Manuela Lavinas reports for The New York Times: Ms. Lavinas Picq is a specialist in indigenous politics and Latin America. President Evo Morales must issue a national disaster declaration to control the fires and avoid further loss of life. Fires have been ravaging the Bolivian lowlands for over a month. Nearly ten million acres have already burned,…
Category: Social Unrest
Bolivia’s forest fires expose risks for environmental reporters
John Otis/CPJ Andes Correspondent reports for Committee to Protect Journalists: When Pablo Ortiz, a veteran reporter for El Deber, the main daily in the eastern city of Santa Cruz, set off to cover massive forest fires, he didn’t realize how dangerous the assignment would be. At one point Ortiz was alongside volunteer firefighters as shifting winds…
Economic and geopolitical interests behind the fire in Chiquitania
El Diario reports: Congresswoman Jimena Costa The MAS Senator candidate Rogelio Mayta warns “political opportunism” in opponents of the disaster in eastern Bolivia So far in the last months, at least 3.3 million hectares burned in the Chiquitania were counted, an accident that, in the opinion of the deputy of the Democratic Unit (UD), Jimena…
Firefighters in Bolivia lose hope of taming blazes as burned area doubles
Channel News Asia reports: CONCEPCION, Bolivia: Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country’s lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region. The fires this year are Bolivia’s worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land…
UMSA declares the Chepete-Bala project unfeasible
El Diario reports: Study warns of environmental risk The document indicates that the construction of the hydroelectric plant will cause a serious impact on the populations of the area, such as Rurrenabaque and San Buenaventura According to ENDE, the Bala project would guarantee energy sovereignty for our country. Meanwhile, Waldo Albarracín says the consultancy study…
Porvenir, without future
Pagina Siete reports, photo from the internet: It has been 11 years since the violent and dark events of the Porvenir town were raised and Pando’s former Prefect, Leopoldo Fernández, remains deprived of his freedom. Until 2013 he was imprisoned in jail, and since then, for health reasons, remains in house arrest. The events of…
Bolivian Thoughts | Pensamientos Bolivianos (Bilingual/Bilingüe) 