Category Archives: Bolivia

Bolivia’s perennial student leader clung to post for decades without graduating

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Max Mendoza has been arrested after a judge said his 32-year enrollment at university on a government salary may be a crime

Max Mendoza has been a remarkably persistent student – and a profitable one: he has been enrolled at a public university in Bolivia for 32 years but never graduated, much of it while being paid a government salary to serve as a student leader.

On Monday, though, he was detained and sent to jail after a judge ordered a six-month investigation into allegations his tenure as a state-paid student leader constituted a crime.

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‘Relentless’ destruction of rainforest continuing despite Cop26 pledge

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Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources Institute

Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the end of the decade.

From the Brazilian Amazon to the Congo basin, the tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover last year, including 3.75m ha of primary forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss.

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Misinformation and distrust: behind Bolivia’s low Covid vaccination rates

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About half the country’s population is yet to receive a single dose of vaccine, despite availability

In a vaccination centre in El Alto, Bolivia, the staff bagged up in protective gear far outnumbered the few people sitting in plastic chairs waiting for their injection. A young doctor reeled off a list of all the vaccines available: Sinopharm, Sputnik, Pfizer, Moderna. What’s lacking is demand. They see 100 people on a good day.

South America, once the region most afflicted by the pandemic, is now the most vaccinated in the world. But this turnaround doesn’t extend to Bolivia, where roughly half the population is yet to receive a single dose – even though the state has had all the vaccines it needs since October.

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‘Babies here are born sick’: are Bolivia’s gold mines poisoning its indigenous people?

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The government has been criticised for apparent inaction as evidence mounts that mercury contamination is causing illness in fishing communities

Outside a small brick house shared by four families, Daniela Prada, who is heavily pregnant, gathers guava leaves to make a tea for her two-year-old son.

“My baby gets sick a lot,” she says, boiling a pot of water in her outdoor kitchen. “He always has diarrhoea and last night he had a fever. Most of the time I give him natural medicine.”

In an identical house nearby, town leader Oscar Lurici says fevers are a part of life in Eyiyo Quibo village on the Beni River in northern Bolivia. People of all ages suffer from debilitating head and body aches, bouts of vomiting and diarrhoea, memory loss and tiredness. Some children show signs of cognitive development delays.

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Bolivia: fate of 11-year-old girl raped by family member sparks abortion debate

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Religious groups seek to force girl to give birth as intervention of the Catholic church questioned

The fate of an 11-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a family member has unleashed a fierce debate between human rights activists and the Catholic church in Bolivia, as religious groups seek to force her to complete the pregnancy and give birth.

The girl was impregnated after being repeatedly raped and suffering other sexual abuse by the father of her stepfather in the town of Yapacaní, in Bolivia’s eastern Santa Cruz region.

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‘It still gives me nightmares’: the firefighters on the frontline as the world burns

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As global heating sees a surge in wildfires, we hear from those tackling the blazes, who face injury, death and trauma, often without proper equipment or support

In Greece, fires take up a lot of resources. There isn’t enough money to recruit the number of [firefighters] needed or to buy the necessary equipment. Volunteers plug the gaps.

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‘No one comes here any more’: the human cost as Covid wipes out tourism

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From Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca to wildlife tourism in Nepal, we find out how the crisis has affected people in four travel hotspots – and whether or not they want the tourists to return

In March last year, it was predicted that the global travel shutdown would cause international arrivals to plummet by 20 to 30% by the end of 2020.

Six weeks later, the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) revised their warning: international arrivals could fall by up to 80% – equating to a billion fewer tourists and the worst crisis in the history of the industry.

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Finding fangs: new film exposes illicit trade killing off Bolivia’s iconic jaguar

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Undercover documentary investigates the trafficking of Latin America’s big cat to meet demand in China

Elizabeth Unger was a 25-year-old biology graduate working as a PhD research assistant for big cat and climate projects in Latin America when she heard about the Bolivian authorities intercepting dozens of packages containing jaguar fangs sent by Chinese citizens to addresses in China.

“I was really blown away as [the story] was completely under the radar,” she says. Six years later, she is making her directorial debut with a film about the trade, which is contributing to a decline in the population of Latin America’s iconic big cat.

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The ‘forgotten’ people picking your Brazil nuts – for a fraction of the price

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Rich profits from the prized nut have failed to benefit those finding them. Now cooperatives hope to shake up the system

On a steamy March morning, Edivan Kaxarari walks with a few other villagers in single file down a trail in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil’s Rondônia state, near the border with Bolivia.

His sister-in-law Cleiciana carries her 11-month-old son in one arm and a rifle in the other, and his brother Edson clears the path ahead with a machete. It is hunting season for the seeds of the Amazonian Brazil nut tree.

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Cycle of retribution takes Bolivia’s ex-president from palace to prison cell

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Jeanine Áñez’s government once sought to jail the country’s former leader Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition – now she faces the same charges

It was November 2019, just days after Evo Morales had abandoned Bolivia’s presidency and fled into exile, and the country’s newly installed interior minister was making no effort to hide his glee.

“Any terrorist should spend the rest of their life in prison,” Arturo Murillo gloated during an interview in his recently occupied chambers, vowing to put the runaway leftist behind bars for the next 30 years.

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Bolivia’s ex-interim president arrested in opposition crackdown

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Jeanine Áñez’s arrest is part of restored leftist government’s pursuit of those involved in the ousting of socialist leader Evo Morales

Bolivia’s conservative ex-interim president, who led the country for a year, has been arrested as officials of the restored leftist government target those who helped oust socialist leader Evo Morales in 2019.

Jeanine Áñez, who Morales supporters say was part of a coup, was detained early on Saturday morning in her home town of Trinidad and was flown to the capital, La Paz, where she appeared before a prosecutor.

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Bolivia’s ex-interim president faces arrest warrant for terrorism and sedition

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Prosecutors move against Jeanine Áñez and officials who backed ousting of former leader Evo Morales

Bolivia’s former interim president faces an arrest warrant for terrorism and sedition as prosecutors move against officials who backed the ousting of former leader Evo Morales, which his party – now back in power – considers a coup.

“The political persecution has begun,” said Jeanine Áñez, who headed a conservative administration that took power after Morales resigned in November 2019.

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Gurrumul, Omar Souleyman, 9Bach and DakhaBrakha: the best global artists the Grammys forgot

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From the Godfathers of Arabic rap to the father of Ethio-jazz, Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan guides a tour through global music’s greatest

This week I wrote about the glaring lack of international inclusivity in the Grammys’ newly redubbed global music (formerly world music) category.

In the category’s 38-year history, almost 80% of African nations have never had an artist nominated; no Middle Eastern or eastern European musician has ever won; every winner in the past eight years has been a repeat winner; and nearly two-thirds of the nominations have come from just six countries (the US, the UK, Brazil, Mali, South Africa, India). The situation shows little signs of improving.

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Humanitarian crisis looms on Chile-Bolivia border as migrants cross on foot

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Chile closed land borders last year due to Covid but authorities report surge in crossings, mostly Venezuelan migrants

Activists are warning of a looming humanitarian crisis on the border between Chile and Bolivia as growing numbers of migrants brave the harsh terrain of the Chilean altiplano to cross the frontier on foot.

Chile closed its land borders last year as a preventive measure during the Covid-19 pandemic, but authorities have reported a surge in irregular crossings, mostly caused by Venezuelan migrants fleeing economic instability and political turmoil in their home country.

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¡Populista! review: Chávez, Castro and Latin America’s ‘pink wave’ leaders

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BBC reporter Will Grant has produced an excellent look at the group of strongmen who came from left field

If there was ever a surreal start to a trip to Cuba, it was the one that coincided with the news Fidel Castro had died. That was what I woke up to on 26 November 2016, hours before my husband and I were due to fly to Havana. A day later, we found ourselves in what seemed like an endless queue under a blazing autumn sun, waiting to enter Castro’s memorial at the Jose Martí monument in the Plaza de la Revolución.

Related: Sisters in Hate review: tough but vital read on the rise of racist America

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Tiny frog species among series of finds in Andean ‘sky islands’

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‘Ecological Swat team’ discovers 20 unknown species in Bolivia including viper and butterfly

An “ecological Swat team” has discovered 20 previously unknown species in the misty cloud forests and cascading waterfalls that flank Bolivia’s Zongo valley.

Among the animals found were a minuscule 10mm-long frog, a pit viper, two metalmark butterflies and an adder’s-mouth orchid. The pristine forests are just 30 miles (48km) from the capital, La Paz, but the expedition also rediscovered the devil-eyed frog, seen just once before, and a satyr butterfly not seen for nearly a century. Alongside these were threatened species including the spectacled bear and the channel-billed toucan.

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Researchers confirm human-to-human transmission of rare virus in Bolivia

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Chapare virus, which causes haemorrhagic fevers, was transmitted to health workers in La Paz and resulted in three deaths

Researchers with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have discovered human-to-human transmission of a rare virus in Bolivia belonging to a family of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola.

The news is a reminder that scientists are working to identify new viral threats to humankind, even as countries around the world battle a new wave of Covid-19 outbreaks.

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‘We’re in power now’: Evo Morales makes gleeful return to town he fled

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Tens of thousands of supporters greet Bolivian ex-president during his triumphant return to Chimoré

Tens of thousands of jubilant followers have welcomed Evo Morales back to the coca-growing region from which he fled into exile exactly one year ago after what they branded a racist rightwing coup.

“Evo, Evo, Evo,” chanted the people who had travelled from all over Bolivia to witness their leader’s triumphant return home in the jungle-flanked town of Chimoré.

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