October 14, 2024, 4:00 AM
October 14, 2024, 4:00 AM
In the first half of August, when the Otuquis Park national protected area was in the middle of a fire that originated on the Santa Angélica property (of Freddy Barbery), a request for a permit to enter the Santa María property, supposedly owned by Giovanna Varalta Ciavolella, arrived. .
On that occasion the entry was authorized by the park management, dependent on the National Service of Protected Areas (Sernap), which upon realizing the error began an eviction process on September 11, since the occupants did not present original documentation, but also It was fiscal land, that is, property of the Bolivian State.
According to complaints from Sernap itself, on September 9, Robert Lehms, representing Varalta, appeared at the Otuquis address; Juan Carlos Villagómez, former ABT official; and Ignacio Parapaino, Secretary of Justice of Cidob, and spoke with the then director, Marco Canaviri, and the administrator of that protected area, Fernando Enrique Mérida.
According to the statements of some actors at the meeting, one of the topics addressed was the request for an extension of the stay of these people for three months so that they can demonstrate seniority, since the INRA would provide viability, after a new inspection.
“What the Cidob leader tried was to intercede and put pressure, ensuring that there would be no problems. What we know is that the Brazilian family that is trying to enter has a lot of money and land in Cuatro Cañadas and elsewhere. The former ABT official said that he had the necessary contacts to get the papers out in record time,” they said.
Protection
Faced with the pressure to evict and the refusal of Sernap to allow the entry of machinery, food and other supplies to the so-called Rancho Santa María, Varalta filed a constitutional protection in the Second Chamber, by members Aldo Quezada and Efraín Cruz Limachi.
On behalf of Varalta, Arlindo Pontremolez Varalta, naturalized Bolivian in 2013, signs the documents, one year after the reversion to the former owner Juan Miglino Vargas, and the same year when Giovanna Varalta acquired the property in Otuquis, according to the transfer minutes and data. from the official Gazette.
Among the arguments of the amparo, the plaintiffs questioned the little time that the Sernap management gave them to present the original documentation for Rancho Santa María, but also the abuse against Varalta “as a woman.”
Likewise, the resource highlighted that the entrance is not to the park area (strictly protected), but to the Integrated Management Natural Area (ANMI), which allows anthropogenic activities.
Likewise, the protection states that the livestock sector complains about the abuses in the protection of the protected area, which prevents them from freely exercising their economic activity, complaints that – it argues – were reflected in the minutes of September 17, after a meeting between Asogaps, representatives of the protected area and the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN).
From Sernap they assured that the aforementioned meeting with FAN and other actors had a different purpose. “Those involved in the park were called to update the management plan and the social actors were called, but the Varaltas want to show support from the ranchers, which is not true,” they clarified.
INRA version
On September 18, through a document, Sernap requested INRA to reconfirm the legal status of these lands, as fiscal unavailable.
Only on October 7, from that instance, what was initially maintained by Sernap was confirmed, that it was about unavailable public lands.
The DGAT-INF 5060/2024 technical report, prepared by Rómulo Renán Cordero Callizaya, INRA fiscal land monitor, and addressed to Fabiola Katherine Barrero Orellano, general director of Fiscal Land Administration, concludes that “after reviewing the graphical database and alphanumeric of the General Directorate of Land Administration, and contrasting with the plan attached to the memorial, it is clear that as a result of the sanitation, Administrative Resolution RA-ST 320/2013, of February 2013, was issued, which declares tax land (the property) , on behalf of INRA, on behalf of the Plurinational State.”
Likewise, the document highlights that this land is unavailable, because it overlaps the Park and the Otuquis ANMI.
On the other hand, Raquel Lobo, leader of the Colonia community, near Otuquis, assured that no one ever lived in Rancho Santa María, not even when it was owned by Miglino.
He added that the leader of the San Juan community was even part of social control during the 2013 reversal process.
In the first week of October there was a change in the management of Sernap, Marco Canaviri, who was processing the eviction, was dismissed from the central office in La Paz. Walter Michael Méndez Saucedo was appointed in his place, who would have to take on the litigation in the Agro-Environmental Court, to begin this week.
EL DEBER twice asked Robert Lehms for a version, who requested admission on behalf of the Varaltas, but he did not respond.
Likewise, Ignacio Parapaino, from Cidob, was contacted, who denied the accusations and attributed them to resentment over the dismissal of the previous director.
He stressed that there are no papers that confirm these complaints.
Alex Villagómez, former ABT official, was also contacted. His response was “you are wasting your time.”
Between September 10 and 12, a lien of 15 thousand dollars was registered in the alodial, in favor of Giovanna Varalta, and approved by Jessica Chuvé Paz Soldán, Real Rights operator of Puerto Suárez.
TO KNOW
AUDIENCE
These days, the parties would go to the agro-environmental instance.
IN BRAZIL
According to the Brazilian business database, CNPJ BIZ, Giovanna Varalta is a rural producer, with the opening date of her business in July of this year.
year, one month before applying for admission to Otuquis.
BUSINESS GROUP
Several members of the Varalta family are part of Shamah Participações Ltda, dedicated to non-financial holding activities, and also to real estate transactions, property rentals, etc.
