Guerra del Gas

This book presents a rhetorical analysis of the Guerra del Gas movement in Bolivia from 2003 to 2005, it views the social movement and its major uprisings as emerging from a subaltern counterpublic that grounded its resistance in uniquely indigenous rhetoric. It establishes a framework for understanding indigenous rhetoric as embodying a discourse of subaltern sensibilities and situating subaltern counterpublic theory within the historic-cultural situation of Bolivia to understand contemporary struggles over natural resources and against neoliberal politics. The indigenous rhetoric of the movement provided a direct refutation of natural gas privatization and neoliberal hegemony. It offers a case study of the October 2003 and May-June 2005 uprisings and analyzes Evo Morales' inaugural address to consider how understanding indigenous rhetoric has implications for social struggle and organized resistance in a world of increasing globalization and neoliberal hegemonic policymaking.