At the beginning of the week, a new attack on public health was carried out in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, amid overwhelming impunity. The blockade had such an effect that it prevented garbage trucks from depositing their loads at the municipal landfill of San Miguel de los Junos. The “protest measure”, comparable to an act of savagery, was carried out by parents demanding that the municipal authorities build an educational module in the Palmar del Oratorio area. Fortunately, an agreement between the parties reached in recent hours put an end to the protest and the blockade of the main waste dump in the city.
Last March, it was the turn of the workers of one of the garbage collection companies to demand payment of unpaid wages. According to data from Emacruz, 1,826 tons of waste are generated every day. As a result, during the last blockade, more than 3,600 tons accumulated, scattered and made the environment in the capital of Santa Cruz unbreathable and unhealthy.
In both blockades, no local entity or authority apparently took notice. Furthermore, it is assumed that, as so often, the departmental police were waiting for ‘superior orders’ to intervene. That the Municipal Gendarmerie only operates in ‘safeguarding’ the public markets and that the Ombudsman was distracted by more important matters than the attack committed against the health of the people. And so it is for us, the people of Santa Cruz, in this valley of tears.
