According to this Spanish-language article, “On July 9, 2019, the Government of Evo Morales approved Supreme Decree 3973, which expanded the territory in which fire can be used to prepare the land for the new agricultural cycle.” The Interim President of Bolivia, Jeanine Áñez , recently tweeted: "In the next few hours we will have a declaration of emergency and the repeal of Evo's decree that authorized burning," promised the interim president of Bolivia, , via Twitter. "We are going to stop the fires," Alex Villca Limaco, spokesperson for the National Coordinator for the Defense of Indigenous Peasant Territories and Protected Areas of Bolivia (CONTIOCAP), subsequently raised concerns that this is not sufficient, citing the “package of incendiary regulations, including those approved by his government for the benefit of agro-industrialists and ranchers.”
This “ incendiary package" began with a pardon to those who started fires in forest areas and has been extended to allow the use of fire and supposedly controlled burning, "which in reality is not controlled at all". explains to DW Jhanisse Vaca Daza, co-founder and spokesperson of the citizen nonviolence movement Ríos de Pie, focused on the defense of environmental and civil rights in Bolivia.”
According to the article, “the COVID-19 pandemic adds tensions to disaster management because "this is a disease that affects the respiratory tract and that is the first thing that firefighters suffer: problems in their health due to the conditions in which they work without all the necessary equipment ”, underlines the co-founder of Ríos de Pie….Neither the Government nor civil society have yet requested international aid, but donations have been requested and received from Bolivians abroad.”
Of concern to activists is that “In Bolivia, agribusiness is the one that manages a large part of the economy and they have a lot of influence in all political parties….Until now, "no political candidate was talking about this issue.”