LA PAZ, Bolivia, May 31 (UPI) -- Remarks by Bolivia's representative at the Miss Universe contest, Gabriela Oviedo, that "not all Bolivians are short, poor Indians" has sparked a storm of controversy throughout this racially divided country at a time when its indigenous majority is asserting its political power.
Speaking about her native city of Santa Cruz on the eve of the international beauty pageant in Quito, Ecuador, Oviedo further told journalists that "where I come from people are white, tall and can speak English."
Considered the capital of eastern Bolivia, Santa Cruz has a concentrated population of European immigrants who pride themselves as being the country's main business center and wealthiest region. The province has recently become a bastion of opposition to leftwing indigenous union movements which are gaining influence with the government of President Carlos Mesa.
The Vice Minister of Culture, Maria Isabel Alvarez Plata, harshly criticised this year's Miss Bolivia as "a person without a clear vision of the country, who has prejudices and no appreciation of our cultural integrity."
The mayor of La Paz, Enriqueta Ulloa, has bluntly called on Oviedo to resign from the Miss Universe contest, saying that her comments "clearly disqualify her from representing Bolivia before the world."
Authorities in Bolivia's western altiplano, or high plain, where the national capital is located, worry that Oviedo's comments are offensive to indigenous groups such as the Movement Towards Socialism (M.A.S.) which is governing in a virtual coalition with Mesa.
MAS leader Evo Morales who is widely considered as Bolivia's president in-waiting has so far refrained from reacting publicly to Oviedo's comments. But in a recent interview with United Press International, he spoke extensively about the growing sense of native identity and racial resentment which feeds his movement.
"We are seeking to unite Latin America's more than 100 Indian nations into a continental movement which will take power back from white elites," he said. Morales considers that Bolivia's native Aymara and Quechua cultures which make up an estimated 60 percent of the population are now the "fulcrum of the struggle against European invaders which began with the landing of Columbus in 1492."
The MAS leader complains that Bolivia's Indians didn't have the vote until 1952 and weren't even allowed into the main square of La Paz. One leading Bolivian sociologist says that Indian self-esteem is so low as a result of centuries of discrimination, that Aymaras and Quechuas are "born believing that they are ugly."
The government has recently adopted measures to ban rituals performed on babies in many Indian communities, such as holding them upside down above water or dousing them in wine, in the belief that it makes them grow blonde.
Indigenous militancy is gathering strength in Bolivia and spreading into neighbouring Peru where a rise in racially motivated violence has also been reported in recent weeks.
But in Santa Cruz, local residents defend their outspoken beauty queen.
"The poor girl is being crucified," said Carlos Chazal, a powerful local businessman and civic leader who is one of the organisers of the "Media Luna" or half moon movement seeking regional autonomy from La Paz.
"Her comments were well focused and reflect reality," he told UPI. "Bolivia is always portrayed as the little Indian with his llama. There is another country here which no one ever recognises. Santa Cruz represents the productive part of Bolivia".
"When Morales and other indigenous leaders threaten to take up arms and blockade the capital no one says anything. But when Oviedo tells the truth, everyone goes crazy," Chazal adds.
Political insiders say that when the previous conservative government of president Sanchez de Lozada was overthrown by an indigenous-led revolt in La Paz last year, a group of Santa Cruz businessmen offered their city as an alternative capital. The beleaguered president finally opted to go into exile in the U.S.
Morales and other indigenous leaders regard Santa Cruz's half moon movement as "separatists" and claim that it's secretly arming for a civil war. "There will be rivers of blood before we can claim back Bolivia from white oppressors," says Felipe Quispe, a one-time guerrilla leader and chief of Aymara union of farm workers.
Santa Cruz residents scoff at such accusations. Chazal claims that Half Moon supporters are opposing the central government through legal means. They are challenging the constitutionality of a planned national referendum to nationalise energy resources and calling for their own regional plebiscite on self-rule.
Oviedo reports receiving hate mail, warning her never to set foot in La Paz. But Chazal says that when she returns from Quito, "Santa Cruz is going to give her the welcome worthy of her crown."
"People from Santa Cruz hardly ever go to La Paz anyway," said a woman resident of Bolivia's second largest city. "We can't hold much hope of her being crowned Miss Universe but she is our queen."
Oviedo has apologised for her comments, saying that she was merely emphasising Bolivia's "cultural diversity" and that her words were misinterpreted because she expressed them in English.
