Stories written by Franz Chávez
Franz Chávez has been an IPS Correspondent from Bolivia since November 2003. He covers Bolivian current affairs and the country’s dynamic transition from market-oriented government to government supported by indigenous people and low-income sectors of society. To provide adequate coverage of the complex Bolivian reality, especially for an international audience, Chávez tends to focus on those stories generally neglected by mainstream media, putting a special effort into contextualising events in what is currently one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Born in La Paz, Chávez worked for Radio Christal from 1985 to 1990, then joined the editorial team of the local television channels 2, 4, 7 and 11. He is also among the founders of the daily newspapers La Razón, where he worked from 1990 to 1995, La Prensa, where he worked from 1998 to 2001, and La Prensa-Oruro. Chávez studied sociology and communication at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés de La Paz.

DRUGS-BOLIVIA: From Producer to Consumer Nation

By Franz Chávez
A slackening of prevention efforts has helped bring about an up to 430 percent increase in drug use in Bolivia in the last 13 years, while the government is engaged in a dispute with United Nations representatives over the quantity of coca leaves destined for the cocaine trade currently being grown in this South American nation.

BOLIVIA: Getting Off the Streets on the Cold Winter Nights

By Franz Chávez
Cold nights can spell death for homeless people on the streets of La Paz in the southern hemisphere winter. But a new municipal programme in this city located 3600 metres above sea level is now offering emergency shelter and two square meals during the coldest months of the year.

BOLIVIA: New President Walks Tightrope Between Conflicting Demands

By Franz Chávez
The refusal by Bolivia's lawmakers to step down to make early general elections possible and the threat of an imminent resumption of protest demonstrations are the main obstacles faced by the country's new caretaker president, Eduardo Rodríguez, in his first week in office.

BOLIVIA: Protests Rage On Under New President

By Franz Chávez
The designation of Eduardo Rodríguez, the head of the Supreme Court, as caretaker president of Bolivia has not calmed the protests or led to a lifting of the roadblocks of rocks and smoking tires and wood that have cut off the city of La Paz for weeks.

BOLIVIA: Congressional Failure to Act on President’s Resignation Deepens Chaos

By Franz Chávez
Bolivia found itself in a kind of limbo Tuesday, as the legislature has not met to act on Carlos Mesa's resignation as president, and the heads of the two houses of Congress have not made the decision to step aside and leave Supreme Court chief justice Eduardo Rodríguez as caretaker president, as demanded by protesters and the main opposition party.

BOLIVIA: Presidential Decree Fails to Calm Unrest

By Franz Chávez
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa's decision to call a referendum on regional autonomy and convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution did nothing to calm the social unrest that has continued for nearly two weeks.

BOLIVIA: Divided Over Natural Gas

By Franz Chávez
Indigenous protests over natural gas and demands for autonomy by the wealthy eastern provinces are on a collision course under the watchful eyes of the armed forces, which have indicated that they will not accept any division of the national territory.

BOLIVIA: New Law on Natural Gas Satisfies No One

By Franz Chávez
Bolivian President Carlos Mesa's refusal to sign into law or veto a bill creating new taxes on foreign oil companies was interpreted by local analysts as a sign of weakness.

BOLIVIA: Water Rates Hard to Swallow

By Franz Chávez
A multinational corporation that provides water and sanitation services is at the centre of tensions in the Bolivian city of El Alto, where residents are demanding that the company leave the country.

BOLIVIA: Gearing Up for a Second ‘Gas War’

By Franz Chávez
Bolivia remained paralysed Tuesday by roadblocks and protests demanding the nationalisation of the country's natural gas wealth, after attempts by human rights officials and activists to bring about talks between the government and social movements fell flat.
Abel Mamani, head of the Bolivian community councils federation, addresses a crowd in El Alto - Jatha

Bolivian Water Rates Hard to Swallow

By Franz Chávez and - -
A multinational corporation that provides water and sanitation services is at the center of tensions tearing at social seams in Bolivia. The residents of El Alto are demanding that the company leave the country.

BOLIVIA: Protests, Roadblocks Continue Despite Governance Pact

By Franz Chávez
Lawmaker Evo Morales, the leader of Bolivia's coca farmers, and the Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) labour federation announced that they would step up the protests and roadblocks staged around the country over the past few days.

BOLIVIA: President Offers to Resign in the Midst of Social Unrest

By Franz Chávez
-After just 17 months in power, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa announced that he would offer his resignation to Congress, in the face of relentless social protests throughout the country.

BOLIVIA: Children Under Threat

By Franz Chávez
A journalists' association in this Bolivian city granted an award this week to local reporter Abdel Padilla for describing the plight of newborn infants who are the victims of outright infanticide or simply allowed to die in Caripuyo, the country's poorest municipality.

BOLIVIA: New Grassroots Political Actors Emerge from Local Elections

By Franz Chávez
The political parties that have governed Bolivia over the past 22 years have begun to yield ground to around 400 civic and indigenous movements, which for the first time were able to participate in local elections, on Sunday.

RIGHTS-BOLIVIA: Fighting an Uphill Battle Against Domestic Violence

By Franz Chávez
Not even the barrel of a revolver held against her chest by a police officer accused of battering his wife kept Jeannette Alfaro, a women's rights advocate in La Paz, from going to the aid of one of the many victims of domestic violence in Bolivia.

POLITICS-BOLIVIA: Government Up Against the Wall

By Franz Chávez
The Bolivian government is facing opposition from all sides, with Congress blocking its draft budget, and workers and community groups staging roadblocks, protests and strikes.

DEVELOPMENT-BOLIVIA: Caripuyo, the Face of Poverty

By Franz Chávez
At the foot of the Andes mountains just to the north of the former imperial city of Potosí in southwestern Bolivia, around 10,000 people live in the most dire poverty - the poorest of the poor in South America's most impoverished country.

ENERGY-BOLIVIA: Natural Gas Bill Caught Between Conflicting Pressures

By Franz Chávez
Although voters in an earlier referendum in Bolivia, which has huge natural gas reserves, supported the modification of the country's energy law, actually passing a new bill is proving difficult.

BOLIVIA: Indigenous and Civic Groups to Field Candidates

By Franz Chávez
In Bolivia's upcoming local elections, indigenous and civil society organisations will for the first time be able to field their own candidates, thanks to a modification of the country's election laws.

BOLIVIA: Congress Votes to Bring Ex-President to Trial for Protest Deaths

By Franz Chávez
The Bolivian Congress voted Thursday for the Supreme Court to try former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, nearly a year after he was forced to step down by massive protests over exports of natural gas, in which 67 people were killed when the army was called out.
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