My Cochabamba Article on Pacific News Service

Yesterday the Pacific News Service posted an article I wrote on events in Cochabamba, which tries to place the confrontations here this week in the larger context of current Bolivian politics. Unfortunately, the editors published it under the hyped headline, “Is Bolivia on the Brink of a Civil War?” [which it isn’t]. For those interested, here is my lead and a link to the full article.

COCHABAMBA, Bolivia--When Bolivians elected their first indigenous president, socialist Evo Morales, a year ago, the country's poor and marginalized could now claim a president as their own. It was also clear, however, that Bolivia's transformation would not end with an election, and that it would continue to provoke serious political conflict.

On Thursday, that conflict turned into open battle on the streets of the nation's third-largest city, Cochabamba, leaving two men dead and more than 150 people wounded. Read the full article here.