Inca Revolutionaries Show Their Power

The streets of La Paz look like a war zone. Smoke rises as protesters throw dynamite sticks and pile rubble on the streets. Riot police charge an array of indigenous activists, coca farmers, district 'juntas', miners, trade unionists and students aiming to bring down the government and nationalise Bolivia's natural resources.

Tear gas poisons the air. Indian women in bowler hats shout: 'Bolivia libre, si! Colonia Yanqui, no!' They wave rainbow-coloured flags of the Indian nation. This is the Inca revolution.

Last week President Carlos Mesa resigned, declaring the country 'ungovernable'. His 19-month presidency had been plagued by protests. Mesa beseeched the revolt's leaders - 'those who would drive Bolivia to the abyss' - to stop before civil war becomes unavoidable. But some leaders of the uprising already consider themselves at war. Last week one of the most radical, Felipe Quispe, called his Indian followers to arms.

The indigenous majority in South America's poorest country has been clamouring for more political power and gas and oil nationalisation - in direct opposition to a European-descended elite.

Supreme Court judge Eduardo Rodríguez, who was sworn in to replace Mesa, has a master's degree in public administration from Harvard and is mandated by the constitution to call elections. His caretaker government has not yet set a date for the vote, but he has said elections could be held in December.

The crisis has shown the increasing power of Indian groups which could now win a presidential election. That would herald another shift to the left in Latin America, where many nations are rebelling against US influence. The rise of Indian protests could also deal a death blow to Washington-backed efforts to eradicate coca, the raw material used to make cocaine. Bolivia is one of the world's biggest producers of a drug that is the livelihood of many peasants.

In October 2003, 70 indigenous Bolivians were killed when former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada ordered the army to quell similar protests. Mesa, then Vice-President, came to office by default when Sánchez de Lozada fled to the US. His reign - like Mesa's - was plagued by protests over the future of Bolivia's gas reserves, the second biggest in South America. Many Bolivians fear that multinationals will exploit the reserves in another saqueo, the ransacking of Bolivia's silver by Spanish conquistadors .

Rodríguez was sworn in as interim President in a dramatic late-night ceremony in Sucre, the former capital, in front of an emergency Congress session. Rodríguez is a moderate who may appease Bolivia's masses until new elections are called.

A new election could bring Evo Morales, popular leader of the coca farmers, narco-politician in Washington's eyes and friend of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, to power in Bolivia. He came second in the last poll in 2002. A Morales presidency would be an unknown quantity, but probably more conventional than many other indigenous leaders seek. Already economists predict meltdown for Bolivia as foreign investors shy away. Spain's Repsol has already suspended activities.

The unrest in Bolivia highlights the frailty of democracy in the Andes region. In January a former army major led an uprising in Peru to oust President Alejandro Toledo. Antauro Humala and his indigenous followers failed, but four policemen and two rebels were killed during a siege at a police station. In April, Ecuador's President Lucio Gutiérrez was forced out by street protests.

A new philosophy of 'ethnic nationalism' is gaining ground in Andean nations, where 'revolutionaries' are watching Bolivia closely.

In March The Observer met one of Bolivia's most influential Indian leaders, Felipe Quispe, known to his Aymara supporters as 'El Mallku' or 'The Condor'. In other circles he is viewed as a terrorist. He told The Observer that revolution was imminent.

Quispe chewed coca throughout the interview, the raw material for cocaine - sacred to the Indians in its leaf form but targeted by the US for eradication, a bone of contention with the Indian people. In his shabby office, he sat beneath a poster of Chávez, whose 'Bolivarian Revolution' is seen as an inspiration to all indigenous movements in South America. Quispe lamented the loss of the 'martyrs' of the October 2003 revolt but boasted about toppling a President who had brought the country 'under gringo control'. This, he said calmly, was just the start 'of reclaiming our own culture'.

'We have a choice', said Quispe, 'to take power by democracy or armed struggle. But there is no democracy here, so armed revolution is the only way. We want political power,because we want to own our own land. This is the ideal for the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, Peru, Eucador, Mexico, anywhere we are the majority, to be the owners of our countries. We want a society neither rich nor poor - where everyone is equal.'

The Marxism of Latin America's struggles in Nicaragua and El Salvador two decades ago, in which Quispe and his comrades fought, has been couched in a new language inspired by the legend of the Inca empire.

'Marx, Lenin, Mao, Trotsky - the people here don't understand,' explains Quispe. 'But they know of their Inca ancestor, the fighter Tupac Amaru. They ask questions - what were our ancestors like? How did they fight the Spanish?' What will happen to the white middle and upper classes if the Indian revolt succeeds? 'The whites can stay,' says Quispe, 'but they will have to obey our laws.'

Across the border in Peru, Antauro Humala, leader of the failed revolt, is facing terrorism charges. His father, Issac Humala, is the ideologist of Antauro's Etnocacerista movement. Like Quispe, Issac Humala seeks to revive the Inca identity, 'lobotomised by the Spanish'. 'There are four races,' he says, 'black, white, yellow and copper. We are the copper people and I want us to be recognised as a race.'

The Humalas' power base is disgruntled reservists who fought the Maoist Shining Path rebels in the Eighties and Nineties, a civil war that killed 59,000 Peruvians. Juan is one of them. A former commando, he sells socks for a few pennies a pair. He wears an Osama bin Laden T-shirt and thinks Peru needs a 'benevolent' dictator. 'We need a Pinochet here,' he says, referring to Chile's former strongman. 'A strong leader who can bring prosperity and kill off the corrupt politicians who have brought Peru to its knees.'

The dangerous disillusionment with democracy in America's backyard has largely been neglected by a US administration fixated on the Middle East. Quispe believes the Inca revolution may not happen tomorrow, but is inevitable. 'Our kids have their eyes open,' he says. 'This dream can be a reality when we all join the struggle to restore the Inca nation.'

'The Inca Revolution', directed by Rodrigo Vázquez, will be screened in Channel 4's Unreported World series on 18 June