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Introduction The Bolivia - Cuiabá gas pipeline, or Rio San Miguel - Cuiabá pipeline, owned by Enron and Shell, is one of the most infamous fossil fuel transportation projects ever built in South America. The announcement in 1998 of the pipeline route through the globally renowned Chiquitano forest and indigenous ancestral lands provoked a swathe of opposition from indigenous communities, as well as Bolivian and international NGOs. As companies and financiers forced the project through the forest, escalating resistance caused delays and massive cost overruns. See Map
As endeavors to mitigate damaging project impacts floundered, a storm of bad publicity shook the key project financier, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). Enron flouted key loan conditions laid down by OPIC for the project. Although the pipeline was completed in 2001, OPIC eventually cancelled their $200 million loan for the project in early 2002. Meanwhile a series of separate allegations over Enron's alleged illegal entrance into Bolivia enmeshed Enron and Bolivian government officials in deepening scandal and sent a new wave of furor from the Chiquitano to the heart of Washington.
Ironically, the Bolivia-Cuiabá pipeline is heralded within the international project finance community as an exemplary case of successful environmental and social risk mitigation. Yet, the project’s much touted community and conservation initiatives are a shambles, and the Chiquitano forest and its indigenous peoples are now staring down the barrel of rapidly encroaching development.
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