José Luis Exeni, the president of Bolivia’s National Election Court, has announced that at least four referendums would be held in 2008.
The referendums are meant to further extend political power to long-disenfranchised farmers and workers, many of them Indigenous.
Bolivian president Evo Morales and his supporters have struggled to implement progressive reforms in the face of extreme reaction. Most recently, the Morales government outraged the Bolivian oligarchy by creating pension plans for the elderly funded by natural gas revenues. Control over the energy sector is a focal point of the deepening struggle in Bolivia.
Four of the country’s nine provinces unilaterally declared autonomy in December 2007 to retaliate against constitutional reforms. The bold escalation on the part of the Bolivian ruling class foreshadows the dangers facing the Morales government.
