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

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 »

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.

   more »

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.

   more »

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?

Just before I left CAFOD (the Catholic aid agency where I worked until December 2004), I put forward a proposal to invite partners and the public to write open letters to G8 which meets in Edinburgh in June 2005.

The G8 is a group of the eight richest governments in the world who meet annually, and have the power to end poverty but instead continue to promote policies that deepen poverty.

One of my former colleagues, Tara Burke who led on the project, wrote this week to say that they had an amazing response to the request for letters. CAFOD has published many of them on their website.

They make for powerful and compelling reading and should be compulsory texts for the new Labour Government.

No way forward, no way back.

I was intending this week to head to Cochabamba, but the main road was blocked by protestors so I took a back-route through the hills where Che Guevara famously spent his last days. But I found out today that this road has also been blocked.  So I am stuck.

My personal predicament mirrors what is happening in Bolivia at large.

After over a week of bloqueos (road blockages) and protests, President Mesa threatened to resign only to back down after the majority of Congress supported him and some citizens in La Paz came out to demonstrate calling for him to stay.

Buoyed by the apparent support, Mesa called for demonstrations against the bloqueos and refused to compromise on protestor's and road-blockers' demands. These are centred on a 'hydrocarbons' law demanding that international energy companies pay 50% of their royalties to the Bolivian government. There are also demands for the immediate transfer of the water system in El Alto in La Paz from the private consortium, Aguas del Illimani, to the municipal utility, explored in more detail on Znet.

Mesa has said this would lead to an end to foreign investment and bring about legal action by the multinationals against the Bolivian government.

But his refusal to back down has been met by increased resistance by the main opposition party in Bolivia (MAS) and indeed has led to greater unity between MAS and various social movements They have vowed to continue their struggle for a new hydrocarbons law.

Their key demand for 50% royalties is not even that radical as this used to be what the government received before the IMF and World Bank forced them to privatise the oil/gas industry in 1990.  So it is not surprising that MAS and various social movements have upped the ante before a new law is signed which would only grant 18% of royalties to the Bolivian government.

The result is a political stalemate, which is reflected in the paralysing of the country as road blockages stop all movement.

For me, being stuck is a slight inconvenience. I of course have the luxury of savings from a salary beyond the imaginings of most Bolivians. So I can stay put in the hills.

But for some Bolivians the bloqueos cause real hardship. I heard yesterday that there were big fights at the bloqueo between here and Cochabamba as frustrations came to a head. Agricultural exports in the last month fell by 40% and from the limited conversations I have heard, I share Democracy's Center's excellent analysis of the crisis that people largely agree with the demands but not the tactics.

Sadly the real bloqueos that need to be opened up are not here in Bolivia, but are ones written in agreements in IMF offices in Washington, muttered darkly in La Paz's foreign embassies, or threatened by companies in faxes to Bolivian minstries.

I am sure Mesa is right when he says that the opposition's demands will lead to isolation by the international donor community on which Bolivia is highly dependent. He is also right that the bloqueos are harming the country. But the opposition are equally right that justice demands that Bolivia benefits fully from its gas reserves.

Anyone up for dismantling the international bloqueos?

So, it obviously was a political ploy. News today is that President Mesa has reconsidered his resignation after the Congress asked him to stay. Whether it will stop the protests and bloqueos (blocking of roads) remains to be seen as the main opposition party (MAS) have vowed to continue.

I was expecting to see some lively politics in Bolivia, but didn't think I would arrive in a country plunged into a deep political crisis. In fact as I crossed the border unnoticed even by border guards, the rest of Bolivia was being paralysed by a series of bloqueos (blocking of roads) by protests organised by the one of the opposition parties and other civic groups across the country. The protests called for constitutional change and legislation to increase the royalties international companies pay the government for extracting oil.

This came to a head on Sunday when President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation saying it was no longer possible to govern the country. Some people are speculating that it is just a political ploy to increase his power and stop the protests. Others have already come out to demonstrate in his support.

One of the areas that seems relatively unaffected by protests is Santa Cruz, where I have just arrived. Yet it is a city that is being blamed as one of the factors behind his resignation.

Santa Cruz is a city that contrasts strongly with my first impressions of poverty in the East of Bolivia.  Its streets are full of electronics shops and Internet cafes, sleek 4 by 4s, and there is a general air of comfortable wealth emanating from its air-conditioned icecream parlours. 

From what I have been told, a great deal of its wealth comes from exporting wood, and also oil that is being extracted in the region.

Noticeably, people are much lighter-skinned than those I met further East, whilst the people begging in the streets resemble people from the Altiplano.

Recently, there have been growing demands here for greater autonomy - most vocally by wealthy Crucenos (citizens of Santa Cruz) who feel that their wealth is subsidising the poorer regions of Bolivia including La Paz. The demands have noticeably grown louder as new contracts to extract oil are being discussed in Bolivia´s congress.

Bolivia may overall be much poorer than other regions of Latin America, but it doesn´t seem to have escaped the curse of grotesque inequality that afflicts this continent. 

Whilst I was at  the World Social Forum, I did some interviews with CAFOD´s overseas partners on what they felt were the pressing needs for change and their visions for a just world.  By chance (as I didn´t know they were there but just bumped into them), they were an interesting mix of people with different backgrounds  from trade unions to environmental NGOs to faith-based community development organisations. They are now up on the CAFOD website at http://www.cafod.org.uk/news_and_events/features/another_world_is_possible

Having a fantastic time at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre. It's a huge event - it takes a couple of hours to walk from one end to the other, the programme of events is more like a novel running to 260 pages and best of all there are almost no Socialist worker newspaper sellers. Just uploaded a few photos in the gallery. Click on the photo to open up the gallery

I wasn't quite sure what it would be like as I tend to get annoyed with talking-shops where everyone just spouts the usual rhetoric and you wonder whether it is backed up with any action. But I must admit I have loved it so far. The sheer scale of it, the fact it is so international, brings together activists, poets, musicians and academics from so many different fields, and yet  is organised in a democratic participatory way is incredible. It's a global political glastonbury festival.

Even the wierder ends of the forum - the ones that love conspiracies or talking in wierd sociological language - are entertaining. One of my favourite past-times on the first day was finding the names of the most obscure-sounding workshops. I think these are my current favourites: "Interlocutions of the psychoanalysis with the politics and the social one with the specific look at infancy, city and citizenship," or how about "Role of Brazilian social thought in the construction of the legitimacy politics in a gramscian perspective:complex sovereignty and popular government" Unfortunately I missed them both.

Opendemocracy (a great site) has been running a blog on the forum that's worth looking at. I agree with them that it is not really a place for focused campaigning and that you tend to get lectured rather than have an open discussion of ideas.  But I think it's main success is that it brings your attention to a huge number of campaigns, highlights some of the big issues facing social movements and is a great place to network.

In my short time here, I have learnt quite a lot about some of the social movements in Latin America and in particular the growing attention and focus on making sure that certain key services and resources especially water are not privatised. At one of the workshops, it was very inspiring to hear stories of campaigning successes: in particular in Uruguay where a national campaign llast year succeeded in pushing through a national referendum which means that water can't privatised, and in Bolivia where street protests (most recently in January in Alto Mayo near La Paz) have prevented the sale of water utilities to western multinationals.

Earlier today I went to an assembly on historical, social and ecological debt, which stressed the huge numbers of ways in which the rich North (through it's historical exploitation of the South, it's over-use of carbon, its pollution of the enviroment of Southern countries) owes a huge debt to the South. We are the real debtors;  Nothing particularly new, but it's a point that is rarely raised in debates on debt cancellation in the North.  Justice demands total debt cancellation for the South yet NGOs in the UK continue to largely indulge Gordon Brown's incremental approach to debt relief.

And it's not just talk. There are a number of solidarity economy initiatives in action here which ensure that a growing amount of the work done in putting on the World Social Forum such as putting together cloth bags for the programmes, putting up the tents, producing food is done by social enterprises controlled by their workers. At lots of stalls, you can see or hear about examples of ecological and organic initiatives, local cooperatives,  participatory council budgeting which are putting principles of social justice into action. 

Now I know there are also valid criticisms about commercial sponsorship, domination of male speakers on panels, presence of people like President Lula (who rose to power with backing of social movements but is increasingly criticised), the tendency to simplify issues, but overall I have been impressed and inspired.