The conflicts happening around the Territorio Indígena Parque Nacional Isiboro­ Sécure (TIPNIS) in Bolivia among the multiple and diverse stakeholders within it, cannot be reduced to a simple confrontation between conflicting interests regarding a highway. A political analysis of the TIPNIS conflicts should be an analysis of how Modernity responds to different, opposed and complementary civilizational projects, stressing the relation between indigenous peoples, and the plurinational state in Bolivia; the present locus of the conflict. The plurinational state in Bolivia was formed with the express intention of dismantling the colonial and its civilizational order through the reformulation of the Bolivian State. By contrasting, comparing, dissecting and analyzing how notions of citizenship, nationhood, and civilization are deployed in Modernity, in one geographical place, the TIPNIS in Bolivia, and through different historical eras, we can elucidate how those notions were and are enforced. The civilization/nation/citizen membership and non-membership, who fits and who doesn’t fit those categories, and how the movement between them is managed, throw light on how Modernity’s project is carried away in everyday life, and under what costs. / text

The 306 kilometer Villa Tunari - San Ignacio de Moxos highway project was designed in 2008 as part of an interoceanic corridor to foster greater integration of the capitalist economy in South America. Despite its double status as a protected ecological and Indigenous Territory, this highway was designed to cut through the center of the Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS). Construction began in 2011. The response was immediate; marches and protests were held both against and for the highway. Construction was then put on hold as consultations were held with communities who live within the borders of TIPNIS. Despite the existence of numerous documents regarding the rights of Indigenous Peoples, their operationalization has been deeply problematic. The TIPNIS highway project received wide spread international attention when members of the Eighth Indigenous March in Defense of TIPNIS were attacked and detained by police in September of 2011. This thesis will illustrate that this was not an isolated phenomenon. Rather this, and subsequent events, are deeply embedded within the colonial framework in which they are taking place. By highlighting the larger power structures that exist, as well as the strength and courage of Indigenous Lowlanders and those who stand in solidarity with them, questions such as, ‘Why is this highway project so contentious?’, become clearer. / Thesis (Master, Global Development Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-20 22:06:56.878

Evo Morales became Latin Americas first indigenous president in 2005. Morales praised the indigenous peoples, the indigenous movements and aimed at ending their political marginalization in Bolivia. However, this politicization and framing of indigenous identity and rights was later turned into his disadvantage. In 2011, Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Eastern Bolivia (CIDOB) decided to mobilize against the government's decision to build a highway through Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), where three of the indigenous groups represented by CIDOB lives. The decision was taken without consolidation with the population living in the area. In this study Robert D. Benford and David A. Snow's theoretical framework concerning framing processes and social movements are used to analyze CIDOBs collective action framing of their indigenous identity and rights in their mobilization in the TIPNIS conflict. In the result, it became evident that CIDOB used their indigenous identity and rights in different framing strategies including master frames, frame alignment processes, diagnostic, and prognostic framing.