2008 Santa Cruz autonomy referendum

December 2019 thumb|right|Santa Cruz Department within Bolivia A referendum to approve the autonomy statute of Santa Cruz Department of Bolivia was held on 4 May 2008. The vote resulted from strains between the Prefecture of Santa Cruz and President Evo Morales. The referendum was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the National Electoral Court.http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090503152555&l=0 Agencia Boliviana de Informacion, 3 May 2009 17 May 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20110706150403/http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090503152555&l=0 6 July 2011 dead Bolivia Information Forum Bulletin May 2008Illegal Autonomy Referendum Deepens Division in Bolivia, Andean Information Network, Thursday, 17 April 2008 Final results from the referendum showed that 85.6% of participating voters supported autonomy. Corte Departmental Electoral de Santa CruzApril 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Abstention rates were 37.9%.Corte Departmental Electoral de Santa CruzApril 2019 InternetArchiveBot yes Partisans of the Movement for Socialism called for a boycott of the vote,October 2010 and the Guarayo, Guaraní, Chiquitano, Ayoreo, Yuracaré-Moxeño indigenous peoples were urged to reject holding the vote in their territories.Pueblos indígenas cruceños declaran su autonomía y no votarán el referendum oligárquico del 4 de mayo http://www.asc-hsa.org/node/374 28 September 2010 5 April 2008 11 January 2011 https://web.archive.org/web/20110111200127/http://www.asc-hsa.org/node/374 dead Similar referendums were held in Beni Department and Pando Department on 1 June 2008 (see 2008 Bolivian autonomy referendums) and in Tarija Department on 22 June 2008 (see 2008 Tarija autonomy referendum).AFP: Defying Morales, two Bolivian provinces back autonomy https://web.archive.org/web/20110520140211/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuy48CI1ocml0QdNgrzCIgX5jZ_w 20 May 2011 Response Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz, welcomed the result saying ”With the vote the start of a structural reform of transcendental importance in our nation has been consolidated... The ballot boxes have delivered their verdict: the emissaries of evil cannot impose their bitterness and hate".McDermott Jeremy Bolivia's richest province votes for autonomy https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/bolivia/1929363/Bolivias-richest-province-votes-for-autonomy.html The Telegraph 27 February 2017 The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in its annual human rights report that the referendums: "took place even though the National Electoral Court ruled that the prefectures did not have the authority to call for such a vote and that they were infringing the Constitution."Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of her office in Bolivia - Addendum A United Nations mission to Bolivia from the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues later declared that the Santa Cruz autonomy statute "promotes, allows, strengthens and reproduces practices of servitude", referring to conditions of debt-servitude and conditions analogous to slavery that are suffered by some indigenous groups in Santa Cruz.http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia1.php?id=1&identificador=1500&bdatos=notiportada1 Erbol, 6 May 2009 17 May 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20080503025753/http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia1.php?id=1 3 May 2008 dead Bartolomé Clavero, a Spanish law professor from the Permanent Forum later stated that: "Anyone who has voted for this statute supports servitude." Legacy Evo Morales's government eventually reversed its position on autonomy during the 2009 election, granting autonomy to Santa Cruz in 2010 along similar lines to those requested in 2008.Centellas Miguel Bolivia's Radical Decentralization http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1700 americasquarterly.org Americas Quarterly 27 February 2017 References Category:2008 elections in South America Category:2008 in Bolivia Category:2008 referendums Category:Autonomy referendums Category:Referendums in Bolivia Category:Regionalism (politics) Category:May 2008 in South America