{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}} {{Politics of Bolivia}} thumb|right|Santa Cruz Department within Bolivia
A '''referendum to approve the autonomy statute of Santa Cruz Department''' of Bolivia was held on 4 May 2008. The vote resulted from strains between the Prefecture of Santa Cruz and President Evo Morales. The referendum was declared illegal and unconstitutional by the National Electoral Court.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090503152555&l=0 |title=Agencia Boliviana de Informacion, 3 May 2009 |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706150403/http://abi.bo/index.php?i=noticias_texto_paleta&j=20090503152555&l=0 |archive-date=6 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://www.boliviainfoforum.org.uk/documents/535424538_BIF%20Bulletin%20Special%20edition%20May%202008.pdf Bolivia Information Forum Bulletin May 2008]</ref><ref>[http://ain-bolivia.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=32 Illegal Autonomy Referendum Deepens Division in Bolivia, Andean Information Network, Thursday, 17 April 2008]</ref> Final results from the referendum showed that 85.6% of participating voters supported autonomy.<ref>[http://www.corteelectoralsc.com/Computo2008/fComputoDepartamentalA.aspx Corte Departmental Electoral de Santa Cruz]{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Abstention rates were 37.9%.<ref>[http://www.corteelectoralsc.com/Computo2008/fComputoDepartamentalA.aspx Corte Departmental Electoral de Santa Cruz]{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Partisans of the Movement for Socialism called for a boycott of the vote,{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} and the Guarayo, Guaraní, Chiquitano, Ayoreo, Yuracaré-Moxeño indigenous peoples were urged to reject holding the vote in their territories.<ref>{{cite news|title=Pueblos indígenas cruceños declaran su autonomía y no votarán el referendum oligárquico del 4 de mayo|url=http://www.asc-hsa.org/node/374|accessdate=28 September 2010|date=5 April 2008}}</ref>
Similar referendums were held in Beni Department and Pando Department on 1 June 2008 (see 2008 Bolivian autonomy referendums) and in Tarija Department on 22 June 2008 (see 2008 Tarija autonomy referendum).<ref>[http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuy48CI1ocml0QdNgrzCIgX5jZ_w AFP: Defying Morales, two Bolivian provinces back autonomy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520140211/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iuy48CI1ocml0QdNgrzCIgX5jZ_w |date=20 May 2011 }}</ref>
==Response==
Ruben Costas, the governor of Santa Cruz, welcomed the result saying ”With the vote the start of a structural reform of transcendental importance in our nation has been consolidated... The ballot boxes have delivered their verdict: the emissaries of evil cannot impose their bitterness and hate".<ref>{{cite news |last1=McDermott|first1=Jeremy|title=Bolivia's richest province votes for autonomy|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/bolivia/1929363/Bolivias-richest-province-votes-for-autonomy.html|newspaper=The Telegraph|accessdate=27 February 2017}}</ref>
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in its annual human rights report that the referendums: "took place even though the National Electoral Court ruled that the prefectures did not have the authority to call for such a vote and that they were infringing the Constitution."<ref>[http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?c=23&su=34 Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of her office in Bolivia - Addendum]</ref>
A United Nations mission to Bolivia from the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues later declared that the Santa Cruz autonomy statute "promotes, allows, strengthens and reproduces practices of servitude", referring to conditions of debt-servitude and conditions analogous to slavery that are suffered by some indigenous groups in Santa Cruz.<ref name="Erbol, 6 May 2009">{{Cite web |url=http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia1.php?id=1&identificador=1500&bdatos=notiportada1 |title=Erbol, 6 May 2009 |access-date=17 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503025753/http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia1.php?id=1 |archive-date=3 May 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bartolomé Clavero, a Spanish law professor from the Permanent Forum later stated that: "Anyone who has voted for this statute supports servitude."<ref name="Erbol, 6 May 2009"/>
==Legacy==
Evo Morales's government eventually reversed its position on autonomy during the 2009 election, granting autonomy to Santa Cruz in 2010 along similar lines to those requested in 2008.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Centellas|first1=Miguel|title=Bolivia's Radical Decentralization|url=http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1700|website=americasquarterly.org|publisher=Americas Quarterly|accessdate=27 February 2017}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santa Cruz Autonomy Referendum, 2008}} Category:2008 elections in South America Category:2008 in Bolivia Category:2008 referendums Category:Autonomy referendums Category:Referendums in Bolivia Category:Regionalism (politics) Category:May 2008 in South America