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/ 3 February 2008
Torrential rains have caused widespread flooding in southern Ecuador, eastern Bolivia and northern Argentina, with nearly 50 people killed and thousands made homeless, triggering international humanitarian aid to the region. It is estimated that more than 30 000 families in Bolivia have been affected by the floods.
The Bolivian government pushed ahead with its moves to re-nationalise its energy industry, ordering foreign financial companies to surrender control over shares they administer for a public pension fund. The Bolivian government on Monday gave Spanish Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, and Futuro SA of Swiss Zurich Financial Services three days to hand over the assets they administer for a fund used to pay pensions.
Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez paid a last-minute visit of support to Bolivian President Evo Morales ahead of a hastily-arranged summit to avert a regional crisis over the Andean nation’s nationalisation of its natural gas sector. The socialist Chavez said he came to Bolivia late on Wednesday not to give advice but to offer ”congratulations and learn from Bolivia’s wisdom”.
Bolivia defended on Tuesday the government’s seizure of its vast natural gas industry after the move triggered deep concerns among major foreign investors. Brazil, a huge consumer of Bolivian gas, and Spain expressed worry, while the United States said it was keeping an eye on the situation, one day after leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales gave foreign gas and oil investors 180 days to renegotiate their contracts.
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/ 21 December 2005
Bolivia’s future president Evo Morales, a coca producer under pressure to crack down on cocaine, has pledged to keep controls on coca but says he will study expanding the area where it can be legally grown. Morales on Tuesday also called on the United States to work with him to develop better ways of ending drug trafficking.
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/ 19 December 2005
Evo Morales, Bolivia’s president-elect, wears sneakers but never a jacket and tie. And that is not the only aspect about the fiery left-winger that is going to shock the world. Bolivia’s first native Indian president, who is simply known as ”Evo” across the country, wants to rein-in United States influence and end restrictions on the coca crop that he made his life from before entering politics.
Bolivia’s outgoing president, Carlos Mesa, who has offered to resign to help defuse three weeks of crippling protests, has warned that the country could slide into civil war unless early elections are held. ”The country cannot continue playing with the possibility of splitting into a thousand pieces,” he said.
Bolivia’s embattled President Carlos Mesa this week called for early elections to replace him, amid protests against his government’s economic policies. In a move aimed at ending a wave of street protests that have almost crippled the country, Mesa said he would ask Congress to approve a poll in August, two years before the official end of his term. Bolivia is a political time bomb that, analysts say, could explode at any moment.
It’s the dream of all naturalists: immortalising themselves by naming a new animal or plant species they have discovered. But scientists Robert Wallace and Humberto Gomez of the United States Wildlife Conservation Society have decided to carry out an internet sale to auction off the rights to name a monkey species the two men recently discovered in Bolivia.
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/ 14 October 2003
Tanks and armoured vehicles took up positions in La Paz early on Tuesday after thousands took to the streets demanding the resignation of President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who postponed under pressure plans to build a controversial pipeline to export natural gas through Chile.
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/ 23 September 2003
With winds of up to 140kph and driving rain, Hurricane Marty has slammed into Mexico’s Baja California, killing five people, leaving thousands homeless and causing widespread flooding. In the state capital of La Paz, the storm surge put about 50 neighbourhoods under 1,5m of water.
Authorities struggled to evacuate people as Hurricane Ignacio roared along the coast of Baja California on Monday, bending palm trees with winds topping 150kph and lashing resorts with sheets of rain.