MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Further international help arrives in Bolivia amid unstoppable fires

We appreciate these important gestures of solidarity from friendly countries,” Arce wrote on social media

Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora Wednesday announced the arrival in the next few hours of firefighting teams from Venezuela, Uruguay, and Peru to combat the current crisis. “On behalf of the Bolivian people, we appreciate these important gestures of solidarity from friendly countries,” Arce wrote on social media.

 Venezuela would be sending 61 firefighters and forest fire experts while Uruguay would be contributing a helicopter and other pieces of equipment. In addition, Peru would be supplying other state-of-the-art firefighting weaponry for which 14 Bolivian troops have already been trained, consisting of some 150 boxes that can drop 1,000 liters of water from the air onto the burned areas. The neighboring country would also be sending 15,000-liter tank trucks, and other water tanks, as well as water purification tablets to provide drinking water to people in the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, and Pando.

These reinforcements would add to those already received from Brazil and Chile. More international aid is expected after nearly 4 million hectares have burned so far this year. According to the latest reports, there are still 74 active fires in the department of Santa Cruz alone.

In addition to the environmental crisis, a sanitary problem has erupted in rural areas, where at least two communities needed to be evacuated as smoke has covered every city nationwide, due to which school classes were shifted to online mode. Santa Cruz de la Sierra's breathing air was deemed “dangerous” given its pollution levels. In other parts of the country, the air was found to be “harmful for vulnerable groups” or “very harmful”.

A demonstration was staged in La Paz on Tuesday to demand bolder action against the fires. The protesters carried signs reading messages such as “Bolivia cannot breathe.”