10 INDIAN COMMUNITIES OF BOLIVIA 



pay the yearly sum of Bs. lo.oo. (The boHviano is equal to about 

 40 cents American money.) No other land tax is imposed upon 

 the Indians who belong to communities. However, keeping up 

 the customs of the Inca and colonial regimes, the comunarios are 

 required to contribute certain personal services to the government 

 or its representatives. These consist chiefly in supplying pro- 

 visions for any troops that may be in the vicinity, providing 

 messengers when needed by the local authorities, and furnishing 

 mules for travelers when demanded by the correjidor. This 

 custom gives rise to great abuses on the part of the local author- 

 ities, who often use this obligation as a cloak for securing many 

 personal services. 



Aside from this general oversight and the exaction of the land 

 tax the Bolivian government leaves the communities very largely 

 to their own control. Even the police of the republic seldom 

 interfere in the internal affairs of the community except in case of 

 serious disorder. 



In 1866 President Melgarejo promulgated a decree by which 

 the communities were abolished and the lands were declared to 

 belong to the Indians in severalty. An immediate result was that 

 many of the Indian holdings passed into the hands of whites or 

 mestizos. After the overthrow of Melgarejo's dictatorship these 

 sales were annulled (1871), the bona fide buyers being reimbursed 

 by the government, which still carries a part of the cost of this 

 act of justice as an item in its internal debt. The size of this 

 item (Bs. 338,037.41) shows how rapidly the Indian lands began 

 to pass into other hands during the five years in which the 

 legislation of Melgarejo was in force. Succeeding legislation has 

 aimed to protect the aborigines, while at the same time recog- 

 nizing the Indians as owners, in severalty, of their portions of 

 communal land.^" Officially the term employed now is always 

 excomunidades. The Indians may dispose of their holdings by 

 appearing before the proper authority (the notario de hacienda), 

 establishing their titles, and asserting their willingness to sell. 



10 Manuel Ordonez Lopez: Constitucion politica de la Republica de Bolivia: 

 Leyes y disposiciones mas usuales, 2 vols., La Paz, 1917; reference in Vol. i, pp. 

 584-619. 



