Boz beat me to the latest poll numbers out of Bolivia: Evo retains 54% public approval (down from 56% in March) across Bolivia, according to the latest poll.

Apologies for the sporadic updates. As you can imagine, planning to move (both house & office)—all the while dealing w/ a fussy (teething) soon-to-be 4-month-old and nearing the end of the semester—leaves little time for much else beyond sleeping.

But we’ll have more pictures/updates about Javi soon enough. Including his upcoming baptism, which is May 17th in Bethesda, Maryland. Stay tuned!

I’m trying to keep up w/ the escalating tension between the central government & Santa Cruz as the May 4 autonomy referendum approaches. As of the end of this week, the legal maneuvers have started to heat up: The central government has cut off the prefecture’s finances, and is preparing legal actions against the prefect & other regional leaders. In turn, the opposition (which controls the Senate, but not the House of Deputies) is initiating legal proceedings against the head of the national electoral court (the renegade regional electoral organism is moving forward with organizing the vote). All the while, the last remaining member of the Constitutional Tribunal (whose members were purged, or quit, w/ no replacements named) has initiated proceedings against the vice president for overstepping his constitutional powers. And this doesn’t begin to address the problems of social movements & counter-movements. In short, it’s a mess.

The question is, perhaps, exaggerated. Clearly, Evo—still the head of Bolivia’s cocalero federation—is an important leader w/in Bolivia’s anti-neoliberal social movements.

I’m a little late getting this news out. But. April 19 is “Día de las Voces Bolivianas” (Bolivian Voices Day).

There have been calls in the past for Evo to step down, but now they’ve become more commonplace.

Javi is slowly recovering from his first cold bug. He’s dealing w/ it well enough, for a three-month-old. But it does keep us up at night, since he has trouble sleeping. We’ve also learned to accept that he will sneeze directly unto our faces.

We’re now a little more than three weeks away from the May 4th autonomy referendum in Santa Cruz. A broad social movement¹ calling for regional autonomy has been active in force since January 2004, coming on the heels of the October 2003 “gas war” (which pitted a very different constellation of social movements against Goni’s government).

We got back Sunday. But I’ve only now had a chance to upload pictures (including some from Easter weekend). Chicago was great—as always. It was a pleasant visit w/ family & friends.

The Monday deadlines came & went. And I’m pleased to share that I’ll be joining Mount Saint Mary’s University in the fall. I think it’s a great fit for me, personally & professionally. It’s also conveniently located near K8’s post-doc at the University of Delaware, which means I don’t have to move far away. Most importantly, it’s tenure track.