Evo leads mass mobilization in Bolivia

What does division in the Movement toward Socialism (MAS) mean?

     Bolivia, a landlocked country in the mountains, historically has been the poorest country in South America.  It is the most indigenous country in Latin America, with approximately 60% of the population identifying themselves as pertaining to one of the several original nations of the region.  In accordance with global patterns, Bolivia throughout most of its history played a peripheral role in the world-economy, supplying raw materials for the core nations on a foundation of cheap labor.  Systems of forced labor were imposed following Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, which included the indigenous nations of present-day Bolivia.  During the course of time, first silver, then tin, and then natural gas and petroleum were extracted and exported for the industrializing economies of the North. 

     From the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, Bolivia’s peripheral role existed alongside autonomous indigenous communities, which were agricultural societies with communal forms of lan…