ON my recent visit to Bolivia, I had the great pleasure of talking with Flora Aguilar, top executive of the National Confederation of Native Indigenous Peasant Women of Bolivia — Bartolina Sisa.

She is a woman of firm conviction who represents the people well and, most importantly, she knows how to communicate.

The CNMCIOB-BS or “Bartolinas” was founded in January 1980. It bears the name of our Aymara heroine Bartolina Sisa, who fought alongside our hero Tupak Katari against the Spanish invaders centuries ago and was viciously tortured and murdered.

It is the principal organisation of peasant, indigenous and native women fighting to achieve a dignified life, understanding that only the organised can participate in the political arena and decision-making spaces.

The confederation participated in great transformations of the country such as the Constituent Assembly of 2006, where for the first time the plurality of indigenous people was recognised under a new constitution, with the foundation of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

I found sister Aguilar working, carrying her one-year-old little girl on her back, as the vast majority of indigenous women do, be it in agriculture, commerce, etc.

So, we repudiate the racist and discriminatory attitude of the Peruvian Minister of Education when he compared our sisters from Puno “with the animals” because they took part in mobilisations with their little ones on their backs, against the dictator Dina Boluarte.

Born in the Oropeza Province, Chuquisaca, Aguilar was a councillor of the Sucre Municipality 2005-10, plurinominal deputy, head of the MAS-IPSP representation and first vice-president of the Chamber of Deputies, is chief executive of the Department of the Federation of Peasants, Indigenous, Native Women Bartolina Sisa-Chuquisaca.

Now, at the end of her term, she is focused on carrying out the Bartolinas national congress to be held in Tarija on March 21. There, they are scheduled to present a Bill called “how to revolutionise justice.”

It is not news to anyone that there is in-fighting in the MAS-IPSP between “renovators” who give voice to disqualified and expelled elements of the political instrument, such as the nefarious Rolando Enriquez Cuellar, who dedicates his time attacking brother Evo Morales and to those who show loyalty to our historic leader.

Opening spaces, particularly for indigenous, native, peasant women is not an easy task, but they are ready to continue challenging machismo and patriarchy.

We knew for some time, that Deputy Abelardo Colque, president of the Potosi Brigade, has been frequently committing political harassment against the Northern Potosi Bartolina sisters, claiming that they were “false leaders” when the truth is that they were elected organically and democratically by the grassroots and in congress.

And on the eve of International Women’s Day and near the date of the congress, our sisters, Zenobia Huarayu with her three-month-old baby, and Ada Vargas, both executives of the Northern Potosi Bartolina Sisa Federation, have been arrested and accused falsely of incidents that occurred in the Potosi Departmental Brigade.

Aguilar concluded that this whole incident was a provocation and said: “We gave birth to the MAS-IPSP, it is ours and it belongs to the Bolivian people. We, women suffer frequent attacks from some authorities who do not respect and recognise our democratically elected leaders in congress.”

She continued telling the splitters: “Stop doing more damage, renewal is constant, not by imposition. We will defend our political instrument and this process of change that has cost us blood, pain and mourning.”

On his recent visit to the Yungas region, Morales and his companions suffered an attempt on their lives by far-right elements in conjunction with some “renovators” when their car was ambushed by groups armed with dynamite and guns. Will the judicial authorities investigate and punish these terrorist acts?

Aguilar calls on all the elected authorities of the MAS-IPSP and all the militants to unite: “Only united will we be invincible against the attack of the racist and fascist right. Let us hope that her words are echoed for the sake of the unity of the MAS-IPSP.

We wish the Bartolinas success in their congress, the fight against capitalism and imperialism, in defence of their land, and for social justice, with the active participation of native women in the continuous and historical construction of the process of change.

Miriam Amancay Colque is a longstanding Aymara activist and Bartolina Sisa Resistance spokesperson in Britain. Twitter: @BartolinaLives.