Contemporary Slavery and the Struggle for Self-Determination: The Case of the Guaraní People from the Bolivian Chaco
Contemporary Slavery and the Struggle for Self-Determination: The Case of the Guaraní People from the Bolivian Chaco

Summary/Abstract: For over a century, the Bolivian Guaraní people have been subjected to infrahuman treatment which involved practices such as slavery, forced labor and servitude. The new agrarian legislation, aimed at reversing the concentration of the economic and social power in the hands of a small regional elite, represented a shift in a state policy, facilitating the access of indigenous peoples to collective land property and thereby enabling them to break away from the conditions of debt bondage and forced labor. The article examines the current situation of the Guaraní and focuses on the changes and challenges that have been introduced to their way of life due to the implementation of the clearing title process which brought about a partial reconstitution of their territory. It presents the recent data on their struggle to redefine and reconstruct their cultural identity and places emphasis on specific cultural elements considered valuable by the Guaraní society: territorial management, native language, customary law and wider inclusion of women in decision-making structures within the indigenous political organization.

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