Les actions protestataires des personnes handicapées en Bolivie, au Chili et en Argentine (début du vingt-et-unième siècle)

Abstract

This article focuses on the protests carried out by some groups of disabled activists in three Latin American countries (Bolivia, Chile and Argentina) over the last decade. The strongest recent protests in Bolivia aimed at obtaining a pension (2007–2016), those in Chile aimed at questioning the legitimacy of the telethon (2011–2019), and those in Argentina concern the fight against the huge cut in the number of disability pension beneficiaries (2017–2018). To carry out our comparative study, we will take into account various criteria: (1) the nature of governmental policies and their links with neoliberalism, (2) the composition of the activist groups and the objective of their actions, (3) the nature of the demonstrations and their media treatment, and (4) their degree of success. The originality of local resistance by disabled people in these countries lies in several aspects: (1) the primacy of the right to a pension in the agenda of associative claims; (2) the use of rare modes of action, such as long protest marches or dramatizations of death; and (3) the invention of concepts such as functional dissidence. This article will draw on a variety of sources: press articles, social networking sites, and interviews with activists and association leaders.