The Wonder of Rumors

A last note to share at the end of a long day – the rumor watch. I do my best here on the Blog to filter through the multitude of rumors one hears all day these days in Bolivia and just post things that we can document to be fact. Nevertheless, here are some of the rumors that have been bouncing about Bolivia this Friday.

I repeat, these have been RUMORS, NOT FACT, but interesting nonetheless:

President Mesa is going on a hunger strike: This was a good one that bounced all over Cochabamba all morning. Supposedly President Carlos Mesa was going to go on a hunger strike until the Congress approved his decree for October elections. We speculated that he would secretly sneak food while alone in his Presidential office (the first time I ever saw Mesa in person, while still the vice-president, he was alone in the Burger King in the Miami airport chowing down a Whopper, so we know the guy likes to eat. If you eat Whoppers you like to eat.).

We noted that other players in the Bolivian drama, such as Senate President Baca Diez, could stand to lose a few pounds and maybe he should go on a hunger strike. The hunger strike seemed like it might become a sort of Bolivian South Beach Diet – no carbs, no anything. Anyway, I wasn’t able to confirm the story all day and it seems to have grown out of an offhand comment by the Mayor of La Paz that he might go on a hunger strike until protesters left the city. I think he is still eating, however.

The US Embassy is Shutting Down: This came in the form of a phone call this evening. The US Embassy and USAID in La Paz were reportedly closing down early and carting away files. Precursor to a coup? This one never made sense to me. First of all, if a coup happened it would almost certainly have the tacit support of the US Embassy, behind closed doors and with deniability of course. So if a coup is in the works the Embassy should remain wide open for business. Second, the real threat to the Embassy is the protests that are likely to diminish over the weekend, not intensify. I tell people here that the real sign that the US knows that the s%&$ is going to hit the fan is if they evacuate the Peace Corps and my sources tell me that as of this evening, they are all staying put and going no where.

The US Ambassador Resigned: I am sure that someone somewhere in Bolivia resigned tonight but it probably wasn’t the Ambassador. Mr. Greenlee (by many credible reports a former CIA officer here in his youth) seems to like his job and if history is any indicator, the US Embassy is burning up the phone lines trying to cajole various political actors to do one thing or another that the US thinks is the path toward stability (and protection of US interests).

A Coup is Coming: This, of course, is the quiet fear of many here. In Bolivia, Everyone over 30 has lived through a dictatorship at an age old enough to remember it. The leader of the national labor union (the COB) has called once again today for a coup by the military. Every time he says that he only isolates himself more from other elements of the movements and makes himself look, well, whacko. That is not to say a coup is impossible.

There is an expression often used here in Bolivia, todo es posible, anything is possible. Now usually that refers to efforts to bring a 1975 Toyota back to life or some similar mean feat of making things past their time keep running. This week when people say todo es posible, they mean politically. Tonight anything is indeed possible, but the rumors reported above are among the least likely.

Again, so no one accuses me of bad reporting. These were rumors, right? Rumors.