Bolivian Farmers March 560 Miles to Stop Land Grab

Indigenous groups in Bolivia are mounting mass protests against a new law they say will accelerate deforestation and land privatization. Vivian Palomequi, a peasant farmers’ union leader, walked for a month from her home in the Bolivian Amazon to the capital, La Paz—a distance of more than 560 miles (900 km). She arrived in late April to join a wave of demonstrations. “We declared a state of emergency and started marching,” she said. “We had no other choice.” The protests target the environmental policies of Bolivia’s new government under President Rodrigo Paz. Critics say the administration has staffed ministries with former agroindustry leaders, opened protected areas to mining, and criminalized environmental defenders. The marchers fear the new law will prioritize agribusiness and mining at the expense of forests and indigenous land rights.