Dear Readers:

Forgive the long hiatus since the last issue of The Democracy On-Line.

I spent November out of the country and December enjoying the holidays and recovering from the excitement of being hospitalized with food poisoning. I am now getting ready to drop all else for two months to complete final editing of The Democracy Center's new book The Democracy Owners Manual, which will be published later this year by Rutgers University Press.

We'll be back publishing regularly in March.

I do want to take the opportunity of the New Year to offer some Important updates and some well-deserved thank yous, including to you who have been reading this newsletter, passing it to friends and writing back with your reactions and ideas. To all of you, a great 2001!

Jim Shultz

The Democracy Center

HELP FOR THE WOUNDED

More than 70 people responded with great generosity and heart to my Appeal for funds to help the dozens of people left wounded from Bolivia's Social conflicts last year. We received more than $6,000 in donations, money which has now been deposited in a special account set up by Cochabamba's Catholic Archbishop. These funds will go along way here, paying not Only for medical procedures and medicines but for transportation to physical therapy appointments and even rent to keep the wounded from being evicted while they are unable to work.

To those of you who contributed - many, many thanks. Individual notes Of appreciation are on the way. A special note of thanks as well to The Democracy Center's stellar administrative coordinator, Martha Nissen Stabler who handled all the paperwork in receiving the donations.

More information on the recent social unrest here is posted at:

http://www.democracyctr.org/onlinenews/vol35.html

BOLIVIA'S WATER WARS

The biggest event in Cochabamba this past year was the civic rebellion Last April against the privatization of the local water system and the huge Rate hikes which followed. The result, as readers of this newsletter know, is that the Bechtel Corporation subsidiary which took over the water was kicked out of the country and the water returned to public hands. Now Bechtel (one of the world's wealthiest corporations) is preparing to sue Bolivia (South America's poorest country) for as much as $20 million. Global justice groups in the U.S. and Canada have pledged to help Bolivians fight Bechtel's legal maneuvers, setting the stage for one of the first ever citizen battles against such an international lawsuit.

In addition, The Democracy Center's articles on the Bolivian water Uprising were recently named by Project Censored as one of the 25 top stories of the year. Many thanks to the wonderful editors who saw this story as important and ran these articles, including Sandy Close at the Pacific News Service, Daniel Snieder at the San Jose Mercury, and the editors at In These Times, This Magazine, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other publications. Thanks as well to the hundreds of people who took up the cause and bombarded Bechtel with e-mail last April demanding their departure from Bolivia.

More information on the Bolivian water uprising is available at:

http://www.democracyctr.org/onlinenews/water.html

THE JAILING OF ADELA ROJAS RODRIGUEZ

Many of you have been following the case of Adela Rojas Rodriguez, a mother of five unjustly thrown into jail here under the US War on Drugs. After more than a year and a half since Adela was first jailed, there is finally hope. Under Bolivian law any prisoner who has been in jail 18 months and has still not received a verdict from the court is eligible for release on bail. On Christmas Eve Adela completed 18 months in the overcrowded women's jail here. She has never been declared guilty by any court and so we are requesting her release. We expect a court hearing to be held next week and the big question remaining is how much bail the court will demand from this woman whose family is so poor that her adobe house has no bathroom.

Many, many thanks to you who have been following this case, who contributed to Adela's defense and to the more than 100 people who wrote letters to the US Embassy here demanding an investigation. I recently filed a Freedom of Information Act request and received copies of the Embassy's entire file on the case, which I'll be reporting on soon.

More information on Adela's jailing is posted at:

A BOLIVIAN BABY TURNS ONE IN JAIL - C/O THE US WAR ON DRUGS"
Volume 28 - AUGUST 2, 1999

THE DEMOCRACY CENTER WEB SITE

In case you haven't visited it recently, The Democracy Center's Web site ( http://www.democracyctr.org ) has undergone some major improvements and additions over the past year, making it a better and better tool for civic activists. Watch for even more improvements this year. For all this a big thanks goes out to our volunteer Web site manager, Jorge Hurtado!

THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE is an electronic publication of The Democracy Center, distributed on an occasional basis to more than 1800 nonprofit organizations, policy makers, journalists and others, throughout the US and worldwide. Please consider forwarding it along to those who might be interested. People can request to be added to the distribution list by sending an e-mail note to info@democracyctr.org.

Newspapers and periodicals interested in reprinting or excerpting material in the newsletter should contact The Democracy Center at: info@democracyctr.org. Suggestions and comments are welcome. Past issues are available on The Democracy Center Web site.

THE DEMOCRACY CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO: P.O. Box 22157 San Francisco, CA 94122
BOLIVIA: Casilla 5283, Cochabamba, Bolivia
TEL: (415)564-4767
FAX: (978)383-1269
WEB: http://www.democracyctr.org
E-MAIL: info@democracyctr.org