AMY GOODMAN: Thousands of Bolivians are marching toward the capital to protest a series of neoliberal reforms proposed by the government. The Indigenous and campesino marchers have been walking for nearly a month, beginning in the Amazon basin, snaking their way hundreds of miles up to the capital, La Paz. They’re men and women, children and grandparents, demanding the government abandon the constitutional reforms they say will increase inequality.

The government reforms were drafted by an elite group of bureaucrats in consultation with the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.N. Development Programme and the World Bank. The reforms pave the way for economic deregulation by actually eliminating key parts of the Bolivian Constitution. The articles to be eliminated include respecting public lands, preserving cultural heritage and fostering national economic independence.

The marchers are expected to arrive in the capital within the next 24 hours. They intend to camp out in La Paz until the government agrees to sponsor a democratic assembly to analyze and propose its own constitutional reforms.

Meanwhile, concern is growing that the Bolivian government will crack down on the protesters as they did two years ago during the water wars in Cochabamba. When Bechtel Corporation privatized the water industry, doubled and tripled water prices, protests erupted throughout the city. The government responded by firing on its citizens, killing one protester and wounding hundreds more.

We go now to Derrick Hindery, who is the Bolivia coordinator of Amazon Watch. Can you tell us who has pushed through these reforms that the marchers are protesting?

DERRICK HINDERY: Yes. Thanks for having me, Amy.

Well, in order to understand the origins of the march, you have to know that about a year ago, in May 2001, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Programme financed this elite group, that you refer to as nine so-called experts, to develop a proposal to reform the Bolivian Constitution. And amazingly, when they finished it, in about November 2001, it became leaked to the public, and it outraged Indigenous and peasant groups, as well as a number of nonprofit organizations, because the reforms, as you were alluding to, would essentially weaken and eliminate regulations that do favor Indigenous and peasant groups, protect the environment, and they would transfer control over natural resources, like oil and gas, to foreign corporations, such as everybody’s favorite corporation, Enron, and Shell, which have been operating in Bolivia.

AMY GOODMAN: What are the Indigenous marchers demanding?

DERRICK HINDERY: Well, the key demand, as you alluded to, is the formation of a democratic assembly in which Indigenous groups, peasants and really all social sectors could participate in modifying the Constitution on their own terms. And they’re demanding that this happen before the elections, which are coming up at the end of June. And another key demand that they’re making is to eliminate a proposed — a proposal to reform the environmental and forestry law that would favor large-scale logging companies.

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Enron. Of Enron’s many political maneuvers in Washington before its fall into bankruptcy, winning the promise of federal financing of a 400-mile pipeline from Bolivia to Brazil may have been — may have had some of the most enduring consequences, that according to a piece in The Seattle Times recently. Can you talk about Enron in Bolivia?

DERRICK HINDERY: All right. Thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, this was probably one of the most egregious projects, that was not very well known. It was recently published in The Washington Post in May 2000. A U.S. government agency in 1999, in June, authorized a $200 million loan to Enron and Shell to build a pipeline directly through the Chiquitano forest, which is the last, most intact dry tropical forest in the world, has about 90 species living in the forest that are listed on the CITES, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. And just two days before the OPIC voted on the loan, a few conservation organizations, including Wildlife Conservation Society, Missouri Botanical Garden and World Wildlife Fund, negotiated a $30 million conservation program to the exclusion of the state and Indigenous groups. And apparently, Enron and Shell leaked this news to the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and they approved the loan right through the middle of the forest. So it was — the conservation program was like a green stamp for the pipeline.

AMY GOODMAN: And OPIC was supposed to be the agency in charge of protecting the sensitive forests, such as the Chiquitano?

DERRICK HINDERY: That’s right. That’s perhaps the biggest irony, is that OPIC has a statutory requirement that it cannot finance infrastructure projects like this pipeline through primary forests. And, of course, a number of conservation organizations claimed that the Chiquitano forest was indeed a primary forest.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, Derrick Hindery, the response to the campesino Indigenous protesters marching to Bolivia right now, expected to arrive in La Paz by tomorrow?

DERRICK HINDERY: Yes, a number of groups, NGOs are extremely concerned and fear that the government might intervene at this point, because the elections are coming up so close. And so, at this point, a lot of support is needed. We’re calling on people to send letters to the government, as well as to the international financial institutions that really financed these controversial constitutional reforms.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you very much for being with us, Derrick Hindery, who is the Bolivia coordinator for Amazon Watch. Thanks for joining us.