Bolivia: “Agribusiness is burning the Amazon because of the extractivist colonialist model”

ROME (DIRE Agency) – “We must stop the colonialist and extractivist model, also in Bolivia, where the gold fever poisons the rivers with mercury while the south burns, maliciously, also thanks to the ‘incendiary laws'”. Speaking is Sister Gladys Montesinos, a missionary in the Amazon, among the Chimane communities. The interview withDire Agency is held in Rome, on the sidelines of a meeting promoted by the Federation of Christian organizations for international voluntary service (Soccer).

The Caravan for integral ecology. The event is one of the stages of the Third Caravan for Integral Ecology, an awareness-raising initiative that has brought nine social activists from five Latin American countries to Europe, first in France and now in Italy. From the congregation of Carmelites, who have been in Bolivia for ten years, Sister Montesinos lives in a southern region, in the Amazon lowland inhabited by the Chimane and other native communities and peoples.

The objectives. “The objective of the caravan is to contribute to a dialogue between the South and the North of the world, in particular on the topic of energy transition” explains the missionary. “It is necessary to involve civil societies, politicians, representatives of the Church: the objective is an agreement to defend our common home”. The fear, even in a country like Bolivia, rich in natural gas, lithium and other strategic minerals for the electricity sector, is that what creates well-being in the rich North can poison and kill in the South, hindering paths of justice, environmental and same social time.

The extractivist approach. “The extractivist approach is based on economic profit and does not provide for consultations with communities and native peoples” denounces Sister Montesinos: “The result, in the Amazon and in Latin America, are deaths due to water contamination and the displacement of many people from whom their land is stolen”. Another alarm concerns the fires that have burned for weeks in the south and east of Bolivia. “They are set off maliciously, to allow the expansion of intensive monocultures such as those of transgenic soya” denounces Sister Montesinos.

The faults of the government. “The government has its responsibilities, because it does not abolish the ‘inflammatory laws’, in force for years, which protect the interests of agribusiness”. Among the contested regulations are “741”, which authorizes small and medium-sized owners to deforest up to 20 hectares for agricultural and livestock activities, and “1171”, which allows those responsible for arson to pay fines while avoiding prison. According to the organizations promoting the caravan, the Conseilho Indigenista Missionario (Cimi), the Church and Mines Network (Rim) and the Red Eclesial Pana-Amazonica (Repam), a response to the crisis can only come from Latin American coordination in dialogue with the North of the world.

The oblivion of Amazonian communities. Sister Montesinos highlights that the discussion should involve politics at the highest levels, in Bolivia therefore also President Luis Arce, of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) party just like his predecessor Evo Morales. The two, on the eve of an election year, are divided by political rivalries. The clash culminated with Morales organizing the ‘March to save Bolivia‘, a protest initiative that crossed the country, arriving in the capital La Paz on 23 September. Sister Montesinos’ thesis is that, however, even the former head of state, although celebrated as the first president with native Bolivia origins, protected the Quechua and Aymara, forgetting the Amazonian and southern communities.