This cartoon is from El Diario, October 23, 2011; current Bolivian president trapped! He is weaving a white flag in an act of surrender. On one end a huge crowd representing not only the TIPNIS and other indigenous people, but most of Bolivian citizens in support of the indigenous territory and the national park. At the other end you can see a smiling and comfortably sited Lula (former Brazilian president), holding a paper that summarizes “pending accords and accounts (invoices)”
There could be no other picture that illustrates better this ordeal. Government bad-mouth (accused without showing proofs that the TIPNIS leaders were in alignment with the “empire,” that is the US government), ridiculed (called them doing tourism and not a march), insulted (savages that do not want progress) and aggression (police force brutally beating, tied hands and covered the mouths of women, elderly indigenous marchers; some children were found the day after as they had to escape from such brutality, children ran deep in the wild forest).
The protest-walk that in 66 days covered more than 500 kilometers from Trinidad to La Paz (Gandhi walked 380 kilometers in an ordeal of 26 days, against taxes on locally produced salt), had finally prevailed. However, let’s not forget the unfortunate miscarriage by Nazareth Flores, one of the brave pregnant women who chose to accompany their families; and the death of Pedro Moyenosa (age 13) who fell from the top of the logistics truck that was following the marchers.
Due to the large demonstrations here and sympathy from abroad in support of the TIPNIS cause, forced this government to finally go back from their decision (president said this road will be built, regardless of whomever opposes to it) and modified the law. This modified “short” law will be amended, presented and approved today Monday, October 24, 2011 at the National Assembly (formerly known as Bolivian Congress, back when Bolivia was a Republic, prior to this government).
From the 16-point-demand that the indigenous group had, the second point in that agenda was the most difficult of them all; by the end of Sunday, finally there was hope to reach an agreement. The issue there was regarding what to do or how to handle with the environmental damage/mitigation/remediation in the Aguarague oil and gas wells, will now be the responsibility of the Bolivian government. After this point the others followed smoothly, some indigenous people outside questioned why they were not consulted, as they thought these points went very fast.
It is opportune to remember that the government used the “Aguarague issue” as propaganda campaign, trying to show the TIPNIS group as the probable responsible party for not paying some of the bonuses to the population and for taking out funding for development programs.
The following two links belong to Pagina Siete and Los Tiempos websites, as they appeared last night, prior to today’s editions.
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2011-10-23/Nacional/NoticiaPrincipal/2Esp00123-10-11-P720111023DOM.aspx
This past week, as the conflict evolved, news from a shooting between anti-narcotics force with “alleged Colombian narcos” ended in the death of a young police lieutenant and one of the narcs. Such violence happened precisely in the TIPNIS area, thus giving more reason to prevent this national park to be cut by the San Ignacio de Moxos to Villa Tunari road.
A number of coca growers and some campesino organizations in Cochabamba have stated that they will continue to press on such road to be built. They choose not to listen; now road will be built but outside of the TIPNIS boundaries.
Therefore, and using the “internalizing the externalities” concept of the Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Economics disciplines, Bolivian society has agreed to keep protecting the national parks in Bolivia. If the road, as presented by the government, said it was going to cost an estimated $300 million, now the cost of using some of the alternatives presented at the beginning of this conflict (see an earlier post for a map, July 3, 2011 https://bolivianthoughts.wordpress.com/2011/07/03/tipnis-government-confusion-vs-alternatives/) or a new one were to cost say $500 million (numbers are only used here just to illustrate the concept). Then, the “externality” cost of building such road would be $200 million. And that is the real cost of building such a road, so no one should complain.
It is not sufficient to be a bird lover or claim for a clean environment; it is not enough to protest against the developing countries; or criticizing the USA or China for their polluted industries, who produce products we buy worldwide without any regrets or remorse. The citizen of this XXI century, whereas he is an indigenous, mestizo or “any color” person, must acknowledge the fact that protecting the remaining of our environment costs and it costs a lot of money. So, no complains and do not listen to those bad politicians or analysts that will intend to criticize this new, higher but real cost to preserve and conserve our environment (is not only indigenous, but remember it belongs to every single Bolivian citizen).
Kudos for those who fought for their way of living and for those who want to protect what is left of our environment.
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