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Roundup: Bolivian law requiring all officials to speak indigenous languages enters into force

Xinhua, August 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

After a three-year learning period, Bolivian President Evo Morales is to enforce a law on Monday requiring all government officials to speak one of the country's indigenous languages.

The Bolivian Constitution recognizes dozens of indigenous languages, including Aymara, Quechua and Guarani, and speaking one of them is now compulsory for anyone seeking a public position at the central government level or below.

On Aug. 2, 2012, Morales signed the General Law of Linguistic Rights and Policies, which stated that any public official who does not speak an indigenous language must learn one to a professional level in a maximum of three years.

On Sunday, when the deadline arrived, Morales held an event in La Paz to award over 3,100 achievement certificates to officials who had completed a course in the last month.

Ivan Iporre, director of the School of Plurinational Public Management, told the press that 23,593 officials had completed this training in nine years and 57 percent of them chose to learn Aymara, one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages in the country.

Bolivia has around 350,000 public officials, 50 percent of whom have signed up for courses in indigenous languages at the school.

In an interview with Xinhua on Saturday, one week ahead of the UN's International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples on Aug. 9, Bolivian Vice Minister of Decolonization Felix Cardenas said any public official unable to speak an indigenous language would breach the Constitution and the law.

However, for the moment, the General Law of Linguistic Rights and Policies has not decided on the specific sanctions for those who do not comply with the rule.

Starting on Sunday, the Ministries of Education and Culture, the Vice Ministry of Decolonization and the School of Plurinational Public Management will study the right steps to take in the application of the law.

"We do not intend to persecute anyone. We want our citizens to voluntarily want to comply with the law. We are now entering an evaluation stage that will propose various alternatives for sanctions," added Cardenas.

On July 26, Morales warned that any official who did not know how to speak an indigenous language would be fired.

However, certain problems might mar the law. For starters, in the name of its pre-colonial past, Bolivia recognizes certain extinct languages as official, such as Canichana, Cayubaba, Guarasuawe and Puquina.

Ludwig Valverde, secretary general of the Foundation for Democratic Development and Citizen Participation, called the law "complex and ambiguous."

He said a lack of sanctions and an absence of necessary conditions to teach all officials a new language are among the obstacles that make the law's implementation complicated.

He also said this law could be used in a coercive manner to fire targeted officials or to effectively change the leadership of any authority and replace them with those loyal to a certain political faction.

Ever Moya, a government opponent, demanded that Morales, Vice President Alvaro Garcia and other senior officials act as examples for the law and publicly prove their knowledge of indigenous languages. Endi