The fires of the Chiquitanía would have an impact on the vote of the Bolivians

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(CNN) - Four million hectares consumed by fire in the Bolivian Chiquitanía - 12 protected areas of great biodiversity of flora and fauna for the planet, unique ecosystems - were affected in 45% of its territory.

Five mowed lives, four volunteer firefighters and a local farmer are the result of this environmental disaster, according to the government of the department of Santa Cruz.

It was an ecological catastrophe that only nature itself could control with the rains - after 70 days in which the fire destroyed forests and grasslands in the area - despite the efforts made by national, departmental, military, police authorities, hundreds of citizens and volunteers who participated in the emergency.

The fire in the Chiquitanian forests and the destruction of their fauna touched the sensitivity of the citizen and settled on the political agenda with a view to the presidential elections on October 20.

MIRA: Animals were the most affected by fires in Bolivia

The fire generated the mobilization of the Pro Santa Cruz Committee, organizations in defense of democracy, environmental activists and citizens who gathered a massive Cabildo on Friday, October 11, a constitutional mechanism of direct and participatory democracy, whose conviction of The defense of the Chiquitana land, its value for the region and the world, was claimed.

More than a million and a half people gathered in the capital, according to the citizens of that department. There were several speakers, including activist Andrea Vaca Barberí, who in a loud tone told the attendees “we must unite and defend our land, our Chiquitanía, our democracy and especially our freedom, since freedom is not a gift from a man nor of a government, is a gift from God. ”

Six days later, with the same slogan of defense of democracy and Chiquitanía, La Paz and Cochabamba followed. The call was attended by citizens such as Marcela Ayaviri, who told CNN that she was present in the Cabildo to “defend democracy, defend Chiquitanía. I am coming to defend the entire Bolivian territory, ”he said.

A few days after the presidential election on October 20, the fires in Chiquitanía, according to some analysts, have impacted citizens and have inevitably installed themselves in the country's electoral political agenda and could influence the vote of the electors.

For the president of the Chamber of Senators of Bolivia, Adriana Salvatierra, of the official party, the fire in Chiquitanía was “a huge tragedy”, and affirms that the government made all the efforts in terms of human and technical resources to mitigate the fire.

A tragedy, which cannot be measured only in electoral terms, he said.

"It leaves a huge teaching to us, in terms of managing the necessary resources, to manage public policies that respond immediately to this, which guarantee us at other times in other circumstances to react efficiently, in a timely manner with all the lessons learned"

For political analysts like Franklin Pareja, the ecological disaster in the Chiquitanía generated the outrage of the citizens for a bad government management that did not act immediately to mitigate and confront the fires, insisted that it had all the resources and did not declare “national disaster” to be able to capitalize resources, technical assistance and international logistics.

This Ecocide, says Couple, “this ecological catastrophe has reached almost two months of extension, and therefore this is where a citizen pedagogy is produced that understands and sees the future with fear, with concern and that does produce political dislocation that could have electoral consequences. ”

In this context, the issue of the environment, which in previous presidential elections was not part of the electoral political debate and was not on the citizen agenda, today takes center stage with the fires in the Bolivian Chiquitanía and will be reflected in the vote of the voters, according to experts.

AmazonasBolivia Vote 2019Chiquitanía