My Pacific News Service Article On The Gas Crisis

Today I published an article on the current Bolivian gas crisis, syndicated nationally in the US by Pacific News Service. Here’s the lead:

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia--On a hilltop overlooking this Andean city of 600,000 sits the largest statue of Jesus in the world. The statue's outstretched left arm points down to one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, Valle Hermoso, and to the gray tanks and towers of the Brazilian-owned oil refinery belching smoke on the neighborhood's edge.

Protesters have threatened to march on the oil refinery and seize it. Two hundred miles away in La Paz, thousands of angry indigenous people, miners and workers have been marching on the nation's capital, threatening to seize the Congress.

Bolivia, once again, has exploded into conflict over the volatile issue of who owns its vast and lucrative gas and oil reserves.

Read the article.