Ranchers Try to Drive Tsimané Indians Off Their Land

“We can’t take any more abuse,” Carmelo Tayo, the head of this small Tsimané indigenous village, says sadly. The community has lived for decades on land in Bolivia’s Amazon jungle that outsiders are now trying to gain control of.

Controversial Inter-American Reforms Process to Continue

The 35-member Organisation of American States (OAS) on Friday voted unanimously to approve a series of reforms to the Inter-American human rights system, but stepped back from proposals that had caused the greatest concern among civil society groups.

In the Land of Gas, the Residents Have None

The 19,000 inhabitants of the municipality of Caraparí, the area supplying a third of Bolivia’s gas exports, do not have access to gas or petrol, six years after the nationalisation of the mega deposit and almost a quarter century after its discovery.

Two Luthiers Emerge From Deep Bolivian Amazon

They belong to the Amazon of Bolivia, where their people, the Moxena nation, are found, and they are brothers. Francisco and Alfonso Ichu Tamo came to this southern city to become the premier makers of musical instruments.

The Emerging Global Crisis of Investment Agreements

A growing number of international lawsuits has highlighted an emerging global crisis: the nature and effects of investment treaties signed between governments, which are allowing private companies and investors to sue countries for millions or even billions of dollars.

AGRICULTURE-BOLIVIA: Adapting to the Floods

Margarita Amabeja holds out her hands full of golden rice grains and rough brown manioc roots - the first results of a strategy to adjust the agricultural cycles to the seasonal floods and droughts in the vast plains of Beni, in northeastern Bolivia.

Q&A: Bolivia Limits Size of Estates in Land Reform Struggle

Voters in Bolivia, one of the countries with the highest concentration of land in the world, decided in Sunday’s referendum to limit the size of large landed estates, or "latifundia", to 5,000 hectares.

BOLIVIA: New Constitution Marks Break with the Past

Bolivia’s voters approved a new constitution in Sunday’s referendum with around 60 percent support, ushering in further social changes under President Evo Morales, who will now be able to run for reelection in December, to a single consecutive term.

BOLIVIA: Christian Groups Stir Up Debate over New Constitution

"Did you know they want to throw God out of Bolivia?" asks a television spot frequently broadcast by opponents of leftwing Bolivian President Evo Morales ahead of the Jan. 25 referendum on constitutional reform.

ECONOMY-BOLIVIA: Strong 2008 Performance, Uneasy Start to 2009

The Bolivian government of Evo Morales enjoyed a third consecutive year of strong economic growth in 2008, but business leaders warn that the drop in commodity prices will hurt export revenues and lead to a rise in unemployment in the months to come.

BOLIVIA: Diplomatic Clashes with US Worry Business

The United States’s decision to suspend tariff benefits for Bolivian imports as a result of the confrontation with the government of Evo Morales has generated widespread uncertainty among the business and working communities of the Bolivian capital’s satellite city of El Alto.

BOLIVIA: Aymara Traders Mix Tradition and Modern-Day Savvy

Quietly and inconspicuously, Aymara indigenous traders are combining pre-Columbian traditions and modern-day survival skills to find unique ways of creating wealth and sustenance beyond the confines of textbook economic theory.

LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous Reporting – Between Activism and Professionalism

Indigenous journalism would seem to be in a stage similar to what environmentalism experienced a few decades ago: born of necessity and protest, it is caught in a constant state of tension between activism and professionalism.

LATIN AMERICA: Indigenous Journalists Plant a Seed

Journalists from indigenous communities in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Guatemala and Bolivia came together in La Paz to take the first step towards creating a network to work together and support each other.