The Decisive Impact of Participation on the Realization of Rights: An Analysis of the Social Dynamics around the Property in Bolivia

• Main Author: Nataly Viviana Vargas Gamboa
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica 2017-09-01
• Series: Revista Latinoamericana de Derechos Humanos
• Subjects: derechos humanos; participación; propiedad; asentados
• Online Access: http://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/derechoshumanos/article/view/9661

The rights of political participation in Bolivia have been always subordinate to the possession of the land; this has provoked that, to our days, the realization of human rights is determined by the property. The dynamics of participation has been understood as a struggle for the inclusion of vulnerable groups in the State, whose manifestations are linked strongly to the access to the property and housing.  Social movements have emerged with the conviction that, based on participation, they have a historic window of opportunity to change the discriminatory and exclusionary rules. In this context, the irregular settlements constitute one of the best testimonies of the struggle for participation based on the property.  The present study aims to describe the exclusionary practices arising from access to land since the formation of the State, and to demonstrate that, on the basis of the experience of the August 26 town, in Tarija, Bolivia, human rights are still subject to property titles.