[opiniojuris] Chris Borgen: A Bolivian Secession?

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Posted by Chris Borgen:
A Bolivian Secession?
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1197786954.shtml


   With all this talk of [1]Kosovo (and Transnistria), I would be remiss
   not to note the following. [2]According to CNN:

     Tensions were rising in Bolivia on Saturday as members of the
     country's four highest natural gas-producing regions declared
     autonomy from the central government.
     Thousands waved the Santa Cruz region's green-and-white flags in
     the streets as council members of the Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and
     Pando districts made the public announcement.
     The officials displayed a green-bound document containing a set of
     statutes paving the way to a permanent separation from the Bolivian
     government.
     Council representatives vowed to legitimize the so-called autonomy
     statutes through a referendum that would legally separate the
     natural-gas rich districts from President Evo Morales' government.
     The move also aims to separate the states from Bolivia's new
     constitution, which calls for, among other things, a heavier
     taxation on the four regions to help finance more social programs.

   Morales argues that what is going on here is that the economic elites
   are trying to frustrate the new redistributive constitution.
   How does this implicate international law, if at all? Grabs at
   autonomy or attempted secession are, first and foremost, issues that
   come under domestic law. They are domestic political problems. They
   become internationalized if there is some new question of
   international legality, such as a new entitiy seeking recognition as a
   sovereign state (in which case there are rules for recognition or
   non-recognition), the establishment of an armed insurgency (in which
   case tere are the laws of armed conflict), a threat to international
   peace and security, etc. And of course there exists, regardless as to
   the existence of any secessionist movement, the application of
   international law as regards to the monitoring and enforcement of
   human rights norms.
   Short of that, though, and the disposition of this specific issue is
   an internal Bolivian question. For one thing, it is unclear whether
   these regions are really seeking to form a new state or simply
   immunize themselves from Morales' tax policies (through "autonomy")
   but remain within the Bolivian state. Contrast this with Kosovo, which
   was internationalized due to a humanitarian crisis (and a
   controversial NATO intervention and subsequent international
   occupation) or with the situation in Moldova, where Transnistria is
   seeking state recognition (thus bringing international law into play)
   and the Russians have refused to remove their troops from Moldovan
   soil (implicating the now-denounced Conventional Forces Europe treaty
   as well as various norms of international law).
   This leads me to think that the situation in Bolivia as described by
   the CNN report is, for the time being at least, basically a domestic
   matter that has not transformed into an issue of international law. As
   the International Commission of Jurists recognized in the Aaland
   Islands Case, international law does not always have a role to play in
   such national questions (although in that case, they found, it did).
   Stay tuned.

References

   Visible links
   1. http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1197483482.shtml
   2. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/opiniojuris/posts/1197786954.html

   Hidden links:
   3. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/12/15/bolivia.unrest/index.html