ effort to politically disarm the rural poor. Another finding is that the persisting influence of the agrarian oligarchy made the Guatemalan movement more focused on the land struggle and more unwilling/unable to integrate into the political arena prescribed by those in control of the state. In Ecuador, the demise of the agrarian oligarchy and the rise of a strong neo-liberal fraction constituted the context within which the movement moved away from the land struggle. It accessed the ethno-political spaces more firmly but resembled the Guatemalan movement in keeping its strategy of mass mobilisation.</p>

The study explores how struggles for social justice by Guatemalan and Ecuadorian indigenous peasant movements are affected by ethno-politics (the strategic political use of ethnicity), by using a comparative historical approach incorporating structural change and strategic agency. The analysis revolves around the partly enduring, partly changing oligarchic structures. The choice of the countries rests primarily upon the composition of their respective oligarchic classes. In Guatemala, the despotic agrarian oligarchs have dominated for much of the past century; whereas in Ecuador, the oligarchy was divided into an agrarian and a modernist fraction. Scholars often locate ethnic politicisation in Latin America within the context of a shift from ‘national popular’ and ‘corporatist’ political orders toward political and economic liberalisation. This shift supposedly unleashed ethnic identities which were previously subordinated by the way indigenous communities were politically incorporated. This study shows that dramatic openings for ethnic politicisation in the 1990s occurred where corporatism had been weak and oligarchic structures persisted. But the elites were unable to use ethnicity as a tool for hegemonic control. Due to the oligarchic legacy, class discourses could not be prevented from being reproduced, and ethnic ones were politicised in a way that is dysfunctional to the elites’ effort to politically disarm the rural poor. Another finding is that the persisting influence of the agrarian oligarchy made the Guatemalan movement more focused on the land struggle and more unwilling/unable to integrate into the political arena prescribed by those in control of the state. In Ecuador, the demise of the agrarian oligarchy and the rise of a strong neo-liberal fraction constituted the context within which the movement moved away from the land struggle. It accessed the ethno-political spaces more firmly but resembled the Guatemalan movement in keeping its strategy of mass mobilisation.

Este trabalho trata da ação coletiva e comunitária dos camponeses indígenas bolivianos migrantes nos conflitos pela posse da terra nas regiões densas do avanço modernizador da agricultura chamadas oriente boliviano. As oportunidades adversas e assimétricas no acesso à terra, motivam constantes produções de luta, combinadas com formas sindicais, indígenas e MSTistas enquanto realizam ocupações de terras públicas e terras pretendidas pelos fazendeiros e pecuaristas. Pelo fato de serem esses sujeitos naturais majoritariamente quéchuas, objetivam perspectivas andinas de produção e olhares de mobilização, além de contribuírem com suas ações nos projetos de mudança nacional, tanto na crise do Estado boliviano, de 2000 até 2005, quanto na formação do Estado Plurinacional da Bolívia, de 2006 até 2010. Oferecem-se evidências da questão da terra da segunda metade do século XX, quando o campesinato se transforma numa poderosa força econômica e política. Combatidas pelas forças repressivas por optar pela forma ilegal das ocupações e, no tempo em que recuam, coexistem com seus contendores optando pelas normas e procedimentos oferecidos de cima para baixo. No presente trabalho, concentra-se menos nas estruturas e mais em pessoas, em indivíduos mobilizados, nas suas interações, em suas emoções, consensos e dissensos cotidianos dos chamados avasalladores, invasores de terras que produzem uma racionalidade própria de luta. Foram estudados depoimentos em quéchua dos protagonistas do conflito, narrativas dos líderes de base, entrevistas a ex-funcionários de Estado, intelectuais, etc. Analisaram-se também documentos manuscritos dos grupos mobilizados; revisaram-se arquivos policiais e do Ministério Público; jornais nacionais; demandas escritas pelas organizações; e, informação seleta dos arquivos do INC e o INRA, ambas entidades agrárias. A pesquisa é apoiada na observação etnográfica de campo e trajetória do pesquisador sobre a questão. / This research deals with the collective action of migrant Bolivian indigenous farmers in conflicts over land, in the dense regions of modernizing advancement of eastern Bolivia called agriculture. The adverse and asymmetric opportunities in access to land motivate constant production of struggles, combining with union, indigenous, and MSTi-like forms, while occupying public land intended for farmer and rancher use. Because these subjects are mostly quechua, they aim for Andean perspectives of production and Andean views on mobilization, as well as contributing with their actions to national change projects, both in the Bolivian state crisis (from 2000 to 2005) as well as in the formation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (from 2006 to 2010). Regarding matters of land ownership, it is offered documentation of the second half of the twentieth century, when the peasantry becomes a powerful economic and political force. These political agents fight against the repressive forces, when they opt for illegal occupations, and recede in other times, opting to coexist with their contenders and with rules and procedures offered from the top down. This study focuses less on structures and more on mobilized individuals, their interactions, their emotions, everyday consensus and dissent of the so-called avasalladores, land invaders, who produce their own rationality of struggle. This study analyses thee statements produced in Quechua by the protagonists of the conflict, grassroots leaders narratives, interviews with former State employees, texts written by intellectuals, etc. Also, handwritten documents made by the mobilized groups; police and prosecutors files; national newspapers; demands written by organizations; and information from the files of the INC and the INRA, both agricultural entities. This research is supported by ethnographic field observations and the ressearchers trajectory with the issue.

Este trabalho trata da ação coletiva e comunitária dos camponeses indígenas bolivianos migrantes nos conflitos pela posse da terra nas regiões densas do avanço modernizador da agricultura chamadas oriente boliviano. As oportunidades adversas e assimétricas no acesso à terra, motivam constantes produções de luta, combinadas com formas sindicais, indígenas e MSTistas enquanto realizam ocupações de terras públicas e terras pretendidas pelos fazendeiros e pecuaristas. Pelo fato de serem esses sujeitos naturais majoritariamente quéchuas, objetivam perspectivas andinas de produção e olhares de mobilização, além de contribuírem com suas ações nos projetos de mudança nacional, tanto na crise do Estado boliviano, de 2000 até 2005, quanto na formação do Estado Plurinacional da Bolívia, de 2006 até 2010. Oferecem-se evidências da questão da terra da segunda metade do século XX, quando o campesinato se transforma numa poderosa força econômica e política. Combatidas pelas forças repressivas por optar pela forma ilegal das ocupações e, no tempo em que recuam, coexistem com seus contendores optando pelas normas e procedimentos oferecidos de cima para baixo. No presente trabalho, concentra-se menos nas estruturas e mais em pessoas, em indivíduos mobilizados, nas suas interações, em suas emoções, consensos e dissensos cotidianos dos chamados avasalladores, invasores de terras que produzem uma racionalidade própria de luta. Foram estudados depoimentos em quéchua dos protagonistas do conflito, narrativas dos líderes de base, entrevistas a ex-funcionários de Estado, intelectuais, etc. Analisaram-se também documentos manuscritos dos grupos mobilizados; revisaram-se arquivos policiais e do Ministério Público; jornais nacionais; demandas escritas pelas organizações; e, informação seleta dos arquivos do INC e o INRA, ambas entidades agrárias. A pesquisa é apoiada na observação etnográfica de campo e trajetória do pesquisador sobre a questão. / This research deals with the collective action of migrant Bolivian indigenous farmers in conflicts over land, in the dense regions of modernizing advancement of eastern Bolivia called agriculture. The adverse and asymmetric opportunities in access to land motivate constant production of struggles, combining with union, indigenous, and MSTi-like forms, while occupying public land intended for farmer and rancher use. Because these subjects are mostly quechua, they aim for Andean perspectives of production and Andean views on mobilization, as well as contributing with their actions to national change projects, both in the Bolivian state crisis (from 2000 to 2005) as well as in the formation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia (from 2006 to 2010). Regarding matters of land ownership, it is offered documentation of the second half of the twentieth century, when the peasantry becomes a powerful economic and political force. These political agents fight against the repressive forces, when they opt for illegal occupations, and recede in other times, opting to coexist with their contenders and with rules and procedures offered from the top down. This study focuses less on structures and more on mobilized individuals, their interactions, their emotions, everyday consensus and dissent of the so-called avasalladores, land invaders, who produce their own rationality of struggle. This study analyses thee statements produced in Quechua by the protagonists of the conflict, grassroots leaders narratives, interviews with former State employees, texts written by intellectuals, etc. Also, handwritten documents made by the mobilized groups; police and prosecutors files; national newspapers; demands written by organizations; and information from the files of the INC and the INRA, both agricultural entities. This research is supported by ethnographic field observations and the ressearchers trajectory with the issue.