User:Ramitasn/sandbox

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Evaluating Content: For Excercise

1. The article can be confusing at times because the order is not disorganized. Most of the information is relavent to the article topic, however I am not sure if there is anything missing because I do not know this topic very well. 2. Nothing seems to be out of date, however information can be added regarding Eva Morales background and how he was elected as President. 3. The structure is what could be improved. It has to be organized a lot more succinctly.

Evaluating Tone

1. The tone is mostly neutral. There doesn't seem to be any biased claims 2. There is not much information regarding Eva Morales rise to the presidency. I think there needs to be more information regarding specific events that occurred during Morales's presidency. Additionally there needs to be more information about public opinion towards Morales, and how much the public suports him as a whole and on specific issues.

Evaluating Citations. 1. The citations do work for the ones that I clicked 2. A lot of the links and citations are wiki links and wiki pages, so they are neutral and unbiased. However some of the links and citations to the pages are underdeveloped.

Wikipedia Search: Homework [] How did you go about searching? What keywords are associated with the article? Describe the quality of the coverage of your selected subject?

1. In the beginning chapters the textbook mentioned briefly about U.S. involvement in political leadership in Latin American countries, thus i wanted to learn more about this subject. I searched very broad terms such as "democracy in Latin America" and "U.S. and Latin America" and then "U.S. involved in Latin America". I did not have a specific country in Latin America in mind that I was searching. That is why a lot of wikipedia pages that I found were very broad. 2. The keywords associated with this article are Latin America, regime change, U.S. involvement, right-wing leadership, and coup. 3. The article was not terrible, it explained the various countries in Latin America in which the U.S played a part in. However, there was no introduction or background aspect that gave readers some general information on U.S. involvement in Latin. America. I liked how each country had it's own section and each section briefly described U.S. involvement. However, it did not always read so smoothly and it was more-so a list rather than a succinct article that connected the pieces together. The links and citation section of the article were well done, and the content was written well but very little.

Contemporary Actor Search
Indigenous peoples in BoliviaConfederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia

While searching for contemporary interest groups and parties in Bolivia, I found two interesting articles regarding Indigenous peoples. The first article titled "Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia" was a short and disappointing article. The other article I found was regarding the "Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia" which provided some information on indigenous tribes in Bolivia and their fight to gain economic, and political representation and gains through national marches and protests. Both articles provided minuscule information on the economic, social and political plight of the indigenous community in Bolivia. The coverage needs to answer the questions of Is the government protecting Indigenous land? Are Indigenous people well represented economically and politically? Has the President Eva Morales made economic strides in assisting Indigenous populations? I think the second article does a good job in writing about their efforts of the Confederation of Indigenous People in India and their mobilization efforts through the Great Indigenous Marches. However the article doesn't go in depth on the successes and failures of the marches and whether their demands were met. Similarly in the first article, it shows almost no information on their rights, and achievements, or the process in which they received their rights. The articles also don't talk about the relationship with Eva Morales and the indigenous community and whether the indigenous community is satisfied with the President. There is also disputer over indigenous people and the protection of their lands that the article does not talk abut. The coverage is not consistent and there needs to be more reliable sources in the articles.

Revolution: 1952
Historically Indigenous people in Bolivia suffered many years of marginalization and a lack of representation. However it was in the last decades of the twentieth century that saw a surge of political and social mobilization in indigenous communities. The 1952 war that liberated Bolivians and gave Indigenous peoples citizenship still gave little to political representation to indigenous communities. It was in the 1960s and 1970s that social movements such as the Kataraista movement began to also include indigenous concerns (Brysk & Bennett, 2012). The Katarista movement, consisting of the Ayamra communities, of La Paz and the alitplano, attempted to mobilize the Indigenous community and pursue an Indigenous political identity through mainstream politics and life. Although The Katarusta movement failed to create a national political party, the movement influenced many peasant unions such as the Confederacion Sindical de Trabajadores Campesinos De Bolivia (Unitary Syndial Confederation of Peasant Workers in Bolivia). The Kataraista movement of the 1970’s and 80’s died out by the end of the decade however many of the same concerns and issues rose again in the 1990s.

Social Movement: 1990s
The 1990s saw a large surge of political mobilization for Indigenous communities. President Sánchez de Lozada passed reforms such as the 1993 Law of Constitutional Reform to acknowledge Indigenous rights in Bolivian culture and society. However many of these reforms fell short as the government continued to pass destructive environmental and anti-indigenous rules and regulations. A year after the 1993 Law of Constitutional Reform recognizing Indigenous Rights, the 1994 Law of Popular Participation decentralized political structures giving municipal and local governments more political autonomy. Two years later the 1996 Electoral Law greater expanded indigenous political rights as the national congress transitioned into a hybrid proportional system, increasing the amount of Indigenous representatives.

Environmental injustice became a polarizing issue as many Indigenous communities protested against government backed privatization and eradication of natural resources and landscapes.

Coca leaf production is an important sector of the Bolivian economy and culture, especially for campesinos and Indigenous peoples The eradication of coca production, highly supported by the U.S and its War on Drugs and the Bolivian government spurred heavy protests by the Indigenous community. One of the main leaders of the coca leaf movement, Evo Morales became a vocal opponent against state efforts to eradicate coca. The coca leaf tensions began in the region of Chapare in 2000 and became violent as protests against police officials and residents began. During this time protestors organized road blockades, and traffic stops to protest low prices. Coca leaf producers continued to resist the government's policies on production further devaluing the peso and seized control of  the peasant confederation (Confederation Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos be Bolivia). With Eva Morales leadership the cocaceleros were able to form coalitions with other social groups and eventually create a political party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) (Mahler, 2013).

Similarly, the 2000 “Water War” bought these protests to national attention. The “Water War (add link to wiki article)” began in the city of Cochabamba where the private company Bechtel began to increase rates for water after the government contracted out to privatize Cochabamba's water system. When Cochabambas residents realized that they could not afford to pay for this resource, they began to protest in alliance with urban workers, rural peasants and students. The mass protest resulted in a state of emergency as clashes against the police and protestors became more violent. The protests were largely successful and resulted in the reversement of the privatization.

Additionally in 2003, as reliance on natural resources in Bolivia's economy grew, resistance came from Bolivia’s Indigenous community in the form of the “Gas Wars”. This conflict which culminated from the Water Wars, united coca farmers, unions and citizens to protest the sale of Bolivia gas reserves to the United States through the port of Chile. Again, Indigenous peoples participated alongside miners, teachers and ordinary citizens through road blockades and the disruption of traffic. Protests politics for social and economic reforms has been a consistent method for Indigenous mobilization and inclusion in the political process. They have concluded in successful results and created a platform for Indigenous Rights. These protests movements soon made the way for legal and political changes and representation.

2000s: Eva Morales and the plurinational state
One of the biggest success for Bolivia’s Indigenous community was the election of Eva Morales, former leader of the cocaceleros and Bolivia's first Indigenous President. President, Evo Morales has attempted to establish a plurinational and postcolonial state to expand the collective rights of the Indigenous community. The 2009 constitution recognized the presence of the different communities that reside in Bolivia and gave Indigenous peoples the right of self governance and autonomy over their ancestral territories. Expanding on the Constitution, the 2010 Framework Law of Autonomies and Decentralization outlined the legal rules and procedures that Indigenous communities must take to receive autonomy. Through these decentralization efforts Bolivia became the first plurinational state in South America (Elliot-Meisal, 2014). However many Indigenous communities claim that the process to receive autonomy is inefficient and lengthy. Along with Indigenous concerns, there are internal issues and competing interests between Bolivia's restrictive legal framework, liberal policies and the concept of Indigenous self governance. Nonetheless the addition of subatonomies in Bolivia's government has made strides in including Indigenous communities in the political process.