Urgent Fund for Activists: Defensores de Tariquia
We are working with the Comité de Defensores de Tariquia Canton Chiquiaca, which since 2018 has protected the “Tariquia National Flora and Fauna Reserve” from the intention of Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), with the transnational company PETROBRAS, to explore for the exploitation of hydrocarbon resources there.
The Committee, made up of community members from the ten communities that make up the Canton, in 2021 and with the intermediation of the Permanent Assembly of Human Rights and the Ombudsman’s Office, managed to get them to stop the exploratory tasks. In October 2024, YPFB and PETROBRAS tried again and the Committee set up a blockade point in the Community of Zaican. On October 11, the Bolivian police used force against the blockade and YPFB filed a complaint with the Tarija Department Prosecutor’s Office against 30 members of the Committee for obstructing work (to date, the complaint has been extended to 7 more community members who have not yet been notified).
“This situation has weakened the Defense Committee and left it very afraid, since the presence of police at the blockade has caused YPFB personnel to continue gathering information. There is intimidation and harassment due to the presence of police, they take photographs, record videos and at night they harass the few people who remain at the blockade. There are many needs, including a lawyer who responds to the interests of the community members, who provides them with less technical and understandable information, who gives them the security that they are being represented and that there are national and international regulations that protect them. There is also a lack of food for the communal pot, flashlights and economic resources to move around. Given YPFB’s insistence on entering the area, it has divided the population by promising them work and economic resources from hydrocarbon exploitation”.
On October 15, the 10 communities of the Chiquiaca Canton met and held a vote by communal member to decide whether the companies would join. The result was 182 votes for “YES” and 292 for “NO.” The next day, YPFB launched an advertising spot announcing that the “yes” had won, confusing the population and distorting the information. Thus, on October 17, a commission from the Chiquiaca Canton held a press conference in Tarija announcing the democratic decision and handed out copies of the minutes of the meeting to different authorities such as the Government of the Department of Tarija, the Ombudsman’s Office, the Human Rights Assembly, YPFB, the Ministry of Environment and Water, the Police, the Municipality of Entre Ríos, among others.
Exploration at Domo Oso X3 continues and the companies argue that it is not within the Natural Reserve but next to it. This place is at the headwaters of water sources such as Quebrada el Oso and Quebrada de Zaican that feed the Chiquiaca River that runs through the 10 communities and joins the Tarija and Bermejo Rivers on the border with Argentina.
It is essential to care for those who care for us and to quickly support environmental activists and defenders in the face of personal or organizational emergency situations, consequences of the work they do every day, defending the territory and natural resources. Thus, through this Urgent Fund for Activists we will strengthen this Committee in Bolivia and continue to advance with this line of funding that is permanently open and linked to legal assistance, visibility and advocacy, protection and self-care measures, and relocation of Environmental Defenders and their families in emergency situations.
*Photos: Courtesy of Comité de Defensores de Tariquia Canton Chiquiaca
