Eduardo Ávila is covering a developing story at Jorge Wilstermann airport in Cochabamba, where workers of the airline Lloyd Aereo Boliviano are demanding that the indebted airline be nationalized. Writing from Cochabamba, Jim Shultz describes LAB [1] as “one more lab rat in that great IMF-induced economic experiment of privatizing all of Bolivia's state-owned industries,” which took place during the mid-90's.
Next to the runway this morning, I asked Oscar Olivera who, as head of the Cochabamba Factory Workers Union, is supporting the LAB workers, “Is it fair to say that Evo is now tear gassing his friends?” Weary from a week-long hunger strike and having been hit this morning by police, Oscar told me, “Evo is tear gassing his brothers.”
Later, Shultz adds [2] that he thinks that the prospect of nationalizing LAB “is full of problems.”