Oil project said to ignore Bolivia’s new constitution

Tumbling trees, the roar of dynamite, and the flight of birds and animals from a once-virgin forest. For Bolivian Indians opposed to oil drilling, such impacts might have seemed a thing of the past under the country’s new constitution. But while the seven-month-old constitution strengthens Indians’ rights over their lands, the government of President Evo Morales—himself an Aymara Indian—is being accused of strong-arming indigenous Amazon communities and their environment in a rush to find oil. The complaints come as Petroandina, a joint venture of two state oil companies, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPBF), conducts seismic exploration for oil in the so-called Lliquimuni Block in the northern portion of the department of La Paz... [Log in to read more]

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