An investigative report by journalist Roberto Navia discovered that, without government authorization or any environmental impact study, more than 200 Mennonite families built a 150-meter bridge over the Parapetí River, at a cost of approximately half a million dollars, in half of the forests of the Bañados del Isoso, in the Gran Chaco region of Santa Cruz.
Due to its mighty waters and crumbling sands, the Parapetí River was the natural limit that defended the Kaa Iya National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area (AMNI) from invasions by farmers or ranchers. An elementary financial logic led to the conclusion that it was not a good business to produce on the other side of the river, if in times of rain or intense drought it would not be possible to move products or livestock.
So what that group of Mennonites did was buy 14,400 hectares of the Chaco dry forest of Cuarirenda, on the other side of the river, and built the bridge whose first use was to introduce heavy machinery and deforest the forest. They did it, says the journalist, in silence, and behind the State’s back.
This 150-meter-long structure was built during the time of the 2021 pandemic, and is located in the Cordillera province, in the municipality of Charagua, 15 kilometers from the Guarani community of Cuarirenda, 285 kilometers south of Santa Cruz. of the Sierra.
In parallel, the Mennonites have opened a road 15 kilometers long and 25 meters wide between the community of Cuarirenda and the riverbed, and another 3.5 kilometers on the other side of the Parapetí.
The bridge was completed in October 2021 and since then 15 dismantling caterpillars have settled inside the purchased property and preyed on everything in their path.
So far, says Roberto Navia, around 3,000 hectares have been cleared and the machinery is refueled thanks to a tanker that crosses the bridge with 30,000 liters of diesel so that the caterpillars do not rest.
The curious thing, according to what is read in the journalist’s account, is that the Mennonites have no problem talking about a bridge, they tell without problems that it cost them $500,000, that they did it without asking the government for permission, that they built it alone, “without help from Bolivian authorities” -they say as if they were in another country- nor from engineers.
And yet, without having been built by engineers, they know all the technical information about the structure by heart: it weighs 150 tons, is 150 meters long, 3.5 meters wide, five meters high, and is supported by five pairs of columns buried at a depth of 7.5 meters.
If there is already a Mennonite colony on the other side of the river, nothing will prevent several others from reaching the place, crossing the bridge and settling in the Bañados del Isoso.
Nothing can be done anymore, all the work is on track, the images show extensive deforested strips in the middle of a completely green contour, there are already houses built and up to 18 water wells have already been drilled, although the goal is to reach 100, a goal that They will easily get there because they are on one of the most important wetlands in the country and on the continent.
What’s more, they say that they soon plan to change the name of the new colony where they settled, which for now keeps its name of Cuarirenda.
Navia’s great journalistic work – excellent workmanship, as we are used to – highlights the sad reality of land management in Bolivia: here everyone does what they want, and it doesn’t matter if these invasions affect protected areas, such as in this case it happens with the AMNI Kaa Iya.
An investigative report by journalist Roberto Navia discovered that, without government authorization or any environmental impact study, more than 200 Mennonite families built a 150-meter bridge over the Parapetí River, at a cost of approximately half a million dollars, in half of the forests of the Bañados del Isoso, in the Gran Chaco region of Santa Cruz.
Due to its mighty waters and crumbling sands, the Parapetí River was the natural limit that defended the Kaa Iya National Park and Integrated Management Natural Area (AMNI) from invasions by farmers or ranchers. An elementary financial logic led to the conclusion that it was not a good business to produce on the other side of the river, if in times of rain or intense drought it would not be possible to move products or livestock.
So what that group of Mennonites did was buy 14,400 hectares of the Chaco dry forest of Cuarirenda, on the other side of the river, and built the bridge whose first use was to introduce heavy machinery and deforest the forest. They did it, says the journalist, in silence, and behind the State’s back.
This 150-meter-long structure was built during the time of the 2021 pandemic, and is located in the Cordillera province, in the municipality of Charagua, 15 kilometers from the Guarani community of Cuarirenda, 285 kilometers south of Santa Cruz. of the Sierra.
In parallel, the Mennonites have opened a road 15 kilometers long and 25 meters wide between the community of Cuarirenda and the riverbed, and another 3.5 kilometers on the other side of the Parapetí.
The bridge was completed in October 2021 and since then 15 dismantling caterpillars have settled inside the purchased property and preyed on everything in their path.
So far, says Roberto Navia, around 3,000 hectares have been cleared and the machinery is refueled thanks to a tanker that crosses the bridge with 30,000 liters of diesel so that the caterpillars do not rest.
The curious thing, according to what is read in the journalist’s account, is that the Mennonites have no problem talking about a bridge, they tell without problems that it cost them $500,000, that they did it without asking the government for permission, that they built it alone, “without help from Bolivian authorities” -they say as if they were in another country- nor from engineers.
And yet, without having been built by engineers, they know all the technical information about the structure by heart: it weighs 150 tons, is 150 meters long, 3.5 meters wide, five meters high, and is supported by five pairs of columns buried at a depth of 7.5 meters.
If there is already a Mennonite colony on the other side of the river, nothing will prevent several others from reaching the place, crossing the bridge and settling in the Bañados del Isoso.
Nothing can be done anymore, all the work is on track, the images show extensive deforested strips in the middle of a completely green contour, there are already houses built and up to 18 water wells have already been drilled, although the goal is to reach 100, a goal that They will easily get there because they are on one of the most important wetlands in the country and on the continent.
What’s more, they say that they soon plan to change the name of the new colony where they settled, which for now keeps its name of Cuarirenda.
Navia’s great journalistic work – excellent workmanship, as we are used to – highlights the sad reality of land management in Bolivia: here everyone does what they want, and it doesn’t matter if these invasions affect protected areas, such as in this case it happens with the AMNI Kaa Iya.
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