Fires in Amazonas and Bolivia: Evo Morales declares urgency and smoke affects Peru

The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, has set up a "national emergency cabinet" to draft a plan to stop forest fires that destroy the Chiquitanía and other areas of the country. east of the country.

At the same time, the smoke of the worst forest fires that hit the Brazilian and Bolivian Amazons for more than two weeks has arrived in some Amazonian provinces in Peru, sources said Wednesday the Regional Center for Emergency Operations ( COER) (ERE). of the mother of God.

This is "a thin layer of smoke" appeared since Monday in the sky of the Amazonian province of Tambopata, located in the Madre de Dios region, "because of the air coming from Brazil and Bolivia ", as reported in Madre de Dios, Peruvian region bordering Brazil and Bolivia.

Measure of Evo

According to Morales, the cabinet will be headed by Vice President Álvaro García Linera and the Minister of the Presidency, Juan Ramón Quintana, will be part of it. the Minister of the Government, Carlos Romero; the Minister of the Environment and Water, Carlos Ortuño; the Minister of Rural Development, César Cocarico; and the Minister of Health, Gabriela Montaño.

The members of the cabinet are already in the municipality of Roboré, where an operations center will be installed. García Linera has already explained Santa Cruz, the department most affected by fires, that "the ministers came with their backpacks to stay" as long as necessary with Quintana in front.

The Vice President acknowledged that "we must redouble our efforts to contain the fires during these months of drought that will continue until October," reports Erbol.

For his part, Morales announced that after conducting an badessment of the situation, he had instructed the Minister of the Economy and Public Finance, Luis Arce, to rent a 747 Boeing Tank Super Tank in order to Prevent the spread of fires in the Chiquitanía. throughout the eastern region of the country.

"He is already being processed to hire, to help us extinguish the fire outbreaks in eastern Bolivia," said the president, who worried about the reactivation of hot spots due to strong winds in the area, as reported by the ABI state agency.

The plane will arrive on Friday

As García Linera later indicated, the plane will arrive on Friday. The device "can load up to 115,000 liters depending on the height," he explained, pointing out that "it's like a hundred small planes and a little more". Each flight should cost around $ 16,000.

The plane will depart from its base of operations in California, United States, and will arrive at Viru Viru International Airport to make its first refueling. The Bolivian government is making arrangements with Brazil to allow Corumba's runway to allow the plane to have its base of operations there, García Linera said.

The vice president said that the air-out work would be reinforced with three other helicopters, which add to the existing three, with a discharge capacity of 3,000 liters, and between five and ten light airplanes. fumigation of a discharge capacity of 1,500 will be hired liters of water

With regard to the tasks on the ground, he argued that in the coming hours, 500 additional soldiers of the armed forces, 200 of the Bolivian police, 100 of the National Agricultural Security Service (SENASAG) with veterinarians and vans will be sent in addition to agronomists.