The people of Los Toldos, a remote village in the northwestern province of Salta, face shortages of essential supplies as the only access route via Bolivia is blocked by a strike in the neighbouring country.
“We have fuel in the power station to last just another 24 hours,” Los Toldos resident Ingrid Zabala told Pagina 12 via email last night. “Without electricity we will be unable to communicate by phone or internet.” Food provisions for the approximately 2,200 residents are expected to last until the end of the week.
View Como llegar a Los Toldos in a larger map
Less than 20kms from the border and wedged between mountains and the Yungas forest, Los Toldos is only accessible over land via a stretch of Bolivia’s ruta 1 highway. Since last Wednesday, this route has been blocked by sugar-cane workers engaged in a conflict with industrial sugar producers in the region, with the prostesters saying the action was “indefinite”.
“They are not dealing with the demands of the sugar-cane workers,” said Zabala, whose husband is reportedly stuck on the other side of the border.
Los Toldos was previously part of Bolivia, but became Argentine in 1941 after the 1925 bilateral border agreement came into force.
Zabala claims the village has suffered before from protests in the neighbouring country, but is looking for local authorities for help. “The definitive solution is not for Bolivia to open up the highway for us, but to establish a highway on Argentine soil.”
The post Remote Village in Salta ‘Cut Off’ by Strike in Bolivia appeared first on The Argentina Independent.
