Development: On 10 October Bolivia’s lower chamber approved a short law suspending the construction of a road through an indigenous territory (Tioc) and national park, Isiboro Sécure (Tipnis), and calling two referenda for the regions affected (Cochabamba and Beni).
Significance: The law’s approval formalises a pledge made by President Evo Morales following a controversial police crackdown on indigenous protesters demonstrating against the road’s construction. However, it defies indigenous demands for the complete cancellation of the project. Despite other gestures, including the (forced) resignation of the interior minister and his deputy (Sacha Llorenti and Marcos Farfán), and the removal of the national deputy police commander, General Oscar Muñoz, and the rector of the national police academy, Oscar Chávez, the Morales government does seem to feel sufficiently threatened to bow down.
Key points:
• The law was approved by 71 of the 100 representatives present in the 130-seat lower house, which is dominated by the ruling Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS). It now goes to the senate, also MAS-controlled. Nonetheless, a faction of MAS indigenous legislators walked out in protest. Six indigenous legislators are reportedly drafting an alternative bill which would prohibit the construction of the road through the protected territory.
• The two main indigenous organizations, the lowlands-based Confederación de Pueblos Indígenas de Bolivia (Cidob) and the highlands-based Consejo Nacional de Ayllus y Markas del Qullasuyu (Conamaq), rejected the law. They also confirmed that a protest march from Beni to La Paz, which got underway on 15 August, would continue. The protest caravan is expected to reach the capital in the next few days. This has triggered concerns about potential violence, as Morales has called a supporters rally for 12 October, in support of the 16 October national vote to elect a new judiciary.
• Deep divisions have emerged within Morales’s support base over the Tipnis dispute, namely between indigenous groups and the campesino movement, which includes the likes of the Confederación Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (CSUTCB). Despite condemning the police crackdown, coca producers also continue to back Morales.
