The Week That Was – Bolivian Blogs · Global Voices
Eduardo Avila

Bolivian bloggers are beginning to take full advantage of the different multimedia tools at their disposal.  Jonathan Olguin recently opened a Youtube account and has begun to upload various news clips from Bolivian television.  His blog Business and Politics in Bolivia also provided samples of some of the pro-autonomy commercials that have been running on television in anticipation for the July 2 Referendum on Autonomy.  A new blog called Marketing S.O.S. [ES] created by Leonardo Byon covers different advertisements and marketing campaigns in Bolivia and around the world.  In Bolivia, the word “marketing” is not translated into spanish, as it remains in the english form of the word in business and in academic circles.
La Vida del Chico Larva [ES] is a blog in which cartoonist, Joaquin Cuevas finds space to publish some of his art.  His work can now be seen in the newspaper El Candil, after severing ties with the major La Paz newspaper, La Razon.  He is also working on a series of flash animations.  His latest cartoon depicts a Frankenstein promising a new country through a Constitution, which appears to be thrown together in a similar Frankenstein-esque fashion.  The aforementioned Referendum coincides with an election of 255 representatives or Constitutents to rewrite the nation’s Constitution.  With a little less than two weeks away, no one seems to care about the elections.  Jim Schultz from the Democracy Center’s blog explains why it is a lifeless election, where one cannot even tell an important election is right around the corner.
What will be debated is how the country will be reformed and whether the new Constitution will resemble anything like the previous document.  Joup, a blogger from Santa Cruz, highlights important parts of Article I of the current Constitution [ES], which states, “(Bolivia) is multi-ethnic and pluricultural, based on unity and solidarity of all Bolivians.”  Her blog is called Este arcoiris se llama Joup (This Rainbow is named Joup) and it appears she finds these words in the current Constitution to be vital.
Some worry this constitutional exercise may bring about more confrontation between Bolivians.  Even with the new Assembly on the horizon, the conflicts between Bolivians have not ceased.  Palabras Libres’ Mario Ronald Duran Chuquimia questions, “Does housing cost a life? [ES]”, which refers to the recent conflict in the Department of Oruro where a group calling themselves “The Roofless Movement” began to occupy land and current dwellings. He thinks the dream of having one’s own dwelling is a legitimate goal, but demanding free land continues the vicious cycle leaving Bolivia as the continuous beggar.  The conflict between members of the movement and the police sent to forcibly remove those who had illegally seized land and dwellings tragically left one policeman dead and several others injured. Angel Caido also writes about the tragic confrontation and states that the just and reasonable operation should have been acted upon when the crowd was only 200 and not when it ballooned to over 8,000 [ES].  He blames the Departmental Prefect, who didn't take swift action to prevent the tragic event.