Closure of the border with Bolivia in response to covid-19 has exposed a legal vacuum in Argentina surrounding the consumption, importation and cultivation of coca leaves in the country’s northern provinces.
Coca leaves have been used for millennia by indigenous groups in the area, as well as in Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, for...
Main image: La Paz, with the Illimani mountain in the background. Source: EEJCC / CC 4.0, Wikimedia.
N.B. Statistics for infection and death-rates shown in images may differ from those in the text of this article
Until now, Bolivia has faced the global pandemic of...
This
article was written in early March, before the effects of Covid-19 virus became
clear. Since then the national elections scheduled for 3 May have been
postponed, at least until June, but almost certainly until October or later.
The postponement was announced by the Supreme Electoral Court on 21 March,
although no new date was fixed.
This article was published by Bolivia Information Forum as BIF Bulletin No.48, 7 March 2020
Weblinks to BIF Bulletins are also available through the BIF Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/Boliviainfo
Main image: The Salar de Ayuni. Image: Pixgood.com
As time moves on,
some of...
Social media outlets, such as Twitter and WhatsApp, played a major role in the protests that spread across the Americas in 2019. In Chile, hashtags raised awareness of the protests online and explained the reasons why Chileans were taking to the streets. #Chiledespertó (#Chilewokeup) and #ChileQuiereCambios (#ChileWantsChanges) were two commonly used examples. This also meant that...
This article was published by Bolivia Information Forum as BIF Bulletin No.47, 20 January 2020.
Weblinks to BIF Bulletins are also available through the BIF Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/Boliviainfo
Banner image: Cartoon by Al Azar (Alejandro Salazar)
In spite of its interim status,...
Banner image, above. From the website of the Ministry of Justice and Institutional Transparency: "Investigations will proceed into 592 former government officials and their relatives to recover deposits made abroad."
Some weeks ago nobody would have imagined that the Bolivian Prosecution Service would issue an arrest warrant against...
Bem viver, the good life, is possible -- LAB Newsletter December 2019
This has been an extraordinary year, with many setbacks but some remarkable signs of hope. To celebrate the latter, we report on our partner project Rios de Encontro, in Marabá, in the Amazon. Fresh from a tour...
Two months have passed since Bolivia’s disastrous October 2019 presidential elections. During this time, Evo Morales resigned from the presidency, sought asylum in Mexico, and arrived in Argentina on 12 December, two days after Alberto Fernández assumed the presidency there. Argentina has granted him refugee status. In Bolivia, an interim government has been formed, both chambers...
In addition to our website, LAB’s Facebook page
provides a daily stream of summaries and links to articles published elsewhere.
In this newsletter we have done away with our ‘Read more…’ rubric – the links
to LAB and other articles appear as hyperlinks in the text.
A wave of protest sweeps the continent