President Evo Morales is scheduled to address the General Assembly this week in New York and he may be attracting quite a following. The two previous Bolivian presidents, Eduardo Rodriguez and Carlos Mesa both spoke in 2005 and 2004, respectively. The sea revindication issue was usually at the top of the list of […]
Surreal would be a fairly descriptive word for Tuesday evening’s events. It wasn’t so much seeing a former Bolivian President live and in color, speak so frankly about Bolivia and its current state of affairs that seemed unusual, but rather it was the odd, and possibly historic occurrences throughout the night.
Invited by a friend […]
The Bolivian Electoral Court has confirmed that the next round of elections are scheduled for August 12. This first step towards more local government participation will be another test of the strength of the citizens’ groups and political parties. These should be interesting to gauge progress from the various political parties and to […]
The pressures from the Civic Committee in Santa Cruz convinced Ricardo Paz to resign his post as coordinator of the Unidad de Coordinación de la Asamblea Constituyente.
From El Deber:
ED: ¿Hubo presiones para que usted deje el cargo de coordinador de la Unidad de Coordinación de la Asamblea Constituyente?
RP: La resistencia en los últimos […]
As one of the five priorities set by Carlos Mesa after the latest political crisis, the Constituent Assembly is gathering steam. There are many things to decide long before the Assembly convenes to rewrite the Constitution, including timeframe, number of delegates, and the timing of the Referendum on autonomies.
However, any move made by the […]
As expected, President Carlos Mesa has reshaped his cabinet for the third time since assuming the Presidency. Also, as expected, new cabinet members represent sectors of the country that have opposed Mesa or recently came out in public support for him.
For example, Walter Kreidler, who has strong ties to the Santa Cruz businessmen, has […]
Last month, El Deber published a nice profile piece about the recently elected Potosí mayor. René Joaquino, the “phenomenon” that pulled in 58% of the vote, is considered one of the up-and-coming mayors in the country and is making a name for himself on the national scene. His citizens’ group Alianza Social […]
Last Thursday, the Bolivian Foreign Minister announced that Bolivia will no longer seek access to the sea through multi-lateral means. You may remember President Carlos Mesa’s obsession with bringing up the subject at every international forum, conference, and at the United Nations. Per the request of Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, which Mesa previously […]
In a unexpected turn of events, MAS candidate for the Cochabamba mayorship, Gonzalo Lema resigned his position and is formally leaving MAS.
After pledging to respect the top vote getter, he was criticized by MAS leader Evo Morales. Lema, as the 2nd place vote getter, legally could have sought the mayor chair. Then, he […]
The pressure on Bolivia to sign a treaty with the United States granting immunity to American soldiers is not sitting well with Evo Morales:
“Aprobar (ese tratado por el que presiona Washington) es como decir que nosotros somos como animalitos, que nos matan nomás”, alegó Morales luego de advertir: “Si es necesario hay que incendiar el […]
The spokesperson for President Carlos Mesa announced that Bolivia will support Mexico’s Luis Ernesto Derbez to head up the OAS.
Last week Chile officially solicited Bolivia’s support for its own candidate. However, Jose Galindo, Mesa’s spokesperson said, “for obvious historical reasons” that they cannot support the Chilean candidate.
The Bolivia-Chile sea issue has […]
Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga, desperate to make a name for himself after his failed project “Roberto Fernandez for Mayor of Santa Cruz”, wrote a letter to Venezuela President Hugo Chavez. One of the leading candidates for the Presidency in 2007, Tuto wanted to send a message to Chavez and gain some publicity.
This letter told Chavez […]
When MAS candidate Gonzalo Lema announced that he would “support” the first-place candidate in the Cochabamba mayor race (even if it meant finishing far below 50%), Evo Morales probably spit out his coffee in disgust. However, Evo is claiming that he understood support, as being accepting of the inevitable coalition of the first place […]
Oscar Vargas (MUP) officially gave his votes to 2nd place finisher, Percy Fernandez. In exchange, reportedly Vargas’ group receives half the local government jobs and will become mayor for the last two of the five year term.
When I asked my friend in Santa Cruz, which mayoral candidate was aligned the most with the Comite Civico, she told me Oscar Vargas (MUP). I admit I don’t know as much about Santa Cruz politics, than I do about Cochabamba. However, in the past year I have become interested in the legitimate […]
Daniel’s monthly post in his Kaiki blog (although I wish he would write more often) talks a bit about voter turnout, among other things.
- Un alto nivel de ausentismo a nivel nacional(se habla de un 39%), no quiero interpretar esto pero no es nada bueno, máxime considerando que se amenazó con depurar de las listas […]
MAS candidate and Barrio Flores favorite, Gonzalo Lema said he will respect the majority candidate. This means that when the final tallies are announced and if CU candidate Gonzalo Terceros is still leading (regardless of how little the difference), Lema’s councilmembers will cast their vote for Terceros.
What this means is that the notorious behind-the-scenes […]
If the exit polls numbers hold up in Cochabamba, we can be seeing a CU/NFR coalition. Terceros’ four seats plus NFR’s two seats could be all that is needed to create a majority (11 seats). The wild card will be if Terceros wants nothing to do with NFR since he was involuntarily […]
According to exit polls conducted by Apoyo Opinion y Mercado and some television stations, the following candidates are leading with the following percentages (via Bolivia.com):
Cochabamba: Gonzalo Terceros (CU) 31%, Gonzalo Lema (MAS) 29%, Jhonny Antezana (NFR) 12% (AO y M)
El Alto: Jose Luis Paredes (PP) 60%, Wilson Soria (MAS) 14%, Roberto de la Cruz (M17) […]
Like any other Bolivian, Cochabambinos are fiercely proud of their city. They point out the near-perfect climate and how modern the city has become. “La Ciudad Jardin” is showcased in its finely manicured plazuelas and the iconic “El Prado”. Most recently the new public works projects of the Recoleta Bridge and the […]