“The time of politics is coming”: indigenous peoples and the 2024 municipal elections

Abstract

In just over a year we will be immersed in the “time of politics”. The objective of this article is to bring to light a set of data and reflections on the participation of indigenous peoples in institutional politics in the country, as well as to contribute to ensuring that their civil and, mainly, political rights are guaranteed and put into effect, and to encourage the various interested social actors, in particular their own leaders and indigenous organizations, to intensify or initiate a strategic mobilization with a view to obtaining a greater and better result in the 2024 municipal electoral process. For this purpose, it is divided into two parts: in the first, we retrieve and synthesize quantitative data on indigenous participation in municipal electoral processes presented in other works; in the second, we point out a set of obstacles and possible solutions for indigenous participation in the next electoral process to result in the expansion of both the candidacies to be articulated and launched, as well as the effective achievement of mandates for the municipal executive and legislative powers. To this end, we distinguished three strategic dimensions for mapping the actions needed to strengthen indigenous political participation on the municipal and national stage: the indigenous electoral base, the candidacies and the mandates won.