Minister of Justice, Nilda Copa; Rural Development, Nemesia Achacollo; and Transparency, Nardi Suxo, went to meet the TIPNIS protest-walk group. Ministers were taking with them clothes and food, when they arrived Urujara, where the indigenous people spent the night before entering La Paz; the ministers were booed by the marchers and forced to leave.

The vice-president for the Bolivian Confederation of Indigenous Women, Judith Rivero, said to Erbol radio that the ministers were thrown because “it is not the time for them to play solidarity” with the marchers; today is the 65th day where this pacific march departed from the Bolivian Amazon. “We told them to wait for us in La Paz, since they did nothing as women, nor as mothers, when the police exerted violence on September 25th. That day, they (the ministers) should have intervened on our behalf, when we were hit”, added Rivero.

Indigenous congressman Pedro Nuni criticized those ministers who wanted to “offer solidarity,” he said the marchers “no longer believe,” as the government “with the other hand,” intends to take us to trial for the alleged “kidnapping” of Chancellor, David Choquehuanca, who was forced to walk with them just prior to the police brutality.

Around 2,000 marchers intend to arrive today to Plaza Murillo, where the Executive and the Legislative powers have their offices, they will attend Mass at the Cathedral, like they did back in 1990; the first indigenous group from the same region that marched towards La Paz, asking respect for their territory.

http://www.eldeber.com.bo/2011/2011-10-18/vernotaahora.php?id=111018200243