Bolivia followup

After I read the news article I mentioned in the previous post I emailed a missionary family I know that is in Cochabamba and they say the media is over hyping the situation. They told me seven leaders from other South American nations were staying down the street from them for a summit in Cochabamba last week and it was completely peaceful. They said there has been some tension in La Paz and Santa Cruz, but mostly just a lot of vocal opposition (peaceful protests), very few cases of violence have occurred. They told me to imagine a Bolivian family seeing the news in the US with a kid preparing to go, you might get a similar reaction. I also checked the US Dept. of State travel site and they have not issued a travel warning for Bolivia, so I still feel really good about the situation there. But, you can tell it is a serious situation that has everyone's attention because even the lowly city of Trinidad, usually apathetic to politics held a rally on Friday to support the 2/3 majority for constitutional changes.

In the news, President Evo Morales announced Friday he will meet with all 10 of the Department leaders (like our governors) tomorrow and try to better understand what the people from the east especially want in more detail. If all sides are prepared to make some compromises, I feel that things will press forward, but that would certainly be a rarity for Bolivia.