Venezuela reframed: bolivarianism, indigenous peoples and socialisms of the twenty-first century

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Venezuela Reframed


Bolivarianism, Indigenous Peoples and Socialisms of the Twenty-First Century
By Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández Zed Books LtdCopyright © 2015 Luis Fernando Angosto-Ferrández
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-78360-198-1


Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, ix,
ABBREVIATIONS, xiii,
PREFACE, xix,
Introduction, 1,
1 Historical overview, 26,
2 Into the people, 70,
3 Balance of enfranchisement, 104,
4 Collective action through the electoral sphere, 125,
5 The state-supporting and state-sponsored indigenous movement, 165,
6 Contentious collective action in the margins of and outside the chavista bloc, 187,
7 Indigenous peoples, capitalism and the political economy of the socialisms of the twenty-first century in Latin America, 208,
8 Closing remarks, 237,
Appendix: Extraordinary Assembly, 246,
NOTES, 254,
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 268,
INDEX, 281,

CHAPTER 1
Historical overview

Only by taking into consideration the history of colonization and the subsequent development of state structures in Latin America can one satisfactorily situate today's 'indigenous struggles' in the region. And that is as much a political history as a history of capitalism. The conceptual-juridical creation of 'indigenous' collective subjects and their subsequent social manifestations are inextricably linked to the history of colonization, accumulation and capitalist expansion in the continent. The colonial project out of which the 'Indian' subject emerged was also one of accumulation by dispossession and exploitation, and it was not fully extinguished with the nineteenth-century declarations of republican independence. Every metre that the so-called agricultural and capitalist frontiers have gained since has also been marked upon (or in the shadow of) that project, a project that was articulated through market-subservient states. At present, however, stopping and reorienting that project has led many indigenous actors, somewhat counter-intuitively, to embark on struggles in which the state, when directed by governments and political movements whose orientation protects the popular classes from increased degrees of capitalist exploitation, appears as a necessary ally. The reason for this political wager, even when these states do not fully meet the expectations of those who strive for contemporary forms of autonomous self-determination, is that these new states are facilitating forms of socioeconomic enfranchisement that were also part of the demands advanced by indigenous struggles in the continent. What seems to have been learnt along the long way of the twentieth century is that, in the absence of the statutory power of the state, what grows more naturally in this globalized world is not more freedom and self-determination, but more exploitation and dispossession.
Against that general historical background, this chapter will introduce a degree of diachronic analysis to position our discussion of the situation in Venezuela, setting out from the independence period onwards. The scope of inquiry will be demarcated by three contextualizing issues: (1) the indigenous population in Venezuela according to national censuses; (2) state approaches to the administration of 'indigenous affairs' in the twentieth century; and (3) forms of indigenous political organization and collective action before the approval of the 1999 Bolivarian Constitution (Constitución de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela – CRBV). This contextualization is essential to understanding the trajectory of indigenous activism in the country, including its current synergies and creative tensions with the chavista movement.

Indigenous population and national censuses: historical overview
Venezuelan national censuses have included distinctive quantifications of the indigenous population since they were first carried out as part of Guzmán Blanco's state modernization project in the 1870s. Despite significant fluctuations in relative proport