I’m off this weekend to Boston. K8 presents a paper at the ASA conference; I’m going to take the opportunity to catch up w/ some old Kalamazoo friends.

With 10 days before the recall referendum, Evo might be heading into a tight spot. A strike by the COB (the Bolivian workers’ federation) has gained steam, and yesterday miners shut down much of the government in La Paz. The COB objects to Evo’s new pension plan, which doesn’t go as far as they would like (they insist that Evo’s government adopt the COB proposal w/o modifications).

MABB has a pretty good rundown of the current US presidential candidates’ positions on Latin America. Basically, it’s unclear what (if any) position McCain has beyond free trade. Obama, on the other hand, has a lengthy position paper on the subject.

We won’t get to go this year, but Baltimore’s Virgin Fest is next weekend.

A recent poll suggests that Evo would survive a recall referendum in Bolivia, w/ 49% in favor of keeping him in office, 18% opposed, and 33% undecided.

I’ve just uploaded the paper I’ll be presenting at the APSA meeting at the end of August: “Bolivia’s Party System after October 2003: Where Did all the Politicians Go?”

While doing some much-needed updates of my blogroll, I added a little appendage (•••) to blogs that post primarily (if not exclusively) about Bolivia. This way they’re easier to spot.

A year ago, friend & fellow Bolivian blogger Eddie Evila (of Barrio Flores) launched a project to help encourage more blogs from Bolivia—specifically in less affluent areas (his project started in El Alto).

There’s a running debate on the constitutionality of Bolivia’s recall referendums scheduled (tentatively) for August 10 over at MABB. I’ve weighed in w/ some thoughts on the legal backing of some recent related constitutional matters. But I’ve included the lengthier comment here:

K8 & I are big fans of Project Runway & Top Chef (both on Bravo TV). Unlike most “reality” shows (which are garbage), these revolve around actual abilities—highlighting contestants skills & creativity, rather than backroom drama. While neither of us sews (though K8 insists she’ll someday use our still-unwrapped brand new sewing machine), both of us have found inspiration watching the Top Chef contestants. These are truly talented individuals. (And I keep encouraging some of my friends to audition for both shows.)

But the current season of Project Runway is starting as a bit of a let down. So far, in the first two challenges, the overall quality of many contestants’ designs were subpar—at least by the standards of previous season contestants. Or is it just me?

This is a shameless plug, I know. But I recently started a Facebook petition for The Daily Show to hire a Latino/Hispanic correspondent. They still don’t have one.

You’ve gotta at least admire Quispe’s chutzpah. After allegations surfaced recently about ties between FARC, Venezuela, and Quispe’s EGTK guerrilla group, the famous Mallku (“prince”) of the Aymara katarista movement came forward w/ a press statement openly stating that he has FARC sympathies—though pointing out that he also has programmatic differences w/ the Colombian guerrillas.

Fallout from the capture of a FARC leader’s laptop in Ecuador a few months ago is starting to have some (predictable) fallout in Bolivia. Today’s La Razón has a series of articles on relationships between FARC & Bolivian groups.

K8 & I are quickly realizing that moving to a new city w/ an infant is not the same as moving to a new city w/o one.

Yesterday, Javi learned how to pull himself up to his feet—by himself—from a sitting position in his crib. He didn’t know how to do that on Wednesday. Oh, the days of putting him on the floor to entertain himself are gone, gone, gone. I’m excited, of course, for him to become more independent. But now every sharp corner or hard edge seems like a booby trap. Also, the cats have learned to sleep w/ one eye open.

It’s been an interesting past several days in Bolivia, though I’m still not sure how either of the two controversies will end. The first revolves around a series of accusations from the opposition regarding potential vote fraud in the upcoming (August 10) recall referendum. The second involves the case of Georges Nava, the army officer arrested in connection to an explosion at a Tarija television station on the eve of that department’s autonomy referendum. (Ironically, Nava was listed as working for the army’s anti-terrorism unit.)

A number of discussions about Bolivian politics (or any political discussion, really) often hinge on such vague concepts as “social justice” (there are numerous others, of course). I think a number of people have a very specific idea in mind of what they mean by this, but haven’t stopped to articulate it. Unfortunately, this often leads to assumptions that those who disagree w/ us must, by definition oppose “social justice.”

We gave Javi his first piece of steak last night. He’d already eaten his baby gruel; this gave him a chance to “join us” for dinner (we had steak & avocado soup). As far as I can tell, he enjoyed the steak. K8 was worried, so she cut it up into little pieces. He struggled to pick them up, but he gummed & swallowed several bites.

In a new wrinkle to the upcoming recall referendum, Bolivia’s senate passed modifications to the referendum law. The new law would only require a simple majority (50%+1) for both Evo & the prefects to keep their seats; currently the number varies on the basis of the December 2005 votes (from 46.26% for Evo to 62.012% for Pepe Lucho [José Luis Paredes], the La Paz prefect).

With the upcoming recall referendum in Bolivia, there’s growing speculation about whether the embattled Evo Morales will hang on to his presidential seat. The following graph might help:

Little Javi got back from his six-month checkup today w/ a clean bill of health. And also w/ permission to eat pretty much anything he wants. Finger foods? Yes. Cheese? Yes. Cheerios? Not quite yet. Meat? Yes!

The recall referendum campaign has started in earnest in Bolivia. On August 10, Bolivian voters in 8 of 9 departments (not Chuquisaca, which only recently elected a prefect) will vote on whether their prefects should keep their posts. They’ll also vote (in all departments) on whether the president, Evo Morales, should keep his.

I was recently asked to write something about Bolivia’s foreign policy for e-IR, a new online international relations journal published by students at Oxford, University of Leicester, and the London School of Economics. The essay (“Bolivia’s New International Stage”) looks at the country’s international relations in the first two years of Evo’s government.

The first is video of Javi in Michigan, including him & Valerie doing a “hop on pop” reenactment. The second is video of Javi back in his crib in Baltimore, playing w/ his new eBay acquisition. The last is video of Javi demonstrating his army crawling skills.

Click once to see a video play small. Double-click to see it larger.