200 CultureShock! Bolivia
of beating up indigenous demonstrators from the Landless
Peasants Movement, as if they were shock troops for large
landowners.
Autonomy advocates boast the presence of natural gas
reserves in their department, but in fact, most of these
reserves are in the Chaco, whose Guarani inhabitants have
supported Kolla demands for nationalisation of gas. In
all there are 11 different original ethnic groups dispersed
throughout the Department of Santa Cruz.
The Kolla Evo Morales won more than 30 per cent of the
presidential vote in Santa Cruz, and anti-racists claim this as
proof that the autonomy movement is simply an exclusive
capitalist movement. Nacion Camba, whose motto is Camba
Fatherland or Death, discounts the argument, claiming
that all three major candidates were from the highlands
and votes were not so much for Morales as against the
traditional parties.
At the centre of Santa Cruz autonomy is the soy agribusiness
which boomed in the mid-1980s thanks to subsidies from
La Paz. According to agrarian expert Miguel Urioste, most
soy producers are Mennonites from Canada, Japanese from
Okinawa, Brazilians and assimilated Kolla colonisers.
Meanwhile, environmentalists have been warning the
public that genetically modifi ed soy is in the works.Trinidad and Cobija
Two other tropical lowland cities also serve as gateways
to the jungle. As previously detailed, Trinidad, population
over 40,000, capital of the Beni Department, is the base for
Fremen’s jungle tours.
A mere 14 km (9 miles) from Trinidad, one can visit
Chuchini, a little known ecological centre run by the dedicated
Hinojosa family, built in the vicinity of a pre-columbian
mound that was part of a vast man-made agricultural
drainage system. Chuchini’s ma-and-pa caretakers can orient
you to piranha fi shing, ancient artefacts, observation of jungle
animals (crocodiles, wading birds, monkeys), tropical lagoons
and cleared hiking trails. The dry season is preferred but in
the rainy season there’s access by motorised canoe. This