August 7, 2024, 4:01 AM
August 7, 2024, 4:01 AM
“Where are the motorized units? They send soldiers without hydrants or food,” questioned Rubén Darío Arias, member of the Tucabaca Valley Defense Committee, on August 5 through the social networks of the Ministry of Defense.
In the same post, Arias asked what happened to the donations from the Vice Ministry of Civil Defense (Videci).
However, yesterday he reported that Juan Carlos Calvimontes, Vice Minister of Civil Defense, promised a helicopter for the morning of Wednesday 7th.
“As long as they don’t come out with the idea that they are going to bombard the clouds because there is a forecast of 90% rain for that day,” he said ironically.
The activist also confirmed that he received a call from Jhonny Rojas, from the COED of the Governorate, warning that they are registering all vehicles from the different departments, the SEDCAM machinery pool and groups of volunteer firefighters, to go to the fire sites starting this afternoon.
“He also said that a channel for radio communication will be installed on the CRE antennas,” Arias said. “I insisted on the autonomy of the vehicles and on one or two more tracks for Roboré,” he added.
According to the report of the Authority for the Supervision and Social Control of Forests and Land (ABT) of August 6, almost 90% of the areas affected by fire were in the Chiquitana macroregion, in addition to Puerto Suárez, Yapacaní and Guarayos.
In San Matías alone, according to monitoring by the Foundation for the Conservation of the Chiquitano Dry Forest (FCBC), more than 920 thousand hectares were recorded burned, between the Integrated Natural Management Area (ANMI) and the municipality.
However, another monitoring with the NASA | LANCE | FIRMS platform speaks of 700,514.68 hectares.
The ABT report recognizes more than 452 thousand hectares burned in San Matías. The registry of the Santa Cruz Governorate indicates 395 thousand hectares in the Angel Sandoval province.
Environmental groups yesterday expressed their concern about the spread of the fire, which could unite the Roboré and San Matías fires. They said that the announcement of rain and changes in the winds gives them some optimism.
Another point that has been suffering the onslaught of the fire for ten days is the Noel Kempff Mercado Park.
The authorities informed EL DEBER that they have not received any additional help from any other level of the State, apart from the park rangers.
In his speech yesterday, for the national anniversary, President Luis Arce admitted that in the 2024 administration the reports have not changed in Santa Cruz, and that the Chiquitana area is also being affected by forest fires.
He said that efforts have been made to assist countries in the international community to have the firefighters who are helping to fight the fires in Bolivia. “We proposed the formation of a joint command for immediate reactions to natural disasters,” he said.
For his part, the acting governor, Mario Aguilera, yesterday praised the budgetary expenditures executed, despite the economic-financial crisis of the departmental entity, inherited on January 26 of this year since this administration took office.
TO KNOW
THE CHORÉ AGAIN
In recent days, settlers in the El Choré forest reserve have started burning, which is close to 4,000 hectares. This area is the one that last year recorded more than 50 thousand hectares affected for almost two months, and which filled the capital of Santa Cruz with smoke.
