Thank You for Visiting

It has been just over a month since The Democracy Center began this “Blog from Bolivia”. Supporters of ours encouraged us to do this for a while.

Evidently, the Blog has caught on. Since we began visits to our Web site have nearly doubled. We now receive more than 18,000 visits per month and the Blog has become one of the most popular pages on our site. Reporters from the foreign press have told me that they use our Blog as a way of keeping up on events here in Bolivia.

As long-time readers of our e-newsletter know, I have always tried to make what we write a mix. Sometimes we are hard core political. Sometimes we make attempts at humor. The two most responded two articles that I have written in the past five years was our coverage of the Cochabamba water revolt and my obituary in December for my friend Christopher McKenzie. I think this means people enjoy reading a mix of things.

I am always happy to receive suggestions from people about what they’d like to hear about on the Blog and several offerings here come directly from reader suggestions. Please send them along to me at: JShultz@democracyctr.org.

Here’s what is coming up from The Democracy Center in the next couple of months:

** The IMF, Bolivia, and 33 People Killed Connecting the Dots: An extended case study we are writing about the events of Black February and the role of the IMF. Based on interviews with President Carlos Mesa, the IMF, social movement leaders and others.

** The US Demands Immunity for Human Rights Crimes – The story of US efforts to pressure Bolivia and other countries worldwide to exempt US soldiers and officials from the International Criminal Court.

** Blog from Brazil – I’ll be headed their for two weeks in March to look at how citizens there are taking the initiative to understand and influence national budget policy.

** My Life with a Cartoon Character – Tales from the wonderful world of raising a two year old!

Stay tuned!!