IHT : What's Bolivia's capital? The answer is disputed here

What's Bolivia's capital? The answer is disputed here

By Simon Romero | September 14, 2007

SUCRE, Bolivia: "Welcome," reads a sign greeting arriving passengers to this sleepy city's airport, which shuts down its runway at dusk, "to the capital of Bolivia."

Yes, the home of the president, Congress, central bank, government ministries and foreign embassies might be in La Paz, 250 miles to the north and with a population four times that of Sucre's 250,000.

But, to the discomfort of some of the rest of the nation, residents here insist that the sign is correct. Still festering from a civil war in 1899 that stripped the executive and legislative branches from Sucre and moved them to La Paz, leaving only the highest courts based here, this city is pressing ahead with a campaign to become Bolivia's full-fledged capital again.

Sucre's seemingly quixotic effort to regain what it lost has evolved into the most pressing crisis facing Evo Morales, a former llama herder and member of the Aymara indigenous group who is heralded as Bolivia's first Indian president.

"We don't sacrifice llamas here, as they do in the altiplano," said Jaime Barrón, the rector of Sucre's university and a leader of the city's campaign, in a dig at both Morales's radical policies and perceptions that Aymara traditions in the Bolivian highlands are being imposed in this central region.

"We simply want what was taken from Sucre 108 years ago, allowing us to develop into the geopolitical center of South America," Barrón continued.

That is a lofty goal for this city, whose whitewashed buildings recall a more genteel time in Bolivian history. And for the time being, it seems a goal unlikely to materialize.

One million protesters recently flooded the center of La Paz to oppose Sucre's campaign, reflecting the strength of Morales's political base, and the resistance to Sucre's ambition. Economists say the costs of transferring the presidency and legislature to Sucre, which retains the title of "constitutional capital," would be staggering for Bolivia, which is already South America's poorest country.

But supporters of Sucre's proposal, who have staged street protests and hunger strikes, have already won a victory of sorts by making their campaign the most polemical project in an assembly convened here to rewrite Bolivia's Constitution, distracting delegates from proposals that would accelerate Morales's challenges to Bolivia's light-skinned elite.

Concerned about their safety as street protests raged here last week, delegates to the assembly declared a one-month recess over the weekend. That decision, combined with a court ruling allowing the assembly to take up Sucre's proposal, encouraged demonstrators and hunger strikers to end their protests.

"The opposition pulled a rabbit out of a hat with the demand from Sucre to move the capital," said Jim Shultz, a political analyst in the central city of Cochabamba.

Boosted by majority support for Morales, the assembly was convened a year ago with dreams of forging measures aimed at lifting Bolivia's indigenous peoples from centuries of privation and servitude. Proposals there range from rechristening Bolivia with an indigenous name, Qollasuyo, to allowing Morales to be re-elected indefinitely.

Politicians in lowland provinces chafe at such ideas, claiming Morales is a puppet of his closest ally, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. And while eastern Bolivia remains a center for antigovernment groups and talk of separatism, Sucre has become a flash point for efforts to chisel away at the president's influence.

Outside Mayor Aydée Nava's office, for instance, hangs a poster depicting Morales in a Nazi military uniform and using dogs to attack protesters, cheered on by a peasant woman from the highlands. Nearby at the provincial government's headquarters, protesters have unveiled a banner reading, "Government Palace, Bolivia."

Even the backpacks of schoolchildren here sometimes bear the words, "Sucre Full-Fledged Capital."

In these actions and others around Bolivia, Morales's government sees the hand of elites trying to weaken his administration.

Pointing to documents obtained by the federal intelligence service, officials in La Paz last week said a group from the lowland city of Santa Cruz had elaborated a plan to sabotage the Constitution assembly, stoke regional tension and initiate protests to topple Morales.

Heightening fears that tensions between Sucre and La Paz could turn violent, some 10,000 supporters of the president traveled here by bus and on foot this week to denounce Sucre's campaign. They chanted, "Death to those who want to divide the country," before stunned residents here.

But for many resisters here visions of returning bureaucratic grandeur to Sucre seem to outweigh those concerns. "We are the capital of Bolivia," Jhon Cava, president of Sucre's civic committee, said in an interview, as if this city had never lost that distinction.

"We're reasonable people here, many things are still on the table," Cava continued, saying that any transfer to Sucre could be gradual.

If embassies wished to remain in La Paz, he said, "That would be their choice." Ditto for some ministries, he said.

"All we're saying is that Bolivia has a debt to Sucre," he said, "and the time has come to collect."