Bolivia

Some see youth football tournament as former president’s latest attempt to remain in running for 2025 electionsPolitics and football have long mixed in South America, but not perhaps to this extent. On Sunday the Copa Evo, an international youth football tournament arranged by and named after Bolivia’s former president Evo Morales, kicked off in the […]

The case of Richard Choque, a serial rapist and murderer, who was placed only under house arrest, prompted outrageIn parts of La Paz, every surface is papered with layers of bleached and peeling posters: adverts for events, jobs, apartments – and missing women.In 2021, there were at least 108 femicides in Bolivia, among the highest rates in South America. […]

Court finds rightwinger defied constitution during chaotic exit of Evo Morales, from whom she took over presidencyA Bolivian court has found former president Jeanine Áñez guilty of orchestrating a coup that brought her to power during a 2019 political crisis.She was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Continue reading...

Ruins of monuments, villages, causeways and canals hidden in the dense rainforest are evidence of ‘Amazonian urbanism’Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a vast network of settlements hidden beneath the undergrowth of the Bolivian Amazon, in what has been described as the clearest example yet of the complex societies that thrived in a region […]

Max Mendoza has been arrested after a judge said his 32-year enrollment at university on a government salary may be a crimeMax Mendoza has been a remarkably persistent student – and a profitable one: he has been enrolled at a public university in Bolivia for 32 years but never graduated, much of it while being paid a government salary to serve as a […]

Jeanine Áñez assumed power after President Evo Morales was driven from office – now she is facing up to 15 years in prisonWith its sterile setting and staff in scrubs, it looks like the video feed of a hospital waiting room – but the scene captured on screen is the virtual trial of Jeanine Áñez, Bolivia’s former president, who is beaming in to the […]

Tropics lost 11.1m hectares of tree cover in 2021, including forest critical to limiting global heating and biodiversity loss, finds World Resources InstitutePristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a Cop26 deal to halt and reverse deforestation by the […]

Following three friends as they struggle to survive in La Paz, the drama lurches confusingly from verité drama to bonkers dance routinesWhat a strange and intriguing film this is. Knowing nothing about it, for the first 10 minutes or so watching three out-of-work-miners arrive in the Bolivian capital La Paz, I assumed I was watching a documentary. These […]

Survivors of dictatorships that ruled Bolivia between 1964 and 1982 started a live-in protest 10 years ago, yet their demands seem no closer to being metIn a makeshift hut by the ministry of justice in La Paz, Bolivia, a group of activists shuffle into place for a meeting. They are the survivors of the dictatorships that ruled Bolivia between 1964 and 1982; […]

Videos of the heists are all set to one song – Simon Latorre’s Chutero Yo Soy – which is now an anthem for those in the tradeHigh in the Bolivian Altiplano, Challapata is where the road from La Paz splits: one way to Potosí and the other to Uyuni and the salt flats. It seems an unremarkable place; many tourists steam through without even realising. […]

Mario Terán pulled the trigger to execute famed revolutionary guerrilla: ‘It was the worst moment of my life’The Bolivian soldier who pulled the trigger to execute the famed revolutionary guerrilla Ernesto “Che” Guevara has died at the age of 80.Mario Terán “simply complied with his duty as a sergeant of the army,” said retired general Gary […]

Created by two friends in 2019, the female collective ImillaSkate wear the traditional Bolivia polleras dress associated with the indigenous women of the highland regions as a symbol of resistanceThe Bolivian “polleras”, bulky skirts commonly associated with the indigenous women from the highlands, were for decades a symbol of uniqueness but also an […]

About half the country’s population is yet to receive a single dose of vaccine, despite availability Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageIn a vaccination centre in El Alto, Bolivia, the staff bagged up in protective gear far outnumbered the few people sitting in plastic chairs waiting for their injection. A young doctor reeled […]

Rising number of coronavirus cases prompts official US advice, which brings number of countries on ‘level four’ list to over 100The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday advised against travel to 22 nations and territories because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases including for Australia, Israel, Egypt, Albania, Argentina and […]

The government has been criticised for apparent inaction as evidence mounts that mercury contamination is causing illness in fishing communitiesOutside a small brick house shared by four families, Daniela Prada, who is heavily pregnant, gathers guava leaves to make a tea for her two-year-old son.“My baby gets sick a lot,” she says, boiling a pot of […]