Confronting the Structure of International Development: Political Agency and the Chiquitanos of Bolivia

In the past few decades, Latin America has encountered two related developments that are transforming indigenous peoples' ownership, use, and management of land and resources. The first has been a wave of political organizing among indigenous communities. International linkages, national and regional confederations, and local, intercommunal organizations have proliferated across Central and South America. Secondly, there has been a swift rise in the number and influence of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which have brought unprecedented financial support and political leverage to the struggles of indigenous people. This paper examines development, natural resource management, and ecopolitics in the Chiquitano communities of Lomerio in the Bolivian lowlands. I discuss the impact of NGO and government policies and practices on Chiquitano political organization, and present examples of political agency on the part of the Chiquitanos, and features of the structural conditions that frame relations among the different groups.