These are from a Visitor

These are from a visitor to this country. Sometimes their perspectives are different as we take so many things for granted or normal after so many years. Like one of our children has school on the soccer court because there are no schoolrooms free. Others are in a building off campus without toilet facilities.

We are in the election season once more in Bolivia. ‘MAS’, the Movement of Socialism party won half the seats in both lower and upper houses of Congress in the 2005 election. A native Aymara, Evo Morales is the first indigenous president since Bolivia gained independence 180 years ago. We were present when his inauguration took place in January 2006. The Constitution was changed during his term to allow a sitting President to be re-elected. In the Presidential Election in December 2009 he won a massive victory with over 62% and took Office for a second term 2010-2015. He declared a public holiday on Friday 22nd January as it was the day of his Inauguration. Presidents from around Latin America attended in what was a spectacular display of pomp and ceremony in La Paz. We watched it unfold on TV and again on 23rd when he spoke at the induction ceremony of his Ministerial team in the Presidential Palace. April 4th is the next Election Day when the people again go to the polls to elect Governors and councillors for the 9 Departments and mayors for the cities. TV debates with the candidates just as in the UK fill our screens daily.

It is now summer in Bolivia and paradoxically the rainy season. We encountered our first road blockades in the last few weeks when at a moments notice our main road beside us to Oruro and La Paz was blocked all day by protesters – one way on Tuesday in the La Paz direction and on Wednesday one way towards Cochabamba. We found out later it was a protest about the poor state of public highways made much worse when many are constantly churned up by heavy goods vehicles and the inevitable overflowing of rivers throughout the region with the heavy rainfall and I mean heavy! There are massive floods in the Chapare (jungle) and Beni areas north east of Cochabamba with deaths reported. Death here in terms of incidents is a constant phenomenon and in some streets it is almost in your face as the practice here is for funeral parlours to display their coffins in the window many next to a café with Latino music blaring out.
Just recently on the road from Oruro to La Paz 15 were killed and 21 injured when a coach and a lorry collided during the night run. Many of the dead and injured were young people travelling back to Chile. The week after 5 were killed and 47 injured when a coach crashed on the road from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz. The driver had been drinking and the police have charged him with homicide. This first week in February beyond Santa Cruz another 2 coaches collided during the night with 12 deaths and 70 injured. The press headlines are full of so many road tragedies in a matter of weeks. The Transport Minister has taken action on the road worthiness of coaches and the police are pursuing any drivers who show any sign of alcohol.
In La Paz last week the rains caused a landslide in the Bella Vista area and in the destruction that followed hundreds of houses that were built on the mountain side were catapulted into the abyss. No lives were lost as there had been an alert well beforehand but the resulting chaos has left the people poverty stricken. Television graphically covers all sorts of incidents such as this and rarely fails to show the injured or scenes of crime and violence when little is left to the imagination. For example they broadcast a robber who was made to walk round the perimeter of a field several times with a heavy rubber tyre round his neck watched by many onlookers. This is known here as community justice and is not uncommon. Falling exhausted he was promptly beaten by one of the community with a long split cane before being led away by the police. His shouts echoed in our ears, ‘I’m not going to rob anymore!