Of Broken Noses, Presidents and Political Cultures

Here's a news item worth noting. On Sunday Bolivian President Evo Morales was playing a game of soccer somewhere near Cochabamba and, in the midst of a hot tied game, the chief executive got fouled and got his nose broken. Ouch!

Here's a BBC report on the presidential nose event.

I couldn’t help but think, what would happen if President Bush was playing soccer and got his nose broken? Might it read like this?

Amidst worries of a potential international conspiracy. US President George Bush had his nose broken during a campaign fundraiser soccer game on Sunday. An administration spokesman, not authorized to comment publicly, reported, "We don’t know who was behind this. It could have been Al Qaeda, it could have been anti-globalizers or opponents of the war in Iraq. Frankly, the President has a lot of enemies and it is hard for us to keep track."

In a foul immediately called by field officials (GOP aides were recruited into service to officiate the game), the President took a major elbow hit to the face, breaking his nose on impact. Twelve Secret Service agents quickly ran onto the field where they wrestled the offending player to the ground and handcuffed him. He was identified later as Timothy Logan, an aide to Senator John McCain. Logan was one of a number of GOP staff playing in the exposition organized to raise funds for GOP candidates for Senate this fall.

"We don’t know if Mr. Logan acted alone in this or was part of a broader conspiracy, but our investigation on this will be swift and thorough," said Roger Applecard, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. Department officials acknowledged that Mr. Logan has been sent for questioning to the US prison at Guantanamo, Cuba. It is not known if he will be granted rights under the Geneva Convention.

Reached for comment, Senator McCain said, "They arrested Logan? No, really? For breaking the President's nose? Well, in any event, he's on his own now. I was absolutely no part of any plan or discussion about breaking President Bush's nose. This is on the level, right?"

Well, at least how I think it might have gone. Evo's nose, I hear will be just fine.

Sign the Letter to George Bush Demanding Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada's Return to Bolivia

Dear Readers:

It has now been more than thirteen months since the government of Bolivia (note: under former President Rodriguez, not Evo Morales) exercised its authority under international law to formally request that the US government serve ex-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada with papers demanding his return to Bolivia to give testimony in the legal case against him for abuse of power. Those charges stem especially from the violent repression undertaken by Sanchez de Lozada in October 2003 that left dozens dead (including several small children and one pregnant mother), more than a hundred wounded, and forced Sanchez de Lozada to flee to the US.

The failure of the US government to meet its legal obligations and serve these legal papers to Sanchez de Lozada and two ex-aides living in the US is certainly not the most grave violation of international law committed by the Bush administration of late, but it is one more on the list.

There are words that take on new meaning when you live in another culture and for me, living in Bolivia, one of those words is impunity. Throughout Latin America people are adamant that when leaders abuse their power and innocent lives are destroyed in the process (whether it be thousands or dozens) those leaders should not be simply left to live in comfort in the suburbs of Maryland. Leaders learn a lot from history and the lesson they need to learn from this one is that even the mighty will be held accountable.

It seems quite clear that the Bush administration is happy to play host to Sanchez de Lozada and has little intent to serve the papers demanded by the Bolivian government. A few months ago I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the US State Department, which later claimed that it had not a single paper in its possession regarding the Bolivian government request.

In Bolivia human rights groups are now engaged in a weekly vigil, every Thursday morning, in front of the US Embassy in La Paz, noting the number of weeks since the request has been made and the Bush administration's refusal to act on that request. They have also established on on-line letter that supporters in the US can send directly to President Bush. We encourage our readers to visit that site and add their name to that letter here.

The US's New Ambassador Designate to Bolivia

Here's a news item we want to be sure readers know about. Two weeks ago the White House formally announced an appointment expected for months, the naming of a new US Ambassador to Bolivia, Mr. Philip Goldberg.

Goldberg is a career diplomat (as opposed to a political appointment) who currently serves as US Chief of Mission in Pristina, Kosovo. Prior to that he served in the US Embassy in Santiago, Chile. He served in the Clinton administration as well. The fact that Bush has appointed a career diplomat to the post, as opposed to someone closely aligned with the Cheney/Rumsfeld "hawk" wing of the administration, is probably a good sign.

Goldberg's appointment requires confirmation by the US Senate. An official bio on him can be found here.

Blog from a Long Journey to an Undisclosed Location

Readers:

I am on the road again. I won't say where but you are invited to guess if you like. Consider it a game for those who have nothing better to do and want to try their hand at veiled geography. We'll have more Bolivia news shortly.

Jim

Flags Flying High: Santa Cruz, Bolivia, a brief layover en route out of the country (not the easiest thing to do right now with the collapse of LAB Airlines). The green and white flags of the state of Santa Cruz are everywhere, on public buildings and private. A Bolivian friend of mine visiting from California likened it to the sea of red, white, and blue in the US after 9/11. The demand for regional autonomy in Bolivia vs. the US war on terror. I leave it to others to ponder the comparisons.

War in the Middle East and Babes on the Runway: Snippets of Fox TV caught on hotel cable en route. Things in the Middle East look bad, bombers flying in one direction hitting Beirut suburbs, missiles in the other hitting a seaside resort. But Fox tells us there is hope. At the Miss Universe pageant, it turns out; Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon are the best of friends. Fox images of bombs and fires are broken up by a few minutes of young attractive women parading in skimpy bathing suits that, I am sure, has nothing to do with ratings. If only, Fox says, countries could just get along like these two young women. I don't think Miss Hezbollah made the finals, but I can’t say for sure. I didn't follow it that closely. Who won Miss Congeniality this year?

Honey, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, or maybe we are: Miami International Airport. Comment overheard in the terminal. "Look, there is a sign that we are back in the US. There is a long line over there at Strarbucks." Confession, I am in the line.

Notes from an Undisclosed location: Bikes everywhere, like Davis, California with a different language. I saw a man riding a bike with a very happy dog riding in a basket latched onto a rack behind his seat. Simone and Little Bear (my dogs) would love that! One hot evening water is spouting out from two sides of a bridge. Some cyclists either lift their feet up to avoid getting wet and others drive right in with a gleeful smile.

Globalization at Work: Last night I had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in a place that is definitely not Mexico or even close. The waitress was a thin Egyptian woman who was almost comically nervous as we tried to communicate without any common language. The world's ethnicities have become a big plate of scrambled eggs. Thank goodness.

Mr. Veep Goes to Washington

After a number of false starts, Bolivia is finally sending a high-level delegation to Washington this week, led by Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera. It will be the US Capital’s first look at the top end of the new Bolivian government and what happens during the visit will have a major impact on the next evolution in the often stormy relations between the Bush and Morales administrations.

On the surface, the visit is about trade issues, and specifically the desire by the Bolivian government to get the US to extend the life of a fifteen-year-old US policy giving trade preferences to Bolivia-produced textiles. The number of jobs dependent on that extension numbers in the thousands, backers of it claim, and the Morales government is not anxious to have it end on its watch – for reasons both of economics and politics. Trade issue observes in DC have told me for months that winning the extension from the GOP-controlled Congress is going to be a hard sell.

Beneath the surface the issue in DC is really a question on the part of doubtful but persuadable politicians and opinion makers: Is the new Bolivian government a group of people we can work with, or a group of Hugo Chavez groupies who just want to pick a fight with George Bush?

Personally, for a lot of reasons, I think Alvaro is going to win a lot of admirers in Washington, and help open up better relations between Bolivia and the US.

First, the VP is smart, wicked smart. His capacity for analysis of Bolivian history and politics is as impressive as anyone I have ever met here. He will have done his homework on the issues people in Washington want to talk about and he knows how to make an argument.

Second, he will signal to people in Washington that there is a lot more to the new Bolivian government than the silly off-the-cuff charges about the US (such as the soldiers in disguise accusation) that Evo makes in places like Punata and get picked up by AP and transmitted straight north. Alvaro will make no such mistakes.

[A note: thank you to all the “soldiers-disguised-as-students” who wrote to me after our Blog posting. I enjoyed your tales of being falsely accused as spies.]

Third, the Vice-President will have a willing audience. Many of those set to meet with Alvaro are those I met with in January, days after his and Evo’s inauguration – Congressional staff, think tank people, DC movers and shakers. There are a lot of them, Republicans included, who would like to see Bolivia’s new government succeed. While neither Mr. Bush nor Mr. Cheney has any plans to receive the mop-haired VP from the Andes, plenty of others, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Richard Lugar, will.

What should the V.P. say in Washington? Here is my advice.

Bolivia is the poorest nation in South America. In December, in a genuinely democratic step forward, the Bolivian people elected a president, by a historic majority, who grew up in poverty and has as his core mandate the lifting up of his people out of poverty. If US policy makers want to know why the government is setting out to “nationalize” its gas and oil; it is about generating resources to relieve poverty. If it wants to know why Bolivia wants to shed the IMF/World Bank economic policies coerced onto it for two decades; it is because it believes those policies have made poverty worse. If it wants to know why it wants to take a new approach on the coca issue; it is because the US “war on drugs” has helped spin Bolivia into a chronic economic crisis.

I believe that is a message that is genuinely what Bolivia is about right now. I think it is one that Washington can hear. And I think it is one that Bolivia’s Vice-President can sincerely and effectively deliver. Vamos a ver.

An Ode to Facial Hair

[A note to readers: Don’t worry, we haven’t abandoned more serious topics on the Blog, but everyone needs a break one in a while.]

Here’s a little tidbit that people who know me already know. When it comes to my appearance, I am a creature of utter habit.

Sometime mid-way through high school I haphazardly decided on some mix of clothing style and haircut and, well, really never changed it much since. On any given day you can pretty much rely on the fact that I am wearing blue jeans, some species of blue button down collar cotton shirt, sneakers and blue socks (from the GAP, no commercial endorsement implied). My haircut is also always the same, that sort of Jim-needs-a-haircut look.

The only variance all these years has been facial hair. For better than two decades I wore a beard. I grew it at 19 because I thought it was cool and then let it become ingrained as part of my identity (my college nickname was “Jim Bear”, a vast improvement on the one I was burdened with in Junior High, “Gym Shorts”, get it?). A couple of times during those many years I whacked it off. The first time, at age 28, my reaction as I stared in the mirror was “right, we went to high school together.”

Later, married and with kids, the shock was all theirs. The first time my older kids saw me beardless (I pounced unannounced from a long shearing episode in the bathroom) my son looked like he’d seen a ghost and my daughter cried for half an hour. Oops.

At 40, when the fuzz on my face turned white on me, leaving me looking like a skinny Santa Claus, my beard and I went separate ways. No one here in Bolivia ever saw me any other way. Well, until now. I just grew it back, which means that that photo off to the right is no longer the real deal.

It is interesting getting people’s reactions to you changing your appearance (perhaps more interesting for someone who never does). A taxi driver I know told me yesterday that now I can cut in the front of the line at banks, along with the other senior citizens. Bolivia kindly has a law that allows for elders to cut. My ear doctor told me that I look like Earnest Hemmingway. But I don’t seem to write any better (as evidenced by this Blog posting).

Younger people, with a few exceptions, definitely don’t like it. Older people mostly do. Hmmm, which side do I really want t be on? My three year old – who has had the advantage over her siblings of watching it grow gradually as opposed to having it loped off suddenly – likes to touch it. That’s a problem for me as well. When you suddenly have a mop of hair covering your face after not having had one for almost a decade, it is pretty darn hard to stop fiddling with it. I suddenly remind myself of all those girls in elementary school who liked to chew their hair.

I am pretty convinced that my new beard – as white as Santa’s – is going to have a short life. At 28 it didn’t matter so much that I could whack ten years off my appearance with a few minutes and a Gillette (again, no commercial endorsement implied). At 48, well, it might be nice to not look like someone AARP is desperately trying to track down.

But don’t worry; the blue shirts, sneakers, and Levi 501s (no…well you know the disclaimer by now) are here to stay. Well, unless I get crazy one day and try a collar without buttons.

My Life With a Cartoon Character

She is three years old. She is a force of nature. Yesterday we celebrated a special day that not all children do; the anniversary of her adoption.

As anyone who has lived with a three year old knows, it is like living with a cartoon character. Wild exclamations erupt out of nowhere, "Look, it's the cat!!!" Odd things fascinate, such as the evermore-disintegrated body of a small mouse that got mushed on our street. Every time we walked out the door for a week she asked me, "Wanna see a dead mouse?"

She surprises me, such as with her sudden decision last week that we should run the full length of the long street that stretches downhill from our house. She demands piggyback rides, "Dad, carry me on your head." She careens verbally back and forth between English and Spanish. "Que quieres buy?" she asks me when we play store. She cracks up at my jokes and stories, especially the daily one I tell about Emma the trouble-making cat, in the bus on our way to day care each morning.

Three years ago when she first came to live with us she was one of 37 babies living in 35 cribs in a Cochabamba orphanage. By baby standards she wasn't very energetic and she still couldn't do a lot of the things and eight month old should be able to.

Two weeks later it was as if someone had flicked on a light switch hidden on her back. He eyes seemed to double in size. It is just about the simplest and oldest truth around. Children, from babies on up, need a family. They need one or more big people around who think that they are just the best thing ever and who give them the kind of love that even the best institution can't.

For four years I helped run an orphanage here and was deeply connected to it for more than a decade. I've watched a lot of kids.

And readers – here's the story. There are thousands of orphaned children growing up in institutions in Bolivia, many, many for their entire childhood and youth. I think they should be adopted and I think they can be, by great Bolivian families, if the Bolivian government would make that a priority.

Here is what the government could do:

1. Authorize a full national survey of orphanage institutions in Bolivia, to figure out exactly how many children live in them and how many of them are potentially adoptable because they have no family connections of any kind.

2. Organize a force of social workers to carry out the investigations required to give the kids who have no one the papers they need to be declared "legally abandoned." This is an important safeguard to be sure that there isn't some missing mom or uncle out there who will come looking for the child later and it a legal prerequisite to the letting the child be adopted.

3. Evo Morales could then go on national TV and announce a country-wide adoption campaign, "My fellow Bolivians, we have 2,000 children in our country that have no family and are living in institutions. Are there 2,000 good Bolivian families who can come forward and give these children homes?"

Why not? Do the entire childhoods of thousands of boys and girls qualify as a national priority? Aren't all children entitled to be some parent's beloved cartoon character?

So many problems, in Bolivia and elsewhere, seem insurmountable at times. This one isn't. Bolivia could do this.

A War of Words: The Avoidable Bush/Bolivia Meltdown

Readers,

We just published a new issue of our electronic newsletter, The Democracy Center On-Line, an analysis of the needless meltdown in relations between the US and Bolivian governments. Below is the lead and here is a link to the article on a worth-visiting Web site on Latin America, Upside Down World.

Those interested in receiving the newsletter should send an email to info@democracyctr.org, with "newsletter" in the subject line.

Jim Shultz

A War of Words: The Avoidable Bush/Bolivia Meltdown

Last December, when Bolivians elected a socialist, indigenous, coca grower, Evo Morales, to be their president, it did not take a rocket scientist to predict that there might be rough waters ahead for Bolivia's relationship with the US.

A few days after Morales inauguration I was invited to give a talk on Bolivia before the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The Council titled the event, "The US's Worst Nightmare?" - a provocative and widely reported fragment of rhetoric Morales had tossed out during an election rally here in Cochabamba.

In the Beginning - A Bilateral Optimism

Beneath the surface, however, there was a good deal of optimism and commitment on both sides about making the new US/Bolivia relationship work. I heard that optimism directly from both governments.

Read the full article here.

And Now the Results – Same as Before, Government by Negotiation

Here are the latest results from yesterday’s dual vote in Bolivia, to elect members to the Constituent Assembly and the region-by-region vote on regional autonomy.

Seats in the Constituent Assembly

MAS 53%
PODEMOS 23.5%
UN 4.3%
MNR/FRI 3.5%
MNR 2.7%
MBL 2.3%
CN 2%
ASP 1.2
OTHERS 1.2%

Regional Autonomy

National Results:

NO 56%, YES 44%

Departmental Results:

NO – Chuquisaca, La Paz, Cochabamba, Oruro, Potosi
YES – Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija, Pando

What Does All This Mean

First, as a measure of popular support for Bolivia’s various political parties, it means voters are pretty much exactly where they were in December. MAS holds basically the same strong majority (53% now, 53,7% in December), Jorge Quirga’s PODEMOS is a distant second and lost five points (23.5% now, 28.6% in December) and Samuel Doria Medina’s UN party still runs a very distant third and also lost support (4.3% now, 7.8% in December).

It is also a pretty good indication that PODEMOS' strategy, of running against Hugo Chavez instead of for any concrete vision for Bolivia's future, well, it didn't work at all. Back to the drawing boards for Quiroga and his campaign consultants.

More importantly, it still means that Bolivia will navigate its political way forward through negotiation. Evo Morales and MAS doesn’t have a working majority in the Congress sufficient to do much of want it wants on its own (the convening of the Assembly vote was itself a party-to-party negotiation, which is why political parties ran the show) and it won’t have the 2/3 vote required to take action on a new constitution in the Assembly. In other words, whatever happens in the Assembly, and with the implementation of autonomy, will be a negotiation among the political parties.

Negotiation is pretty much what all Bolivian politics is about these days. The government has set a six-month period for renegotiating its contracts with foreign oil companies. It has been negotiating with unions and others over what to do with the collapsing airline, LAB. It is negotiating on land, on teacher salaries, and on a wide range of other issues.

In other words, for those looking for Bolivia to turn into a one party state with authoritarian rule, you just won’t find it here. In its place you will find something else, a democracy with many players and a lot of complicated issues to talk through. For a country that had endured far more than its share of dictatorships, that’s not a bad thing at all, not by a long shot.

Bolivia’s Election Day: What We Saw; What We Heard

This morning bright and early The Democracy Center dispatched a team of young Bolivians and their counterparts from the US to wander the car-less Cochabamba talking to people about the election at polling places and on the streets – to give our readers a little better feel for the day.

Here is some of what we saw and what we heard.

A Quiet Carnival

Election day in downtown Cochabamba. One of the few days pedestrians can cross the street without gambling with their lives. Groups of kids peruse the city by bike. Teenagers play soccer in the street. Young parents push strollers. The elderly congregate on the sidewalks to converse. Venders sell their goods along the street and in the markets as dogs parade themselves around in old t-shirts. A quietness envelops the city. A quiet carnival.

First stop: the polling station at Colegio Sucre, located in the center of Cochabamba. People mill about quietly, speaking in hushed tones. Most seem uncomfortable with the thought of sharing their politics to a pair of strangers holding microphones. But the few that do (most of whom are older men) all support PODEMOS and have voted in support of the Autonomy Referendum.

Next stop: Colegio Amor de Dios, deep in La Cancha, Zona Sur. Here, the courtyard-cum-voting station is packed, and the crowd is more diverse. Although many still seem in favor of PODEMOS and the Autonomy Referendum, there are the occasional wildcards. A woman in her forties gently suggests that the Constituent Assembly itself is a step in the right direction and she doesn’t believe the country should be broken apart by the Autonomy Referendum. A young man, who preferred to remain anonymous, agreed with her, commenting that, “to vote for Autonomy is to support the oligarchies of Santa Cruz.”

On the other hand, the leader of the venders of the informal market, a woman in her late 60s, said that she supported the Autonomy Referendum because she supports local government. “For too long, Cochabamba has been the bastard child of Bolivia. Cochabambinos will benefit directly from autonomy.”

Last stop: Colegio Andres Bello, still further south. This polling station is almost empty by 2 in the afternoon. A man in his 60’s says that he doesn’t know who the candidates are that are running for the Constituent Assembly, but, like most people, he is voting along party lines. He said, “I voted for MAS, against the Referendum.” His sentiments were echoed by various other people who admit to not knowing anything about the individuals who are running, nor the platforms.

Back on the street we ask a young campesina whether or not she is going to vote. The woman giggles and responds that she is not, that she does not know if she is registered to vote, and that she does not have a national I.D. card. Most campesinos do not have I.D. cards, making it harder for them to navigate the electoral system. My partner Claudia tells me, “They aren’t worried about voting today. They are working today like every other day. If they don’t work, they don’t eat. It’s another way of understanding the world. Where is their place in the new Bolivia?”

Caitlin Esch and Claudia Lopez

The Politics of Si and No

The young woman managing the ballots at one table patiently opened each of the two folded ballots to show her election observer colleagues and the middle-aged woman who had come to vote “for a better Bolivia.” This ritual was repeated with each voter to make sure everyone knew there had been no tampering with the ballots.

One of those papers was a colorful mosaic of the Constituent Assembly’s candidate’s; the other was the “Autonomia” referendum question. “SI” for those who want more power devolved to the departmental (regional) governments and “NO” for those who want to maintain centralized power based out of La Paz. In the final lead-up to election day, it became clear that the SI/NO battle was a political one. The center-right PODEMOS party’s mantra was “Si” to the referendum. The MAS party pushed for “No.”

While voters for both the “Si” and the “No” claimed to hope for a better Bolivia, it became obvious after a few short interviews that general confusion about what the election means, and its relation to the Autonomy question, was widespread.

One young woman, carrying a frustrated 6 month-year old daughter in her arms, articulated the trend. “These elections are going to help define the future of Bolivia, but in reality the people are confused. They don’t know what they are voting for.”

An older man, watching the scene of voters in front of him, admitted that he was poorly informed about the elections. When asked about the Assembly vote, he said he was not prepared to talk details about it since he did not really know what it was all about. He did have a defined position on autonomy, however. “I am not in agreement with autonomy. For me, a central government is important. If more power were given to the departments, there would be too much variation. We need to be united to move forward.”

One thing is for sure: the rhetoric is heavy. Most people used one or more phrases taken directly from their candidate’s discourses and especially from President Evo Morales’ speeches. One 16-year-old young woman, who was serving as the MAS representative at one of the polls at the Colegio Andres Bello, repeated that she hoped for great change with these elections. She went on to quote Evo saying “with the Constituent Assembly, we are going to re-establish our country.” When pushed for more details, she had a hard time offering concrete examples.

Melissa Draper and Maria Eugenia Flores

Voting for a Better Future

La Cancha, Latin America's largest open-air market and usually teeming with people selling, shopping, shouting, was nearly empty today. Stands were shuttered, shops were closed, kids played soccer and rode bicycles in the empty streets. At polling stations across Cochabamba, voters lined up peacefully to elect representatives for the country's constituent assembly and decide on the autonomy of this province.

While most voters interviewed were in favor of autonomy, their reasons and political leanings were diverse.

A middle-aged woman voting in a school in central Cochabamba expressed hope that autonomy would produce democratic reforms and help put local communities in charge of their own destinies. A man who moved to Cochabamba from Argentina also supported autonomy, and said of the people of Santa Cruz [the hotbed of support for the autonomy proposal], "They have the right to govern themselves" and decide what to do with the natural gas in their province.

On the other hand, an older woman voting in the Zona Sur says she and most people she knows approve of the MAS government. She wasn't sure what will happen after the vote, but rejects autonomy, asserting that, with the nation at a turning point of sorts, it is important for its people to remain united.

A woman who had just voted beneath basketball hoops in the courtyard of a school not far from La Cancha said she hoped only that the constituent assembly would "Make a better future for our children." But she admitted that for herself, as for most voters in Cochabamba today, it remains unclear what that future might look like.

Alex Provan

Lions, Machine Guns and Bob Dylan

Okay, I admit, is it sort of a surreal experience to bike at top speed through Cochabamba, listening to Bob Dylan through small headphones, and not have to worry about getting creamed at any moment by a car. Not, of course, that this is the most significant event of Bolivia’s election day, but I thought it was worth noting.

I asked one of my neighbors – Jano Arispe, a young man of 30 who operates an Internet Center next to his mother's combination grocery and construction supply store – what he thought of the autonomy vote as he headed down the hill to the polls. “On the one hand I am in agreement with it because it gives each of the departments a chance to control their own development. On the other hand it gives a big advantage to rich departments like Santa Cruz that have most of the natural resources.” He was less ambivalent about the fact that election day gave him a chance to hang out with his friends.

I think the oddest image that sticks in my mind from the day involves a small lion and a machine gun. One of my destinations on my bike with Mr. Dylan was to meet up with a visiting foreign journalist. Given our sparse lunch options we ended up eating at a small outside table at a popular ice cream restaurant that features mechanical toys for children. The one next to us was a lion kids could ride, which oddly was equipped with sound effects not of a roar but of sirens and machine gun fire. We both wondered who thinks of such things.

Jim Shultz

Election Day in Bolivia

Today is election day in Bolivia. Voters across the nation will elect members to the upcoming Constituent Assembly to rewrite the Bolivian constitution and will decide on a proposal to give the country’s regions more autonomy over political decisions and powers.

The streets are virtually empty of cars here in Cochabamba, with vehicle traffic banned for the day, along with sales of alcohol the past 48 hours. Don’t worry, most everyone still knows where to buy beer if they really want one to pass away the afternoon.

This morning a group of Democracy Center volunteers and staff fanned out across the city on foot and by bike to interview voters and capture the feel of this election. We’ll have reports from each of those teams later this afternoon, along with results as they come in tonight.

Keep your eye on today’s Blog.