"This is governing by obeying the people."

Territorio Indígena y Parque Nacional Isiboro Secure or TIPNIS is a protected area of Bolivia where there are  four rainforest ecosystems, approximately fifty distinct indigenous communities, as well as countless species of flora and fauna that have yet to be documented.

Why does all this matter you wonder? Because the government was planning on cutting a massive highway through the whole area to make the lives easier for Brazilian/Bolivian Industry. Fortunately, the inhabitants of the area took a serious stand against this road. At first their protests were not taken into consideration at all by their government. In fact, President Morales (who is surprisingly the nations first indigenous-born leader as well as a politician who has allegedly always had an environmentally friendly campaign) was quoted to say "Whether they like it or not, we will build that road." Charming, right?

http://bolivianthoughts.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/brazils-role-in-the-bolivian-tipnis-road/

The two images above show the locals views on the situation. In the first they show Brazil's Industry on the edge of demolishing their beloved land. In the second image it shows a road already running through the TIPNIS, with Mother Nature about to be hung. 

So the people protested. Some protests were not as peaceful as hoped and were "managed" with teargas and batons. The photos below were retrieved from a site dedicated to the TIPNIS. The website was in Spanish, but the title of this album read "BRUTAL REPRESSION OF PROGRESS IN DEFENSE OF TIPNIS"; when translated means "Brutal Repression of Progress in Defense of TIPNIS".

http://www.isiborosecure.com/tipnisfotos.htm

The people of Bolivia arranged for a walk in protest of this new road, to go from Trinidad, Bolivia to La Paz, a distance (according to googlemaps) of just under 850km. It is said the walkers left Trinidad in August, and just got into La Paz last week. Amazing people!

http://bolivianthoughts.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/bolivian-indigenous-tipnis-protest-walk/

https://nacla.org/blog/2011/10/14/bolivias-tipnis-conflict-moves-la-paz

Fortunately, the President changed his mind due to a massive decrease in his popularity. Go figure. The last (and best) part of the article last read:


"In announcing that the Amazon road through TIPNIS would be canceled, Morales said that the region would now be designated and "untouchable zone.""


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/10/bolivia-axes-plans-to-build-highway-in-the-amazon.php