According to this political analysis, economic models of the Presidential candidates do not differ substantially: “They have not ruled out projects that could, without careful planning and supervision, accelerate the expansion of the agricultural frontier, agree four researchers interviewed by Diálogo Chino. Nor have they discounted high-impact megaprojects like large dams, according to the researchers…The Amazon has no candidate in these elections. That’s how I see it, after analysing the three government programs. And it has no candidate, because nobody (Morales, Mesa or Ortiz) wants to face the soybean agroindustrial sector. You can make speeches about Mother Earth, but you need to identify the problem and the problem in this case is surrounded by a lot of economic and political power,” says Pablo Solón Romero, director of the Solón Foundation, an NGO dedicated to environmental and human rights issues.”
Roger Cortez explains research on Chepete and El Bala
In this taped television news report, Roger Cortez explains the investigation that the Universidad Mayor de San Andres (UMSA) conducted regarding the planned Chepete and El Bala megadams. Roger Cortéz Hurtado is a researcher and analyst of social, economic, political, environmental, communication, transparency, participation and social control issues. A University professor since 1983, he has served as Director of the Alternative Institute since 2012 and conducts newspaper and investigative journalism. This 23 minute and 4 second interview is conducted in Spanish and available here.
Indigenous people from three countries reject hydroelectric plants in the Amazon
At a meeting on October 11, 2019 in Rurrenbaque, about 200 representatives of organizations of indigenous and indigenous peoples of Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia concluded that changes to the existing development model in Bolivia of extractivism will also stop the construction of hydroelectric plants, ecocide and dispossession of land. Participants discussed “a model of sustainable and sustainable economic development that begins by recognizing local realities, territorial vocations and proposing alternatives to improve the situation of communities from their own practices.” You can access this Spanish language article here.
Meeting of those affected in the Amazon rejects dam project in Bolivia
This Spanish-language article discusses findings from a recent meeting in Rurrenbaque of indigeneous representatives from Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia (La mesa sobre Derechos Humanos, de Defensoras y Defensoras de la Vida). After review of planned dams in the Amazon, particularly in Colombia, Brazil and Bolivia, participants concluded that the implementation of these planned dams is a threat to the rights of people, their communities and nature and called on international organizations that are attentive to a possible massive violation of human rights due to the construction of dams. The participants raised concerns that the planned dams in Bolivia “encourage state corruption, unpayable indebtedness and complete economic and political dependence on foreign power” and that Bolivian studies suggest that the dams would be bad socially and environmentally, as well as economically unfeasible, and that they would squander and destroy natural resources, and sources of life and biodiversity.
The “cultural revolution” and the El Bala hydroelectric plant - Chepete
Written by José Teijeiro Villarroel, Director of the Institute of Anthropological and Archaeological Research of the Universidad Mayor de San Andres, this Spanish language article calls the continuing plans to build the El Bala and Chepete dams a cultural revolution and ethnocidal that will result in the elimination of the indigeneous world in the region.
Will Evo Morales Pay a Price for the Delayed Response to Bolivia’s Wildfires?
This World Politics Review article discusses public reaction to the fires burning out of control in the Eastern part of Bolivia and the planned mega dams El Bala and Chepete. The article states that “Morales government’s rhetoric about respecting Mother Earth has largely been supplanted by references to economic stability.” Read more
History at the Barricades: Evo Morales and the Power of the Past in Bolivian Politics
“The contradictions inherent in the Morales administration’s decision to deepen extractivist projects in mining, gas, and mega-dams while simultaneously cheerleading Mother Earth will impact the nation and its Indigenous movements for decades to come.” Read more
Indigenous women denounce Evo to the UN for forest fires, extractivism and non-consultation
This Spanish-language article in Pagina Siete describes recent testimony by Ruth Alipaz to the United Nations. Ruth Alipaz, “an indigenous leader of the Amazon community of San José de Uchupiamonas…was in charge of reading the report prepared by the Alliance for Human Rights and the Environment, a coalition of 50 organizations and the National Defense Coordinator of Indigenous Territories, Native Peasants and Protected Areas of Bolivia (Contiocap).”
In her testimony, she denounced the Morales administration “for carrying out a model of agribusiness and livestock that caused deforestation and forest fires this year over more than 5 million hectares of forests in the Amazon, promotes extractive activities in Protected Areas and fails to comply with free and informed prior consultation with indigenous people in eight emblematic cases.”
Alipaz asked for support from the United Nations “to improve this situation and not be invisible by our State; especially in the international community. For this we provide the following evidence of non-compliance with international obligations, based on 23 emblematic cases, among which we highlight Tipnis, El Chepete-Bala, Rositas, Tariquía and now Chiquitanía.”
Fires still being set in blazing Bolivia (commentary)
In an open letter, COICA states: “The Indigenous Peoples hold the governments of Jair Bolsonaro and Evo Morales responsible for the physical, environmental and cultural disappearance and genocide that is currently taking place in the Amazon.”
They added that governments like those of Brazil and Bolivia “demonstrate their lack of interest, negligence, racism and structural discrimination against the life and integrity of Indigenous Peoples, and only seek to favor the interests of large economic groups that seek to turn the Amazon into lots for mega agricultural projects, mining, dams and energy projects.”
Wilderness cuts the risk of extinction for species in half
New research on wilderness areas, including Madidi national park, is described in this MongaBay article. “Wilderness areas buffer species against the risk of extinction, reducing it by more than half, a new study shows. Places with lots of unique species and wilderness with the last remaining sections of good habitat for certain species had a more pronounced impact on extinction risk. The authors contend that safeguarding the last wild places should be a conservation priority alongside the protection and restoration of heavily impacted “hotspots.” …
“The research showed some wilderness areas, such as areas surrounding Madidi National Park in the Bolivian Amazon, play an extraordinary role in their respective regional contexts, where their loss would drastically reduce the probability of persistence of biodiversity”