Deepening Divisions

Social and political conflicts after 2000 were marked by sharp polarization based on regional, ethnic and racial, and class identities. Racialization, in particular, heightened tensions between opposing groups and raised the stakes for the outbreak of violence. If during his first inauguration, in 2006, Evo Morales made categories of difference the basis for a new sense of pride and national belonging, these same tactics formed the basis for opposition by antigovernment forces outside the highlands. Those forces argued that it was the government’s promotion of indigenous values that introduced racism into the process of political and social transition, since it marginalized Camba culture and threatened to suppress it in the national dialogue over a new constitution. Yet, as the following photographs reveal, the opposition to the Morales government was quick to combine resistance to the shifts in political and economic power with anti-indigenous and anti-Colla prejudice.