In Memoriam: Lola Almudevar

Readers:

Events, and violence, are unfolding quickly in Sucre, the site of Bolivia’s combative Constituent Assembly. We will certainly be providing coverage of these events here on the Blog shortly. However, we dedicate this space today to some tragic news close to home for the small community of foreigners living here, the tragic death early this morning of one of our own, BBC correspondent Lola Almudevar.

Jim Shultz

In Memoriam: Lola Almudevar

If you follow the news in Bolivia from overseas, via outlets such as the Associated Press, the BBC, Reuters, the San Francisco Chronicle or a host of other media, more than likely you owe that news to one of the handful of adventurous young people who come here from abroad willing to go great lengths to get the story. Bolivia is not an easy country to cover, and often being a reporter here comes at great risk.

At about three am Sunday morning, one of the best young foreign journalists I have met here paid the ultimate price. Lola Almudevar, 29, a correspondent for BBC radio, the San Francisco Chronicle, and other news organizations, was killed in a head-on collision en route from La Paz to Sucre to cover the political explosions underway at the Constituent Assembly. With her in the car was another talented young foreign correspondent, Eduardo Garcia, a 31-year-old Spaniard who covers Bolivia for Reuters. As I write, he is in critical condition and in surgery in a La Paz hospital. Two Bolivian occupants of the car, and two occupants of the truck they collided with are also dead.

The two young journalists made a snap decision to head to Sucre late Saturday. I wasn’t there when they made the decision, but I know just the conversation they had about it. I was with them last weekend, at a barbeque at Eduardo’s house in La Paz. They both told me about another rush trip they had made to Sucre more than a month ago, at another time when it looked like political events at the Assembly might explode. Both were clear that they had a responsibility to be wherever breaking news was going to happen. It was how they viewed the pact of being a foreign journalist.

The road to Sucre is a dangerous one even during the day. At night, even under last night’s full moon, it is a trip not everyone would be willing to risk. If you are a reader or listener to foreign news from Bolivia, they took it for you.

Lola Almudevar was from Nottingham England, the daughter of a Spanish father and British mother. Her trajectory toward being a working journalist a hemisphere from home was no more direct than most of those who come here. She worked for a time for the European Union in Brussels, on international labor protections. Later she morphed into being a video producer, winning just this year an award for her co-production of a BBC television program, “Alexandra Road.”

She came to Bolivia a half year ago, and clearly loved the place. Her style of journalism did not involve sitting in the capital waiting for news to trickle out from official sources. She traveled deeper and more often into the heart of the country than almost any journalist I have met here. She filed stories, solid ones, on the children of Bolivian workers who have migrated abroad, on the 40th anniversary of the death of Che Guevara, on the gas issue, an interview with President Evo Morales, and on coca.

She was also the kind of spirit that made people want to be around her. I asked her last weekend, “Do you ever not smile?” Laughing, she explained to me that, actually, her propensity to grin non-stop got her in trouble when she first appeared in video as a journalist. “They told me I needed to frown in order to look serious.”

This afternoon, returning home from a family trip to the countryside, I received news of Lola’s death as soon as I walked in the door. A little while later, while downloading my backed-up emails, I found one from Lola sent Friday afternoon. It included the recording of a BBC radio piece she had just filed on coca, and which I knew she was proud of. She added a short note, “The voice overs they chose this time are priceless!” I am sure she meant the odd match-up of thick British accents speaking the English translations of coca growers from the Chapare. A week ago I’d confessed to her that every time I traveled to Britain I felt like I was in a Monty Python film.

Even though it probably violates about 35 different copyright protections, we posted the piece on our Web site, because we thought that one way to honor Lola would be to let people listen to the last piece of journalism she would ever produce. Click on the link here (and be a bit patient, it’s a large file).

Eduardo has our best wishes for a full recovery. Lola’s family has our deepest sympathies. We hope they know that she will be remembered with great affection here by those who knew her here; in a country that she clearly did love.

A note Monday evening: I did not expect, but am glad to see, that this post has become a place for friends and admirers of Lola's to express themselves about what she meant to them and how they feel affected by her death. Later this week I will copy these comments and forward them on to Lola's family in the UK, and to her friends here in Bolivia. I am sure what people have had to say here will mean a great deal to them. Jim