Bolivian Peasant Sindicato

Bolivian Peasant Sindicato are peasant unions in Bolivia that serve as unofficial but very real forms of local government. They became important after the 1952 Bolivian Revolution.

"The rural unions or sindicatos, that the Ministry of Peasant Affairs organized between 1952 and 1960 became all-embracing associations. Political scientist Christopher Mitchell described them in these terms:

"Originally modeled on industrial-style mining unions, the peasant organizations became multifaceted social institutions which monopolized local power. They dispersed justice, sometimes played a role in cultivation, and became the social center of peasant life. Most important, they provided a channel through which postreform peasants dealt with the central government. The often agonizingly slow process of obtaining land titles, the search for assistance from La Paz (schools, teachers, roads, water), the trading of votes for political favors - all these tasks in political linkage were handled by the sindicato."

"Peasants rapidly organized themselves into sindicatos', with the result that by 1955, there were about 20,000 registered sindicatos. Peasants quite distinctly created the sindicatos as their local organizations to govern themselves, affirm their land rights, and convey their new sense of identity. Sindicatos, horizontally and vertically through their provincial, regional, and departmental federations, formed an intricate web that became a new phenomenon in the countryside. The peasant organizations, in turn, interacted with governmental and party organizations at different levels.

Articles and Resources

Related Sourcewatch Articles

• U.S. Agricultural Assistance to Bolivia
• Bohan Plan
• Movimiento Nationalista Revolucionario (MNR)
• Victor Paz Estenssoro
• Quinoa
• 1952 Bolivian Revolution

External Resources

• June Nash, Jorge Dandler, Nicholas S. Hopkins, Eds, Popular Participation in Social Change: Cooperatives, Collectives, and Nationalized Industry
• Waltraud Q. Morales, A Brief History of Bolivia, Infobase Publishing, 2003.