Exito Noticias, Octuber 20/2021: Kathryn Ledebur, Directora de Andean Information Network, indico que en Bolivia hubo golpe de estado asistido por la administración de Trump

La Razon, Octuber 19/2021: La activista estadounidense de derechos humanos Kathryn Ledebur habló con La Razón. Apunta a la Resistencia Juvenil Cochala (RJC) de las amenazas en su contra y denuncia que el hostigamiento ya dura dos años. Por su caso, la Embajada de Estados Unidos envió una carta al Gobierno de Bolivia solicitando se desmantele a grupos “paraestatales” como la RJC.

Pagina Siete, Octuber 19/2021: “Ha llegado a mi conocimiento que la Sra. Kathryn Ledebur, activista de derechos humanos y directora de la Red Andina de Información, ha estado recibiendo amenazas a su integridad física por parte de grupos de seguridad paraestatales violentos. Otros estadounidenses también han sido amenazados por su trabajo en derechos humanos”, se lee en una carta que la encargada de Negocios de Washington, Charisse Phillips, envió el 15 de octubre al viceministro de Régimen Interior, Nelson Cox.

The Washington Post, August 23/2021: Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, argued that Áñez’s ascent to the presidency was a “textbook coup.” She rejected the idea that her pretrial detention amounted to political persecution. She pointed to the systematic torture documented in the OAS watchdog report.

Parlamento del Mercosur, July 16/2021: Kathryn Ledebur, Directora de la Red Andina de la Información en el Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, presentó un abordaje histórico según el cual “el manejo de redes sociales se nota desde 6 meses antes de las elecciones en Bolivia. Hay que hablar del hecho de la repetición de patrones históricos, como la ideología fascista, que se ha replicado en este caso como una versión moderna de la represión ocurrida en la época de la dictadura en Bolivia.”

La Epoca, June 18/2021: Katryn Ledebur, Directora de la Red Andina de Información, desde Washington (Estados Unidos), dijo que el envío de mercenarios para desestabilizar gobiernos progresistas es un “patrón” que antes se dio en Venezuela y después se intentó en Bolivia, por lo que estos hechos deben ser investigados en el país y en EEUU.

Bolivia TV, June 17/2021 : Entrevista realiza en el programa “Primer Plano” a Kathryn Ledebur, Directora de Andean Information Network, acerca de de la investigación de la revista The Intercept.

Sergio Rodrigo Méndez Mendizábal is detained in the U.S.A by F.B.I. Criminal complaint by telephone or other reliable electronic means

Sacaba & Senkata: In November 2019, Bolivian security forces carried out operations against two protests in Sacaba and Senkata that resulted in the deaths of 21 Bolivian civilians and hundreds of injured. These casualties make November 2019 the second-deadliest month, in terms of civilian deaths committed by state forces, since Bolivia became a democracy, almost 40 years ago.

Opinión, March 21/2021: “Entre tanto, La Red Andina de Información, la Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos Bolivia, la Red Universitaria de Derechos Humanos y el Centro Europa-Tercer Mundo (CETIM) presentaron dos denuncias ante la Relatoría de Ejecuciones Extrajudiciales Sumarias o Arbitrarias y ante el Grupo de Trabajo Sobre Detención Arbitraria de la ONU, según Camila Barreto Maia, coordinadora internacional del Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (Cels) de Argentina. Hacen referencia a ejecuciones extrajudiciales y otras “graves violaciones de derechos humanos” por las masacres de Senkata (El Alto) y Sacaba (Cochabamba) en 2019.”

NACLA, Octuber 20/2020: “The results of this election signal a robust repudiation of their project,” said Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, referring to the Áñez government. 

The Analysis News, September 06/2020: An interview with Kathryn Ledebur, Director of The Andean Information Network, about Bolivia’s Coup Government Uses Repression and Pandemic to Avoid Election.

American Indian Airways on KPFK, September 05/2020: An interview with Kathryn Ledebur, Director of The Andean Information Network, about the racist focus of  Bolivia‘s coup government and paramilitary groups.

CBC LISTEN, August 25/2020: An Interview with Kathryn Ledebur, Director of The Andean Information Network, about Bolivian rights organization on Juan Tellez.

The Washington Post, August 12/2020: “I don’t think you can say [the socialist] leadership is controlling this thing,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a think tank based in Cochabamba. “I’m not sure they have the power to stop it.”

BNN Bloomberg, August 10/2020: “Most rural areas in the entire nation are blockaded and they’re blockaded by a variety of social movements,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based think tank.

NACLA. June 26/2020: “One would expect that turning over Álvarez Peralta would be an easy diplomatic victory for Áñez, yet he still walks free in Bolivia and there doesn’t appear to be any effort under way to work with the United States on capturing him,” Ledebur, of the Andean Information Network, said.

BNN Bloomberg, May 20/2020: “The ventilator scandal “does not amuse most of the population which has been struggling to eat on $73 government stipend per family for two months” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based think tank.”

Al Jazeera Network, March 20/2020: An Interview with Kathryn Ledebur, Director of The Andean Information Network, about the influence that OAS had in the last Bolivian elections  and other countries.

Estrategia Nacional Contra el Narcotráfico y la Economía Ilegal de las Drogas- “Bolivia, Libre de Drogas”, February/2020.  La Estrategia nacional contra el narcotráfico y la economía ilegal de las drogas: “Bolivia, libre de drogas” es un modelo de gestión integral y equilibrada que expresa la nueva política de lucha contra las drogas del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia. 

VICE News, February 26/2020: Morales’s departure and the rhetoric around the lead-up to elections in May is already affecting coca farmers negatively, said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network and a researcher at Reading University in the UK.

The Real News Network, February 14/2020: As campaigning begins to repeat the Oct. 20 election that ended in a coup against former President Evo Morales, it remains far from certain whether this new election, under right-wing President Jeanine Añez, will be free and fair, interview with Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network and a researcher at Reading University in the UK.

AP News, January 07/2020: “The Trump administration has clearly picked sides,” said Kathryn Ledebur of the nonprofit Andean Information Network in Bolivia and a researcher at Reading University in the UK. “But it should also highlight concerns about human rights violations and erosion of democratic rights.”

The Guardian, December 02/2019: On 15 November, the police and military opened fire on indigenous protesters outside Bolivia’s fourth largest city, Cochabamba, killing nine and wounding more than 120. “We were marching peacefully and they began shooting off tear gas and firing on us,” a crying woman told the Andean Information Network. “They treated us like animals.” Four days later, in El Alto, police and military opened fire again on indigenous demonstrators, leaving eight dead and more than 30 wounded.

Socialist Project, December 01/2019: In this interview, Corvin Russell speaks with Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network and Bret Gustafson of Washington University in St. Louis about the coup, right wing atrocities, and extreme repression currently happening in Bolivia.

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International human rights and humanitarian law experts urge the Bolivian Government and Armed Forces to abide by their international law obligations, November 27/2019

InSight Crime, November 16/2016: Executive Director of the Andean Information Network (AIN) Kathryn Ledebur, who has published extensive research on coca and drug policy in Bolivia, explained to InSight Crime that the United States did not have objective information on coca leaf yield. Without this “there’s no way to calculate potential cocaine production,” she said.

Vice News, September 21/2016: AIN board member Sanho Tree on U.S. coca elimination strategies: “Families need support to diversify their crops, not prohibition — you can’t coerce families into not being hungry,” said Sanho Tree, a drug policy expert at the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, a left-leaning think tank. “By refusing to acknowledge that reality, the US approach practically guarantees this vicious circle will continue.”

The Takeaway, September 19/2016: AIN director Kathryn Ledebur talks Bolivia coca control and U.S. decertification on “The Takeaway” program, co-produced by WNYC Radio and Public Radio International. 

The Real News Network, February 20/2016: Video interview with Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network discusses the background and implications of the Feb. 21 referendum in Bolivia.

InSight Crime, August 19/2015: Interview with Kathryn Ledebur, Director of the Andean Information Network (AIN) and co-author of the recent report, “Habeas Coca: Bolivia’s Community Coca Control.” Ledebur discussed the achievements and challenges facing Bolivia’s coca-growing industry, and how its impacted drug trafficking and organized crime across the region.

Toronto Star, December 21/2014: “Opposition from those sectors has diminished greatly,” says Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a research-and-documentation centre based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. “Morales’s opponents in private enterprise and agro-business in the lowlands — they have all benefited from the improving economy.”

TeleSUR English, October 12/2014: Video interview with Kathryn Ledebur

TeleSUR English, October 12/2014: Kathryn Ledebur, Director of the Andean Information Network (AIN), added, “The continued inability of the rightwing opposition to regroup or significantly cut into Morales’s support base after nine years is a fascinating phenomena. It suggests that their past political power came from wealth, class privilege and a strategic alliance with the U.S. instead of  strong governance skills or pragmatic policy development and implementation.”

But according to the AIN’s Ledebur, it may be too soon to tell what a third Morales term will look like.

“Will MAS use this term to push through crucial pending initiatives such as drug law and justice reform, or rest on its laurels with an eye extending the party’s time in office,” said Ledebur. “I doubt even MAS knows.”

Anadolu Agence, October 12/2014: “The opposition on the right of Morales is so weak, and it’s not that anybody is doing it to them,” said Kathryn Ledebur, of the Cochabamba-based Andean Information network. “They haven’t developed the skills, diplomacy or policy generation to convince anyone in the voting public. They’re regurgitated, remodelled politicians.”

Al Jazeera, October 10/2014: “The strong economy, only moderate land reform and Morales’ concessions [on large-scale agriculture] seem to have smoothed over much resistance,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a policy analysis group.

“This could be seen by MAS as a third and final Morales term to consolidate initiatives. A third term could also exacerbate existing frustrations about persisting societal problems, such as police corruption, violence against women and a weak, overburdened judiciary,” said Ledebur. “It’s too soon to say if he will move to legitimize a fourth run for president.”

Wall Street Journal, September 17/2014: “They can scold Bolivia, but there wasn’t any money flowing anyway,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, which studies Bolivia’s coca leaf sector”

Monitor Global Outlook, June 27/2014: “Bolivia has made progress, but the drug-trafficking business readjusts almost immediately so government efforts with communities has to remain constant,” says Kathryn Ledebur, head of the Bolivia-based Andean Information Network that monitors drug trafficking.

She says greater cooperation in South America is needed to control the problem, but she expressed concerned of overreliance on military actions such as the shoot-down policy.

“It’s a high-profile, dramatic initiative, but it is not going to do much because of the innumerable trafficking routs in the Amazon,” Ms. Ledebur says.

Global Post, June 26/2014: “Peru got burned [in 2012 when it became the world’s top cocaine producer] and they are looking to improve their international reputation,” says Kathryn Ledebur, head of the Bolivia-based nonprofit Andean Information Network. She suspects that Colombia’s figures in particular are “grossly underestimated.”

Inter Press Service News Agency, June 26/2014: “A very small country challenged the basic premises of U.S. domination and policy implications, and it succeeded.” — Kathryn Ledebur

“Nothing is done entirely without friction, but it has done away with cycles of protest and violence and the deaths of coca growers,” Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, told IPS. “There continue to be human rights violations, but in the past they would rip out all their coca and there was no plan for how they should eat in the meantime.”

“If 15 years ago someone asked what would happen to an Andean country that loses all U.S. funding, we’d be talking about Marines coming in and things falling apart, but none of those things have happened,” said Ledebur.

“They pursue interdiction in a very traditional way,” said Ledebur.

Wall Street Journal, June 23/2014: “The continued reduction in Bolivia highlights the comparative advantages of gradual coca reduction,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, which studies Bolivia’s coca leaf sector, in an email.

New York Times, February 16/2014: “The Morales administration has basically cast off the recommendations of the I.M.F. and other huge international lending organizations, and for the first time, during his tenure, you see those macroeconomic indicators improve significantly, which finally gains the approval of organizations like the I.M.F.,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a research group based in Bolivia.

Huffington Post, July 13/2013: “It’s an absurd expectation that Bolivia would extradite Snowden if he ever arrived there with this kind of precedent,” Kathyrn Ledebur, director of the Cochabamba-based Andean Information Network, told The Huffington Post. “It’s kind of this elephant on the table that they’re pretending doesn’t exist, but is a huge problem.”

AP (Washington Post, Huffington Post, NPR), May 1/2013: Analyst Kathryn Ledebur of the nonprofit Andean Information Network in Bolivia was not surprised by the expulsion, but by the fact that Morales took so long to do it after repeated threats, which she believes diminishes its political impact.

“USAID alternative development efforts tied to forced coca eradication provoked his mistrust,” she said of Morales, a longtime coca-growers union leader before his December 2005 election as Bolivia’s first indigenous president. Since U.S. assistance has “dwindled to a trickle,” the financial impact will be limited as well, she said.

Ledebur said Morales was also upset that USAID money reached lowland regional governments he accused of trying to overthrow him in 2008. Lopez said all agency democracy-promotion programs in Bolivia ended the following year.

New York Times, May 1/2013: Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group, said Mr. Morales has long distrusted the aid agency, since the days when it helped finance a program to get coca growers, an important constituency for the president, to switch to other crops. The program was linked to a highly unpopular campaign for the forced eradication of coca.

BBC, May 1/2013: BBC World Service Podcast

Christian Science Monitor, May 1/2013: “Morales’s contentious relationship with USAID originated as a result of the largely ineffective alternative development programs it enacted in the Chapare region, which at the peak of forced eradication required coca growers to eliminate their coca and leave unions before they receive aid,” says Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based advocacy group.

“This longstanding mistrust was exacerbated after his election when the government accused USAID of working with opposition groups to undermine his administration,” says Ms. Ledebur.

Indian Country Today, January 16/2013: “This is an achievement for Bolivia, and an important international precedent,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of Bolivia-based policy watchdog the Andean Information Network. “The definition of the coca leaf as a dangerous narcotic alongside heroin, cocaine and opium in the Convention text is a glaring error without any scientific basis, and in this case Bolivia followed U.N. guidelines to successfully separate the two.”

Al Jazeera, January 4/2013: Speaking to Al Jazeera, Kathryn Ledebur, the director of the Andean Information Network who co-authored the report, explained how Bolivia went about rejecting US drugs eradication policies.

“The problem that you had with forced eradication is the forces would rip out the coca crop, people would have nothing to eat and coca would just move around the region and people would quickly replant.

“With the programme that they have now, because people know that they can have a small amount of coca and because there’s less coca in the country in these controlled regions, the price of coca is quite high.

“In fact it’s the same whether they’re in the legal and illegal markets. So it’s these kind of alternatives for people that they can put in place since they know they have the coca, that gives this a much better chance of being sustainable, and improved quality of life for these farmers.”

New York Times, December 26/2012: “It’s fascinating to look at a country that kicked out the United States ambassador and the D.E.A., and the expectation on the part of the United States is that drug war efforts would fall apart,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivian research group. Instead, she said, Bolivia’s approach is “showing results.”

Washington Post, December 11/2012: But another Bolivia-watcher, Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, predicted no other political fallout save “a lot of cursing and screaming at the next Cabinet meeting …”

Indian Country Today, October 8/2012: “Bolivia is a tiny country that challenged a giant,” said Kathryn Ledebur, director of Bolivia-based advocacy group The Andean Information Network (AIN). “A lot of people didn’t like the way they did it, but anti-drug efforts have not fallen apart–it shows there are different paths that all nations should explore.”

Folha de Sao Paulo, August 20/2012: “Como lembra Kathryn Ledebur, diretora da ONG Rede Andina da Informação, especializada no tema na Bolívia, é ‘um mito pensar que se pode controlar o fluxo de drogas’ numa fronteira como a de Brasil e Bolívia. Vide o caso americano-mexicano.” [Translation: “As noted by Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, an NGO specializing in Bolivia, ‘it is a myth that you can control the flow of drugs’ between a border like Brazil and Bolivia. Look the Mexican-American case.”]

Christian Science Monitor, July 30/2012: “[Bolivia] challenged the United States, and it turned out the United States was not the omnipotent force in drug war policy that it seemed to be,” says Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based advocacy group. “And it was important to establish that for everyone in Latin America.”

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), July 2/2012: Police rebels, too, insisted that their mobilization was strictly a labor action. According to the Andean Information Network (AIN), the police have had legitimate grievances against Morales, whom they perceive as exacerbating traditional rivalries between the police and the military.

As Kathryn Ledebur of AIN recently told Al Jazeera, “There are legitimate demands and political issues; its always a combination of complex factors in Bolivian protests.” Still, she argues, it strains credibility to imagine that the police, who are widely regarded as corrupt and inefficient, could muster enough popular support to engineer a coup.

Al Jazeera, June 28/2012: [Broadcasted interview.  See link for full video.] “It’s very complicated when you talk about Morales’ role and responsibility or the efforts that he makes for indigenous people because who is an indigenous person in Bolivia? So a Morales programme to benefit indigenous people is not very straightforward.” – Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network

Washington Post and Associated Press, May 31/2012: Analyst Kathryn Ledebur of the Cochabamba-based Andean Information Network said the asylum bid looked like an attempt to sour Bolivian-Brazilian relations ahead of the summit. “They may be going after him (Pinto) politically with all these charges. At the same time, he may have done two- thirds of what they are accusing him,” said Ledebur.

Indian Country Today, May 10/2012 with quotes from AIN founders Linda Farthing and Benjamin Kohl: But economic growth was sluggish prompting questions about who had truly benefitted from the reforms, and protests against water privatization in 2000 and the El Alto conflict in 2003 manifested boiling dissatisfaction with the government’s pro-privatization stance, according to Benjamin Kohl and Linda Farthing, who investigate economic reforms in their book Impasse in Bolivia.

The neoliberal plan also included bringing down out-of-control inflation because the country’s currency was rapidly losing value. On the inflation front the reforms were successful, but sluggish economic growth from 2000 to 2005 prompted questions about who benefited from the reforms, especially as they resulted in the elimination of thousands of jobs in state-run companies, according to Kohl and Farthing. The protests against water privatization in 2000 and the El Alto conflict in 2003 manifested boiling dissatisfaction with the government’s pro-privatization stance.

“It’s ironic that past Bolivian administrations were the faithful pupils of neoliberalism,” says Kathryn Ledebur, director of policy analyst group the Andean Information Network. “They followed all the rules, but the results left a lot to be desired and [left] the bulk of the population impoverished. The demise of their political credibility and clout coincided neatly with demands for a new model.”

Washington Office on Latin America, Mar 22/2012: Podcast: Bolivia is criticized in a recent State Department counter-drug report, while the country seeks an exemption from an international ban on coca leaves. Adam talks with Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Time, Feb 29/2012: Even if that conspiracy claim is unfounded, Morales’ frustration underscores alternative development’s poor track record: after almost 20 years, the USAID program had never achieved a sustainable decline in Bolivia’s coca crop. And a big reason for that failure, says Kathryn Ledebur, director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based drug-war watchdog group, is that such programs rarely “take into account the reality on the ground.” For example, in Bolivia’s other coca-growing region, the Chapare, USAID pushed the cultivation of pineapple, much of which rotted for lack of markets, and then sustainable forest management, which left families with scant, if any, income for a decade as they waited for trees to mature. In each case, farmers simply returned to coca.

What’s more, U.S. counterdrug officials hardly helped the effort with imperious demands that the Bolivian government quash all coca growing — even though almost half of the country’s 36,000-hectare (89,000 acres) coca crop gets used in tea and other benign, legitimate products. The U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has been just as high-handed: this week, the INCB scolded Bolivia for defending the traditional, nonnarcotic uses of coca. Bolivia is South America’s third largest coca producer behind Colombia and Peru, but much less of its harvest ends up getting snorted as cocaine.

The good news about the coffee success, says Ledebur, is that it “cuts through the myth that coca farmers are inherently invested in the drug trade. They are simply pragmatic business people looking to sustain their families.” But that pragmatism works both ways. “We are totally susceptible to the New York Stock Exchange,” notes FECAFEB president Eustaquio Huiza — which is why Choquehuanca admits that his fellow coffee farmers leave a little coca in the ground. Should coffee-bean prices crash, they can always fall back on their former staple crop. The one that always has a market.

Associated Press, Jan 10/2012: Drug policy expert Kathryn Ledebur of the Bolivia-based Andean Information Network said Soberon’s resignation could raise the potential for violence in Peru’s coca-growing regions.

“With Soberon’s appointment, for the first time in Peru you had a drug control chief with legitimacy with the affected coca-grower population,” she said.

Hopes for a Bolivian-style approach to eradication that is less alienating to growers are now dimmed, she added.

BBC News, Oct 10/2011: Kathryn Ledebur, of the Andean Information Network, a think tank that analyses drug policy and promotes socio-economic justice in Bolivia, agrees that the initiative should be applauded.”You achieve two things at once,” she says. “You guarantee that the leaf will never be processed into cocaine, an illegal substance, and you provide a rich fertiliser for a nation still dependent on agriculture for subsistence.” Ms Ledebur believes more needs to be done by drug-consuming countries, like Britain, to cut their demand. But the Bolivian coca compost programme is “a welcome contribution in trying to end the cocaine trade”, she says.

The Guardian, Sept 27/2011: Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, a thinktank, said Brazil was slowly replacing the role traditionally played in Bolivia by the US. “Brazil is rapidly replacing US influence and economic might, but in its own unique, Latin American way,” she said. Ledebur said there were positive aspects to Brazil’s growing role in Bolivia, pointing to increased co-operation in anti-drug trafficking efforts.

“Unlike the contentious history of impositions and the conditioning relationship with the United States, there is a greater degree of trust and collaboration [between Brazil and Bolivia],” she said.

Indian Country Today, Sept 23/2011: Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, an NGO that follows Bolivian politics, says the government stance on the road may be inflexible not only because changing the route will increase costs but also because the government is under pressure from many parts of Bolivian society to meet a dizzying array of demands. “With social demands increasing from dozens of sectors, backing down on the march would intensify pressure on all sides,” Ledebur said. “It could be perceived as a sign of weakness.”

The Guardian, March 30/2011: 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.

Indian Country Today, Feb 16/2011: 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. policy against local organizations and created animosity that is still alive today.

National Public Radio, Feb 4/2011: 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.”

Associated Press, Jan 28/2011: 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.

NACLA, May 21/2010: […] 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 government.” The same voter may have different priorities in national and local elections.

In the past, Ledebur says, this vote-splitting practice has frequently led to stalemates and blocked governmental initiatives. In the major cities and departmental capitals, where close April races have resulted in divided representation on municipal councils, third-place candidates will now have crucial “swing votes” and effective veto power. Whether these new configurations will lead to compromise or paralysis, she notes, remains to be seen.

Ledebur cautions against viewing the diversity of voters’ regional and local preferences as a rejection of the MAS government. While Bolivians are not inclined to give MAS or Evo Morales a “blank check,” they have repeatedly ratified the advance of the government’s political and economic project, including in the most recent election. This is not inconsistent with the vote for MSM, which largely supports the MAS program.

House Committee on Foreign Affairs, “Seizing the Moment: The Need to Rebuild U.S.-Bolivian Relations” Mar 3/2009:  AIN Director, Kathryn Ledebur’s testimony.

Associated Press, April 18/2009: “Nobody in Washington is paying any attention,” said Kathryn Ledebur of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based drug policy think tank.

Reuters, April 8/2009: “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” of “blocking and impeding.”

BBC News, Nov 8/2007: If Mr Morales is to quell anxieties over diesel and natural gas in the long term, his challenge, according to Kathryn Ledebur from the Andean Information Network, is to “effectively implement spending plans to use the additional revenue, which has increased ninefold, to better the lives of the Bolivian people.

“If he can use investment to develop the industry, he could generate sustained economic stability in Bolivia for many years to come.

Time, April 13/2007: “If the U.S. hadn’t imposed its ‘war on drugs’ in Bolivia, Morales might have been just another coca farmer,” says Kathryn Ledebur, Director of the Andean Information Network, a Bolivia-based NGO that advocates a change in U.S. anti-drug policy. “He rose to national prominence resisting U.S.-supervised military drug control operations.”