Independence in Spanish America
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Argentina
The independence process began in 1810 with the creation of a junta in Buenos Aires. National independence was declared in 1816.

Bolivia
Formerly known as Upper Peru. In 1809 a revolutionary uprising in Chuquisaca was put down. Fighting against Spanish forces lasted until 1825.

Chile
A junta was formed in Santiago in 1810 but Chile was retaken by the Spanish in 1814. Independence was sealed in 1818.

Colombia
The Comunero Revolt of 1781 was supressed. In 1810 a junta was formed in Bogotá and the struggle for independence continued. The Republic of Greater Colombia was formed in 1819 and included Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and Ecuador. The union split in 1830.

Costa Rica
Independence from Spain in 1821. Part of the United States of Central America until full independence in 1838.

Cuba
In 1898 Spain relinquished Cuba to the United States. Cuba secured its independence in 1902.

Dominican Republic
Declared independence in 1821 but was invaded by Haiti only weeks later and occupied until 1844. Haitian attacks meant that the Dominican Republic returned to the Spanish Empire between 1861 and 1865.

Ecuador
A junta was formed in Quito in 1809 but the rebellion was crushed in 1812. Following independence from Spain in 1822, Ecuador became part of the Republic of Greater Colombia. It withdrew from the union in 1830.

El Salvador
Independence in 1821. Part of the United Provinces of Central America until the region broke away in 1838. Named El Salvador in 1844.

Guatemala
Independence in 1821. Part of the United Provinces of Central America, a federation formed in 1821 that also included El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua and dissolved in 1838.

Honduras
Independence in 1821. Honduras seceded from the United Provinces of Central America in 1838.

Mexico
War for independence began in 1810. Independence was won in 1821.

Nicaragua
Independence in 1821. Nicaragua seceded from the United Provinces of Central America in 1838.

Panama
Independence from Spain in 1821 and then became part of the Republic of Greater Colombia. Became an independent nation in 1903.

Paraguay
Independence from Spain in 1811.

Peru
The Túpac Amaru uprising in 1780 was suppressed. Independence declared in 1821.

Uruguay
Occupied by the Portuguese and then the newly independent Brazil from 1816. Becomes an independent nation in 1828.

Venezuela
In 1806 Francisco de Miranda launched an unsuccessful attempt to free Venezuela. Revolutionary struggle began again in 1810 but Spanish authority was restored until 1821. Venezuela seceded from the Republic of Greater Colombia in 1829.

The origins of the independence movement in Spanish America
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During the colonial period some sectors of the Creole population (Spanish descendents born in the Americas) became increasingly frustrated by Spanish rule. Their discontent grew out of the belief that local ambition and prosperity were stifled by colonial administrative, tax and trade policy and the superior status conferred to Spanish-born residents. Another grievance was the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 by the Spanish Crown in order to secure its power in the colonies.

The occupation of Spain by Napoleon in 1808 paved the way for the independence of the Spanish American territories. The constitutional crisis in Spain caused by the imprisonment of Fernando VII in France and the imposition of Joseph Bonaparte on the Spanish throne created an opportunity for the Creoles to proclaim their independence from Spain. Widespread revolts and civil war broke out across the region and juntas (local governing bodies) took matters into their own hands. Fernando VII returned to the Spanish throne in 1814 and initiated a ‘reconquest’ of the Spanish American colonies but the resolution of the crisis came too late to stem the tide of rebellion.

Bolivian women spearhead Morales revolution
2010/02/11 10:15:41 GMT
By Andres Schipani
--bbc.co.uk--

In the early 19th Century, Bolivian women fought alongside men for the country's independence from colonial Spain. They stormed into battle on horseback, seized cities and were on the frontline. But their presence on the battlefield did not translate into presence in the political life of their nation. For many, their education, job opportunities and political rights were limited - until now. "For a long time, we women have been excluded - it was one of the dark legacies of the colonial model," the recently appointed Justice Minister, Nilda Copa, told the BBC at her office.

"I remember my mother didn't know how to read and write, neither did my grandmother... not because they didn't want to learn," Ms Copa says. Ms Copa joined a trade union very young, when she was only 16, because she felt a drastic change was needed and that was the only platform where women "had some voice".

And that change seems to have arrived. Today, posters proclaiming the slogans of female Bolivian heroes such as indigenous rebel Bartolina Sisa and independence icon Juana Azurduy plaster the walls of several ministries.

That shows the fervour felt in the Bolivia of President Evo Morales, who seems to be changing things not only for the country's indigenous majority, but also for its women. Today women are involved in running the country as never before. Mr Morales began his second mandate last month with a cabinet reshuffle that complies with the gender parity stated in the new constitution he pushed for. Now the new cabinet has 10 men and 10 women, three of them indigenous.

"There used to be a lot of racism and machismo. There is still some, but now that structure is changing thanks to brother Evo Morales," Ms Copa says.

"Today, for example, there are no illiterate women, but women with enough capacity to develop activities at the same level as men. But the fight has been harsh and long."

Her voice trails off and she focuses on a picture of her and Mr Morales from the times when she was a member of the assembly that wrote Bolivia's new constitution.

Homage

For Mr Morales, achieving gender parity in the cabinet was a long-held aim. "One of my dreams has come true - half the cabinet seats are held by women," Mr Morales said recently. "This is a homage to my mother, my sister and my daughter."

Mr Morales said that since his early days as a leader of the coca trade union, he had always worked towards getting women into decision-making posts based on the chacha warmi, a concept that in the local Aymara indigenous culture means that men and women are complementary in an egalitarian way.


But another sign that women's political influence is on the rise is the fact that they now occupy an unprecedented 30% of seats in Bolivia's new legislative branch. One of them is Gabriela Montano, a senator who represents the eastern city of Santa Cruz - Bolivia's opposition heartland - on behalf of Mr Morales's party, the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS).

"This is the fruit of the women's fight: the tangible proofs of this new state, of this new Bolivia are the increasing participation of the indigenous peoples and the increasing participation of women in the decision-making process of this country," Ms Montano told the BBC.

Ms Montano was the subject of several physical attacks during her stint as the government's envoy to Santa Cruz, and last year she was kept at a secret location as a safety precaution after she was threatened by opposition groups.

"The awakening of women has been brewing for a while. Women have been a key element in the consolidation of this process of change led by President Morales, from the rallies, the protests, the fights. Now, they will be a key element in affairs of national interest," Ms Montano says.

However, while change for women is under way, for some there is still a long way to go until full equality is achieved.

"Not long ago, 10 years ago, nobody talked about women in power in this country, that was unimaginable," explains Katia Uriona, of the women's advocacy group Coordinadora de la Mujer.

"And even if I applaud all of these victories, I am aware this is not enough. Now we have to see if all of this is translated into something concrete that will truly change the gender face of this country."

Bolivia: More Women in Parliament, With Their Own Agenda
by Franz Chávez (la paz)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Inter Press Service

An unprecedented 28 percent of seats in Bolivia's new parliament will soon be occupied by women. Female lawmakers have already launched a battle for women to serve in half the posts in the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

One indication of women's increased influence was the election Tuesday of Ana María Romero to preside the Senate, the first woman in this country's parliamentary history to do so. Re-elected President Evo Morales said it was a step towards gender parity in the powers of government.

The bicameral Plurinational Assembly is the new legislative branch under the constitution that came into force 11 months ago, and replaces the Congress that met for 184 years. The constitution, re-written by a constituent assembly 33 percent of whose members were women, has re-founded the Bolivian state.

Romero, a member of the governing leftwing Movement Toward Socialism (MAS), was elected by 35 out of the 36 senators, 10 of whom belong to opposition parties, which shows the consensus of support for this veteran journalist who was formerly Peru's first Ombudsperson (1998-2003), another fact mentioned by Morales.

Lidia Gueiler is the only other woman to have attained leadership in Congress. In 1979 she presided over the lower house, and from 1979 to 1980 she was Bolivia's interim president.

Parliament will have its opening session Friday, when 50-year-old indigenous trade union leader Morales, who has governed since January 2006, will be sworn in for a second term as president.

Even before their official installation, the 46 new women lawmakers have been under pressure from grassroots women activists to adopt an agenda in favour of gender parity, including the goal of women holding half the positions in the branches of government, and a series of bills to improve women's lot.

Bolivian women have formed more than 200 organisations that belong to the non-governmental Coordinadora de la Mujer, and are proposing a package of draft laws drawn up by trade unions, campesino (small farmer) and feminist organisations, which the 33 women lawmakers belonging to MAS have already promised to support in parliament.

The other 13 women in parliament were elected by three opposition parties. There are 166 parliamentary seats, of which 115 were won by MAS. The senate has 36 members and the lower house 130, of whom half (65) are elected by direct personal vote, and the remainder from party lists of candidates.

The total number of women in the new parliament will be twice that in the last legislature of the old Congress, which had only 22 women members, equivalent to 14 percent of its 157 seats.

Bolivia has a population of 10.4 million, half of whom identify themselves as indigenous people, and 33.5 percent live in rural areas.

Fighting for their Rightful Place

The Movement of Women Present in the History of the Struggle for Inclusion, Diversity and Interculturalism has worked strenuously since 2006 to promote the inclusion of women in the reconstructed state, and its first achievement was the high proportion of women in the constituent assembly that re-wrote the constitution.

It also managed to secure a measure of equity in the electoral laws applied for the first time in the December elections, which stipulate the alternation of male and female candidates on party electoral lists. However, it failed to achieve nomination and election of women candidates in the hoped-for proportion of 50 percent in the lower house, because of lack of support from the political parties.

The giant leap in women's share of parliamentary seats is the result of the pressure and action of some 200 organisations, Mónica Novillo, in charge of advocacy and lobbying for the Coordinadora de la Mujer, said at a Dec. 14 meeting of women's organisations and new women lawmakers.

But parliamentary action for expanded rights for women and greater equity in public office will still face opposition from lawmakers cast in a patriarchal mould, the substitute lawmaker for the department (province) of La Paz, Elizabeth Salguero, told IPS.

In the previous legislature, Salguero chaired the Commission on Human Rights and she advocated a law against political violence on gender grounds, to protect women elected to municipal and national office. But the bill was not passed.

Meanwhile, representatives of the main women's trade union organisation, the 'Bartolina Sisa' Trade Union Federation of Indigenous Campesina Women of Bolivia, are demanding gender equity in the Morales government to be appointed in early February.

In his first government, only four out of 20 ministerial posts went to women, although the president has promised to increase their share in his new cabinet.

This will be the first test of the executive branch's response to the demands of organised women's groups for a greater share of power and progress towards half the decision-making posts in the state apparatus, the justice system, municipalities and provinces.

'But basically, without education there can be no rights, no creation or defence of human rights,' Cristina Barreto, a leader of the 'Bartolina Sisa' Federation in La Paz, told IPS emphatically.

'We must provide a plurinational education, in several languages,' she urged women lawmakers, exhorting them to work night and day 'until we get rid of consumerist, theoretical education,' in line with Morales' stated vision for change.

'In rural areas, girls attend school up to third grade, but today all children must have the opportunity to complete their secondary education,' otherwise economic and industrial development will be impossible, she said.

Barreto gave several examples of discrimination against women. She complained that teachers expel pregnant teenage girls from school, 'but not the boys who get them pregnant.'

'Some employers make women workers sign a pledge that they will not get pregnant during the period of their contract,' but this must change. The state should give tax breaks to companies who employ the most women and respect their rights, Amalia Coaquira told IPS.

Coaquira is a leader in the Bolivian National Federation of Self-Employed Women Workers, an organisation created in response to the impact of the free-market policies implemented in Bolivia between 1985 and 2005, which forced thousands of women into the informal sector, mainly working as street vendors for the sake of their own and their families' survival.

New labour laws stipulating equal wages for men and women, providing protection against workplace and sexual harassment, including self-employed women workers in the social security system, and recognising the economic value of work in the home, are Coquira's recommendations to the women lawmakers.

'Homemakers never get to retire on a pension, they are just assumed to go on and on,' she complained.

Land and women's aspiration to property titles in their own right are the main aims of the National Indigenous Women's Federation, whose representative Blanca Cartagena placed the issue firmly on the parliamentary list of pending tasks.

According to the government, 10,299 land titles were granted to women between 2006 and 2009, representing a total of 164,401 hectares. But Cartagena underscored the urgent need to give preference to women heads of family, especially those who are without family support or are extremely poor.

'I want to take direct action; I can do a lot and contribute to several development approaches,' the lawmaker for Beni province, Ingrid Zabala, confidently told IPS.

An agronomist ('ingeniera agrónoma') who has specialised in social and agricultural research, Zabala has scored a political coup in an area that is one of the most conservative and least receptive to ideas of gender equity. Not only is she a woman, she also belongs to MAS, which is unpopular in Beni and other eastern Bolivian provinces.

Zabala says she will work in parliament against violence and discrimination, and for equal rights and respect for the environment. She has already proved her tenacity in battles against corruption as a professor at the José Ballivián Autonomous University in Beni.

She says she became aware of the different faces of discrimination from childhood, when her family would not allow her to make friends with campesina girls wearing traditional indigenous skirts, or when she had to change the title page of her thesis where she had used the word 'ingeniera' (a female engineer), instead of 'ingeniero' (a male engineer) to specify the degree she was a candidate for.

Bolivia's new women lawmakers have a difficult road ahead as they continue to seek ways of putting into practice the changes that, so far, have only been written into the constitution.


© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved
Original source: Inter Press Service

Pan-American Highway

This is a google-maps view of the Uros floating islands of Lake Titicaca. The Uros have lived and created these floating islands made of totora (a type of sedge) that are situated on Lake Titicaca, which is the largest lake in South America. Lake Titicaca is also one of the highest elevated lakes in the world, it borders Peru and Bolivia.

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