A Road Paved With Hope

After spending the night at a nonprofit institute in the town of Ocuri on Friday night, the group filed back into the truck early Saturday morning and bumped over five more hours of roads. They arrived at the outskirts of Sucre around noon, unloading at a garage near the airport where they planned to sleep during the weekend.

In the cab of the truck, Colque carried a copy of a proposal drafted by North Potosi's indigenous workers federation that provides suggestions for the assembly members: The focus of education should provide indigenous philosophies, the health system should incorporate indigenous treatments and the state should recognize intellectual property rights of ancestral communities.

Bolivian political experts say that many in the indigenous community are expecting a blanket reformation of the government -- something that's unlikely to happen given the lack of a dominating faction. A pitfall, they said, would be trying to write specific policies into the constitution instead of creating the broad parameters for lawmakers to work within. Critics of Morales have warned that he could try to steer the assembly toward giving him broader powers and the opportunity to serve indefinite terms.

Other groups, including many who live in the relatively wealthy eastern lowlands, are hoping the assembly could help them advance an autonomy project that would give them more local decision-making power -- a change adamantly opposed by Morales and most of the indigenous groups. The clash of the viewpoints in the assembly raises concerns that the process could further pry apart divisions in a country that has witnessed more than 200 coups since emerging from Spanish rule in 1825.

"It's important for Bolivians to realize that while this might change the overall rules of the game, it does not allow for specific political projects to be advanced," said Gonzalo Chávez, a political scientist at the Catholic University in La Paz. "Unfortunately some in Bolivia think that the assembly will be the place to pass some sort of revolutionary political project."

Nestor Hugo Torres, who will represent North Potosi in the assembly, said he has tried to temper the expectations of his constituents.

"A new constitution is not going to help the indigenous groups directly, but the one thing that it does -- and has done -- is to get them interested in the political process," said Torres, who rode in the truck early in the trip and met up with the group again when it arrived in Sucre. "Three or four years ago you never saw anyone in the indigenous community who talked about things like the constitution and the judicial system. Now look."

Late Saturday afternoon, the group from the truck began a trek of several miles from the edge of Sucre to its colonial central square.

They melted into a crowd of thousands, most of them waving indigenous flags, banging drums and celebrating the beginning of the unpredictable political process they had created.