Guaraní people turn to the law to fight latest battle with Bolivian authorities | Toby Stirling Hill

In a bid to protect their land, the indigenous people are challenging the Morales government over decrees opening up protected areas for oil and gas exploration

The history of Bolivia's Guarani, an indigenous people living in the country's southern lowlands, is one of struggle in defence of their territory. In 1892, an uprising against local landowners ended with the massacre of more than 2,000 Guarani. A century later, Guarani activists confronted oil companies seeking to exploit the riches buried under their homeland of the Bolivian Chaco.

Now they are preparing to fight on a new front. On 24 September, three Guarani leaders travelled from the dry heat of lowland Chaco to the chill mountain air of La Paz to deliver a legal petition to the country's constitutional court, challenging a series of energy decrees passed by the government of President Evo Morales.