19.10 Prisoners scourge themselves for better prison conditions

In Bolivia hundreds of prisoners have scourged themselves in protest for better prison conditions and a judicial reform. 1,600 detainees of the San Pedro prison in the city centre of La Paz are in a hunger strike since Monday and would not even drink, said prisoner speaker Oscar Romero yesterday. Some of the prisoners buried themselves up to the chin, others bound themselves to crosses, and many of them had course-sewn lips. In La Paz , the families of the prisoners blocked the roads to the prison and slept on the streets. There they wanted to endure up to a reaction of the government of president Evo Morales.

According to Romeo, 7,000 prisoners were in the hunger strike country wide. At the protests, prisoners of the provinces Cochabamba and Sucre took part. The prisoners demand a reform of the anti-drug laws, the easement of punishing reductions and the reduction of the bail during the release. With their drastic protest forms they want to increase the pressure upon the government: Available bills to the congress to change the anti-drug law and a judicial reform were not yet examined. Moreover, the forthcoming dialogs, so the legislative body, do not consider the review of benefits for rapists, murderer and recidivists.

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09.10 New Mine Minister appointed after fierce protests

After fierce protests among rivalling miners in Bolivia , the head of state Evo Morales appointed a new mine Minister. Successor of Walter Villaroel becomes Jose Dalence. The government is heavily criticized in connection with the excesses. According to medium reports the cabinet has known of the fact that the protests were imminent.

Later on, cabinet member Alicia Munoz provided for indignation, who called an agreement from Friday in the mining industry centre of Huanuni (located 280 kilometres southeast of the capital La Paz ) the earnings of the government. Local labour leaders however stressed that catholic bishop Cristobal Bialasik had successfully mediated. (nz)

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06.10 Severe arguments among mine workers claim 11 fatalities

La Paz (dpa) - Amid heavy arguments among mine workers in Bolivia , according to official data, at least 11 humans were killed and further 57 were hurt on Friday. At first, nine deaths were reported during arguments by persons employed from cooperatives and nationally owned enterprises around tin stores as of the previous day. Background of the arguments is a controversy over mining rights. Cooperatively organized miners require that they may exploit national tin stores. The workers of the national mines however disapprove to this. With the fights, firearms as well as explosive were used. The tin mine in Huanuni is one the largest in the world. Armed forces bolted the place, in order to get the arguments under control.

International tin prices have almost doubled themselves since 2002, and the again better opportunities to earn money attract ever more workers in one of the poorest countries of Latin America . For the government of the left-wing president Evo Morales, the conflict comes inconveniently, in the midst of an anyway extremely strained situation. He wants to more profoundly enlist the population living in poverty to mineral resources by nationalizations; however he is being supported by the so called “Cooperativistas” at the same time. The government party MAS has now submitted a bill to the parliament of La Paz , which plans the establishment of a common mine company from Cooperativistas and officials of state.

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20.09. Blockades by Morales supporters wane in Bolivia

Supporters of populist President Evo Morales were withdrawing their road blockades Wednesday night after halting travel to the eastern city of Santa Cruz , a stronghold of the South American nation's conservative opposition. Indian groups shut down a key artery between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba during the day to demand that Morales' Movement Toward Socialism party, or MAS, be granted full power over an assembly convened to rewrite Bolivia's constitution. The blockades came less than two weeks after conservatives themselves brought Santa Cruz to a halt with a one-day strike protesting Morales' attempts to control the constitutional assembly. The blockade of the Indian groups was also designed to disrupt preparations for Expocruz, an annual international trade fair set to open there on Saturday. Although only one barrier is still intact, it is expected that blockades near Santa Cruz and in other areas of the country will carry on until the 1 st , October.

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18.08. BOLIVIA'S NATIONALISATION PLANS IN TROUBLE

Three months after Bolivia's president, Evo Morales, nationalised the country's oil and natural-gas industry - which has the second largest gas reserves in Latin America - the political motives for the nationalisation are unchanged.

President Morales wants Bolivia's poor to gain from gas riches.The government remains eager to make sure the country's poor benefit from the nation's natural resources. But the government has also admitted setbacks.
Bolivia's energy ministry has acknowledged that because of a lack of money, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos, (YPBF) the state energy company, has been unable to increase its shareholdings to 51% of the industry's principal upstream (exploration/production) units.
In other words, the state energy company has failed to gain control of these crucial units, which remain in the hands of the Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, the biggest investor in the sector, and Spain's Repsol YPF.
YPBF has also failed to acquire control of facilities like the industry's refineries, distribution and pipelines.
Foreign investors, which include energy giants Total and BG Group, have continued to control these operations.
YPBF has also missed a 1 July deadline to restructure into an integrated company, as it had been supposed to do under to the nationalisation plan.
Moreover, following its failures, the state energy company has asked the central bank for $180m to help it accomplish the takeovers.

Bolivia's nationalisation plans in trouble. Read more.....
By Jane Monahan

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04.08. AMERICAN AIRLINES INCREASES FLIGHTS TO/FROM BOLIVIA

Next September, American Airlines will add 3 flights to Bolivia, with a total of 10 weekly flights.These new flights will departure Miami at noon and from La Paz to Miami, will be night flights, arriving Miami in the morning.

06.06. Bolivia and Cuba move closer

Bolivia´s president Evo Morales wants to work closer together with Cuba. He already put into practice a number of agreements with cuban´s president Fidel Castro. Cuba now signed an cooperation accord to improve the medical system in Bolivia. 20 hospitals will be build throughout Bolivia financed by Cuba. 600 cuban doctors are already operating in Bolivia. The accord focuses mainly on providing high quality eye surgery and to educate Bolivian doctors in Cuba. Furthermore, Cuba will offer Bolivia its experience for a literacy program trying to reduce the iliterate rate in Bolivia to zero. Besides, thousands of bolivian students shall be send to Cuba for studying at cuban universities. In return Bolivia will provide Cuba with natural resources such as natural gas.

05.06. Bolivia launches land reform

Another issue that Evo Morales promised in his election speech was put into practice this weekend when Evo Morales launched Bolivias land reform, to hand over 25000 sq km of state-owned land to small farmers, overall to the indigeneous population of the country.

The land thats currently under private ownership will not be redistributed nor taking away from the owners if it is classified as productive land. The government however is now studying the classification of the land to be "unproductive" private land or "productive" private land. The land that is declared by the government "unproductive" will be redistributed and hand over to the indigenous population. It is expected that another 200,000 sq km will be redistributed during the next five years.

01.05. Free trade agreement Cuba Venezuela Bolivia

Fidel Castro (Cuba), Hugo Chavez (Venezuela) and Evo Morales (Bolivia) signed last weekend in Havana the so called, ALBA agreement. This agreement aims to reduce or eliminate tariffs between the three countries. Cuba has promised to help Bolivia provide free eye treatment to those Bolivians who otherwise would not be able to afford it. Venezuela has agreed to provide at preferential rates all the subsidised oil Bolivia requires for its domestic consumption. Venezuela also has given 130 Millionen Dollar for projects to improve economic conditions and competition in Bolivia.

The pact is in lieu of Washington's unsuccessful Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, which Chavez and Castro said was a U.S. attempt to "annex" the region. The USA is now trying to sign bilateral free trade agreements that were already signed by nine Latin American countries. However, the South American countries Brazil and Bolivia have not signed at all.

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