Women at the wheel: the female taxi services bringing safety and independence to Bolivian travel

Sarah Johnson
Tue 3 Dec 2024 06.00 EST



Felicidad Quispe is an Indigenous driver with Linea Lila (Lilac Line) in El Alto, one of a few female-led taxi firms providing safe trips to Bolivian women, children and elderly people, July 2024. Photograph: Claudia Morales/Reuters


Cab companies run by women provide safe rides in a country with one of the worst rates of sexual violence in Latin America


The first hint that something was wrong came when Jacqueline Diaz received a call at work from a friend. “You need to come here, to my shop, now. It’s urgent,” she was told. Diaz rushed to her friend’s shop in La Paz, Bolivia, where she found her daughter, Michelle, who was 12 at the time, crying and in shock.

That morning, on her way to school, a van had pulled up, the door opened and two men pulled her inside before speeding off. Michelle managed to escape by jumping out of the vehicle when it slowed down going over an unpaved section of road. When she stopped running, she recognised the area and made her way to the shop owned by her mum’s friend.

“It really made a big impression on me,” says Diaz. “I realised how important the safety of our children is, because my daughter was kidnapped two blocks from school. Something clicked.” She reported the incident to the police, but no one was arrested.

The life-defining event pushed Diaz to learn how to drive, buy a car and work for Mujeres al Volante (Women at the Wheel), a taxi service exclusively for children, women and older people, for three years.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/dec/03/women-female-taxi-services-safety-independence-to-bolivia-travel

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Article published by the U.N. following trip to Bolivia by a U.N. official in 2007:

UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR
ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES


4. Bolivia is a multi-ethnic country. In 2005 an indigenous president was elected for the first time, and announced his intention of introducing sweeping changes in the country’s social and economic policy aimed at benefiting the indigenous peoples and remedying the historic injustices perpetrated against them. President Morales also appointed several indigenous ministers and vice-ministers to his Cabinet. One of the first decisions of his Government was to dismantle the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs and Native Peoples, which has been replaced by a cross-cutting approach led by the Ministry of the Presidency.

The Government has taken steps to incorporate in domestic law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the General Assembly in September this year. The Political Constitution of the State recently approved for the most part by the Constituent Assembly contains numerous provisions on the collective rights of indigenous peoples, including the concept of indigenous autonomy.

One of the main issues that drew the attention of the Special Rapporteur during his visit is the serious persistence of racism and discrimination against indigenous people, and especially against indigenous women. This is still manifested in the behaviour of public officials at the national and subnational levels and in the attitudes of political parties and pressure groups, which sometimes incite violence against persons based on their indigenous status. Expressions of

anti-indigenous racism frequently occur in some media, which often sacrifice the principles of objectivity and impartiality for the sake of political interests. It is a matter of concern that the current political conflict in Bolivia has given rise to a resurgence in manifestations of racism more suited to a colonial society than a modern democratic State.

Denial of the right to lands and territories, as recognized by the Declaration, is the main focus of concern for indigenous communities in Bolivia, and the principal source of violation of their rights. While some progress has been made in land reform and the granting of title under the Act on the National Agrarian Reform Institute and community renewal of agrarian reform, there are still many obstacles in the way of this process, which is a source of frustration for the communities. In the highlands, where smallholdings and extremely small plots (known as “surcofundios”) are prevalent, many indigenous communities are demanding a reconstitution of their ancestral territories. In the Eastern region (Oriente) and the Bolivian Amazon, land has been consolidated, in many cases illegally, into very large estates (“latifundios”), giving rise to numerous conflicts with the indigenous people who have been affected and, in some cases, displaced, and serious violations of their human rights have been documented.

A matter of special concern is the bondage in which Guaraní communities are still living in three departments of Bolivia as a result of historical dispossession of their territories; the Special Rapporteur was able to observe this personally. Also of concern is the situation of high-risk vulnerable communities such as the Yuki people in the tropical lowlands of Cochabamba and the Ayoreo in the department of Santa Cruz.

The Special Rapporteur was able to examine several cases of environmental pollution caused by extractive industries, with highly detrimental effects on the health and habitat of adjoining communities. This is the case of mining activities in the departments of Oruro and Potosí, as well as hydrocarbon extraction in other areas.

The mobilization of indigenous peoples in recent years has led to substantial progress in recognition of their rights and their role in the national political process. The many documented instances of assault and attacks on indigenous leaders and human rights defenders, with the support of economic actors and local authorities, are a matter of concern, and reflect the difficulties in the way of building a pluralistic democratic society in the country.

More:
https://un.arizona.edu/2007-report-situation-indigenous-peoples-bolivia

(The report by the UN official was the faintest shadow of the reality in Bolivia for the very substantial native Bolivian population.

Indigenous Bolivians were unable to vote before a revolution in 1952, and could NOT walk upon the sidewalks used by the ruling "white" class, which calls them "fu**in' Indians" or "llama abortions," etc. They have been terrorized and beaten and worse up to this day. There are fascist militias of young men who drive into their neighborhoods and abuse them, even burning their homes, carrying clubs embedded with barbed wire.





























Adding political "cartoon":