El Gaviero

Is uranium being mined in Bolivia for the nefarious designs of Islamic warmongers in Iran? Who knows? Count me skeptical regarding Israeli government claims that Bolivia, Venezuela, and Iran are forming a Hezbollah terror cell in South America to bring the U.S. to its knees, let alone shipping uranium to Iran for its nuclear program. [...]

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Jean Friedman-Rudovsky, in this week’s Time, has a hilarious story about Red Bull’s new cola drink, in which–gasp!–traces of cocaine were found by German authorities. Never mind that the amount of the cocaine alkaloid (0.13 micrograms per can; 10 million cans could conceivably get you high) is too small to affect anything. It’s a drug! [...]

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I’m trying to get my Peruvian girlfriend into the U.S. for a week-long visit in a couple of months, and I’m confused and intimidated by the U.S. State Department requirements. If any readers have had any experience or knowledge about obtaining a visitor’s visa, please either comment in the comments section, or drop me a [...]

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From La Época: “Bolivia and the United States Look to Re-Establish Diplomatic Relations After the Terrible Legacy of Bush”: “Bush wanted us to kneel, and we do not kneel and we will never kneel,” said a Bolivian diplomat. Of course, Greg Craig, who is Obama’s White House counsel, lists one Gonzalo (”Goni the Gringo”) Sánchez [...]

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According to El Deber, the Santa Cruz daily.
Might former Pro-Santa Cruz Committee leader Branko Marinkovic be a little worried after he’s been fingered by Ignacio Villa Vargas–alias “El Viejo”–as the money man behind the alleged plot to assassinate Bolivian president Evo Morales? Doctors recommend that he “change his habits,” which, according to El Viejo, include [...]

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El Gaviero has just flown back to New York City, and boy is he tired. Unfortunately for him, the Bolivian news cycle never stops, and he now finds himself playing catch-up! Luckily for you all, other bloggers never rest. So here’s a round-up on the news from Bolivia:

Otto’s got a great translation of a damning [...]

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Weekly La Época spotlights the stories of two indigenous men in Bolivia, both of whom were victims of political violence–one, Ramiro Valle, who was attacked by a Santa Cruz land owner while he was heading to an INRA (National Institute of Agrarian Reform) meeting; the other, Marcial Fabricano, former head of CIBOD (the Indigenous Peoples [...]

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Slavery is alive and well in Santa Cruz.
[Teresa Barrio's] hamlet of 13 Guarani families - all workers on the plantations near the town of Camiri in Alto Parapeti region in the eastern province of Santa Cruz - built a school but ranchers destroyed it, she says.
“They didn’t want us to learn, they want things to [...]

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Remember that terrorist cell in Santa Cruz–the one with murky connections to the ultra-right-wing Argentine carapintada group? An Argentine daily reports that there were 11 more of the painted faces in Beni department (also an oppo area, natch), according to ABI. These guys were also apparently involved at some point in the Balkan conflict in [...]

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Bina has a post entitled “Circling the Wagons in Santa Cruz,” about the seemingly desperate attempts by the opposition in that city–who are directly implicated in the April 16 terrorist group–to cast themselves as victims. Central to their claim of victimhood is the denial that any terrorist group existed–an impossibility, as the groups perfidity is [...]

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