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The Week That Was – Bolivian Blogs

Categories: Latin America, Bolivia

Elections scheduled for December 4th are far from certain of taking place. What has been for certain over the past week in La Paz and El Alto has been the scarcity of liquid gas used for cooking. MABB displays some pictures of long lines of Paceños [1] and their justifiable frustration. Alexey believes that some irregular transactions involving the gas canisters, aka “contrabando hormiga [2]” (ant smuggling) may be taking place along the porous Bolivian-Peruvian border near the town of Desaguadero.

Even without a guarantee of elections, politics still continue to be discussed on Bolivian blogs. Alvaro Ruiz-Navajas comments on an unusual poll [3] that found that both Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, if on the ballot in Bolivia, would draw in considerable support. Miguel Centellas wonders whether the political party, Unidad Nacional would not be better off [4] with its Vice-Presidential candidate Dr. Carlos Dabdoub as their Presidential candidate due to his high popularity in Santa Cruz. Daniel Bustillos, after a long absence, announced his return to blogging at his site Kaiki [5]. Meanwhile, Javier urges the creation of a webpage to collect signatures of Bolivians abroad [6] demanding the right to vote for those living outside of the country.

Nick at Open Veins profiles the journey of one brother's search for justice [7] in the death of his brother during the crisis of October 2003.

On a less serious note, Andrew Glazer found himself in the middle of a crowd of teenyboppers [8] hoping to get a glimpse of their hero, Floricienta, in a Santa Cruz hotel. Meanwhile in La Paz, a popular and successful music festival featuring such groups like Molotov and Attaque 77 was deemed the best festival [9] of Marcelita's life.

In a very personal entry, Wendell reflected on the very real possibility of adopting a Bolivian child [10], which ended up not happening leaving him wondering what could have been.