Cultural Survival expresses our deep concern and indignation in the face of the continuous criminalization and rights violations against Indigenous defenders in Bolivia. In October 2024, the Quechua community of Totoral Chico rejected a farce consultation by mining company La Salvada Sociedad Colectiva, which was already operating in their territory. Now, the leaders are being threatened and criminalized. All eyes on Bolivia!
Movimiento Maricas Bolivia is a community-based 2SLGBTQ+ organization made up of people who self-identify as Indian-Indigenous-cholas (Aymara and Quechua) as well as maricas-machorras-travas. It was founded on May 17, 2010 in the radio program "Soy Marica y Qué," which ran from 2010- 2015 and was broadcast on Radio Deseo 103.3 FM in La Paz. It later ran in El Alto as "Nación Marica" (2016-2020), broadcast by Radio Líder 97 FM.
Radio Pedro Ignacio Muiba aims to support and promote the exercise of individual and collective rights. It disseminates, informs, and raises awareness about the rights of Indigenous Peoples and campesinos to encourage the protection of their cultural, ancestral, and historical values, respecting their ways of life, knowledge, languages, and traditions.
Ecuanasha Indigenous Digital Television was born in 2016 as a result of losses suffered by the Indigenous communities of Uchupiamonas, Tacana, Mosetene, Tsimane, and Esse Ejja, who are part of the commonwealth of communities of the Beni, Tuichi, and Quiquivey Rivers. The main purpose of Ecuanasha Digital Indigenous Television is the defense of the rights of these communities.
We express our utmost concern regarding the serious violations of the rights of the Quechua community of Totoral Chico of the Ayllu Acre Antequera, Oruro, in Bolivia, including the organization of a false consultation on October 23, 2024.
This “consultation” seeks to legitimize the activity of the mining company La Salvada Sociedad Colectiva, owned by the Avicaya Mining Workers Union, who have been operating illegally in the territory since 2013 without obtaining consent from the Quechua and Aymara communities that inhabit it.
By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee)
By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee Nation)
By Bobbie Chew Bigby (Cherokee)
By Marizol Huarachi Colomi
Imagine traveling 150 kilometers from Cochabamba, Bolivia for approximately 5 hours and with great caution to reach the municipality of Independencia on a dirt access road that is narrow and winding. This journey is an opportunity to see dazzling desert, tropical, and valley landscapes and to experience their respective climates.
Land Acknowledgement
We acknowledge that we are headquartered on Massachusett land, in Cambridge, MA, and we thank the past, current, and future Indigenous stewards of this territory.
