Bolivia's President scraps road project in Amazon

Clearly a difficult moment in his political career, and very belated given the course of events, Mr Morales, the President of Bolivia, expressed that the controversial road would no longer go through a rainforest reserve and threaten the lives and resources of many thousands of indigenous people.

He made the announcement two days after protesters arrived in La Paz following a two-month march from the Amazon lowlands to voice their opposition. However, it is not yet clear what the demonstrators' response will be. One indigenous leader, Rafael Quispe, said that the president's proposal was a "good sign" but said they had 15 other demands which also need to be discussed. Quispe was also reported to say: "we are going to stay here until the president decides to meet us."

The second time in less than a year that Mr Morales has backtracked under popular pressure, many see this as a sign of political weakness. It would have been better if he had listened to the indigenous protests long before they set out on their march to the capital city which ended in violence at times when confronted by the police. At the start of this year, Morales backed down over his attempt to dramatically raise fuel prices.

Thousands of residents were also on the streets of La Paz this week, almost all of them in support of the marching indigenous protesters who claimed that the proposed road project - funded by Brazil and built by a Brazilian company - would just encourage illegal settlement and deforestation in their forest. One eye witness was reported to say that: "not even the Pope got such a reception when he came to Bolivia."

Main sources: www.bbc.co.uk  and www.efe.com

Bookmark this page: