Neoliberal Policies and Neoliberal Politics in Latin America's “Pink Tide”: Moral Riots, Symbolic Boundaries, and Collective Performances in Bolivia's “Black February.”

Analyses of Latin America’s “pink tide” (the rise of Left-wing administrations during the last decade) explain the demise of governments that followed the IMF and World Bank’s recommendations as a result of the deleterious consequences of neoliberal policies. I argue that to understand the rise of Left-wing governments we need to pay more attention to the connections between neoliberal policies and neoliberal politics (i.e. the political parties supporting neoliberal policies), and analyze the massive revolts preceding the rise of anti-neoliberal governments. Drawing on archival research and in-depth interviews, I develop this argument by examining a two-day massive riot targeting political institutions during February 2003 in La Paz, Bolivia. I analyze these events and their contentious performances to suggest that these protests targeted the political system rather than the institutions of neoliberal governance, thus opening political opportunities for the rise of Evo Morales and the Movement Towards Socialism. The Bolivian case illustrates that collective actions performed during massive revolts are underpinned by moral understandings and the drawing of symbolic boundaries, and that they can create turning points in historical trajectories. I examine the methodological challenges of studying leaderless and spontaneous protests, suggesting that the analysis of symbolically charged performances can be a point of entry for studying such events.