Habilito: Debt for Life

Habilito: Debt for Life (2010) is a documentary film directed by Chuck Sturtevant, Daniela Ricco Quiroga.

Documents the conflicts and tensions that arise between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas.