Evo's government denies that Brazil has benefited from the construction of road through Bolivian national park

OVERPOWER OF COCA LEAVES GROWERS • Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera, denied yesterday that the highway project Villa Tunari-San Ignacio de Moxos, which runs through Indian Territory Isiboro Secure and Natural Park will benefit Brazil.

By CHRISTIAN FOURNIER / La Prensa

Indigenous people of Isiboro Secure Territory and Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera. Photo © Cristian Fournier / La Prensa®

ISIBORO SÉCURE, Bolivia .— The implementation of the road project is supported by the producers of coca leaves, allies of President Evo Morales, and disapproved by the indigenous peoples living in the park.

Geopolitically, the road is vital for Bolivia Garcia said.

"We are building roads throughout the country .... This road does not reach the border with Brazil .... Reaches the center of Beni. Therefore, fulfilling the Constitution, we will ask trough a referendum to the natives of the area to construct it . "

"It is important for the transport sector in our country, to encourage the production. In ten years we will see clearly this achievement. Opponents are NGOs and oligarchic people. "

Garcia criticized this way to the leader of the indigenous people Adolfo Moye.

He noted that farmers in Cochabamba and Beni want the construction of the road as "a historic demand of integration and development."

"This is a strategic issue for linkage of the country. The route was asked 400 years ago, to link directly highlands and valleys to Amazon plains. "

The natives of the protected area call to stop road construction and are ready to begin a protest march from Beni to La Paz.

Source: LA PRENSA^®