The Water War: Cochabamba, Bolivia

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The Water War (December 1999- April 2000) in Cochabamba, Bolivia transcended beyond a simple fight for accessible clean water. It was instead a war against increasingly invasive neocolonial powers and a growing governmental neoliberalist push. Taking its roots from the nation's native culture, the citizen-organized campaign rose above social class and racial background distinction as for the period of the war, all supporters proudly identified as indigenous. Thus, the campaign not only succeeded in stopping private neocolonial encroachment but gave birth to a powerful people's movement centered around ethnic pride that has since secured the voice of the indigenous population which despite its historical majority, had gone unheard until the

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