The land traffickers who turned the Bolivian Chiquitania (eastern Bolivia) into part of a real-estate market based on illegal land appropriation are now advancing into the Bolivian Amazon, which occupies 65% of Bolivia's territory in the heart of South America.
The invaders, who present themselves under the guise of landless social organizations, have an economic apparatus capable of deforesting hundreds of hectares of forest in a matter of weeks. And what was once the home of native Indigenous peoples, fauna, and flora is either plundered or converted into extensive crops.
This reporting project examines the following questions: Who are the land traffickers in the Bolivian Amazon? How do they operate? What role does the Bolivian state play? And how are Indigenous communities organizing to defend their territories?
