Ambassadors and other top government officials from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela will join with preeminent scholars and civil society leaders in a two-day conference focused on the rapidly changing political and economic landscape of the Andean Region. The event takes place February 12-13, 2008, hosted jointly by Brown’s Center for Latin American Studies and the Watson Institute for International Studies as part of the Year of Focus on Latin America at Brown University.
Over the past decade, South American countries have undergone dramatic democratic transformations. Beginning with the election of President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1998, and continuing with the elections of Presidents Evo Morales in Bolivia in 2005 and Rafael Correa in Ecuador in 2006, countries in the Andean region have been proposing bold initiatives aimed at social, economic and political inclusion of the historically excluded; a redefinition of the role natural resources should play in the development of the region; and a more assertive foreign policy that seeks the creation of a South American Community of Nations.
This conference is open to the Brown University community and registered guests.
The evening events are open to the greater public and will be located at the Salomon Center on The College Green.
Day 1
9:00am: Conference Opening (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
10:00am: Panel 1: “Politics, Popular Mobilization, and Democracy” (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
1:30pm: Panel 2: “Economic Development, Social Equality, and Sustainability” (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
3:45pm: Panel 3: “Natural Resources: Social, Political, and Environmental Implications” (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
7:00-9:00pm:
Keynote Roundtable Discussion with Ambassadors of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela (Salomon 101, Salomon Center, The College Green)
This event is open to the greater public
Day 2
9:30am: Panel 4: “Politics of Inclusion in the Andes” (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
1:00pm: Panel 5: “New Approaches to Foreign Policy” (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
3:15pm: Closing Roundtable (Watson Institute, Joukowsky Forum)
Event Summary
Scholars and politicians from North and South America gathered at the Watson Institute this week to discuss recent changes in the political system in three Andean countries: Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. During his introduction, James N. Green, director of Brown's Center for Latin American Studies, said that the goal of the conference was to "engage scholars, students, and policymakers in a serious academic discussion about recent developments.""Something new and important is happening in the Andean countries," said Watson Institute Director Barbara Stallings, citing changes in economic policy, social relations, the political system, ideology and leadership. However she emphasized that the participants needed to look at the ways the policies have changed and not to take them at face value.
In his opening remarks, former US Sen. Lincoln Chafee '75, a distinguished visiting fellow at Watson, criticized the current US administration's policy toward Latin America. "As American's we have to be aware that some of our policies have not endeared us," he said. He cited a trip he had taken to Colombia with former President Bill Clinton in which people had lined up along the road for 10 miles. Chafee said that when President Bush visited Colombia, 25,000 riot police were required.
Kendra Fehrer-Ponniah, the graduate student who organized the conference offered up its three key questions: What are some of the successes of the changes in the Andes? What are some of the challenges? What is the meaning for the rest of the world?
Highlights of the conference included a roundtable discussion among leading diplomats from the three countries and the announcement that Bolivian President Evo Morales will also come to give a lecture at Brown University on February 26. (See related story.)
The conference's first panel, on popular mobilization, politics, and democracy, featured a politician from Ecuador and two scholars who had written about Bolivia and Venezuela. The consensus was that in the past few years, as new leadership replaced the neo-liberal governments of nineties, popular participation within Andean governments had increased.
In Ecuador, the neo-liberal regime, "kidnapped democracy," Maria Agusta Calle, an opposition journalist and politician from Ecuador, said during her talk on challenges facing the new government in Ecuador. These challenges include the economy, US-military relations pertaining to the war on narcotics, the political role of the indigenous, and reform of the democratic system so that it reflected the wishes of the whole, not just the elite. Calle strongly argued for the differentiation between coca growers and cocaine, "to grow and to chew coca does not mean you are putting drugs in your system," she said.
Donna Lee Van Cutt, associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, presented a paper on the role of indigenous people in the recent constitutional reform in Bolivia. She argued that the reform by left leaning politicians "reflects much more the diversity of people in Bolivia." The challenge facing the Bolivian government will be the continued violation of democratic norms and the drowning out of centrist views, which will probably lead to continued political conflict, she said.
Sujatha Fernandes, assistant professor of sociology at Queens College, New York, discussed how social movements in Venezuela engage in dialogue with the state and sustain an agenda. She presented the various attempts by the Chavez government to help in elections and bypass local bureaucratic institutions. She used the example of indigenous protests of mine development in 2005 to show the new form of coalition politics – the urban poor and the indigenous uniting around a common sense of exclusion and inequality. Fernandes called the new system post neo-liberalism, but cautioned that there are contradictions that still exist.
Jennifer McCoy, head of the Carter Center's Americas program, critiqued the three papers presented on the panel. She claimed that Bolivia and Venezuela "actually reflect a change in the balance of power?These processes lead us to bring more questions about how to reformulate the basic social pact in all these countries to be more inclusive? as well as to have broader and deeper citizenship." In all of the countries, McCoy cited questionable moves by the government in terms of constitutional rules and procedures, but said that these were "accepted by populations in the drive for change."
The second panel focused on economic development, social equality, and sustainability. Kevin Healy, of George Washington University, talked about economic developments in Bolivia, particularly in the production of soybeans and quinoa. "The foundation is being laid for a very different style of popular participation in development thinking." The relationship between the state and small farmers is growing, with new funding coming into agricultural sectors that were previously ignored, Healy said.
Scott McKinney, an economist at Hobart and William Smith College, "focused on GDP not gross national happiness," as he put it. McKinney argued that Ecuador will probably have to remove the dollar as its main currency because it is a "straitjacket the policy places on Ecuador's economic relations with the rest of the world." He also explored its relations to petroleum shocks, exports, imports, and remittances.
"The way of assessing what's going on in Venezuela is so intensely politicized," said Julia Buxton of Bradford University in the UK, while arguing that in order to understand social policy in Venezuela one has to separate it from the personality of Hugo Chàvez. Buxton gave an overview of recent thinking regarding economic development. Venezuela has a synergy of social policy interventions and economic development as well as a disproportionate focus on the poor in its policies. The government is still facing challenges in the economic sector including perhaps too much state and too little market, Buxton said.
Papers from these and other conference panels will be published in an edited volume. Additionally, a policy paper will be produced and distributed to scholars and policymakers.
The conference was hosted jointly by Brown's Center for Latin American Studies and the Watson Institute.
By Watson Institute Student Rapporteur Brenna Carmody '09