29th September - Welcome to Cochabamba, Bolivia!

Yesterday I arrived in Bolivia on what is to be a ten month stay here in the country that remains the  road less travelled for tourists of Latin America. After a 29 hour flight from London that took me via Amsterdam, Lima and Santa Cruz (via La Paz) I eventually arrived to a balmy Cochabamba at 8 in the morning. I was there greeted by a representative of Sustainable Bolivia (where I will be studying Spanish) who quickly told me that my arrival was well timed as protest marches, blockades and all days strikes were about to start at 9am and that we would be able to get a taxi just in time – welcome to Bolivia I thought!!

Opposition to the TIPNIS Road

I had arrived in the midst of country wide protests opposing the government’s proposed highway that is set to go through the TIPNIS national park (officially known as Isiboro-Secure National Park and Indigenous Territories). The road is set to go through an area inhabited by several native Amazonian groups that is also one of the most bio diverse regions of the world and is opposed by indigenous, social justice and environmental justice organisations. The protests have been gathering speed for roughly a month and a half now from when the Eighth March of the Indigenous Peoples of Bolivia began on the 15^th August. However, having set out on a 375 miles march to the capital city of La Paz it has been repeatedly halted along the way. Currently, it is held in Yucumo where the police have become violent towards the marchers sparking countrywide protests in solidarity with the march.

Evo Morales, the president has been highly critical of the police brutality that Bolivia has witnessed over the past few days. However, he has yet to halt the proposals for the road and it remains unclear where his allegiances lie – with the social movements he is said to represent or the forces of economic power and development that are pushing for the construction of the road. The news that two of the government’s ministers have resigned in the past few days – Interior Minister Sacha Llorenti and Defense Minister Cecilia Chacon – alongside the National Director of Migration Maria Rene Quiroga and the General Coordinator of SISPAM in Vice Ministry of Rural Development Roxana Liendo over the police brutality suggest that even Evo’s cabinet are having doubts.

Cochabamba – The City of Bustling Trade

So today I awoke after a good 17 hour sleep - in between eating - feeling a lot more refreshed and sat down to a breakfast of fruits prepared by my homestay madre Tania.  After breakfast I set out on a brief tour of Cochabamba safe in the knowledge that the statue of Christo De La Concordia (much like the one in Rio) looks out for me on the hill above my casa.

Having explored several of Cochabamba’s plazas and markets (though yet to see the famous La Cancha-the biggest in Latin America) I have found the city to be warm, friendly and colourful. The city is a hustle and bustle of trade in shops, pavements and houses that creates the feeling that the residents are mostly entrepreneurs selling to other entrepreneurs. I have yet to see a large, or even medium sized, supermarket which makes me question whether Capitalism ever arrived, let alone stayed and was ousted. Even my homestay family have a shop out front and I am surprised to find that even though there is an identical shop on every street they still receive a good trade.

The Cochabamba Protests Against the TIPNIS Road




The Universidad Mayor San Simon Protest March in Defence of TIPNIS

 

This afternoon I decided to go for a walk to find the offices of Gaia Pacha – an environmental organisation that have offered to help me in my research of indigenous movements. I didn’t find the office (even after a three hour walk in the dry afternoon sun) but all was not lost as I came across the Universidad Mayor De San Simon (UMSS) protest march against the TIPNIS road. I came across the march on Avenue Oquendo and followed it through the streets onto Cochabamba’s main boulevard Avenue Ballivian. It was rather more sedate than I had imagined a march to be with little shouting and little police interference, however there was the obligatory gun firing and banner waving that I had come to expect from reading up on Bolivian politics.



The banner reads 'UMSS presente hermanos del TIPNIS’ (UMSS brothers of TIPNIS)



Having walked with the march for a while (ill advised by the people at Sustainable Bolivia) I decided to take a few sneaky pictures on my mobile phone and headed homewards after more police started arriving.

 


Signs of protest can be seen across the city of Cochabamba. This common graffiti 'TIPNIS Resiste' was found on the main boulevard of Avenue Ballivian.

So to bed again – think the altitude is getting to me...