Tag: Santa Cruz

The Amazon
Chiquitano

Forest devastation sparks protest in Bolivia

Hundreds of thousands marched in Bolivia’s eastern lowland city of Santa Cruz, calling for President Evo Morales to be “punished” at the polls in the upcoming elections. Although the march was called by the city’s Comité Cívico, a voice of the right-wing opposition, a key issue was the devastation of the country’s eastern forests in the wildfires that have swept across the Amazon Basin over the past months. Comité Cívico leaders accused Morales of failing to respond adequately to the fires. Last month, the Comité held a mass assembly in Santa Cruz, where they declared a state of “national disaster” over the fires. (Photo: InfoBae)

The Amazon

Amazon forest fires spread to Bolivia

President Evo Morales announced that Bolivia has contracted a Boeing 747 “Supertanker” to help extinguish huge forest fires in the Amazon have that have spread over the border from Brazil. He has also mobilized army helicopters to evacuate affected communites deep in the rainforest. Although Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been openly encouraging the destruction of the Amazon, dropping barriers to the clearing of forest by agribusiness and resource interests, he is now floating the baseless conspiracy theory that the fires were set by NGOs that oppose his government in an effort to discredit him. Indigenous and environmental groups in Bolivia, however, accuse the supposedly left-wing Evo Morales of more quietly instating similar policies. (Image: Planet Labs Inc via Mongabay)

The Andes

Protests over re-election broil Bolivia

Bolivia has seen strikes and protests since the ruling by the Supreme Electoral Tribunal allowing President Evo Morales to run for a fourth consecutive term in the 2019 election. The ruling was met with marches, road blockades and work stoppages that caused varying degrees of disruption in eight of Bolivia's nine departments. A student mobilization in the hydrocarbon-rich eastern department of Santa Cruz, heart of anti-Morales sentiment, ended in violence, with the regional offices of the electoral tribunal burned to the ground. Hunger strikes were launched in six cities, with at least 20 still ongoing. (Photo via NACLA)

The Andes

Bolivia hosts ‘Gas OPEC’ summit —amid dissension

The summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) opened in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz—central hub of the country's hydrocarbon-rich eastern lowlands. President Evo Morales took the opportunity to boast of his "nationalization" of Bolivia's hydrocarbon resources. But in addition to pressure from his populist base for greater state control over the hydrocarbons, Morales faces ecologist and indigenist dissidents who reject continued reliance on an extractivist model altogether.

The Andes

Bolivia: cocaleros clash with eradication force

Coca-growers in Bolivia's lowland jungle town of Yapacaní clashed with police in a protest against the construction of a new base of the feared Mobile Rural Patrol Unit (UMOPAR).

The Andes

Bolivia: three dead in miners’ protests

Three were killed as thousands of independent miners blocked highways across Bolivia  to protest a pending law that would impose restrictions on their cooperatives.

Syria

Evo Morales betrays Syrian people

By saying the US “funds rebels that fight against presidents who don’t support capitalism or imperialism,” Evo Morales allies himself with a regime that is committing war crimes.

The Andes

Bolivia: prison massacre sparks protests

Family members of inmates are keeping vigil outside Bolivia's Palmasola prison after an explosion of violence at the facility left at least 30 dead—but still not identified.