Vol. 72/No. 15      April 14, 2008

Sucre, the former colonial capital and site of the Supreme Court and several prestigious private universities, is the provincial capital of Chuquisaca. The government opposition here is supporting calls for regional autonomy by the provincial governments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and Tarjia. The four eastern provinces plan to hold referendums on autonomy in the coming months. The Morales government calls this a referendum on secession and says it will not be allowed to take place.

The opposition in Sucre is demanding the seat of government be moved from La Paz to this city. The local governments pushing for autonomy oppose measures in the new constitution that call for land reform and nationalization of oil and gas. The opposition is also resisting the government’s push to teach the country’s main indigenous languages, Aymara and Quechua, in public schools. The majority of the population of Bolivia is indigenous.

The elected governor in Sucre resigned last November in protest against the new constitution, and an interim governor was appointed by La Paz. When the opposition took over the state offices on March 25, the interim governor announced a “collective vacation” and left town with some of his staff.

Sucre is sometimes called the “white city” for its whitewashed town center of colonial buildings and churches. In this area, nearly every store has a poster against the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), the party of Morales. The most common show a picture with rifles crossing over the new constitution dripping with blood. Some of these anti-MAS posters are openly fascist, with a call for recruiting “White Shirts” and building a “Falangist” movement. The name Falangist comes from the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, in which the fascist forces were known as Falangists.  
 
 
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