River trip

Tonight Jared and I head to Trinidad by bus. When we arrive in the morning we are meeting with leaders from the TIPNIS (national park and indigenous territory) with whom we will be travelling 3-4 days upriver into the TIPNIS. We have a few goals on this trip. First, we are going to meet with Christians from many of the villages. We are going to gather them together for a day to talk and encourage one another among other things since most of the villages in this area have no church. Next we are going to deliver a film we made documenting the participation of the Mojeño people from the Sécure River in the Indigenous March for Territorial Rights against the construction of a highway through their territory which I accompanied them on in June for 5 days of their 75 day march. The screening of the film will be part of an event we have planned with a few local leaders for November 10. This date is significant to the Mojeño people as the anniversary of the day that they arose and kicked the Spanish out of their territory after almost 300 years of colonization. They did so independently and fully 15 years before Bolivia gained its own independence and became a nation. On that day, a gathering of people from all along the river will get together and walk to a special hill where we are going to spend a day fasting a praying for justice along with asking to government once more to respect its own laws and the people's wishes and discussing what to do from here. 

I have written some here this year about the conflict in the TIPNIS, but for those of you who do not know, the government is currently trying to build a highway through the park in order to open up oil exploration in the area and to cede more land to coca-growing colonizers from the highlands which will in inevitably destroy the forest and thus the way of life of the many indigenous peoples who live in the area. These people have legal title to this land and it is doubly protected as a national park as well, yet the government insists on building this road, which has already been cleared almost halfway through the park. Along the part already built there is a high concentration of colonists from the mountains who have arrived and live exclusively from the production of coca. Coca is a traditional crop in Bolivia and used for many things, but it is well known all over that this coca from this region is almost exclusively dedicated to cocaine production. Guess who continues to be the president of the coca-growers union in this region? Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. I won't go into the details, but the protest march from Trinidad to La Paz succeeded in convincing the government to stop construction but ever since then they have been systematically tearing apart the organic leadership of the indigenous groups by buying people off and creating parallel organizations to agree with building the road. In July the government began a process of "consultation" of all 69 communities in the parkto see if they want the road or not. To date they claim to have been to 49 of these villages, 48 of which have "approved" the construction. Supposedly they have been doing democratic community-wide gatherings in each of these places, but reports are coming out of them just talking to a handful of individuals, or at times just the community leader and convincing them with gifts to accept the road and then declaring that community "consulted." The government has also sent the military in to patrol the rivers ostensibly to keep out the colonists they claim won't invade along the road. However, we have received reports that they are stopping all boats entering the park and confiscating fuel and supplies that do not have the proper "permission" to enter the park, crippling the people's ability to travel easily along the river. 

So as you can imagine, in this context the event on November 10 is highly symbolic and subversive. Which is why we need your prayers because we do not know what the reaction will be. We are taking 300 liters of gasoline along to drop off some at each village so they can make it upstream to the gathering. Supposedly we have gained the right authorization for this. We also will have food supplies since there is famine there now due to the majority of people participating in 2 marches since September 2011 covering almost 5 months of time and thus they have not had time to plant and tend crops. Along with cameras to document the event and a projector to show the video, the fact that we are travelling with some high-profile resistance leaders, and that we are two gringos (the current government is not so fond of the US and has already tried to blame our country for causing this conflict in order to destabilize Evo's government) I can imagine a scenario where the military patrol on the river could cause us some trouble, either taking our stuff or not let us pass. 

So pray for our safety. Pray for the people of the TIPNIS too. I believe this is an important event for them. Also, for the Christians in the area who have no support and are scattered around our meeting will be an important source of encouragement for them in their faith and their struggle to be faithful witnesses to Christ in the midst of the social strife they are experiencing. I believe that the Church can and must play a crucial part in resolving this conflict and in helping their people face the inevitable changes that are beginning to occur in their communities and territory.