Bolivia | VivirLatino

Posts Tagged ‘Bolivia’

Evo: “Transparent aid or out of Bolivia”

11:29 am By Maegan La Mala · Bolivia|Politics · 1 Comment

5 Sep 2007

Everyone knows that throughout history U.S. aid in Latin America has often had an underlying agenda. The Bolivian government knows that too, and is talking back to the U.S., saying that if their policies don’t support current president Evo Morales, then they can take their money and not let the door hit them on the way out.

According to Venezuela’s El Universal, the “right hand man” of Evo Morales, Juan Ramón Quintana, says:

“If U.S. aid doesn’t adjust itself to the policies of the Bolivian state, the door [to leave] is open. We aren’t going to allow that this type of aid fog our democracy, conspire against the rights to freedom of our people or offend national dignity even one day more.”

Bolivians : Hell No We Won’t Go (to a New Capital)

10:53 am By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Politics · Comments Off

23 Jul 2007

bolivia%20protests.jpg About a million people took to the streets of Bolivia’s capital city La Paz on Friday to protest efforts to move the nation’s capital. According to news reports, the crowd was made up of La Paz residents and members of the Aymara community bused in from the surrounding countryside. They were all united ,waving the red and green La Paz state flag. The executive and legislative branches of the Bolivian government are based in La Paz while the judicial branch is located 255 miles to the southeast, in Sucre. Bolivia was officially founded in Sucre in 1825 but lost its capital title in 1899 in a civil war.

Eastern states argue that Sucre, nearer the country’s center, can better represent the entire country than La Paz, which is on Bolivia’s far western edge.
La Paz backers say switching the capital from Bolivia’s largest city, with a metropolitan population of 1.7 million, to Sucre, population 250,000, would be expensive and divisive.

Via / CNN

Bolivia Beauty Queen in a Hairy Situation

1:38 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia · Comments Off

17 Jul 2007

In many a beauty pageants fake augmentation is considered the norm. This is not the case in Bolivia’s Miss Cholita Pacena pageant where the use of something fake cost the winner her crown. When Mariela Molinedo won on July 13, she was being lauded for exemplifying Indigenous Bolivian women and their traditional fashion of of a wide skirt, bowler hat and long braided hair. The contestants also had to make a speech in native Aymara, the language of the Indigenous local community. There was one problem with Mariela though. Her braids, fake.

The judges “disqualified the winner because they realized she didn’t have braids, that the braids she had were false,” he told Reuters. “Having short hair means they don’t live like Cholitas.”

Damn imagine if Miss Universe was handled like that. Taking away crowns because of fake um assets. There would be no contestants!!!

Via / MSNBC

Evo Morales : Enemy of Capitalism

1:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Politics · Comments Off

25 May 2007

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales may be pals with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro but he’s no friend of the U.S.’s best friend, capitalism. At a conference this past Tuesday Morales said:

The transnational corporations always provoke conflicts to accumulate capital, and the accumulation of capital in a few hands is no solution for humanity,And so I have arrived at the conclusion that capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity. Instead of making more weapons and bullets to kill humankind, we must concentrate on producing more food,”

Via / CBS News

Evo makes businesses pay workers more

6:37 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Labor|Money · Comments Off

7 May 2007

Bolivian president Evo Morales signed a decree earlier this month (on May 1, International Workers Day, to be exact) which calls for private companies to give their workers a 5 percent raise.

Labor minister Walter Delgadillo said that the measures looks to “do right” by those who “never receive raises”, unlike public workers, who, incidentally, are calling for raises of their own — of up to 20 percent:

“Some of you are asking for a 20 percent raise in salary. I can’t understand it,” said Morales, who asked that those workers be “patriots” and understand that it isn’t possible to raise salaries by that much.

Perhaps Evo can’t understand it because last year he sliced his own salary in half (to $1700 USD per month) to pay for ten new teachers. Nice gesture, even if the minimum wage in Bolivia is a just 525 Bolivianos — 65 U.S. dollars per month.

Via / EsMas.com

Bolivia Doesn’t Want the World to Have a Coke

12:54 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|business · Comments Off

16 Mar 2007

The Bolivian constitution is being rewritten and that could impact business world wide. How? One of the provisions being pushed by the constitutional committee would ban foreign companies from using the name of their sacred coca plant.

Margarita Teran, head of the Coca Committee, told daily newspaper La Razon she was dismayed that Coca-Cola can sell soft drinks worldwide without restrictions while Bolivia is barred from exporting products made with coca.

Such a law is not unheard of. It’s what keeps sparking wine from being called champagne, for example. What’s different here is that coca is placed in the same catagory as opium and cannabis by the U.N. and that prevents its legal export, even when it’s not in cocaine. President Evo Morales is trying to change that by pushing coca leaf products. The U.S. ain’t having it though even though currently the U.S. is the number one market for coca’s most well known use, as an illegal drug.

Via / MSNBC

Venezuela Lending Bolivia a Hand for Coca

4:45 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Venezuela · Comments Off

15 Feb 2007

The cultivation of the coca plant in Bolivia and President Evo Morales‘s defense of it has caused controversy and strain in relations between Bolivia and other countries, especially the United States. The coca plant is the raw ingredient in cocaine, but its leaves are also chewed and used to make completely legal tea. Other countries, especially those fellow South American ones led by fellow left leaning presidentes, support Bolivia and its coca cultivation. Take Venezuela who last week agreed to spot Bolivia about $250,000 to build two coca processing plants in Chapare and Las Yungas.

The plants will specifically manufacture a tea called trimate (pronounced tree ma te not try mate), a blend of coca, aniseed, and chamomile.

Via / Fox News

Image Via / Illegal Economy

Bolivia prohibits free entry of American citizens

2:11 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Controversia · 1 Comment

2 Jan 2007

If there were any doubt as to what the Latin American left thinks of the U.S., here’s another telling piece of evidence: Bolivia has decided to prohibit the free entry of American citizens into the country and require a visa for any U.S. visitors:

The government of President Evo Morales approved a decree Monday requiring U.S. citizens to obtain visas to enter Bolivia. Morales said the decree “a matter of reciprocity.” The U.S. government requires Bolivians to obtain visas to enter the United States.

Cuba donates 20 hospitals to Bolivia

1:29 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Bolivia|Cuba|Health · 1 Comment

17 Oct 2006

After having already “donated” 20 hospitals to Bolivia, the Cuban government is matching that with another 20, with the help of Venezuela.

Last September, Cuba finished construction on and the equipping of 20 hospitals in rural communities.

In addition, Cuba has also built 7 opthamological centers where the ‘Operación Milagro’ progam is carried out, which are free eye operations for the poor.

These hospitals now have the equipement necessary to do complete diagnoses, from X-rays, ultrasounds, EKGs and lab work, as well as operating rooms and specialized staff, said the minister.

Ten of the 20 new hospitals will follow this pattern and the other ten will receive only basic equipment to get them up and running.

According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, the Cuban Medical Brigade currently has 1,681 of its doctors and nurses in Bolivia, and doctors have performed over 36,000 cataract surgeries.

Earlier this year, Bolivian doctors protested the presence of the Cuban physicians, accusing them of taking away their jobs.

Via / 20 Minutos and BBC News

Chavez Not the Only South American in Town With Something to Say

22 Sep 2006

With Hugo Chavez continuing his stand up act in Harlem (where he was welcomed warmly) and getting heat from Democratics and Republicans alike for calling it as he sees it, other South American leaders critical of U.S. policy in the region have gotten lost in the shuffle. Amy Goodmann and Juan Gonzalez of Democracy Now! conduct an extensive interview with Bolivian President Evo Morales . In the interview Evo distances himself from the comments made by Chavez calling President Bush “the devil” but says that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq and defend the environment, specifically by fighting global warming. The interview also highlights Evo’s political career and the changes he’s made in Bolivia since soming into office.

You can hear the entire interview on Democracy Now!’s website

Image Via / Telegraph

Older Entries

Newer Entries

vikki: I'm so sorry for your loss. Warm wishes, vikki [...]

Scrying Nicki Minaj, Stupid Hoe, and #Afrofutures | Nuñez Daughter: [...] forest of things that seem to matter a lot–like fingers waving in presidential faces� [...]

Karen: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/09/120109fa_fact_auletta [...]

Karen: I just read this about Rubio. Let's see the GOP make him a VP nominee. LOL http://www.democraticu [...]

Martes Media Minute : Roe v. Wade Anniversary, Medicaid Mama y Midwife Victory, Cervical Cancer Awareness month, & Mala’s Mami Closeup, | VivirLatino: [...] last week’s liveblog of a conversation on cervical cancer and Latin@s, Bianca Laureano s [...]

VivirLatino