CORRUPTION 101: MAS impunity – Impunidad masista

Wilson Aguilar reports for Los Tiempos: At least 15 cases of corruption by MAS continue with impunity At least 15 cases of alleged corruption that occurred in the MAS government remain unclear. An expert assures that crimes of this type do not prescribe. In recent days, members of the MAS, including Evo Morales, questioned about…

Tensions Rise in Bolivia’s Chapare as Government Escalates Anti-Drug Operations

Max Radwin reports for InSight Crime: Officials from Bolivia’s interim government have stepped up drug trafficking operations over the last six months, but a focus on coca-producing communities in Cochabamba is creating tension with law enforcement that threatens to intensify. On April 23, thirteen members of a drug trafficking ring in the city of Entre Ríos,…

Three evils that plague us – Tres males que nos asolan

The three major illnesses that Bolivia has: Narcotrafficking: not only has territory under its rule (Chapare) but has become a key player in our politics. Corruption: Across the board, public bids, tax evasion, you name it, has worsened over the last 14 years. Covid-19: With over 60% of our labor force in the informal sector,…

Bolivia needs an election, but covid-19 makes that hard

The Economist reports: The opposition fears the interim president is using the pandemic to cement her power On april 21st, a month into Bolivia’s lockdown, police in riot gear swarmed the home of Patricia Arce, the mayor of Vinto, a city in the department of Cochabamba, and a senate candidate for the left-wing Movement to…

Bolivia NGO warns of increase in forest fires

AFP reports for CNA: LA PAZ: Environmentalists in Bolivia warned on Thursday (Apr 30) of a marked increase in forest fires this year that threaten a repeat of the environmental disaster that ravaged much of the Amazon in 2019. Bolivia registered 15,354 forest fires in the first four months of the year – a 35…

Cocaine and coronavirus

Gregorio Lanza writes in Pagina Siete: Conflicts, coca growers of the Chapare and coronavirus The leaders of the six coca producer federations in the tropics of Cochabamba rejected the entry of the Police into the region. One wonders, revenge? Provocation? Evo Morales’ instructions? or defense of drug production? Perhaps all together, however, if you analyze…