BOLIVIA’S PRESIDENT Evo Morales has caved in to demands by indigenous protesters that he scrap his government’s plan to build a highway through their Amazon rainforest home.
Facing a wave of public sympathy for the protesters, the president agreed after five hours of talks over the weekend to enshrine the “untouchability” of the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory National Park in a new law he will unveil today.
His country’s first indigenous president, Mr Morales greeted the protesters as “brothers and sisters” and said that by giving in to their demands, he was “governing by obeying the people”.
About 2,000 of the Isiboro Sécure’s 15,000 Indians marched over 600km from the jungle lowlands up the Andes mountain range to La Paz to press their demand that the highway be halted. A police assault on their column last month swung national opinion behind their campaign.
Tens of thousands turned out to welcome the marchers when they finally reached the capital last week. This turned their arrival into the biggest anti-government rally in the city since Mr Morales swept into power almost six years ago on a promise to give a greater say to Bolivia’s sidelined indigenous majority.
The protesters claimed that the proposed highway would lead to an invasion of land-grabbers into their jungle home and result in violence, deforestation and an end to the traditional lifestyle of hunting and subsistence farming. This is carried on by three indigenous groups who live in the park.
As part of the weekend’s agreement, the government also committed itself to hold an inspection of the Isiboro Sécure within 30 days, along with representatives of the park’s communities to expel “in an immediate manner” outsiders who have encroached on the territory.
The climbdown over the highway follows a series of missteps by Mr Morales over the issue. When the marchers first set off from their home he dismissed them as agents of imperialism and refused to negotiate over the Brazilian-financed project.
Following the police assault on the column, his support among his indigenous base plummeted and led to the resignation of one minister and the firing of another.
Last weekend, a majority of Bolivians heeded a call by the opposition to show support for the Isiboro Sécure march by spoiling their ballot or abstaining in the country’s first national election for judges.
The government says it will now study alternative routes along which to construct the highway that do not encroach on indigenous territory.