The metric system isn’t always easy. Federal prosecutor Isabelino Gómez caused a sensation when he announced yesterday that Bolivian anti-drug police had captured 2,000 kilos of cocaine on Monday in Puerto Suarez, however today he admitted he confused grams with tonnes and that the real seizure was just 5.4 kilos.  Then the Government Minister announced [...]

In 2006, president Evo Morales signed a decree marking March 30 as the “National Day of the Salaried Home Worker.” Five years later, domestic workers are still trying to make inroads in their employment situations. According to the National Federation of Salaried Home Workers (FENATRAHOB), only 40 percent of domestic workers in La Paz, Cochabamba, [...]

The third round of a Bolivian Ministry of Health program to vaccinate young girls against the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) began yesterday. HPV can lead to cervical cancer if left untreated, and, according to the World Health Organization, approximately 260,000 women worldwide die from the disease every year. The Ministry began a pilot program in [...]

The Bolivian director of mining, Freddy Beltran, said that in order to increase industrialization, different foundries are needed for each type of mineral that is found in the country, as well as a domestic market that consumes them. For example, tin is widely mined as cassiterite ore in Bolivia, but the country does not have [...]

Yesterday, President Evo Morales called on several ex-presidents along with academicians and social leaders to discuss Bolivia’s demand for a sovereign outlet to the Pacific Ocean against Chile. The ex-leaders Carlos Mes and Jorge Quiroga denounced Chilean attempts to divide Bolivia and said that Bolivia’s demands were clear and consistent in regards to wanting an [...]

The Bolivian Central Bank has announced thattoday it will distribute 15.7 million bolivianos of coins along with 8.9 million bolivianos of 10 centavo and 20 centavo coins. Bolivia has always faced an absurd shortage of small coins, creating an entire industry of people who actually sell coins for bills, earning 1-3% comissions to provide the [...]

The influence of economic power in the justice system is a deep and ongoing problem in Bolivia, Denis Racicot, a representative of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights to Bolivia, said yesterday. “One of the current problems that comes into play for an ordinary citizen regarding access to justice, and the ability to get [...]

March 30th, 2011 marks the one year anniversary of Jaime Escalante’s death, yet many Bolivians and foreigners alike are unaware of the remarkable legacy left by this humble Aymara man who received admiring visits from the likes of US President Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not many people realize that one of the most famous [...]

In early August of 2010 in the small community of Pajcha Grande de Vacas, Jorge Cano Rojas (48) was brutally tortured for two days by members of his local community and then buried alive in front of his five children outside Cochabamba. Rumors of witchcraft fueled by the local town council member Alfredo Moya Jaldín, [...]

The National Electric Company (ENDE) confirmed the imminent shortfall of electrical energy beginning in the next half of this year, due to an increase in demand of 7 percent to 8 percent and failures recorded in the incorporation of the Guaracachi plant with the Interconnected National System (SIN), the nation’s electricity grid. The ENDE announced [...]