This site is being built and currently only hosts political updates summarising news coverage on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and the constituent assembly. To visit my current active website please visit http://www.nickbuxton.info

 

Adjunto mi capitulo sobre las redes economicas de la deuda externa en Bolivia.

My piece that appeared on Red Pepper was translated into malayalam for the Samakalika Malayalam Weekly

Almost fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia   more »

Almost fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia   more »

Almost fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia   more »

Almost weekly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia   more »

Not-quite fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia.   more »

Not-quite fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia.   more »

Not-quite fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia.   more »

Political analysis of why Bolivia is a fascinating place to be politically, and a survey of the big issues (hydrocarbons, elections, autonomy and constituent assembly) that will feature prominently in the next year or so.   more »

Fortnightly update on elections, hydrocarbons, autonomy and constituent assembly with snippets of other top news from Bolivia.   more »

Following five amazing years working at Jubilee 2000, I wrote and up published two book chapters on the experience with a hope that the analysis would help other movements campaigning for justice.

Dial up networking: a case study of Jubilee 2000 (published in Advocacy, Activism and the Internet (Lyceum Books) which explores how and why the internet became central to the strategy of the Jubilee 2000 campaign - from being a vehicle to assist the initial communication of the ideas of the campaign, to becoming the central locus for sharing information in a global movement and co-ordinating around key decision-making events. It also examines the limitations of the internet both as a medium of campaigning and for mass communication, and in particular in working closely with partners from indebted countries where internet use is highly restricted. It concludes by highlighting some of the lessons that can be drawn from Jubilee 2000’s experience >Download chapter (PDF)

Debt cancellation and civil society, published in "Fighting for human rights" (Routledge) which explores the interplay of civil society and the Jubilee 2000 campaign worldwide, in the context of growing activism on a broad range of global issues. It examines Jubilee 2000 as a civil society movement, the campaign’s self-awareness of its own role in combating the debt crisis, and the political impact it made. It also looked at the political and economic context that led to the emergence of the Jubilee 2000 movement, and highlighted some of the implications and lessons of the new growth in civil society activism, based on Jubilee 2000’s experience.  >Download chapter (word)

The rosy-cheeked woman beamed, her plaits bouncing beneath her bowler hat, her basket-shaped skirt still spinning.

She turned to kiss her two sullen competitors who stood either side of her while a rowdy group of women yelled out "Camacho, Camacho" (which is a market in which I presume she works).

Sonia Quispe had just won the "Cholita del Oro" competition for the central district of La Paz. I half expected her to make a speech thanking her mum and saying how much she likes animals, but she merely swirled her skirts and her long-tasselled shawl in time to the chants of the the enthusiastic crowd.

Two days later, I sat in the sun listening to a near-perfect rendition of Stormy Weather. On stage was another woman, this time dressed in jeans, a trendy T-shirt and shades that I last saw in a magazine photo of Beckham wife "Posh."

Behind her a group of young musicians, all shielded in dark sunglasses blasted out "big band" style jazz. As her voice swooped to the end of the piece, the crowd on Bolivia's main high street whooped and cheered, calling out for an encore.

La Paz is a city that seems to thrive on culture. Almost every night, I can hear live music filtering up through my flat windows, the local guides are crammed full of events taking place in bars and squares across town, and every Sunday the main high street (the Prado) fills with music.

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G8 have just finished their summit, and you've guessed it, failed completely to respond to the scale of global poverty and the environmental crisis we faced.

Make Poverty History, have as I predicted, gone for the "they have failed to do what we wanted, but made important steps" response. But they fail entirely to question the legitimacy of the G8 in the light of yet another failure, when no leader can use the excuse that there wasn't a mass demand for them to take radical action.

Instead, they naively say that the G8 can "secure a place in history" by going further at the WTO and the UN Millennium Summit and praises the UK Government for demonstrating "leadership on these issues."

Now for a slightly naff analogy... if an untidy flatmate of yours had promised after concerted complaints to clean the flat and didn't do it one week, you might be persuaded that a little more pressure might just do the trick. You might even be prepared to believe that after 3 more weeks complaints, that he might still do it.

Now if 30 weeks later, you had persuaded your entire street to march, persuaded all the town celebrities to hold concerts across the country in protest against his untidiness, and all he did was gently wave a feather duster over the sofa, would you send a letter saying he still had a chance to redeem himself. Or might you just kick him out, saying he clearly had no intention of ever tidying the flat?   

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A worrying day as news of bombs in London comes in. I can't help feeling both miles away, but also very close as I see pictures of streets, newspaper stands, double-decker buses and other London scenes  that I know all too well after 10 years living in Brixton. The hourly rising death and injury toll is particularly distressing. I just hope everyone I know is ok.

UPDATE (9/7/05) One friend replied to an email checking whether my friends were ok, saying it made her realise in a small way what it must be like to live in Baghdad where this happens daily. One of my friends, Justin Alexander, is in Baghdad and has been recording his response to events on his blog.

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There is a famous anarchist saying that "If voting changed anything they’d have banned it by now."

It is a saying that seemed to resonate here during recent protests when countless people I talked to blamed the crisis on politicians who "sell our country for personal interests." There seemed little confidence in politicians in Congress solving the economic and social divisions that Bolivia faces

Yet strangely, the promise of elections following the resignation of President Mesa seems to quickly bring about calm after the stormy protests that rocked La Paz last month. Various social movements even started moving their focus to demanding early elections.

Finally on Monday, after what seemed like a long period of very pointless arguing, Congress set a date for elections to be held in December 2005. They also timetabled elections for the new Constituent Assembly and the referendum for autonomy for July 2006. The latter responds directly to demands from the Eastern province of Santa Cruz for autonomy and to the mainly rural and indigenous demands from the Altiplano for a new Constitution.

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Yes, finally after 6 months on the move, I have got a flat and a home. It's bang in the centre of town, on the 8th floor of a big "edificio,"  has a comfy sofa-bed for visitors (make your booking now!) plus I have got great views of La Paz from my bedroom window.

It was wonderful to properly unpack for the first time in ages and put away my rucksack in an obscure cupboard, although not so great to find nothing to spread jam on my bread this morning as it is devoid of any equipment whatsoever in the kitchen.

The address is: Dpto 8G, Torre Granada, Edificio Alcazar, Calle Frederico Suazo, esq. Batallón Colorados, La Paz, Bolivia. So feel free to send all those books, CDS, parcels of French cheese and stylish kitchen equipment that you have been saving up to send me.

To celebrate, I went today with my flatmate (a Cochabambina called Cecilia who also works at Fundación Solón) to the El Alto "fish" festival. As you can imagine, it was quite an easy festival to find (we just followed the smell) and soon found ourselves in the equivalent of a car-park crammed with stalls selling different types of fish.

I made a valiant effort to try lots of different types whilst enjoying listening and watching the Bolivian folk-bands as they danced across a sea of fish-heads and bones.

There is a Gil Scott-Heron song that I used to listen to (but sadly seemed to have lost) which said that African history was too often "his story", the story of the white man, those who had exploited Africa. History was rarely told about those, many of whom were women, who had taken courageous risks to resist both colonialism and imperialism.

The song seems rather pertinent as the world builds up to the climax of the "Make Poverty History" campaign, which hopes to persuade the world's richest leaders (G8) to finally act and take decisive steps to end poverty by cancelling debt, increasing aid and establishing just trade relationships.

The focus of the press, and it would seem the campaign itself, in the build up to the G8 summit is all about "his" stories: The eight men who have the power to change the world by changing their policies, the crusading white heroes Bono and Bob Geldof who have single-handedly put poverty on the world agenda, the millionaire Tom Hunter who with celebrity film director Richard Curtis have bankrolled and often ended up directing the public face of the "Make Poverty History" campaign.

As I once worked for the Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign, it has been impressive seeing almost daily "stories" on Yahoo as well as at times the Bolivian press of the latest development in the Make Poverty History campaign. Jubilee 2000 also tried to use the potent mix of a strong target (G8 summit), celebrity power and mass mobilisation to push for debt cancellation, but it was never as successful as MPH has been on putting the issue of poverty on the public agenda.

Yet watching it all from afar in Bolivia, I can't help wondering what difference all the hype will make to poverty and injustice here. The campaign seems to do nothing to give voice to the struggles that people are making in Bolivia for greater justice. It also seems silent on the injustice of eight men even having the power to affect lives in Bolivia.  I can't help wondering if the obsession on "his stories" could undermine "our stories" of the ongoing struggle for justice that will have to continue long-after the noise of the Live8 concerts has died down.

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There is a great photo gallery on BBC website of a gay pride march in La Paz, that I sadly only found out about a few hours after it happened. The gallery features the Family Galan, a group of transvestites that I met during the Global Week of Action for Trade Justice.

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I am off to get the results for my urine test tomorrow, which I then need to take to the immmigration office. Isn't that where you would take your urine results? I am half-wondering whether I will get kicked out of the country if it has too much salt in it.

Urine isn't the only thing that I have had tested. To try and get my residency for a year, I have had blood tests and x-rays, stuck endless fingerprints on cards in various police stations, photocopied reams of documents, and got bank statements sent from the UK.

The process is not yet over. I am likely to need a statement by a government department later this week confirming a letter by the British embassy which verifies that the letter by my bank confirming my solvency is a copy of the original. Got that?

The bureaucracy is at times fustrating but I guess I can get a visa unlike most Bolivians who try to do the same in the UK. At least the most nerve-wracking moment is over.  I had to go to Interpol today to get the results of the international police checks. Thanks to Tony Blair's love of war, I actually have a police record for blocking a military base in January 2003, but to my relief it didn't show up.

Meanwhile at work I have been testing my spanish trying to digest reams of documents on international trade negotiations, and presenting my first proposals at a team meeting earlier today.

Fundación Solón collates huge amounts of information on different themes, in particular the impact of free trade agreements and privatisation of water in Bolivia. I, not surprisingly given my last job, have been helping them think through possibilities for using the web better to communicate their work. 

I have spent the weekends wandering quiet neighbourhoods looking for somewhere to stay. Wandering here invariably involves steep climbs up oxygen-starved streets, a wierd mix of feeling yourself burning in the sun and having to put on a jumper in the shade and sidling past pavement stalls selling everything you could possibly want. Occasionally I would stop off for salteñas (a kind of tasty Bolivian cornish pastie) and amazing views of the city that fills the canyon of La Paz.

Unfortunately there isn't much of a culture of sharing flats here. Most people my age either have their own children or are still living at home with their parents. So Bolivia's equivalent of the London flatshare listings "Loot" involves lots of adverts for unfurnished flats or small rooms usually without kitchens for the sad single people out there whose families are miles away. Luckily one of my colleagues is in a similar predicament as she has just started at Fundación Solón having moved from Cochabamba, so we are likely to get somewhere together which means I won't be too much of Norman No-Mates.

Strategic flatmate alliances isn't my only tactic for making friends here. La Paz is a bit harder than Cochabamba for getting to know people. It seems everyone has their own lives. So at the moment I am going for the "joining clubs" approach for meeting people.

Last week, I headed to a yoga class. I had decided to go for the all-black look thanks to a new tracksuit I had picked up for a bargain from a street stall of course.  All seemed to be going well until half way through when everyone disappeared for a cold shower. Given that it was freezing outside, I was glad to be able to use the excuse that I didn't have a towel.

Everyone then came back completely in white from socks to Tshirts. The teacher explained that the washing and the white was to help you be in a better spiritual state for the second more meditative session of yoga. As I sweatily moved about in black, I felt like a yogic antibody. When the class finished, I crept out quickly so that my negative kharma wouldn't infect the others anymore. I am sure I can find more clubs.

No, I haven't got confused. Today is the Aymaran new year and winter solstice in Bolivia. (I am hoping to find an Aymaran birthday so I can celebrate that twice a year too). To mark it I got up inordinately early to head up to Tiwanaku, an ancient religious city dating back above 1500 years, situated 70 kilometres outside La Paz near Lake Titicaca.

As we arrived, it reminded me of Glastonbury festival without the rain and mud and about 25 degrees colder and with slightly more ponchos. In the shadowy pre-dawn, we joined hundreds of people streaming into the old temple. There was a buzz in the crowd, some fairly drunk Bolivians swaying next to a bonfire, someone playing a didgeridoo (see, just like Glastonbury) and little attention paid to the official speeches by various Aymaran dignatories and priests.

Then at last, fingers of sunlight crept above the horizon. Everyone held out their hands, to absorb the cosmic energy, although I doubt I absorbed much because my fingers were so numb.

But soon the light transformed the landscape spreading tentacles of warmth and colour. To celebrate, lots of Bolivians started Conga dancing to drums and pipes brandishing brilliantly rainbow coloured Wiphala flags. I can understand why Aymaran cultures worshipped the sun in this climate. Without it, the altiplano would be desperate, icy and desolate. But sun here brings life and colour to a beautiful but inhospitable environment.

After a tour around the site, we had a small ceremony presided over by an Aymaran priest where we burnt offerings of coca leaves, sweets and an attractive-looking llama foetus (photo included in the gallery) to pray for a happy and prosperous new year.

Happy new year!

Debt announcements are starting to remind me of Groundhog day - the corny but amusing film where actor Bill Murray wakes up each day forced to do exactly the same things and unable to escape from a provincial hell.

Well in the last couple of weeks, we have been entreated to lots of grand announcements of an "historic" groundbreaking debt deal that will once and for all tackle the problem of unjust and onerous debts. The figure of 100% debt cancellation has been plastered everywhere.

Funny, but I am sure I have heard such an announcement before.

Perhaps it was in March 1999 when Gordon Brown, the UK Chancellor, announced a great debt deal that would be a "major step towards wiping out unsustainable debt and poverty with it." Or perhaps it was in 2000, when he announced an historic breakthrough of 100% debt cancellation that would be a "crucial step towards the virtuous circle of debt reduction, poverty relief and sustainable development." Or maybe it was in September 2004, when the Chancellor announced a new debt deal of (yes you've guessed it), 100%, that would free countries from "the shackles of debt",  I could go on....

Maybe I don't fully understand statistics, but I normally equate 100% debt relief with complete removal of a country's debts. Especially when that country happens to be one of the poorest and most highly indebted countries in the world. Yet a look at Bolivia's debt payments in the last few years show that the amount it pays in servicing its debts actually went up in the last few years.

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"My father says there used to be snow here all year around just above the village," said Mario as he pointed to the stone walls that mark the edge of his small village Chucura which lies below imposing dark brown peaks.

"When I was a child, most of the peaks were covered with snow. About nine years ago, the snow melted. It has never returned."

Mario, a gentle and shy 30 year old, was our guide for a three-day trek which wound its way through steep-sided valleys and over dizzy icy-cold passes to the foot of the brilliant white snow-capped Huayna Potosi.

Our escape from the political tension of La Paz was a walk through the hills of his childhood.

We camped our first night just outside his village. In the morning, as we ate breakfast in the gradually thawing sunlight, we watched families with their herds of llamas pick their way up the old pre-Inca road taking food to market. In small courtyards, women laid out potatoes to freeze-dry them while sun-burnt children rolled hoops along the bumpy frosty ground.

But despite the apparent tranquil village life, it wasn't just the snow that was receding. Mario told us that the village had 120 families when he was a child. Now there were only 70 families left. When I asked how many families he thought would be left in 20 years, he half-jokingly said "One."

Mario had left the village with both his sisters. Only his parents remained. "I liked living here, but there were no possibilities for work." They had all moved to El Alto, the adjoining city to La Paz, which has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

It was disturbing to see so visually both a way of life and an environment disappearing. In some ways, they were strongly connected. The lack of snow melt-water meant that Mario's village's small hydro-electric power station now only temporarily worked.

As I looked up to see a glinting plane in the crystal-blue altiplano sky, I thought that many of the reasons for the change in their lives were completely out of their control. The villagers had little hope of ever flying in a plane, yet the growth in plane traffic is one of the major contributing factors to global warming.

The people in Chucura would also be unlikely to play any roles in trade negotiations which rarely prioritise small-scale farming which has been carried out for centuries in this beautiful but inhospitable landscape.

Yet, ironically when I asked Mario what he thought about global warming, he said he thought it was a good development. "The fact that there is no snow on the main pass means that the Government is more likely to build the road to the village that they have promised."

Roads of course mean easier access to markets. But roads are also often part of a model of development in which rural life and the environment are the first to be sacrificed. It seemed a tragic hope in the face of a receding world.

Links:

• Friends of the Earth Climate Change campaign
• Calculate and offset carbon emissions
• Small scale farming - Food First and Via Campesina

Well amazingly, my friend Graham and I did manage to squeeze in three days trekking at the end of a week of demonstration-watching. It was stunning beautiful but also incredibly cold. I am going to need to expand my thermal collection to include thermal nose-wear and thermal knee-warmers. Click on the photos to open up bigger versions within the online photo gallery.

Guest blogger and friend, Graham Gordon tells his story on a slightly unusual holiday in Bolivia:

This article doesn’t attempt to give an analysis of the current difficult situation in Bolivia, but an insight into the different aspects of a new form of tourism, increasingly popular the world over, protest tourism.

Day 1:
Whilst landing at the airport in El Alto on Monday in the intense Bolivian sunshine, I knew that all was not right when I didn’t see a single car on the road.  The upside was that, when leaving the terminal, I wasn’t mobbed by a horde of taxi drivers touting for business.  The downside was when asking for taxis we were told “he’s just left”. 

Fortunately “he” returned a few minutes later and took us as far as he could, which was a few hundred metres up the road, to the meeting point of the daily marches.  We had no choice but, rucksacks on back and suncream on face, to join the march, being thrust a Bolivian flag each (green stripe at the bottom, isn’t it?) and being shown our place. 

Each march divided itself into four lines and on numerous occasions I stepped out of line and was strongly reprimanded.  We soon made friends with those around, learning the slogans and being offered their daughters in marriage.  My favourite slogan was “this is not a Sunday parade, it’s a protest march” to motivate the silent marching majority.  I tried a “Viva Inglaterra” but was accused of confusing the issue.

After a couple of hours going steadily downhill, we arrived at the city centre and sloped off for cappucino and carrot cake, as true protesters always do. To celebrate Nick’s birthday we enquired about music in a local jazz bar, and were told “There’ll be music if there’s a president and social peace” 

A few hours later the President, Carlos Mesa, resigned.  There was no music.  Maybe it would take a couple more days to resolve the issues.  The mountains behind La Paz looked ever more enticing.

Day 2:
We headed up to the Plaza San Francisco, concentration of most of the protests, to get a few good photos.  We arrived just at the wrong time when there was a friendly exchange of dynamite and tear gas between protesters and police.  It did have its benefits though, as I discovered that tear glass unblocks your nose far better that Vics Vapour Rub.  Immediately I registered the patent. 

Walking back down a policemen in full riot gear, returning from teargassing a group of miners called out to us: “How do you like La Paz?”  A quick witty reply eluded me.

I was sure it would all be over the next day.  After all, I needed a couple of days to acclimatise so I hadn’t really lost any time.

Day 3:
We found out that tourists were still able to get to the mountains by leaving at 2am to avoid the blockades, so we went to enquire.  Sorted out a tour for the next day, petrol dependent (there is a national petrol shortage, as the main deposit has been blockaded for 3 weeks). 

We had to run around town, dodging the marches and trying to find when each shop was open, to buy woolly jumpers and fleece sleeping bag liners, essential for any serious walker.  That evening all hope was on the Bolivia-Paraguay match, as the last chance to qualify for the Germany 2006 world cup.  4-1 to Paraguay.  Chaos seemed imminent, but we had our sights on an early start the next day and a few days in tents communing with nature. 

Day 4:
There was no petrol.  We were glued to the TV all day as the congress was due to meet and decide whether they would accept the resignation of the President, and to decide his successor.  The focus of the protests moved to demand the resignation of the the politicians most likely to take over the presidency (Vaca Diez, head of Congress, and Cosillo, head of the Senate).  Neither looked like budging.

All international flights were banned.  Various countries had decided to get their citizens out.  Anyone for more tea?

Congress was due to meet at 10:30, but was postponed until 18:00 and then, due to the death of a miner involved in the protests, cancelled all together, the worst possible scenario as the nervous tension needed a direction in which to be channelled. 

Rumours were rife about a possible coup d’etat or civil war if Vaca Diez didn’t resign and everyone was bulk buying in local shops "a la Millenium’s eve".  We moved down to stay with some friends in the posh area of town, wondering if we would be evacuated the next day.  The mountains seemed to be getting further away.  Remind me why I came?

A few hours later both Vaca Diez and Cosillo said they wouldn’t accept the presidency, Congress was called to meet at 22:00 and the President of the Supreme Court was installed as President of the Republic for the next three months, with promises of elections amongst other things.   The whole country celebrated, and our walking holiday looked once again a possibility, fuel dependent.

Day 5:
The blockades still haven’t been lifted, fuel is still in shortage, as is gas and food.  Manage to get a day's walk in nearby hills and only had to cross one blockade.
7pm: Arrange three day trip with tour operator
9pm: Tour operator calls to confirm 9am departure the next day (hooray! Surely it can't be true?)
11pm: It's not. Tour operator calls to say that fuel hasn't appeared. Maybe tomorrow?

Yesterday, all the talk on the streets was of "civil war" and "military coups". A miner died in protests outside Sucre. Protests on the streets were small but visibly angry. Reports came in that Santa Cruz was more or less occupied by the army. Graham and I decided to head back down to our friend's house in the south of La Paz, where people openly talked of evacuaton.

Today, the mood is noticeably happier and more relaxed out on the streets. Shops are open, transport is slowly returning to the streets, Graham and I can suddenly start to plan our trek (which we have been planning to do for the entire last week). People are saying the crisis is over.

It's bizarre. How can things change so much in less than 12 hours.

The reason for the rising tension yesterday was linked to the Congress needing to respond to President Mesa's resignation. They have taken an extraordinarily long time to respond, citing security issues, but leaving a huge political vacuum. Yesterday morning, it looked like Mesa would be replaced by the President of Congress, Vaca Diez.

Vaca Diez is a far more divisive figure than President Mesa, closely linked with President Goni who fled the country in 2003. He is highly unpopular with social movements. In La Paz, everyone was glued to their radios and television sets waiting for the announcement. Protestors in La Paz looked they were waiting to riot.  As demonstrations and tension mounted across the country, Vaca Diez eventually renounced his intention to stand, and Eduardo Rodríguez, head of the supreme court was voted in as the new President.

The new President will be responsible for calling elections within the next 3 months. The various leading social movements haven't formally announced an end to protests but at first sight, it has certainly reduced the high state of tension and negotiations may well lead to a temporary cessation of blockades and protests.

However the elections are only likely to be a temporary solution. The central demand for nationalisation has not been answered. Moreover the factors that have fuelled this crisis remain live: gross inequality and poverty, a political and economic system that fails the majority, a nation divided culturally and economically, international economic policies that force Bolivia into decisions that benefit multinational companies more than its own people.

A ceasefire may be temporarily won but the conflict is sure to continue.

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Open democracy, a site I have long admired, have published an article I wrote looking at some of the causes of unfolding events in Bolivia. It`s also been translated into Japanese, although they could have written anything and put my name to it as far as I know.

A huge boom echoes in the pit of my stomach. Whoosh! A series of smokey flares arch into the sky. The crowd surges up the street.

Then suddenly a tickling in the nose turns acrid and the nose and eyes start running as the tear gas takes over. Crowds of people stand on roofs and walls watching expectantly.

On the next corner, a group of men occupy the crossroads burning a tyre and piling up bricks. A rainbow coloured flag is lit up by the Andean sun. They make way for a march that passes with a big banner announcing their presence as a campesino group from Potosi. They chant noisily.

Shopkeepers, with metal shutters down, look impassively or anxiously on. Every other person carries a radio, with only one item of news: the protests that have paralysed the country and the spluttering attempts of politicians to respond.

An air of tension and expectation rises up from the pavement.

We turn down another street, which only a week ago was full of shops enticing in streams of tourists with colourful textiles and indigenous designs. The street lies deserted. The whole city seems to be on the move by feet, but market stalls lie empty, bandaged up in cloth. Restaurants announce in blunt notices that they are closed due to difficulties in getting food.

But just a block away the Austrian bakery is open. People licking ice-creams wander idly past men sunning themselves on park benches as their shoes are polished by balaclavered street-boys. Streets are strangely devoid of traffic but further on in a prosperous part of town on lies a square full of cafes, people drinking cappucinos and chatting, their 4x4s gleaming in the sun.

Evening comes and all the streets seem strangely peaceful again, an almost festive atmosphere as people fill the traffic-free streets playing volleyball, flirting with friends, buying tickets for "Star Wars".

Perhaps it's just an illusion?? But then you hear overhear conversations. Talk of difficulties in getting gas as all petrol stations close. Anxious examinations of newspapers. Rumours flying - water has been cut off, a march is coming this way to loot, three more oil fields have been occupied, US is evacuating all its personnel, talk of the need to set up "self defense committees" to protect this neighbourhood from "the troubles up there." In the distance, another explosion booms.

An air of tension and expectation rises up from the chitter-chatter.

Television is not a respite. Every hour, there have been new announcements. La Paz and many other cities lie cut off as more than 100 blockades spring up around the country, fights have taken place in Santa Cruz between local residents and campesinos. Social movements are "radicalising their demands" as politicians fail to listen.  People are going without food as prices shoot up, and as gas disappears that is needed to cook it.

We are well into a third week of protests and the streets are amazingly still full of people marching. I wonder how they keep going, but every day they are still there. Campesinos from outlying parts of Bolivia, miners walking sombrely in their hard hats, teachers chanting noisely, students with Che Guevara flags, indigenous people from El Alto.

Small groups ratchet up the tension further as they attack police. Eight lorries from Oruro full of dynamite are stopped by police as several miners head to apparently try and take Parliament. The President goes on television saying that Bolivia is at the brink of a bloody civil war. Bolivia, largely ignored by international press, is suddenly headline news across the world.

An air of tension and expectation emanates from televisions and radios that transfix the nation.

Where on earth is Bolivia going to go? What are the expectations for a resolution from the conflict? It is impossible to know. Paceños (residents of La Paz) sound exhausted when asked about the troubles. Some are angry with the protests that have caused their businesses to suffer and have paralysed the city. But most put the blame mainly on the politicians.

The trouble is that the crisis needs a political solution, yet there is profound lack of trust in politicians. At times the crisis seems to have taken place in a complete vacuum of power. Announcements by the President or leading politicians sound hollow and had little impact on the unfolding crisis. Almost no politicians have addressed the central demands of protestors for nationalisation.

The almost irrelevance of national politicians seemed to be reflected when both the President's resignation and the announcement that Congress would meet away from La Paz seem to have no effect on the protests.

It is very hard to imagine what will happen next when fustrations with a political and economic system have reached such a critical point.

Perhaps they will burn out, as protestors and people in Bolivia at large get to an exhaustion point that must be near. Perhaps promise of elections and an assembly to design a new constitution will provide an avenue for people to redirect their political energies into pushing for politicians that will act more in the interests of the majority of Bolivians.

Perhaps Bolivia has reached a critical point in a history that will see a change of political forces: the rise to power of an excluded indigenous majority. Perhaps it will split the nation apart as people are forced to take sides in a struggle that will at times be contradictory and counter-productive. 

Whatever happens, Bolivia is going to need international solidarity if it is to forge a just and peaceful future.

Resources for daily updates:

Open Democracy
MABB
Barrio Flores

It was 4am, it was my birthday and the scene was apocalyptic - burning logs, ripped metal, piles of bricks and trees scattered for miles up the spookily empty dual carriageway. The taxi driver nervously swerved around several blockades before we could go no further. I got out and walked for 90 minutes up the motorway to the airport.

Five hours later, I had been joined by a close friend Graham (probably the only tourist who has arrived this week in La Paz) and it was time to return to the city. With all transport blocked or on strike, we found ourselves on the only open road into town which was completely taken over by one of the largest marches from the adjoining city El Alto into La Paz.

Being bystanders didn't seem much of an option. We were rapidly given Bolivian flags, and encouraged into the orderly queues that make up the marches here. It must rate as one of the marches with the best views in the world. As we swept down the side of the valley, we had views of the the soaring heights of peaks like Mount Illimani, a brilliant cold blue Andean sky and the whole of La Paz sprawled across the whole valley.

The march was very good humoured as it made its way down, full of chants calling for nationalisation and rude remarks about the current government officials who are seen as responsible for selling off Bolivia's natural resources.

Being probably the only gringos on the march, we attracted a great deal of attention (laughs, thumbs up, jokes) despite trying to hide behind our flags.

Once we reached the centre of town, the march joined up with hundreds of other marches approaching the city from every direction. Estimates later said that up to 500,000 people had been on the streets. The now distinctive boom of miners letting off dynamite would occasionally echo through the built-up streets.

We decided to sneak off for lunch, and soon found ourselves in another world. A french bistrot cafe in a posh part of town. As we toasted my birthday, it felt that we could be any other European city. Outside demonstrations were intensifying, leading to an immense political crisis, Bolivia was being rent apart with divisions, but we felt cushioned.

The first few hours of my birthday has reflected the week - an extraordinary mix of tension, curiosity, fear, festivity and apparent normality.

Some photos of the protests for nationalisation of gas in La Paz. Click on the photos to open up bigger versions within the online photo gallery.

"A wash, cut and blow dry. Well that would come to between 55 to 60 Bolivianos (about £4 or $7)," said the slightly camp but not especially friendly hairdresser.

Ok, so no surprises there. Except that the quote was for an imaginary poodle that I pretended to own when I curiously went into the dog's hairdressers for a quote.

The canine coiffeur can be obtained just five minutes from where I am currently staying with a friend of a friend in the south of La Paz.  The cost is almost five times what a third of the population of Bolivia earn in a day.

Just beyond the poodle parlour is a street that could easily be London full of coffee shops, shopping malls, fashion boutiques and more 4x4s than you can see even on a good day in Chelsea. Rich Bolivians interspersed with the occasional gringo stroll contentedly through the streets wearing the latest designer shades and American fashion.

The only thing that was a bit unusual were the amount of windows that were covered by newspaper - hurriedly pasted up as rumours spread that the marches for nationalisation of gas were on their way down to the rich districts of La Paz.

The demonstrations have yet to make their way down, so the windows remain untouched unlike some banks and buildings up near the centre of town which got smashed in protests on Tuesday night. But the newsprint can't paper over the huge gulf that exists between people in Bolivia.

The visual contrast between rich and poor has been starker than ever this week, as the traditional centre of wealth in La Paz has been taken over by those who have for a long time been excluded from Bolivia's resources.

Surrounded by banks, government buildings and tourist agencies, residents from poor neighbourhoods in the adjoining city of El Alto have joined coca-chewing miners, weather-beaten Aymara men in deep red ponchos, indigenous women with swirling skirts and bowler hats, and teachers from schools across the city to call for nationalisation of gas.

Many have made great sacrifices to take part in the protests. Iriano, a miner had travelled six hours to join protests on Tuesday: "It is not easy for us to come here, but we came because we need reclaim these resources. We have been robbed for centuries and our government is robbing us again.”

In El Alto, a general strike for almost 2 weeks has had a serious impact on many of the small businesses that operate there. Today all the minibus drivers and taxis sacrificed a day's wages as a general transport strike took place across La Paz. Of course, not everyone supports the protests and some are tired after 3 weeks of intense protests on the gas issue, but most people I have talked to on the streets have expressed support for nationalisation.

Behind this sacrifice and the protests lies a more profound challenge to the gulf that lies between rich and poor, the powerful and the powerless. It was summed up in a banner on one of the marches on Tuesday:

"The time of the Q'aras is past. It is the time for the T'aras."

Gilberto, a construction worker in El Alto, who sported the placard explained:

"The Q'aras is an aymara word for the elite who make up 25% of the population and have who ruled for themselves in the 179 years since Independence whilst the majority, the T'aras (said with a click against the palate) live in misery. The gas law is part of this. They are selling themselves to the multinationals. We need to reclaim our resources for all the people."

The marches and protests and the radicalisation of demands by popular movements for nationalisation represents a fight back by those excluded from wealth and power for so long.  The shift explodes around issues like the gas, but has been taking place with increasing impact on Bolivia's politics for the last few years.

It was reflected in the elections in 2002 when a party, the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) representing campesinos and indigenous peoples came second and almost won the Presidency. 

In 2003, the largely indigenous population of El Alto played the key role in bringing down the Government of Sanchez de Lozada in the first stage of the "gas war." Recognising this growing force, the new President Mesa promised the recuperation of gas resources and an assembly to design a new constitution.

Neither have yet been delivered, which could go some way to explaining the anger and uncompromising attitude on the streets in La Paz. Again and again on the streets, I heard less about gas and more about the Government continuing policies of decades, of "robbing the country," "enriching themselves" , "leaving people in misery."

Yet before they have even taken power, the other world is fighting back. In La Paz, demonstrators are dismissed as trying to cause sedition, and papers talk mainly of the destructive effects of the marches and strikes on the Bolivian economy. Politicians openly encourage President Mesa to take a "firm hand' against the protestors ie use violence which thankfully he has refused to do.

In the East of Bolivia, strong business interests are driving forward demands for regional autonomy in Santa Cruz and Tarija due to a fear of losing control of "their natural resources." Their Cruceno campaign has successfully mobilised a strong regionalist (and at times separatist) sentiment from all classes of society.

The backlash was visibly shown today when a right-wing Cruceno group viciously beat up a group of landless and campesino marches in Santa Cruz. Meanwhile in La Paz, one of the demonstrators demands is for a rejection of autonomy which would merely fuel regionalist sentiment further.

In Bolivia, two worlds are clashing together.

For me, it has been inspiring to see those who have been excluded from power taking to the streets and fighting for their rights. But I feel the backlash could be an increasingly brutal one. In the fight for Bolivia's future, I fear it may be torn apart.

Some of the press reaction to huge protests about the new gas law have suggested that Bolivians are crazy to take to the streets. Doesn't the new law promise added revenue from increased taxes and refound the State industry? What on earth would nationalisation achieve? Aren't these people just shouting slogans for no real reason?

However analysis by the research body, CEDLA, suggests that there are good reasons for protestors to challenge the new law because it contains serious flaws that affect Bolivia's long-term ability to maximise its natural resources to tackle profound levels of poverty.

Most of all, it fails to live up even to the ambiguous wording of the referendum on gas in 2004 in which people voted to recover ownership of gas resources and develop them to help industrialise the country. They argue that nationalisation is needed for Bolivia to develop its strategic resources.

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