Conscience of Fatherland

Conscience of the Fatherland (Spanish: Conciencia de Patria, abbreviated CONDEPA) was a populist political party in Bolivia in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The party was led by Carlos Palenque.

Conscience of Fatherland Conciencia de Patria
1997 campaign poster
Abbreviation	CONDEPA
Leader	Carlos Palenque
Founded	21 September 1988 (1988-09-21)
Dissolved	2002 (2002)
Headquarters	La Paz
Ideology	Left-wing populism Indigenismo
Political position	Left-wing
Chamber of Deputies (1997)	19 / 130
Chamber of Senators (1997)	3 / 27
Politics of Bolivia Political parties Elections

Goals

CONDEPA was founded in Tiwanaku on September 21, 1988.^[1][2] The party was primarily based in the La Paz Department.^[2]

CONDEPA was the first major party in Bolivia that appealed to the cultural identity of the Aymaras, the indigenous majority of the country.^[3] It borrowed katarista symbols and used the wiphala flag.^[4] Palenque often used references to Aymara culture in his campaigns.^[1]

Election history

The party won strong support amongst urban poor, amongst Aymaras that had migrated to the urban centres.^[3]

CONDEPA lost the mayoral post of La Paz in 1995.^[1]

At the time of the 1999 elections the CONDEPA was a party in crisis.^[5] It was discredited by having entered into Hugo Banzer's government.^[3] The party had suffered the death of its leader Carlos Palenque, and divisions had erupted amongst his successors. Moreover, the influence of the mass media connected to the party had decreased significantly.^[5] As the party lost the municipal contest in El Alto in these elections, it lost its last remaining political stronghold in the country.^[6]

Ahead of the 2002 general election, CONDEPA launched Nicolás Valdivia as its presidential candidate and Esperanza Huanca as vice-presidential candidate.^[7] CONDEPA lost all of its 22 seats in the Congress of Bolivia in the elections. The implosion of CONDEPA enabled the nascent Movement for Socialism to gain a wide following amongst indigenous urban poor.^[3] CONDEPA-Patriotic Movement lost its registration at the National Electoral Court shortly after the 2002 election.^[8]

See also

• List of political parties in Bolivia

References

1. "Fiscalía investigará a vocales de la CNE por caso Condepa". lostiempos.com. 13 February 2006. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 5 August 2010.
2. "El legado de Condepa y del "compadre" Carlos Palenque". caracol.com. 16 July 2008. Archived from the original on 1 January 2013.
3. Van Cott, Donna Lee (November 2003). "From Exclusion to Inclusion: Bolivia's 2002 Elections". Journal of Latin American Studies. 35 (4): 751–775. doi:10.1017/S0022216X03006977. JSTOR 3875831. S2CID 147569474.
4. Van Cott, Donna Lee (2007). From Movements to Parties in Latin America: The Evolution of Ethnic Politics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521707039. p. 84
5. Toranzo Roca, Carlos (2006). Rostros de la democracia: una mirada mestiza. Plural Ed. [u.a.] ISBN 9789990586930. p. 406
6. Lazar, Sian (2008). Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia. Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822341543. p. 93
7. "Elecciones Generales Bolivia 2002". bolivia.com. 2002.
8. "Cuatro partidos políticos pierden personería jurídica". eldiario.net. 2005. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 5 August 2010.