“EL RACISMO PROVIENE DE USTED” EL RESURGIMIENTO DE LA DERECHA RADICAL BOLIVIANA EN LA CRISIS DE 2019

Abstract

This article analyzes the recomposition of the radical right in Bolivia between 2016 and 2019. It primarily seeks to answer the following questions: What is the nature of the radical right in Bolivia? What conditions facilitated its (re)emergence? How did it manage to overthrow Evo Morales? What types of discourses did it employ to contest the MAS? What were its strategies and forms of action? The hypothesis posits that the radical right, led by the Comité Cívico Pro Santa Cruz (CCPS), re-emerged in a context marked by the displacement of mestizo middle classes by emerging indigenous and popular sectors. This ongoing process exacerbated social contradictions, generating a crisis of representation and belonging among the dominant groups in the Plurinational State. The CCPS responded with a discourse advocating for the restoration of a homogeneous mestizo-white political community—the Republic—perceived as threatened by the indigenism of the MAS. This discourse amalgamated regionalism, liberalism, colonialism, renewal, religiosity, and hypermasculinity, effectively mobilizing youth, traditional middle classes, and regional groups against the MAS government. However, the national advance of the CCPS was curtailed by its anti-indigenous stance, prompting the radical right to deploy a campaign of fascistization that combined post-truth, mobilization, and parapolice violence