Delmi Morales Nosa never imagined she'd need her family's bow and arrow for anything other than hunting. But when construction started last year on a highway set to bisect her homeland, Bolivia's second-largest national park (known here as Tipnis), she reconsidered. "The road will ruin our way of life, and we will defend ourselves by any means necessary," said the indigenous Yuracaré mother of two, as she shoved wood into her outdoor adobe oven. Having survived centuries of incursion by the Spanish, rubber traders, and loggers, the park's residents say the road -- which environmental impact studies predict could contaminate the Isiboro and Sécure rivers and push 11 endangered species toward extinction -- represents the gravest threat yet. Surveying the remote wilderness around her, Morales Nosa said Tipnis residents are preparing their traditional weapons: "We will not let the bulldozers in here," she said.
But what Morales Nosa doesn't realize is that stopping the road might require somewhat more formidable weapons. Bolivian President Evo Morales touts the project as vital to the country's future. "Thankfully, [the highway's detractors] are only a few, while the great majority of Bolivians support this project because they know that highways bring development," he said a year ago. Although this may be true, the controversial 152-mile stretch of pavement-to-be is also vital for something much bigger: a continentwide infrastructure network championed by neighboring Brazil, the region's dominant power and economic engine.
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