Vicenta Calizaya Quispe
Vicenta Calizaya Quispe is a member of Red Nacional de Mujeres en Defensa de la Madre Tierra (RENAMAT), an organisation defending indigenous and peasant women rights in the Oruro, La Paz and Potosí regions of Bolivia against the destructive impacts of extrative industries. The group carries out advocacy, awareness raising and capacity building of women against violations of their land and natural resource rights. RENAMAT sees violence against ‘Mother Earth’ and women as interlinked forms of oppression, and works to expose the impacts that explotation and spoliation policies and environmental violence has on women.
In Bolivia, some issues concerning human rights defenders have been particularly worrisome in recent years, such as the harassment of defenders working with indigenous and campesino communities, notably the case of the conflict between indigenous groups and coca-growers in the Indigenous Territory of the Isiboro Sécure National Park (TIPNIS). International organisations, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, condemn the violence against the targeted HRDs in that context.
