Andean Information Network

On August 16, after 19 days of blockades and hunger strikes in urban Potosí and surrounding areas, Potosí civic leaders and MAS officials reached an agreement to end protests.  After protest leaders and Bolivian government officials met in Sucre, the Morales administration agreed to begin work on the demonstrators’ six demands.[i] While this agreement marks [...]

Andres Schipani’s article, “Jessica Anne Jordan Burton: beauty queen defies cartel beasts in Bolivia’s war on cocaine,” presents an inaccurate, hyperbolic, and sexist account, which projects narrow-minded generalizations and grossly distorts the current reality of Bolivian drug policy.  Unfortunately, this erroneous portrayal has been widely reprinted and quoted in the English-speaking press.
Inaccurate or incomplete information [...]

Urban Potosí, once the richest city in South America, is now one of the poorest.  A mining center during the colonial and post-colonial eras, economic progress has been slow in recent decades and the region remains largely isolated with poor infrastructure.  Previous administrations did little to promote development in the region.  Campesino and working-class social [...]

This Tuesday, June 29, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations will hold a  confirmation hearing for President Obama’s nomination of Mark Feierstein to head USAID programs in Latin America.   Feierstein, of the firm Greenberg, Quinlan and Rosner, served as a political adviser to former Bolivian president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada during his 2002 Presidential campaign.  [...]

Ten initial observations:

The study cites a 1% increase in Bolivia’s coca cultivation from 2008-2009, from 30,500 hectares to 30,900 hectares. From 2007-2008, the UN reported an increase of approximately six percent.
Bolivia remains in third (and last) place for coca cultivation with 19% of the worldwide total crop.
These findings suggest that cooperative coca reduction (racionalización), which [...]

Hopefully, Assistant Secretary of State, Arturo Valenzuela’s June 1 visit to La Paz will jumpstart efforts to reach and sign a new bilateral framework agreement between Bolivia and the U.S.  A central point of contention continues to be broader transparency and ownership of development aid programs. However, it is not necessary to start from [...]

New Human Rights Ombudsman finally sworn in
Congress swore in the new Human Rights Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo), emeritus Methodist Bishop Rolando Villena, on May 13. According to the 2009 Constitution, Villena will serve a six year term, without the possibility of reelection. Congress chose Villena amidst debate and unfounded accusations [...]

Foreign Minister, David Choquehuanca, announced on May 11 that the Bolivian government still wishes to change the course of its relationship with the United States, but that this may take up to five years. “We want improved relations, but with respect; we’re not desperate.” He affirmed that the Bolivian government does [...]

Yesterday, former Human Rights Ombudsman (Defensor del Pueblo) Waldo Albarracín told the press that the deaths of David Callisaya Mamani (16) and Fidel Mario Hernan Jiménez (19) last week in Caranavi should make President Morales ineligible to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for which he was recently nominated.  It’s a valid argument that nevertheless presents [...]

The results of April 4 departmental and municipal elections largely reflect previous trends in voter choices. Initial estimates indicate that the official MAS party won five out of nine governor posts: Cochabamba, La Paz, Chuquisaca, Potosi and Oruro. They may have also prevailed in Pando, although that departmental race remains too close to call before [...]