Socialism, Pachamama and Indigenous Rights: Bolivia, Peru and TIPNIS

The following articles are intended as a "brief" about the current disputes in Peru and Bolivia regarding indigenous rights and development of the Amazon.  After the NACLA article (second article), I have indicated further reading on the NACLA site.

   Romi
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Overview:
Bolivia Amazon road dispute dents Evo Morales' support By James Read BBC News 

Evo Morales argues the road will benefit people throughout Bolivia 

The election of Evo Morales in 2005 as Bolivia's first indigenous president represented a triumph for the country's indigenous majority. 
Mr Morales, an Aymara Indian, promised radical change to end centuries of discrimination and marginalisation. 
On the international stage, he also established himself as an uncompromising defender of what he calls Pachamama - "Mother Earth". 
Six years on, that reputation has been tarnished. 
Mr Morales stands accused of authorising excessive police 
force against indigenous protesters - charges he denies - and of putting economic development ahead of the conservation of the Amazon 
rainforest. 
Many of the social movements that helped bring him to power have turned against him.Contradictions 
The cause of their discontent is a government plan to build a 
road linking the Andean highlands of central Bolivia with the Amazon 
lowlands to the north. 
Mr Morales says the 300km (185 mile) stretch of road from 
Villa Tunari to San Ignacio de Moxos is vital for regional integration, 
and will benefit communities throughout Bolivia. 
But the planned highway would cut through the heart of the 
Isiboro-Secure Indigenous Territory and National Park (Tipnis), a 
rainforest region of exceptional biodiversity. 
Tipnis is home to an extraordinary wealth of plant and animal species 
The 12,000 sq km reserve is home to isolated communities of 
Chiman, Yurucare and Moxos Indians, who live by hunting, fishing and 
farming in the rainforest. 
They fear the road will open their territory to illegal 
logging and land grabs by migrants from the Andes who grow coca - the 
raw material for illegal cocaine. 
They also say the government ignored their right as 
indigenous nations to be consulted about any development that affects 
them - a right enshrined in the constitution Mr Morales himself 
introduced. 
The government promised dialogue and environmental safeguards, while simultaneously insisting the project would go ahead. 
In the face of this, in August about 1,000 Amazonian Indians 
from the reserve began a long-distance protest march to the seat of 
government in La Paz. 
Such demonstrations are a common feature of Bolivian politics, and the right to protest is guaranteed by the constitution. 
Mr Morales himself led many similar demonstrations when, as a radical leader of a coca-growers union, he helped force Bolivia's two 
previous presidents from office. 
Police action against the marchers caused uproar across Bolivia 
But when those tactics were turned against him, he responded by accusing the marchers of working for exiled opposition leaders and even the US. 
In September, about halfway along their route to La Paz, the 
marchers were stopped by hundreds of police outside the town of Yucumo, 
ostensibly to prevent clashes with Aymara communities that support the 
road project. 
After a week long stand-off, riot police suddenly attacked 
the protesters' camp, using tear gas and batons and detaining hundreds 
of people. 
Although initial reports of fatalities proved false, television footage of the crackdown provoked outrage across Bolivia. 
Defence Minister Cecilia Chacon resigned in protest and 
Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti - accused of ordering the crackdown - 
also stepped down. 
Mass demonstrations in support of the marchers were held in 
La Paz and other cities, backed by the main indigenous and trade union 
federations that helped bring Mr Morales to power. 
In response, Mr Morales said he would suspend the road 
project and put it to a referendum in Cochabamba and Beni - the two 
regions it would link. 
That promise falls short of the consultation demanded by the Tipnis communities, and they have resumed their march. Hidden agendas? 
So what lies behind President Morales' apparent determination to push ahead with the road despite the growing political cost? 
The economic argument is certainly strong. The road would 
give farmers and ranchers in the Amazon much better access to markets in the highlands. 
There is also an international dimension. The road is being 
funded by Bolivia's giant neighbour, Brazil, which would gain better 
access to Pacific ports in Peru and Chile. 
But critics say the highway could be re-routed around the 
Tipnis reserve, and therefore question whether other motives are at 
work. 
There have also been protests in support of the road project 
President Morales' core support base is among the coca-growers of the Chapare, which borders the Tipnis reserve to the south. 
They are mostly indigenous Aymara and Quechua migrants from the highlands - a group known as "colonists" in Bolivia. 
They see the road project as an opportunity to access new 
farmland in rainforest areas currently reserved for far less populous 
Amazonian tribes. 
Parts of Tipnis have already been settled illegally by 
coca-growers, pushing the Amazonian tribes deeper into the forest, and 
the fear is this will accelerate if the road is built.
In pressing so strongly for the road, critics suggest, Mr 
Morales is supporting the demands of one narrow sector of Bolivia's 
indigenous population over the rights of others. 
To the east of Tipnis, wealthy cattle ranchers are also 
encroaching on the reserve, and it is thought to hold oil and gas 
reserves. 
At the heart of the matter is the contradiction between a 
discourse of indigenous rights and environmental protection, and an 
economy that depends on the export of natural resources.
As a socialist committed to reducing Bolivia's severe poverty, Mr Morales needs to maintain economic growth. 
But this will mean more roads, mines and gas development- which may in turn provoke more protests. 
With opinion polls suggesting Mr Morales' popularity is 
falling, some commentators are wondering if he will see out his second 
term in office, due to end in early 2015. 
Or will he leave power like the two previous presidents, 
fleeing to escape mass protests by social movements who have learned 
that, in Bolivia, politics is made on the streets. 
Related Stories
* Bolivia Amazon road march resumes 01 OCTOBER 2011, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN 
* Bolivia road row minister quits 27 SEPTEMBER 2011, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN 
* Profile: Evo Morales 12 JANUARY 2011, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN 
* Bolivia highway protests spread 28 SEPTEMBER 2011, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN 
* Bolivia halts work on Amazon road 27 SEPTEMBER 2011, LATIN AMERICA & CARIBBEAN 
* Bolivia protesters break blockade 24 SEPTEMBER 2011, LATIN AMERICA &CARIBBEANhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15144
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Bolivia: Exploiting the TIPNIS Conflict
Emily Achtenberg 
Rebel Currents 
October 7, 2011
Last week the protest against Bolivia's TIPNIS highway reached Washington, D. C., with a small but boisterous demonstration of some 100 people in front of the White House. But upon closer 
examination, these folks seemed less concerned with protecting the 
TIPNIS national park and indigenous territory than with insulting D.C. demonstration. Credit: EJU-TV, Steven Granshaw. and attacking President Evo Morales—as a dictator, an assassin, and a 
narco-trafficker, according to their signs. In addition to demanding a 
halt to "Evo's cocaine highway," the protesters called for Morales' 
resignation and for swift UN and OAS intervention against MAS (Movement 
Towards Socialism) government officials for recent acts of police 
brutality against the TIPNIS marchers.
According to an observer, these protest leaders are well known in the Bolivian emigrant 
community, based in Virginia, as opponents of the MAS from Santa Cruz, 
stronghold of Bolivia's conservative economic elite. The incident serves as a reminder of the extent to which reactionary and anti-government 
forces, both inside and outside Bolivia, are exploiting the TIPNIS 
conflict for their own political ends. As Morales has repeatedly 
emphasized, conservative groups that just a few years ago brought the 
country to the brink of a civil coup over their opposition to indigenous land rights are now "TIPNIStas," ardently championing the cause of 
environmental protection and defending indigenous communities.
But Morales goes a step further, tarnishing the entire anti-highway 
movement as a partisan political protest in order to undermine its 
legitimate concerns. To an extent, he is exploiting the mixed messages 
that urban supporters of the TIPNIS march sometimes convey.
For example, at a recent student mobilization I witnessed in 
Cochabamba, my Bolivian friend—a disillusioned MAS supporter--was 
dismayed by the popular chant: "Evo decia/ que todo cambiaria/ mentira, mentira/ la misma porqueria!" ("Evo said/ everything would change/ lies, lies/ it's the same bullshit!") "But it's not the same!" she protested. Student mobilization, Cochabamba. Credit: Ben Achtenberg She complained to the student leaders that this inflammatory rhetoric 
not only plays into the hands of the right, but strengthens the 
government's ability to discredit the movement.
Slogans and right-wing opportunists aside, while the TIPNIS 
conflict—and especially, last week's brutal repression of the 
marchers—has severely damaged Morales' credibility, the growing 
anti-highway mobilization appears to be a movement that is not so much against the MAS government as it is for recovery of the "process of change." As Kevin Young notes in a thoughtful ZSpace commentary, no major union or popular organization on the left has 
called for Morales' resignation. Bolivian social movements have a 
sophisticated, and healthy, capacity to critique and defend the 
government at the same time.
Most TIPNIS protest groups, Young argues, still view Morales as a far better political option than either his neoliberal predecessors or his 
current neoliberal opponents, though they also believe that Bolivians 
deserve a better deal. Far from allying or sympathizing with the right, 
they see Morales as the best defense against conservative interests 
(inside and outside Bolivia) that are seeking to undermine the process 
of change.
In fact, says Young, much of the popular anger against Morales around the TIPNIS issue derives from the sense that his betrayal of indigenous rights and environmental justice (and, I would add, his promotion of 
conflict between campesino and indigenous groups) is empowering the right by alienating key popular constituencies. This was the 
message conveyed by ex-Defense Minister CeciliaChacón in her resignation statement, and by Pablo Solón, Bolivia's former ambassador to the UN, in his recent letter urging 
Morales to abandon the TIPNIS highway. Solón emphasizes the importance 
of revitalizing the process of change to counteract conservative forces. TIPNIS marchers near Palos Blancos. Credit: La Razón."To block the right, which wants to take advantage of the protest in order 
to return to the past," he warns, "we must be more vigilant than ever in defense of human rights, the rights of indigenous people, and the 
rights of Mother Earth."
Within the expanding and increasingly heterogeneous anti-highway 
movement, the issue of political opportunism appears to be a growing 
source of tension. At their ongoing vigil in La Paz in solidarity with 
the TIPNIS marchers, women from the highlands indigenous organization 
CONAMAQ have explicitly repudiated participation by all political parties (on both the left and right). As the TIPNIS conflict continues to unfold, it's an issue that could have 
significant bearing on Bolivia's political future.  
https://nacla.org/blog/2011/10/7/bolivia-exploiting-tipnis-conflict

>>>> NOTE: To read more at NACLA about TIPNIS, go to https://nacla.org/node/7334
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TIPNIS March in Bolivia: A Letter to Evo Morales from Pablo Solon 



Written by Pablo Solon    
Wednesday, 05 October 2011 13:09 
Pablo Solon
Note: The following is a letter to Bolivian President Evo Morales from Pablo 
Solon on the TIPNIS march. Solon is the former ambassador for Boliviaat the UN and the coordinator of the World Peoples' Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
September 28, 2011

President and Brother Evo Morales
Since 2006, Bolivia has shown leadership to the world on how to 
tackle the most profound challenges of our time. We have 
achieved the approval of the Human Right to Water and 
Sanitation in the United Nations and promoted a vision for 
society based on Vivir Bien (Living Well) rather than 
consuming more.
However there must be coherence between what we do and what we say. 
One cannot speak of defending Mother Earth and at the same 
time promote the construction of a road that will harm Mother 
Earth, doesn't respect indigenous rights and violates human 
rights in an "unforgiveable" way.
As the country that initiated the International Day of Mother 
Earth, we have a profound responsibility to be an example on 
the global stage. We cannot repeat the same recipes of failed 
"developmentalism" that has already brought the relationship 
between humanity and Mother Earth to breaking point
It is incomprehensible that we promote a World Conference on 
Indigenous Peoples at the United Nations in 2014 if we don't 
lead the way in applying the principle of "informed, free and 
prior consent" for indigenous peoples in our own country.
The Eighth Indigenous March has some incoherent and incorrect 
demands such as those related to hydrocarbons ant the sale of 
forest carbon credits that look to commodify Mother Earth 
(known as REDD). However their concern for the impacts of the 
construction of this road is just.
Thousands of the delegates of five continents who participated in the 
first World Peoples' Conference on Climate Change and the 
Rights of Mother Earth are deeply upset by the Bolivian 
government's actions.
The conflict in TIPNIS should never have happened. Greater 
physical integration of the country is necessary, but does not need to go through the "Indigenous Territory and National 
Park of Isibore Secure" (TIPNIS). Obviously building a road 
that doesn't go trough the park would be more expensive, but 
trying to save $200 million or $300 million dollars at any 
social and environmental cost goes against the very principles of the "Living Well".
In order to stop the manipulation of the Right who wish to use 
this protest to return to the past, we must be even more 
consistent in defending human rights, indigenous peoples' 
rights and the rights of Mother Earth.
It's not too late to resolve this crisis if we suspend permanently the construction of the road trough the TIPNIS, bring to 
justice those responsible for the repression to the indigenous march, and open up a broad and participatory national 
and regional debate to define a new agenda of actions in the 
framework of the Living Well.
Pablo Solón 
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/3247-tipnis-march-in-bolivia-a-letter-to-evo-morales-from-pablo-solon

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Letter from CONAIE to Evo Morales regarding TIPNIS Quito, September 26, 2011

OF. Nº 0113 CONAIE-2011

Compañero
Evo Morales
President of the Plurinacional State of Bolivia>

Attention.-

Dear Brother,

Receive
our cordial greetings on behalf of the Confederation of Peoples of 
Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador CONAIE. We would also like to use 
this opportunity to send via your person a deep hug of solidarity to the
brothers and sisters in the Plurinational State of Bolivia.

During
these days we have paid witness to all the events that your government 
has had to confront in regards to the march by the brothers from the 
indigenous peoples of the Bolivian east in defence of TIPNIS. In the 
face of this, we would like to make known out deep concern regarding the
events that have transpired, especially the events that occurred 
yesterday afternoon.

Being faithful to the principles of the 
struggle of the people, we reject the violent repression that the 
indigenous brothers from the march have suffered at the hands of the 
Bolivian police.

For a long time, our people have shared and 
sought to develop our common struggle against neoliberalism, for 
sovereignty, for the defence of natural resources and against 
neo-colonial states and governments. These experiences have shaped and 
strengthen us in order to defeat the neoliberal model. No doubt on the 
way we have had multiple difficulties or even committed errors. But 
before anything else we firmly defend the process constructed between 
the people, the struggle for the DEFENCE OF MOTHER EARTH, together with 
the majority of the exploited men and women.

We hope that these 
differences will be resolved through dialogue, with the aim that they 
not be utilised by our enemies, the national right wing and imperialism,
in order for them to once again persecute our peoples, above all our 
children.

Dear Compañero Evo, knowing your capacity, experience 
and knowledge we are sure that you will seek all the possible mechanisms
in order to resolve this conflict between brothers and continue on the 
path of Buen Vivir (Living Well)

A fraternal and optimist hug from the peoples and nationalities of Ecuador

Humberto Cholango
PRESIDENT OF CONAIE

Translated from CIDOB website
http://boliviarising.blogspot.com/2011/10/letter-from-conaie-to-evo-morales_01.htm
.........................................................................Peru:

Amazon pipeline gets go-ahead amid reports of 'cover-up' 18 August 2011

Oil industry barges are a constant sight on the rivers of northern Peru
© Survival 
A 200km oil pipeline in the Amazon has been given the go-ahead, amidst controversy over a 
'cover-up' of evidence that uncontacted Indians live in the region.
French oil company Perenco plans to spend $350m building the pipeline in northern Peru to 
transport $35 billion worth of oil from its block 67 project to the 
Pacific coast.
But a detailed article published in US news outlet Truth Out alleges that government 
officials, environmental consultants and oil companies have been 
implicated in covering up the existence of uncontacted tribes living along the pipeline's route.
Perenco has rejected any suggestion that its work could endanger the lives of the isolated Indians .
The company has repeatedly cited a report by environmental 
consultancy Daimi to back up its claim that there is 'no sign of any 
anthropological character (in block 67).'
However, freelance journalist David Hill tracked down researchers who had worked with Daimi in the region. Hill claims to have uncovered a 
trail of contradictions indicating that the report, which was funded by 
Perenco, was inaccurate and censored.

The Nanti are just one of over 15 isolated or uncontacted tribes in Peru
© Survival International 
A large body of evidence, including sworn testimonies of sightings, 
pathways, footprints and crossed spears, was 'left out of the final 
report'.
One forestry engineer involved in the investigation said, 'Besides 
playing down the damage to vegetation and wildlife, they (Daimi) said 
there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of 
dwellings … Perenco got everything it wanted.'
Survival's Director Stephen Corry said today, 'The Peruvian 
government has a duty to commission independent inquiries into the 
existence of such Indians, and shouldn't allow itself to be appeased by 
consultancy firms working for oil companies.'
http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/7594