Pact of Unity

The Pact of Unity (Spanish: Pacto de Unidad) is an evolving national alliance of Bolivian grassroots organizations in support of indigenous and agrarian rights, land reform, the rewriting of the 1967 constitution through a Constituent Assembly, and a left-indigenous transformation of the Bolivian state. Since 2005, the Pact has been a close ally of Bolivian President Evo Morales, and it forms the nucleus of the National Coordination for Change, a pro-government alliance.

The composition of the Pact of Unity has varied over time, but since 2006 it has generally consisted of five nationwide organizations:

• Unique Confederation of Rural Laborers of Bolivia (CSUTCB)
• National Confederation of Peasant Indigenous Originary Women of Bolivia - Bartolina Sisa
• Syndicalist Confederation of Intercultural Communities of Bolivia (CSCIB)
• Confederation of Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia (CIDOB)
• National Council of Ayllus and Markas of Qullasuyu (CONAMAQ)

The most recent meeting of the Pact of Unity was held November 17-19 in Sucre. CONAMAQ and CIDOB were notable by their absence, which followed the divisive controversy over the Villa Tunari – San Ignacio de Moxos Highway through Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory.

In December 2011, both CIDOB and CONAMAQ formally withdrew from the Pact of Unity. Senior members of CIDOB critiqued the Pact for deviating from its prior purpose of pressing indigenous rights in the constitution and uniting "only to say yes and submit to the decisions of the government" (in the words of CIDOB President Adolfo Chávez). Representatives of the remaining organizations (sometimes called the "triplets") maintain that CIDOB and CONAMAQ's withdrawal is a temporary decision made by their leadership.

History

Coordination among indigenous, campesino, and agrarian movements in Bolivia increased in the 1990s, particularly through collaboration in joint mobilizations and increased cooperation between department-wide organization in Santa Cruz. During the third national indigenous march, five Santa Cruz organizations fused to form the Bloque Oriente (literally, "Eastern Bloc"): Coordinadora de Pueblos Étnicos de Santa Cruz (CPESC), Federación Sindical de Única de Trabajadores Campesinos Santa Cruz Apiagüayki Tumpa (FSUTC-SC), the Movimiento Sin Tierra (MST), the Federación Departamental de Mujeres Campesinas Bartolina Sisa (FDMC-BS), and the Federación Departamental de Colonizadores de Santa Cruz (FDC-SC).

In La Paz, a coalition of grassroots organizations signed the Pact of Unity and Commitment (Spanish: Pacto de Unidad y Compromiso) among campesino, indigenous, and originally peoples organizations of Bolivia (Spanish: Pacto de unidad y compromiso entre las organizaciones campesinas, indígenas y pueblos originarios de Bolivia) on March 15, 2002. This document was drafted and issued at the end of a movement summit on the question of constitutional reform. It put forward a demand for a new Constituent Assembly, organized independent of parliament and political parties. Its signers included the Bloque Oriente, CONAMAQ, MST, the Departmental Workers Central of Beni, CAOP, and the Bartolina Sisa federations of Santa Cruz, Pando, and Vaca Diez.