Worldcrunch
Bolivian President Luis Arce easily survived Wednesday’s bungled coup, which may suggest the populist Left is more resilient than it used to be. But it may also be the foreshadowing of the reigniting of an internal war with fellow Socialist and former President Evo Morales as unrest spreads around the country.
Bolivia believes lithium is the new “white gold,” for its role in fueling new technologies. Distrusting Western investments and technology, it’s counting on collaborations with Russia and China. But there will be problems at home that could block it all.
Among the Islamic Republic of Iran’s very few diplomatic friends are too many from Latin America’s left, who are always happy to milk their cash-rich allies for all they are worth.
In Bolivia, the coca leaf was once reserved for ancestry rituals and practices. Now it is being combined with other substances, especially amongst the very young, to create a toxic experience and dangerous concoction.
Police raided a gay sauna. The police’s actions — and the following media storm – were violent in more ways than one.
Residents in the far-flung city of Trinidad, Bolivia can rest assured: 1,100 doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine were successfully delivered this week, albeit by the most unlikely of means. After being flown into the region on a flight operated by the national airline Boliviana de Aviación, the potentially life-saving cargo was loaded […]
The decisive reelection of the left in Bolivia, after Evo Morales was crudely ousted, is a message to all those powers that aim to unseat the popular will.
The leftist leader had some worthy accomplishments during his long tenure as Bolivian president. But his quest for indefinite leadership cost him in the end.
La Paz“s airport delivers on its name: El Alto is indeed the highest international airport in the world. Luckily neither my wife Claudine (pictured here in the foreground) nor I suffered from altitude sickness during our often elevated travels through Bolivia and neighboring Peru.
Like their Easter Island counterparts, the giant statues of Tiwanaku, in western Bolivia, are shrouded in mystery. For example, the stone used for this “Monk” monolith comes from a quarry nearly 100 kilometers away.
The legalistic formula the Bolivian leader has found to perpetuate his presidency is despotic and shameful.
Bolivia’s beaming president, as pictured (right) on Wednesday’s front page of Tarija-based daily El País, has good reason to smile: He’s just been cleared to seek reelection indefinitely. Evo Morales, 58, was first elected in 2005 following a period of upheaval that saw four presidents come and go in less than five years. Once in […]
-Analysis- LA PAZ — As it stands now, half of Latin America’s power is generated by hydroelectricity, an energy source that is also of vital importance worldwide, producing more electricity than all renewables combined. Hydropower is especially beneficial for countries that depend on global commodity prices — particularly with regards to oil, natural gas and […]
It is yet another alliance of ideas that fiction could not have invented. The leftist vice president of Bolivia, who has never disavowed his Marxist past, is seeing eye-to-eye with a certain out-for-himself American real estate mogul with a taste for gold-plated everything. Writing for America Economia, Álvaro García Linera has penned a kind of […]
Donald Trump is not the free market’s executioner, but a coroner appointed to quietly confirm its demise. Sadly, in its place, is a gaping void of alternatives.
Like other Latin American countries, Bolivia has squandered commodity revenue and failed to make the hard reforms necessary to bolster the economy for the long haul.
The withdrawal of the ambassadors of Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela from Brazil to protest Dilma Rousseff’s ouster is a good example of partisan zeal harming the national interest.
Climate change is drying up the Earth and making Bolivians search for new livelihoods in Latin America’s poorest country.
Bolivia’s president lost a referendum earlier this year that could have kept him in power beyond 2019. The long-serving leader may try to seek reelection regardless.
A couple of streets away from La Paz’s eerie Witches’ Market, complete with llama fetuses, this man praying at the Metropolitan Cathedral was relying on some slightly more conventional beliefs.
-Analysis- LA PAZ — As of Sunday, Bolivia is once again divided in two. It had taken President Evo Morales almost a decade to build a consensus around him, a consensus that had enabled him to be re-elected for a third five-year term in 2014 with 61% of the vote. But his failure this week […]
Wednesday’s front page of Bolivian daily El Deber shows festivities in Santa Cruz after a constitutional reform was defeated, the first ever national setback for popular President Evo Morales. “The “No” wins and blocks Evo’s quest to govern until 2025,” reads the headline. The vote took place Sunday, with final results tallied on Tuesday showing […]
Activists on the small Pacific island, with their legendary statues, are taking concrete actions to obtain more autonomy from Chile. But does full independence make sense?
At equinoxes, the sun shines on the Pre-Columbian Ponce monolith through the Kalasasaya main door. In what is today western Bolivia, the effect no doubt left quite an impression on inhabitants of the Tiwanaku settlement near Lake Titicaca, then on Spanish conquistadors — then on French tourists.
Traditional local populations are facing the brunt of the environmental fallout in the massive lake between Bolivia and Peru.
“Pope Francis in Bolivia’s arms,” reads the front page of today’s edition of Bolivian newspaper La Prensa. After three days in Ecuador, the Pope arrives in Bolivia, where he will stay until Friday. In his homily in Quito on Tuesday, Francis called for an end to repression in the region — and La Prensa“s writes […]
Like with the 18th century Andean silver route for Spain, Argentina has become a short cut for sending Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine to Europe. It’s also a customer.
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Lake Titicaca is located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. I’ve already shown you what the Peruvian side looks like, so this is me standing on the Bolivian shore of the lake — for once in front of the camera and not behind it.
If snake skin and dried llama fetuses are your thing, then La Paz” El Mercado de las Brujas (The Witches’ Market) is a must-see.
Bolivians have given Evo Morales a clear presidential mandate, a vote of approval for his political skills and the benefits of an oil-driven economy. He now must shape a legacy for the future.
Despite the high profile women presidents of Brazil and Argentina, the fairer sex is notably underrepresented in cabinet positions across Latin American governments.
Brazil is just the latest, though largest, recent example of a Latin American country that has seen grassroots movements catch fire from below.
CHALLAPATA – Standing beneath the Bolivian sun, it takes just one long look at the quinoa fields stretching as far as the eye can see, to understand why the Andean people call quinoa the golden grain. “We also call it chisiya mama, which means ‘mother of all grains’ in the Aymara language,” smiles Valentina Rodriguez, […]
BUENOS AIRES – At 7 a.m., Norma Andia begins her radio show with an ambulance siren and a charming accent from the high plains of Bolivia. “Let’s go, are you listening to me? Why the long face, didn’t you get enough sleep? And you, yes I’m talking to you – don’t hurt your woman thinking […]
LA PAZ – Nationalization is in the air — and on the ground — in Bolivia. On May 1, the country’s armed forces were sent to the offices of TDE, a Spanish company that manages three-quarters of Bolivia’s electricity network, to “take control of management and administration.” On June 20, the Colquiri pewter mine, held […]
LA PAZ – Indigenous people armed with slings and wearing traditional ch’ullu headgear surround President Evo Morales. Soldiers pivot a cannon. A sergeant comes to present arms… If the scene wasn’t taking place on a red carpet in front of La Paz“s biggest mall, it would have been easy to mistake Bolivia for a country […]
LATINOSENLARED, OPINION (Bolivia), FORBES (USA) Worldcrunch Bolivian President Evo Morales has announced the end of Coca Cola in his country starting from December 21 2012, Latinosenlared website reports. The date of the ban is symbolic, explains the South American website, quoting the Bolivian blog Nada nos libre de Escorpio. For the Bolivian government, this infamous […]
LA RAZON, LA RIOJA, LOS TIEMPOS (Bolivia) Worldcrunch COCHABAMBA – Bolivian President Evo Morales doesn’t forget his roots. It’s just that his happen to be in the agricultural production of coca, which also is the key ingredient in the production of cocaine. Morales has been elected for a new term as leader of the coca […]
Centuries after Potosí, Bolivia’s legendary but now dried-up silver reserve, the small South American country may have struck a new enormous source of precious metal wealth. But locals may stand in the way.