Bolivia Today

MABB © ® The emigration of Bolivians to Spain is taking alarming tones. According to EU legislation to control illegal immigration, Spain will be asking Bolivians to apply for visas if they want to visit that country. Up to now, Bolivians did not require any visa to enter Spain as tourists. That is the main reason Bolivians who want to immigrate to Spain have been, since the end of last year, trying to get to Spain before April first. The situation is dramatic because at this point in time, there are no more tickets available to travel by plane. The two airlines servicing that route, LAB and Aero Sur, have sold out all their seats. Additionally, LAB, the Bolivian airline, has been having trouble keeping up with its bills and just days ago, it has completely ceased operations and canceled all its flights to Spain. This left literally thousands of customers stranded in both sides of the Atlantic, in Viru-Viru, Santa Cruz and in Barajas, Madrid. To put salt on the wound, the thre...

Evo y el Pibe

MABB © ® You know that I like to share with you all not just my opinions and news about Bolivia, but also funny things I find in my roaming around the cyberworld. This time is a cartoon I found in La Razon. Trust me, it's very funny. For those of you who don't know the background, here is a brief fill in and translation. In the world cup Mexico 1986, the quarter final game Argentina vs England, where Argentina won 2 to 1, Diego Armando "El Pibe" Maradona scored two goals for Argentina. One was the most amazing goal in the history of world Soccer. Maradona advances by himself around several defenders and the goalie and scores. The other goal, as Maradona admits, was scored with his hand as he jumped against Shilton (1,86 mts tall) and, with his hand, slaped the ball over the goalkeeper, without the referees noticing. This second goal has been since then known as "la mano de Dios" or the hand of God. Maradona has admited he intentionally used his hand and he d...

Elections 2014: Problems with the Results

MABB © The votes are in and now the counting has began. The Supreme Electoral Tribunal has been busy counting the votes, trying to get the ballot boxes to its counting centers and also trying to transmit the results electronically to its central office in La Paz. However, already in the third day of counting, this task has proven very difficult. Though the office has 12 days after the election to present official results, it has been the normal process to have close to 100 per cent of the votes two or three days after the elections. At least that is how I remember from past elections. During the rest of the available days, the office usually counted twice or three times to make sure the results were correctly counted. This time around however, there are a number of irregularities being reported by some people. For example: - militants of opposition parties reported the departmental elections office had published (on the web) the results in a special district when in fact the ball...

The Issue Between Bolivia and Chile

MABB © This is a collection of links on the dispute between Bolivia and Chile about sea access. The official Chilean video laying out their argument. This is a documentary produced by DIREMAR , the Bolivian agency in charge of laying out the Bolivian argument. This is the first of several videos that tell the Peruvian version of the Pacific War.

Topic: Bolivia

MABB is a registered TM. The "El Diario", one of most important newspapers in Bolivia, in its March 19th online edition , reports that the Mesa administration has placed his economic recovery plan (this is the latest version) in action. One aspect of it is to implement the plan "compro Boliviano", which literally means: buy Bolivian. According to this plan, the state, through its agencies and municipal governments, will promote domestic production, employment and economic activity by buying products it needs from small to medium Bolivian enterprises. While it might be a good meaning plan, and perhaps, if things go as expected, it will meet some success, it is more likely, though, to add one more layer of bureaucratic bloat; more opportunity for corruption and cronyism; hinder efficient production and hinder economic activity. The first thing that comes to mind is corruption. This malice has haunted Bolivia for most of its republican life. I mean, let's ...

September 24: A Decisive or a Fateful Moment for Bolivia?

MABB © Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 15 hours (The Hague time) can turn into a fateful moment or remain a first decisive moment for Bolivia. On that day and that hour, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) will " deliver its Judgment on the preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of the Court raised by the Republic of Chile in the case concerning the Obligation to Negotiate Access to the Pacific Ocean (Bolivia v. Chile) " [PDF file]. It could be a fateful moment because the finding could severely undermine the efforts Bolivia has been making to, from their perspective, rectify a historic wrong. For it is sure that if the decision is against Bolivian interests, the country will continue to make efforts to bring Chile to a negotiation table. Only, that, if such is the case, those negotiations will not take place on Bolivian terms but rather on Chile's terms. In order for those negotiations to take place on Bolivian terms, a favorable judgement by the ICJ is impe...

Miguel Buitrago