Territorializing Resource Conflicts in “Post-Neoliberal” Bolivia: Hydrocarbon Development and Indigenous Land Titling in TCO Itika Guasu

Abstract

For lowland indigenous peoples in Bolivia, neoliberalism brought both threats and opportunities. On the one hand, neoliberal economic restructuring intensified the incursions of extractive industries in their lands, producing profound social and environmental impacts. On the other hand, multicultural reform created a new package of cultural rights for indigenous peoples, among them the opportunity to gain collective title to their ancestral territories, recognized in 1996 as Original Communal Lands (TCOs). Less than a decade later, a neoliberal government was swept aside by a wave of popular mobilization, heralding the beginning of a new era of cultural and resource politics. Yet, for all the transformations of the Morales era, this double movement—the expansion of an indigenous rights framework accompanied by the advance of the extractives frontier—has continued.