Category Archives: Bolivia

Milei plan to privatise Argentina river sparks fears among local communities

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Communities on Paraná River fear privatisation of waterway operations will destroy way of life

River communities in Argentina fear that Javier Milei’s plans to privatise operations on a key shipping route could lead to environmental damage and destroy their way of life.

Since taking office almost a year ago, the self-styled “anarcho-capitalist” president has pledged to privatise a number of the state’s assets. The latest is the Paraguay-Paraná waterway – a shipping route of strategic importance for Argentina and its neighbours.

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Supporters of Bolivian ex-president Evo Morales take about 20 soldiers hostage

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Morales and current president are locked into a standoff for ruling party’s nomination in next year’s presidential contest

Supporters of Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales stormed a barracks in the central Chapare region and took about 20 soldiers hostage, military sources said on Friday, marking a dramatic escalation in their standoff with the state.

The hostage situation comes nearly three weeks after backers of Morales – the country’s first Indigenous leader – began blocking roads to prevent his arrest on what he calls trumped-up rape charges aimed at thwarting his political comeback.

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Bolivian minister accuses Evo Morales of ‘staged’ assassination attempt

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Interior minister ridicules ex-president’s claim that government tried to kill him by firing shots at his car

Bolivia’s government has accused former president Evo Morales of staging an attempt on his own life, saying that shots fired at his car on Sunday came after he tried to run a police checkpoint.

“Mr Morales, nobody believes the theater you have staged,” the interior minister, Eduardo del Castillo, told a news conference.

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Evo Morales accuses Bolivian government of trying to kill him

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Ex-leader implicates former ally Luis Arce after his vehicle hit by gunfire amid rising unrest in country

Bolivia’s former leader Evo Morales has accused the government of his one-time ally Luis Arce of trying to kill him after his car was struck by bullets in an early-morning ambush on Sunday, threatening to ignite a political crisis in the Andean nation.

Morales, whose supporters have been organising road blockades for weeks to support the legally embattled former president, posted a video on Facebook that showed him in the front passenger seat and bullet holes in the car’s windshield.

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Pantanal waterway project would destroy a ‘paradise on Earth’, scientists warn

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The South American wetland, which falls within Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, would be vulnerable to biome loss and increased wildfires

Dozens of scientists are sounding the alarm that carving a commercial waterway through the world’s largest wetlands could spell the “end of an entire biome”, and leave hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to be devastated by wildfires.

The Pantanal wetland – which falls within Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, covering an area almost half the size of Germany – is facing the proposed construction of a commercial waterway, as well as the expansion of industrial farming and spread of intense wildfires. A cohort of 40 scientists say the waterway development represents an existential threat to the ecosystem: reducing the floodplain, increasing the risk of fires and transforming the area into a landscape that could more easily be farmed.

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Outbreak of Oropouche virus in Brazil should be a ‘wake-up call’, say experts

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The disease, spread by midges and mosquitoes, has been linked to two deaths as cases surge in previously unaffected areas

The deaths of two young women, miscarriages and birth defects in Brazil have been linked to Oropouche virus, a little-known disease spread by midges and mosquitoes.

A surge in cases has been recorded in the country this year – 7,284, up from 832 in 2023. Many have been recorded in areas that have not previously seen the virus.

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Argentina’s president butts heads with South American leftist leaders

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Turning from his ferocious attacks on domestic opponents, Javier Milei aims his scorn at the heads of Brazil and Bolivia

On the campaign trail, Argentina’s showman president, Javier Milei, brandished a chainsaw to highlight plans for ferocious spending cuts. In office, the rightwinger has apparently decided to take the power tool to foreign relations as well.

In recent days, Milei has busied himself losing friends and alienating people with a series of verbal attacks on the leftwing leaders of Argentina’s two biggest neighbours, Bolivia and Brazil.

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Bolivia’s president accused of plotting coup against himself to boost popularity

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Opponents say abortive raid on palace by angry ex-army chief was a stunt to bolster support

It was the armoured vehicles circling the Plaza Murillo - the normally tranquil central square in historic downtown La Paz – that initially set Bolivians on edge on Wednesday afternoon. By the time a phalanx of troops had marched on the presidential palace, the sense of collective confusion and shock was at fever pitch.

By 2.30pm, a small tank was repeatedly ramming the gates of the neoclassical building known as Palacio Quemado until troops forced their way in and, in an extraordinary scene, the coup leader – disgruntled former army chief Juan José Zúñiga – faced off against the president, Luis Arce.

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Bolivia coup attempt: ex-army chief given six months ‘preventive detention’, says prosecutor

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Juan José Zúñiga Macías has been handed charges of terrorism and armed uprising, says prosecutor, as president again rejects claims of ‘self-coup’ to boost popularity

A Bolivian former army chief accused of leading a failed coup attempt has been given six months “preventive detention”, a top prosecutor said on Friday, as the president again denied the attack was a “self-coup” designed to boost his flagging popularity.

General Juan José Zúñiga Macías has been handed charges of terrorism and armed uprising, state prosecutor Cesar Siles said. Zúñiga has said he was following an order from the president, Luis Arce, following Wednesday’s fleeting insurrection in La Paz. In the moments before he was detained, the ex-army chief claimed: “The president told me the situation was fucked and that he needed something to boost his popularity.”.

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Former heads of Bolivia’s army and navy arrested over failed coup

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Minister says alleged putschists will be charged with crimes after apparent mutiny in volatile country

The former heads of Bolivia’s army and navy are among a dozen people so far arrested for their alleged roles in a seemingly bungled military coup designed to topple the South American country’s leftwing president, Luis Arce.

Speaking on Thursday morning, just over 12 hours after the fleeting insurrection in La Paz, Bolivia’s minister of government, Eduardo Del Castillo, accused the former army chief Gen Juan José Zúñiga Macías and the former head of the navy R Adm Juan Arnez Salvador of leading a group of putschists who had “conspired to bring down a democratically elected government”.

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Bolivia’s president sees off attempted coup after urging citizens to take to streets

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Luis Arce said the country’s democracy was at stake after army troops seized control of La Paz’s political heart and military police storm palace

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce appears to have seen off an attempt to topple his leftwing government after a dramatic afternoon in which heavily armed troops, seemingly commanded by a top army general, stormed the government palace before beating a retreat and seeing their alleged leader detained.

On Wednesday afternoon Arce urged citizens to take to the streets to defend the country’s democracy from an apparent coup attempt, after troops seized control of a central square in La Paz which houses government buildings.

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Taiwan earthquake: over 600 people remain stranded days after disaster

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‘I kept praying and praying’, says rescued woman as search for four people missing from hiking trail set to resume following Wednesday’s quake

Rescuers in Taiwan planned to bring in heavy equipment on Saturday to try to recover two bodies buried on a hiking trail, while more than 600 people remained stranded in various locations, three days after the island’s strongest earthquake in 25 years.

Four people remain missing on the same Shakadang Trail in Taroko national park, famed for its rugged mountainous terrain. Search and recovery work was set to resume after being called off on Friday afternoon because of aftershocks.

At least 12 people were killed by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck on Wednesday morning off Taiwan’s east coast, and 10 others were still missing.

More than 600 people – including about 450 at a hotel in the Taroko park – remained stranded, cut off by rockslides and other damage in different areas. However, many were known to be safe as rescuers deployed helicopters, drones and smaller teams with dogs to reach them.

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South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamas

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Bolivia’s leftwing government cuts diplomatic ties with Israel, alleging crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza, as Chile and Colombia recall ambassadors

A number of South American countries have registered diplomatic protests against Israel, in response to its latest conflict with Hamas, with Bolivia’s leftwing government cutting ties entirely and attributing its decision to alleged war crimes and human rights abuses being committed in the Gaza Strip.

The decision by Bolivia was announced at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon by María Nela Prada, a minister in President Luis Arce’s administration. “We demand an end to the attacks on the Gaza Strip which have so far claimed thousands of civilian lives and caused the forced displacement of Palestinians,” the minister told reporters in her country’s de facto capital, La Paz.

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Threats against rape victim, 10, lay bare Bolivia’s culture of sexual violence

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Supporters of alleged rapist, girl’s 39-year-old headmaster, stormed police station in effort to prevent arrest

The ombudsman’s office in Bolivia has condemned threats against a 10-year-old rape victim and her family after teachers and school staff tried to prevent the arrest of the alleged rapist, a 39-year-old headmaster, by trying to invade a local police station and scuffling with police officers.

Videos posted on social media show the group gathered outside the police station, trying to pressure the prosecutor and judge to release the alleged perpetrator.

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Human emissions made deadly South American heat 100 times more likely

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Research shows climate crisis by far main cause of recent unseasonable temperatures in southern winter and early spring

The deadly heat in central South America over the past two months was made 100 times more likely by human emissions that disrupted the climate, scientists have shown.

Temperatures have exceeded 40C in late winter and early spring in the southern hemisphere, affecting millions and leading to heat-related deaths.

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Bolivian president expelled from own party amid political feud

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Conflict erupted after Luis Arce and ex-president Evo Morales both showed interest in the party’s presidential nomination

Bolivia’s president Luis Arce has been expelled from his own party, amid a bitter struggle with the former president, Evo Morales, to lead the party into the 2025 election.

According to a resolution passed at the congress of the Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas) on Wednesday, Arce “expelled himself” from the party by not appearing at the meeting yon Tuesday in the department of Cochabamba.

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Bolivian ex-president to pay damages to victims of military in landmark US case

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Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former defence minister agree to pay for 2003 violence in which 60 protesters were killed

A former Bolivian president and his defence minister have agreed to pay damages to the families of people killed by the military during their government, in a landmark settlement that sets a precedent by which other foreign leaders could face accountability for human rights abuse in US courts.

The settlement concerns events in 2003, when massive protests broke out over then president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s plan to export Bolivia’s natural gas. The army was sent to clear blockades in the largely Indigenous and working-class city of El Alto, killing more than 60 protesters and injuring hundreds.

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‘Winter is disappearing’: South America hit by ‘brutal’ unseasonal heatwave

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Buenos Aires records hottest start to August in 117 years, Chile sees highs towards 40C and Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil also bake

Now should be South America’s bleak midwinter, but several parts of the continent are experiencing an extraordinary unseasonal heatwave that scientists believe offers a disturbing glimpse of a future of extreme weather.

Argentina’s riverside capital, Buenos Aires, this week recorded its hottest 1 August in 117 years.

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Amazon facing ‘urgent’ drug crisis after gutting of protections, says narcotics chief

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Brazilian government warning comes as UN report says that flourishing organized crime groups are driving a boom in environmental devastation

The Brazilian government’s drug policy chief has admitted that the rapid advance of drug factions into the Amazon rainforest has produced a “a very difficult situation” in the region, as a UN report warned that flourishing organized crime groups were driving a boom in environmental devastation.

Marta Machado, the national secretary for drug affairs, said the previous administration’s intentional dismantling of Brazil’s environmental and Indigenous protection agencies had created a dangerous vacuum in the Amazon which had been occupied by powerful crime syndicates from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.

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Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite Cop26 pledge

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An area of primary rainforest the size of Switzerland was felled last year suggesting world leaders’ commitment to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030 is failing

An area the size of Switzerland was cleared from Earth’s most pristine rainforests in 2022, despite promises by world leaders to halt their destruction, new figures show.

From the Bolivian Amazon to Ghana, the equivalent of 11 football pitches of primary rainforest were destroyed every minute last year as the planet’s most carbon-dense and biodiverse ecosystems were cleared for cattle ranching, agriculture and mining, with Indigenous forest communities forced from their land by extractive industries in some countries.

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