Andean Information Network

Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian NGO, says that though the coca compost campaign is laudable it will have little impact on Bolivia’s anti-drugs effort, the success of which relies far more on demand in the west than on supply at home.

Ms. KATHRYN LEDEBUR (Coca Analyst): One of the things you would have to do to address that problem significantly is address international demand for cocaine, and that is something that’s completely out of Bolivia’s hands.
http://www.npr.org/2011/02/04/133489109/Coca-Compost-Boosts-Bolivias-Anti-Drug-Campaign

“Si la administración de Obama está interesada sinceramente en la integridad de la Convención, debería apoyar la enmienda propuesta por Bolivia”, dijo Kathryn Ledebur, directora de AIN, según el comunicado.

Some regional interest groups, including the Washington Office on Latin America and the Andean Information Network, wrote U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this week asking the Obama administration to drop its objection to lifting the ban before it’s too late.

The modern history of coca in Bolivia is a complex story. During the 1990s, successive U.S. administrations tried to eradicate coca totally in the Chapare region, but accepted growth of almost 30,000 acres in other areas, according to information from the Andean Information Network. Forced eradication in the Chapare proved a move that pitted U.S. [...]

[...] More fundamentally, the April vote can be viewed as demonstrating the persistent independence and political diversity of the Bolivian electorate, especially at the local level. As Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network told NACLA, “Bolivian voters build in their own checks and balances by electing leaders from different parties at different levels of [...]

U.S.-Bolivia Relations: Looking Ahead
 Tuesday, March 3, 2009

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Bolivia’s leftist leader claimed Saturday that Washington continues to conspire against him — despite President Barack Obama’s pledge of a new era of mutual respect toward Latin America.
President Evo Morales told a news conference at a summit in Trinidad and Tobago that he asked Obama to publicly repudiate an assassination plot against [...]

“I don’t think 14 seats give you control of Congress,” said Kathryn Ledebur, head of the Andean Information Network think tank. “Nor is it a forgone conclusion that indigenous representation will eternally support (Morales’ party).”
She said the opposition is weaker than before Morales took office in January 2006 partly because “their own sloppy heavy-handed tactics” [...]

"Sometimes you get to the front of the queue and the diesel has already run out," says Agapito Serviche from his pick-up truck.
"The diesel does not last long enough for a day's work, so I have to stop working and come back to the queue just to put food on the table."
Blame game
Santa Cruz, which [...]