The Media Luna () or Media Luna Ampliada () refers to a group of four departments – Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando, and

Tarija Tarija or San Bernardo de la Frontera de Tarixa is a city in southern Bolivia. Founded in 1574, Tarija is the largest city and capital and municipality within the Tarija Department, with an airport ( Capitán Oriel Lea Plaza Airport, (TJA)) of ...

– in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

which are home to a greater proportion of opponents to the national government led by

Evo Morales Juan Evo Morales Ayma (; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come ...

and the

Movement for Socialism Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (; MAS or MAS-IPSP), is a socialist political party in Bolivia. Its followers are known as ''Masistas''. In the 2005 Bolivian general election, December 2005 el ...

(MAS) than the rest of the country. Pando has seen increasing support for MAS since 2009, while Tarija was initially supportive but has opposed MAS in every election after 2014. In contrast to the predominantly Indigenous Andean (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

and

Aymara Aymara may refer to: Languages and people * Aymaran languages, the second most widespread Andean language ** Aymara language, the main language within that family ** Central Aymara, the other surviving branch of the Aymara(n) family, which today ...

) populations of the Andean region such as La Paz and Cochabamba, the departments in the Media Luna are majority mestizo, as well as being made up of the remaining 26 groups of lowland indigenes with white minorities, specifically in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Overview

The name comes from the general crescent shape made by the four departments. The term ''media luna'' was coined soon after the election of

to designate the mostly eastern-located departments that objected to the nationalization and redistribution of natural gas that is a major natural resource in the region and the policy of land reform that would be most vigorously enacted in those regions. The

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

s of Santa Cruz, Beni, and

elected in the December 2005 elections all hailed from Bolivian opposition parties. These governors formed the National Council for Democracy (CONALDE). In 2008, these departments were the major areas of violence between supporters of the national government and supporters of autonomy for the departments. The list of ''Media Luna'' departments was extended by some observers to include the departments of

Cochabamba Cochabamba (; ) is a city and municipality in central Bolivia in a valley in the Andes mountain range. It is the capital (political), capital of the Cochabamba Department and the list of cities in Bolivia, fourth largest city in Bolivia, with ...

and

Chuquisaca Chuquisaca may refer to: *Chuquisaca Department, a department of Bolivia in the center south *Chuquisaca Revolution The Chuquisaca Revolution was a popular uprising on 25 May 1809 against Ramón García de León y Pizarro, Governor-intendant o ...

in 2007 and 2008. Cochabamba's prefect,

Manfred Reyes Villa Manfred Armando Antonio Reyes Villa Bacigalupi is a Bolivian politician, businessman, and former military officer. He was the mayor of the city of Cochabamba from 1994 to 2000, and became the elected Prefect of the Department of Cochabamba fr ...

endorsed the other ''Media Luna'' governors' proposals for departmental autonomy. In June 2008, opposition member Savina Cuéllar was elected as Prefect of

, marking a high point of opposition power. However in the 2008 recall referendum, Reyes Villa was recalled. In Chuquisaca as well as Tarija, Morales enjoyed majority support in the 2008 referendum only in the rural areas, while the capital cities (

Sucre Sucre (; ) is the ''de jure'' capital city of Bolivia, the capital of the Chuquisaca Department and the sixth most populous city in Bolivia. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre lies at an elevation of . This relatively high ...

and

respectively) had a majority for recalling Morales. Following the Porvenir Massacre, Pando's opposition prefect Leopoldo Fernández, who was arrested and detained for his suspected involvement in the massacre of at least 20 peasants, was replaced by an interim prefect from the military in September 2008. Morales has seen increasing support in Pando since the 2009 elections, while Tarija has switched between popular support and opposition over several elections (supporting Morales up through the 2014 elections, then opposing in those thereafter).

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Governors of the so called "media luna" will meet with Secretary of the OAS, Dante Caputo in Tarija
Politics of Bolivia Electoral geography Regionalism (politics)

Overview

See also

References

External links