March 2008 Archives

Things in Bolivia have become increasingly tense in the last few weeks. We’re now about five weeks away from the Santa Cruz autonomy referendum (set for Sunday, May 4th).

Two nights ago, both Sophies (yes, we have two cats named Sophie) escaped out of the house. The event involved a stray cat that lurks near our apartment & a screen door whose latch gave out. Before I noticed, they were both long gone.

The spring speaker series I put together at Dickinson is winding down, w/ two final speakers who will focus on the Andes.

A number of interesting (personal/professional) developments in the last few days. But they’ll have to wait until Monday, when I give a definitive answer. But my days at Dickinson are winding down, w/ only five more weeks left to go. It is, in many ways, a wonderful relief.

It’s been some time since my last update. As you can imagine, things are very busy here. Spring break wasn’t much of a break at all, confronting mounds of grading, some writing lose ends (still loose, btw), putting together some special conference panels, and some last-minute job interview preps. And now Easter is upon us.

No shooting (at least not yet), but there’s a police mutiny in Bolivia.

Ah, Spring Break! One would think this was a time to recharge batteries & rest before the rest of the semester. Alas, not for faculty. A stack of midterms & other assignments begs to be graded. Students never know how much we suffer on their behalf.

The problems stemming from Colombia’s incursion into Ecuador a few days ago (when Colombian armed forces killed a leading FARC rebel leader) continue. Much of the problem stems from two counts:

It’s time for more Javi pictures. He’s now two months old. Be sure to note: 1) he now has “real” expressions, 2) he owns a pair of baby cowboy boots, and 3) he has a ridiculous Easter costume.

Both Open Veins (“Colonialism at the UN”) & The Gringo Tambo (“UN international narcotics board calls on Bolivia to outlaw coca leaf”) have already commented on the recent UN report on coca. GT quotes some of the language in the UN document; Open Veins gives historical background on the matter.

There’s an excellent article in this month’s Le Monde Diplomatique on the current situation in Bolivia: “Bolivia: Morales is Checked” by Hervé Do Alto and Franck Poupeau (trans. George Miller).

Boz has an interesting thread on “who wins?” in a possible Venezuela-Colombia war. There is no reason (yet) to believe a war is imminent, of course. But the possibility of inter-state warfare in Latin America shouldn’t bee too hastily dismissed.

Latin American politics sometimes takes on broad, regional patterns. About two years ago, many began proclaiming or denouncing (depending on ideological bias) the “new left” in Latin America. Whether that trend is leftist or “populist” or something else, or whether that trend is continuing, or even whether it’s one trend (as opposed to divergent trends) is still a matter of discussion, of course.