Posted by boliviadiary on 10/26/2011 · President Evo Morales signed off the law that prohibits building a road through the TIPNIS national park and indigenous territory. After a march by indigenous movements from Bolivia´s Amazon in opposition to the road project got to La Paz last week President Morales made the historic decision to accept their demand.
I was in Plaza Murillo (central square in La Paz) until 12am on Monday with the media and hundreds of marchers as the ceremony took place inside the Presidential Palace in front of us. The approval of this law has been heralded as the crucial act that solves the TIPNIS conflict that has polarised the country since 15 August when the indigenous march began.
However, the tone of the speeches made by both the indigenous leaders and President Morales suggest this conflict is not completely over. While the main issue of whether a road goes through the TIPNIS has been resolved for now there are wider topics that are still unresolved.
One example is the fallout from the police repression of the indigenous march on 25 September when it was nearly 300km from La Paz. Indigenous leaders Fernando Vargas (President of the TIPNIS Subcentral) and Adolfo Chávez (President of lowlands indigenous social movement CIDOB) were very critical of the lack of justice and of the Morales government for not taking responsibility for what happened. After 4 weeks we still do not know who gave the order despite Vice President Álvaro García Linera saying the government knew who gave the order but could not reveal who it was.
Today the majority of the indigenous marchers left La Paz today to go back to their communities. Over the next few weeks the impacts of the Bolivian government’s decision to not build the road will become clearer. It will take time to fully understand the new political landscape but what is certain is Bolivia´s social movements (whether pro the MAS government or not) will be mobilising again soon to pressure for their demands to be met.
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