Bolivia Weekly » News

Eldery Protesters Block Highway to Increase Senior Benefits

admin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 23:21:26 +0000

More than one hundred elderly Bolivians blocked the only highway linking La Paz with El Alto today to demand an increase in the senior citizen payment renta Dignidad. “It’s been three years that we’ve been asking for an audience with President Evo Morales, because we’re demanding an increase in the renta Dignidad,” said the executive secretary of the La Paz Senior Citizens Federation Miguel Condori. Condori said that other federations on a national level will begin road blocks soon. Condori said that President Morales promised to increase the renta Dignidad for people over the age of 65 in a speech in Charapaqui but has not fulfilled this promise. “Our brothers from the provinces have arrived in their beds to stay and meet with president Morales,” said Condori who clarified that Bolivia’s elderly support president Morales, but they just want to increase the renta Dignidad.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20111121/adultos-mayores-bloquean-autopista-la-paz-el-alto_150271_311804.html

Evo Announces Presidential Airport Terminal on his Birthday

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:29:27 +0000

On his birthday yesterday, President Evo Morales announced that he will spend at least 10.5 million bolivianos to build a presidential airport terminal in La Paz with its own hangars. Morales said at an air force gathering, “I want to take this opportunity to inform about this project of a new presidential terminal and its hangars that we will debate tomorrow in the cabinet. I want to tell you that we definitely have the economic resource, this will cost 10.5 million bolivianos.” Morales said that Bolivia did not have an adequate presidential aircraft hangar compared to other neighboring countries. “When we go visiting other countries and we see their presidential terminals, their equipment and the way that they offer services from the terminal and from the air force…” The new terminal will open in October of 2012. President Morales travels in a new Falcon 900 EX airplane purchased from Manchester United last year at over $30 million dollars.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20111027/evo-asegura-bs-105-millones-para-un-hangar_147168_304486.html

TIPNIS Triumph, Morales Defeated

admin — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:01:56 +0000

Just 48 hours after the indigenous Amazonian marchers arrived in La Paz, President Morales has caved in to their central demand and announced that he will not build a highway through the TIPNIS (Indigenous Territory in the Isiboro Securé National Park). The marchers have been walking from their tribal villages in the Amazon for 67 days, facing police brutality, rains and repeated refusals by the President to consider their demands. Morales’ proposed $400 million dollar highway projected would have gone from his coca-growing home village of Villa Tunari to a small town in the jungle San Ignacio de Moxos and cut through pristine Amazonian rainforest in one of Bolivia’s National Parks. Morales has not renounced the road project entirely, however, and may seek an alternate route through Amazonian jungle not part of the TIPNIS. The project is being financed by a loan from Brazil and must employ a Brazilian construction company.

After months of refusing to meet with the indigenous marchers, ordering the police to stop the marchers, slandering them as right-wing conspirators, and puppets of NGOs and foreign interests, Morales has met personally with the marchers and conceded to their primary demand. Talks are ongoing as the marchers seek redress to their other 15 demands relating to the road project and their villages’ development. The marchers had demanded that the press be present at the meeting and Morales refused, saying, “This is not a football match.” However, he conceded this point as well and the press recorded the historic meeting.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/economia/20111021/dialogo-entre-marchistas-y-morales-en-cuarto-intermedio-tras-reunirse-en_146426_302791.html

Energy Crisis Creates Planned Blackouts

admin — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:49:50 +0000

Bolivia, a country which exports natural gas and oil to its neighbors, has begun blackouts in its three largest cities by order of the National Distribution Committee (CNDC) due to a lack of enough electricity to meet demand. Bolivia nationalized several electrical companies over the past five years and electrical production has declined in the country from 1.25 GW to 1.002 GW, meanwhile demand has now risen to 1.03 GW. The CNDC plans electrcity rationing and cuts during peak hours from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, and La Paz will feel most of the effects of these changes. The Energy and Hydrocarbon Minister José Luis Gutiérrez will be meeting with the CNDC and the National Electrical Company (ENDE) on Friday to discuss the energy crisis, talk about augmenting generating capacity and create an emergency rationing plan. The CNDC blamed the crisis on the failure of 100 MW worth of generators at plans in Guaracachi (Santa Cruz), Aranjuez (Chuquisaca) and Valle Hermoso (Cochabamba). Bolivia generates most of its electricity from hydro power derived from powerful Andean and Amazonian rivers.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/economia/20110812/gobierno-dispone-cortes-de-electricidad-en-el-pais_137464_280975.html

70 Bolivian Space Agency Professionals go to China

admin — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:05:47 +0000

In October 70 professionals from the Bolivian Space Agency will travel to China for a training on how to operate the Tupac Katari satellite that Bolivia has purchased from China. The satellite will be put in orbit in the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014 and will cost Bolivia $295 million dollars, $255 million of which it is borrowing from China. Officials said that construction of the satellite is on schedule. President Morales is traveling to China in a few days to work on this and other agreements with the Chinese.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www2.abi.bo/#

Bolivia Begins Flying New Fighter Jets

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:51:09 +0000

Admiral Pacheco of the Bolivian armed forces announced that yesterday Bolivia began flying its six new Chinese K-8 fighter jets for the first time. Pacheco presented three of the six planes to President Morales during a military parade celebrating “Dia de la Patria” in Tarija. The admiral said that the planes will be used against drug trafficking. Bolivia, South America’s poorest country, spent $58.7 million on the planes, which were manufactured in China and assembled in Cochabamba. Bolivia has been sending pilots, instructors and technicians to China for training in the operation and maintenance of the planes. Bolivian pilots have been conducting test flights alongside Chinese pilots.

To learn more in Spanish see: http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20110808/militares-comienzan-a-operar-aviones-k-8_136857_279482.html

Evo Asks for Media Election Restrictions to Be Changed

Matthew Grace — Fri, 20 May 2011 17:07:25 +0000

Bolivian president Evo Morales has called on the legislature to draft a proposal to amend a law restricting the press and judicial candidates from free expression during elections.

The Electoral System Act prohibits candidates from giving interviews to the media and provides for sanctions against the media that disseminate information other than what issued by the Electoral Tribunal.

Journalists and unions have been protesting the law over the last several weeks, and had met yesterday in La Paz to express their displeasure. On October 16, Bolivians will elect 56 judges nationwide, from a list of 125 candidates.

“Our obligation is to ensure freedom of expression, information, of participation, and here I want to create the means … [I have] listened to the analysts, the Bolivian people … I am suggesting to the legislature to amend Article 82 to strengthen and ensure the best information and participation of the Bolivian people in this unprecedented election,” Morales said yesterday.

Paragraph 1 of Article 82 of the Electoral Act prohibits candidates from expressing opinions in public forums or media, radio and television programs, or to be interviewed. The penalty is disqualification.

Paragraph II prohibits the media from disseminating various documents produced by the Electoral Body, referring positively or negatively to candidates, publishing opinions about the candidates, or giving a platform to any of the candidates.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.la-razon.com/version.php?ArticleId=130696&EditionId=2534

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/politica/20110520/evo-pide-a-la-asamblea-legislativa-que-elabore-propuesta-que-modifique-el_126550_254730.html

Lidia Gueiler Tejada, Bolivia’s First Female Head of State, Dies

Matthew Grace — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:14:32 +0000

Lidia Gueiler Tejada, who was president of Bolivia from 1979 to 1980, has died at the age of 89. Throughout the past 60 years, Gueiler has participated in many important political moments in Bolivia, having been part of the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR) party in 1948, before the 1952 revolution. After the MNR was toppled from power in 1964, Gueiler spent several years in exile, returning in when she was elected president of the chamber of deputies (the lower legislature in Bolivia). After a series of military interventions in the executive branch—and nationwide labor strikes—Gueiler was appointed president of Bolivia by the Bolivian congress in 1979.

In 1980, Gueiler’s cousin Luis García Meza Tejada overthrew the government and appointed himself dictador of Bolivia. Since then, Gueiler was a mainstay in the diplomatic community, having served in Colombia, West Germany, and Venezuela. She has also campaigned for women’s rights. She retired from public life in the 1990s, but supported Evo Morales in the 2005 elections, and had recently been invited by the current president to discuss Bolivian maritime access with other former Bolivian presidents.

To learn more in spanish see:

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20110509/fallecio-la-ex-presidenta-lydia-gueiler_124923_251073.html

http://erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483944257

Missing Plane Hit 150 Foot Rainforest Tree

admin — Sun, 08 May 2011 11:04:35 +0000

Two Bolivian Air Force pilots and Four United Nations anti-narcotics workers were found dead in a jungled area of the Inquisivi province of La Paz. The plane crashed with a terrific impact into a 50 meter high tree near a stream and then caught on fire however investigators have not yet declared which of these was the cause of death for the occupants. Bolivia’s first female Defense Minister María Cecilia Chacón alongside the UN’s Bolivia representative Yoriko Yasukawa had a joint statement announcing the crash find and expressing sadness for the six victims.”In the name of the entire United Nations system, I want to express profound sadness and solidarity with the families of our compatriots and the two air force officials,” said Yasukawa. Minister Chacón said that the defense department has contracted a forensic team to examine the wreckage and a report should be made within 10 days. The team in the plane was working on project F-57, monitoring illegal coca production in the region.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20110508/encuentran-avioneta-y-todos-estaban-muertos_124764_250605.html

Bolivian Air Force Plane & UN Staff Missing

admin — Fri, 06 May 2011 12:26:45 +0000

A small Cessna airplane belonging to the Bolivian Air Force (FAB) is missing as of yesterday when it was conducting fly-overs of the Yungas towns of Coroico, La Asunta, and Caranavi near La Paz. The plane left from El Alto International Airport yesterday at 10:30 and was supposed to have returned at 2:30 in the afternoon. The plane was carrying six people. Search planes were sent out after the plane failed to return but no clues as to the whereabouts of the missing aircraft was encountered. The missing airmen are Néstor Álvaro Ottich Arenas, José Javier Alegría Estrada and four civilians who worked for the United Nations: Iván Alfaro Santiago, Estephan Campos Ruiz, Mariela Moreno Torreblanco and Patricia Delgado Rua. The United Nations personnel worked in the anti-narcotics division and the flight was supposed to be monitoring illegal coca plantations in the Yungas. The Yungas is a cloud forest region with steeply sloped mountains prone to intense rain and clouds that can make flying extremely difficult.

To learn more in Spanish see:

http://www.erbol.com.bo/noticia.php?identificador=2147483944162

http://www.lostiempos.com/diario/actualidad/nacional/20110506/desaparece-nave-con-4-funcionarios-de-la-onu_124493_249946.html