{"id":110,"date":"2019-04-23T15:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T15:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tierra.local\/es\/?p=110"},"modified":"2021-04-26T05:46:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T05:46:21","slug":"el-tipnis-y-el-madidi-las-heridas-que-sangran-en-el-rostro-indigena-de-bolivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tierraderesistentes.com\/en\/2019\/04\/23\/el-tipnis-y-el-madidi-las-heridas-que-sangran-en-el-rostro-indigena-de-bolivia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tipnis and the Madidi: The wounds that bleed on Bolivia\u2019s indigenous face"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bolivia\u2019s indigenous face is wounded. Every time there are threats and actions against the native people, the nation bleeds more and more. The natural areas of the Tipnis and the Madidi, both in the Bolivian Amazon, are the settings of mistreatment of these communities, even though the country has been governed for 13 years by an indigenous president, Evo Morales<\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Isiboro S\u00e9cure National Park and Indigenous Territory (better known by its initials Tipnis<\/a>), is located between the departments of Cochabamba and Beni. Its inhabitants have organized massive marches against the government and live in a state of constant emergency due to the political ambition of building a highway that would divide the protected area where they have lived for five decades in two.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further north is the Madidi National Park and Natural Area of Integrated Management. These natural reserves are part of the department of La Paz in the northwestern part of the country. Its inhabitants have opposed the construction of two hydroelectric dams, a struggle that has brought negative consequences to their families and villages<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In both cases, dozens of indigenous leaders have been threatened, persecuted and legally harassed. <\/strong>From beatings to poorly veiled threats against family members\u2019 jobs, they have all suffered the consequences of defending the rights and territories of their indigenous communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Alejandro Lopez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A road in the middle of the jungle<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Tipnis is a wondrous territory of a stunning biodiversity. It covers 13,722 square kilometers and 63 communities, each led by a chieftain or supreme indigenous authority. The south of the area suffers deforestation due to the incursion of coca growers from the Cochabamba tropics<\/strong> where Evo Morales\u2019 political power hails from, explaining why these settlers\u2019 leadership is close to the ruling Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) political party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This struggle has been ongoing for eight years and has left a trail of suffering behind it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Several leaders rallied around Morales\u2019 MAS party in the center of Tipnis and parts of the north, but there are still plenty of villages that resist and oppose the road. This struggle has been ongoing for eight years and has left a trail of suffering behind it. One of the most painful episodes occurred during the Eighth Indigenous March to the seat of the national government in La Paz, in which more than 100 indigenous persons from eastern Bolivia were brutally repressed<\/a> and gagged by police forces in an area known as Chaparina, between the departments of Beni and La Paz.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernando Vargas Mosua was the leader of that march. He lowers his gaze when asked about September 25, 2011 and says it is a painful recollection. Today, this indigenous leader does not have a job, and he insists that employers turn him down because of pressure from the government. Mosua also suffered the kidnapping of one of his daughters and had to leave the place where he lived.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the struggle was not in vain, but now we don\u2019t know what will happen\u201d<\/p>Fernando Vargas Mosua.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His life is full of challenges, but he doesn\u2019t complain. \u201cI think the struggle was not in vain, but now we don\u2019t know what will happen,\u201d he says, with a hint of both bitterness and hope in his voice. He lives in Trinidad, the capital of Beni, in a modest room with improvised zinc panels as walls. Inside there are three beds and a small kitchen. The house belongs to his brother, who had to take him in and protect him from the threats and harassment.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Alejandro L\u00f3pez.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The defense of the Tipnis area dates back to 1990<\/strong>, when the communities of Bolivia\u2019s lowlands organized the first indigenous \u201cMarch for Territory and Dignity.\u201d This protest, which began in Trinidad and ended in La Paz after a month of walking, capped a historic milestone because in the end they achieved recognition from the State. The first indigenous territories of the Bolivian Amazon were born as a result.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcial Fabricano Noe, a veteran indigenous leader who was born in the Tipnis, was one of its leaders. Now, 29 years after he led the march of Amazon natives and achieved the legal recognition of a `Native Communal Land\u2019 in the Tipnis (ensuring the protection of the ecological reserve, its indigenous uses, and their traditional customs), he reflects on the situation of what he calls his \u201cbig home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous people were more respected in governments led by presidents who did not have an indigenous background, as opposed to what has happened under incumbent leader Evo Morales<\/p>Marcial Fabricano Noe.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His conclusion is that indigenous people were more respected in governments led by presidents who did not have an indigenous background, as opposed to what has happened under incumbent leader Evo Morales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe current government has hindered all this progress that we have achieved, concerning the ability to have our own space and equal rights as Bolivian citizens,\u201d<\/strong> Noe stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Alejandro L\u00f3pez.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Noe has suffered all sorts of threats. He cannot find work, he has been persecuted by MAS party authorities in Beni, and his family has received anonymous threats.<\/strong> Even so, he continues to fight for his territory. In 2009, other indigenous people affiliated with the ruling party arrested him and beat him, arguing that it was a corrective action within the framework of indigenous justice, which is safeguarded by the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The repression in Chaparina eight years ago was one of the most significant political crisis during Morales\u2019 13 years in power.<\/strong> The government was forced to organize a media campaign to counteract the impact on public opinion resulting from the brutal police intervention that sought to dissolve the mobilization of some 1,500 indigenous people. Those people marching were following the same route as the historic 1990 protest, heading towards La Paz to express their rejection of the construction of the road that would split their ancestral territory in two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2017, President Morales responded with another bill, Law 266<\/a>, which eliminated the intangibility of the reservation and gave new life to the road project.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That protest led to the approval of Law 180<\/a>, which declared the Tipnis an intangible area and prevented, at least momentarily, a road passing through the heart of the natural park.<\/strong> However, in August 2017, President Morales responded with another bill, Law 266<\/a>, which eliminated the intangibility of the reservation and gave new life to the road project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, for now, the project is at a standstill. The Bolivian Highway Administration<\/span> (ABC), which depends on the Ministry of Public Works, says it has no intention of continuing with its construction, which still has one of its three sections pending. \u201cAt the moment we are in stage zero. We have not started to build anything. That is the real situation,\u201d said its president, Luis Sanchez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

En todo caso, ya hay dos tramos casi concluidos<\/strong>. En el primero est\u00e1n las bases cocaleras de Evo Morales, donde personas extra\u00f1as que ingresen all\u00ed son vigiladas en cada paso que dan. En el tercer tramo oper\u00f3 la empresa constructora brasile\u00f1a OAS<\/span>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Alejandro L\u00f3pez.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Environment and Water has ruled out plans to prosecute Tipnis leaders. Environment Minister Carlos Ortu\u00f1o<\/span> points out that, on the contrary, there are development plans for the inhabitants of the natural reserve. \u201cThere is no prosecution. The government is working to ensure progress in the Tipnis,\u201d <\/strong>he said after being contacted by El Deber.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ortu\u00f1o cited, for example, that there are projects for cocoa processing centers, community tanneries for the management of lizard leather within the framework of the National Lizard Program, and carpentry centers within the national park, as well as provisions to guarantee access to drinking water.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The community against the road<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trinidacito is the community that most resists the Morales government within the Tipnis. This zone, in the northern part of the protected area, receives little attention from the State, and its inhabitants live in very precarious conditions and poverty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n