Bolivia natives camp at presidential place

After a chilly night camped in front of Bolivia's presidential palace, native leaders Thursday demanded a face-to-face meeting with President Evo Morales over his government's plan to build a highway through their ancestral homeland. Nearly 2,000 indigenous people made a triumphant entry into La Paz Wednesday at the end of a two-month march from the Amazon against the plans for a road through the pristine Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory. The marchers, who set out in August and trekked 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the lowlands high into the plateaus of the Andes, were greeted as heroes as they entered the capital and made their way to Murillo Square and the presidential palace. The government offered a dialogue for 10:30 am local time (1430 GMT) Thursday with Communications Minister Ivan Canelasbut, but the protesters said they were only interested in talks only if Morales himself were to attend. Indigenous leader Fernando Vargas also insisted that the meeting be held in the presidential palace itself "where Morales carries out his duties." Through a spokesman, the government offered earlier in the week to meet with the marchers "to iron out" relations and build consensus." But the protesters said their goal in the meeting would be to press their 16-point program, including their top agenda item: getting the government to revoke is plans to build the thoroughfare. About 50,000 native people from three different native groups live in the remote territory in the humid Amazon lowlands. They fear that a road will bring a flood of landless farmers from the highlands into their lands. Earlier this month, Morales agreed to postpone construction of the roadway, a delay that was later approved by Bolivia's legislature. But the protesters are seeking assurances that the project -- or at least the Amazon portion of it -- will be scuttled for good. "If work begins, we will fight in the forest until death," said indigenous leader Adolfo Chavez. Tens of thousands of people lined the steep streets of La Paz on Wednesday, waving Bolivian flags and white handkerchiefs to the sounds of firecrackers and patriotic songs, cheering and applauding as the marchers passed, accompanied by groups of workers and students. The standoff poses a major challenge to Morales, a leftist who has been in power for five years as Bolivia's first indigenous president but now finds himself entangled in a struggle between native peoples' rights and economic development. The marchers, including women, children and elderly people, endured heavy rains, low temperatures, mountainous terrain and police brutality during their two-month long journey to La Paz. A police crackdown on the marchers that left 74 people injured in late September triggered a wave of indignation, a general strike and the resignations of several top government officials, including two ministers. Work on the highway, which was supposed to be operational in 2014, began in June, although not on the segment running through the protected park. The isolated peoples from the humid lowlands are not from the main indigenous groups that make up most of majority-indigenous Bolivia's population, the highland Andean Aymara and Quechua.