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The persistence of fires unleashed a month ago in Bolivia has sown despair among locals and authorities, and has also fueled political conflict, in the absence of a little more than a month for the presidential election. The ongoing fires in Santa Cruz, eastern Bolivian territory, on the border with the Amazon, have destroyed nearly two million hectares, of which 30% is forest. The fire affected protected areas rich in flora and fauna.
With tremendous efforts and backed by three specialized aircraft sent by the government of Evo Morales to fight the emergency, the fire crews managed to extinguish some of the fires and discover, a few hours later late, that others had resurfaced in places. Three firefighters, including two volunteers, have died during the last two weeks during firefighting missions in different areas.
International experts have alerted the Bolivian authorities about the favorable conditions – caused by extreme drought and high winds – so that fires, which generate "fireballs", move from one place to the next. other. As they explained, these are "sixth generation" fires, because of the speed at which they advance, about 4,000 hectares per hour.
This type of fire, which has occurred in Chile and California (United States) over the past two years, may endanger populated centers. This Tuesday, a group of houses burned in San Matías, a town about 600 km from the city of Santa Cruz, had been evacuated.
Although the election campaign, suspended for a week, should continue, candidates hardly dare to address other issues than the environmental crisis. The opinion of the population on this crisis, and especially on its causes, is completely politicized. The shock point is the national disaster declaration, which the opposition is calling for to attract more international aid and that the Morales government refuses to adopt, as that would mean that it does not happen. There is no ability to cope with the problem.
Cross charges
An badembly of institutions in Santa Cruz made a citizen declaration of national disaster and asked the administration of Evo Morales to repeal a 2015 law authorizing "deforestation" (deforestation) up to 20 hectares by smallholders. However, it did not ask the same for the decree authorizing deforestation and controlled burning in this city and the neighboring region of Beni, in areas that would have been clbadified in transition between forests and agricultural crops. It is a decree backed by businessmen that Amnesty International recently asked to cancel.
The meeting of cross-border institutions has been tumultuous because of the controversy between those who believe that powerful agricultural organizations are responsible for what is happening and those who defend them and blame government-installed indigenous immigrants in eastern Chad. countries, who blame They do not have the knowledge to work on wooded land.
The Governor of Santa Cruz, Rubén Costas, has approved an ecological break in the affected area, which includes the suspension of new settlements. The peasants, close to the Socialist Movement, threatened to march. This fracture is also felt in the work of extinguishing fires: firefighters have denounced the fact that fires do not spread alone, some farmers, indifferent to the general tumult, continue to "each", that is to say to prepare their plots. However, we do not know who is responsible for these acts.
Up to now, the fires do not seem to have pbaded on a political bill to President Evo Morales. The latest Unitel TV poll revealed that the electoral trends before and after the crisis did not change: Morales still leads, with 36% of voting intentions, while former President Carlos Mesa won. 25%.
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