Bolivia, a surprising land of extremes

PAUL FROESE for the Union-Bulletin: Breakfast that mid-January morning was a plate piled high with fried trout, boiled potatoes and rice, with a side of tomato and cucumber salad. We had a long day of travel ahead, and our Peruvian hosts wanted to make sure we wouldn’t get hungry before reaching our destination. I had…

US and Bolivia sign deal to protect Bourbon and Singani

Nicola Carruthers reports for The Spirits Business: The US and Bolivia have signed an agreement to recognise Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as American products, and Singani as a Bolivian spirit. Last Friday (24 January), United States trade representative Robert Lighthizer and Bolivia’s foreign minister Karen Longaric signed the deal during a ceremony in Washington DC,…

Grown At High Altitudes, Bolivia’s Wines Are Rising Stars

John Otis writes for OPB: A vineyard in Tarija, Bolivia, the center of the country’s wine industry. A growing number of wineries here are improving their techniques, ramping up production and starting to export, as global interest in Bolivia’s award-winning wines grows.Insights/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Bolivia is better known for snow-capped mountains than sun-drenched vineyards,…

Bolivia Is Burning. Who Will Stop Its Fires?

Manuela Lavinas reports for The New York Times: Ms. Lavinas Picq is a specialist in indigenous politics and Latin America. President Evo Morales must issue a national disaster declaration to control the fires and avoid further loss of life. Fires have been ravaging the Bolivian lowlands for over a month. Nearly ten million acres have already burned,…

FAN: fires in Bolivia burned down 4.1 million hectares

AFP reports for Los Tiempos: Aerial view of smoke coming out of a fire near Charagua in Bolivia, on the border with Paraguay, which was recorded in August. | File photo | AFP The uncontrollable fires in Bolivia since August devastated 4.1 million hectares of forest and grassland, the private NGO Friends of Nature Foundation…

evo to face lawsuit for biocide and ethnocide!

El Diario reports: Concerns of representatives MAS extractivist policy threatens indigenous people and ecosystems Indigenous people raise responsibility lawsuits against Evo Morales and his collaborators for biocide and ethnocide, they do not rule out going to international instances to denounce those abuses The extension of the agricultural frontier, the exploration of hydrocarbons and minerals in…