Executive Summary On December 4, 2011, the Bolivian government signed an agreement with indigenous leaders that clarified an October 24 law banning the construction of a hotly debated highway that would have run through the heart of Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory (Parque Nacional y Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure, TIPNIS), an isolated area where traditional Amazonian native groups can be found. Far from ending the controversy, the law had...
Esmerados en satisfacer su demanda de energía, los Gobiernos de Brasil y Chile impulsan proyectos de construcción de represas que enardecen la resistencia de grupos aborígenes. En Bolivia, se han organizado manifestaciones de tribus indígenas en rechazo de la propuesta de construcción de una autopista que atravesaría la zona donde subsisten. Involucrado en cada conflicto se encuentra también el poder judicial, que ha ordenado la suspensión de los proyectos en varias oportunidades. ¿Cuán compatibles...
In Brazil and Chile, the government-backed plans to build two dams in order to increase their domestic energy supplies, have led to demonstrations by indigenous people to defend their access to their traditional lands. In Bolivia, a highway construction project has resulted in demonstrations by indigenous villagers living along the route of the proposed highway. Protests and demonstrations in these countries have been challenged in court where judges, in several key rulings, have suspended...
Source: Accidents Planet Driving can be a harrowing experience in Bolivia. Consider, for instance, the North Yungas Road, or “Death Road,” a treacherous stretch of highway that claims over 200 lives annually and has been christened the “most dangerous road in the world.” Although renovations to this Andean deathtrap have rendered it safer, the state of Bolivia’s transportation infrastructure is still a precarious issue. Currently, the Morales administration is locked in a fierce battle...
On June 29, 2011, Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Aymara Indian president, withdrew his country from the United Nation’s (UN) 1961 Vienna Convention on Narcotic Drugs. His decision was based on the fact that the Convention contradicted Bolivia´s 2009 Constitution, which aims to repeal the current ban on coca chewing, a long held tradition in Bolivia. This bold move puts indigenous rights in the limelight and underlines the anachronistic and discriminatory nature of the 1961...
