On January 11, Mongabay reported on the pernicious impacts that El Chepete-Balas massive hydroelectric project would have on more than 5,000 indigenous people and the biosphere of the Madidi National Park and Pilón Lajas Reserve. The construction of two dams on Beni River’s Chepete Gorge and El Bala Gorge, respectively, is a project that dates back to the 1950s, later promoted by dictator Hugo Banzer in the 1990s, and resurrected by Evo Morales’ government in 2016.
According to a report by Jessica Camille Aguirre, the hydroelectric project is meant as a source of income, by exporting energy to Brazil, but economically unsound. Geodata, the Italian company hired to study the project’s economic feasibility in 2017, recommended Morales’ government to wait 20 years to begin the project to be able to really see profits from such a large-scale millionaire investment.