In today’s edition of Just Cause, human rights activist and Senator Piedad Córdoba takes us to the countryside to talk to a campesino named Policarpio in an exploration of the deep racism that still exists in the largely indigenous country of Bolivia. The conversation centers on the mass violence unleashed against indigenous people on May 24, 2008 in the “white city” of Sucre, ironically enough the “cradle of Independence.” Two years earlier Evo Morales had been elected President and on that day he was to present an ambulance to rural families, but the honorees were attacked by a mob of university students and peasants organized by the country’s light-skinned oligarchy. They were dragged to the city square, beaten insulted and humiliated. The wounds have still not healed and the perpetrators continue to enjoy impunity, but the attack roused public opinion to the extent that since then, the elimination of racism in the country has become a top priority of the Andean country.
