Bolivia in the new Latin American political scenario

Who calls the shots in Cochabamba today? A research study examined the region’s powerful groups, delving deeper than their representatives or leaders. This article presents some of its main findings, as well as describing the methodology and the different tools used to show ho w the elites were destroyed by the 1952 revolution and why they never recovered. The issue of regional power was addressed recently in a research study entitled “ Pitaq Kaypi Kamachiq : Power structures in Cochabamba, 1940-2006”. The research was carried out by Jose M. Gordillo, Alberto Rivera and Ana Sulcata, with the support of PIEB. 3 It analyses power from a historical and sociological perspective, focusing o n the study of the networks in which power circulates rather than just its representatives or leaders. The aim is to understand who is in command in Cochabamba today, looking at the changes in power structures brought about by the National Revolution of 1952 and the New Economic Policy implemented in 1985. Expressed briefly, the results of the research show that: a) the elites whose power derived from landowning were seriously affected by the revolution and never recovered; b) the new emerging social sectors (the study looked at traders, transport operators a nd water committees), despite their economic importance, are currently only political pressure g roups without a class identity; and c) power is fragmented among several separate groups, giving ri se to a structure in which many are giving the orders but few are obeying. In this article we will discuss the methodology use d in the study, which enabled us to arrive at the first result in the historical research. We will de scribe the different tools we used to observe how t he family networks in which the power of the pre-1952 landowning elites circulated were destroyed by the revolution and why they never recovered. In oth er words, we will set out the ways in which we were able to find that power was concentrated in fa mily clans; that the economic interests of the landowning patriarchs had no direct connections wit h the modern industrial, financial and service sectors that started to emerge at the dawn of the 2 0 th century; that modernity flourished among the family groups of migrants from other parts of the c ountry and foreigners who settled in the region, changing production and consumption patterns; that from the bosom of landowning families

Development economics · Economics · Latin Americans · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cultural and political discourse analysis · History and Politics in Latin America · International Relations in Latin America · Law

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