La Razon’s article today has an interesting analysis that involved the TIPNIS road and the trans-oceanic corridors that cross Bolivia, as shown in the map above.
Two development “visions” exist these days in Bolivia, one “traditional” as envisioned by the indigenous groups; and a “modern” one by current government.
Former head of CEJIS and current Presidency Minister, Carlos Romero thinks different than current CEJIS head, Leonardo Tamburini regarding the TIPNIS road. The former believes it is building the State itself, and the latter thinks it is the beginning of the destruction of the multi nationality concept that created this new Bolivian State as “plurinational.”
A researcher that worked in the TIPNIS, Wilder Molina, believes that there is contradiction that is clouding current government’s vision which is represented by road infrastructure and the indigenous with this new Constitution, believe they own the land and as such they should decide how to embarck in development.
For the government, national integration is the key to development, thus roads are needed; they are seeking a melting pot, where regions no longer live apart from one another. The amazon represents isolated territories where for example there is lack of logging regs; that is State absence that needs to be remediate, regulated and controlled.
For this heterogeneity (settlers next to indigenous, coca growers in front of fruit producers, etc.) the problem is how to live without confrontation among us all. The issue for the government is to avoid creating “inner states” and that is why road within the TIPNIS, regardless of the environmental impact is important.
Romero believes that the challenge for the indigenous people is to complement their development with regional development, so that the indigenous management of their land improves their quality of life. He acknowledges TIPNIS’ rights but also say it is not an isolated island.
For Tamburini, is going back to the perverse “development” vision of the 50’s in the XX century. Current indigenous land seem so vast for just a few people, so the government feels that territory is nor productively taken advantage of. Where there is no intensive use of the land and there is even illegal logging.
Tamburini says there is need for “a development vision that integrates roads without killing people, that merchandise is transported without breaking the integrity of the territory and that development is generated without endangering wildlife or destroying rivers.”
Molina explains that both visions have history, the road is a long time hope for the Beni elite. In 1990 the indigenous protest walk served to consolidate the land for the indigenous groups; both physically and politically. Around the same time, the “locked in their territory” concept for the indigenous people started to be considered, as a barrier to any regional or national development. There are contrasting views, one that they are preserved in their poverty and the other one saying that the ancestral way of living should be respected (hunting, fishing, recollecting).
According to Molina, this government does what any other government would do, want to unify the national community, even if it goes against the Constitution they enforced themselves. On the other side, indigenous people are also split among those who want to follow current president and those who want to remain as a recognized nation within the State of Bolivia.
http://www.la-razon.com/version_temp.php?ArticleId=2231&EditionId=2649&idp=42&ids=441
This article reports that the forme Bolivian Congress, now Assembly is creating a Committee that will investigate the role of NGOs in their support to the TIPNIS protest walk.
Bolivian Thoughts | Pensamientos Bolivianos (Bilingual/Bilingüe) 