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.

BOLIVIA: Tense Truce Between Coca Farmers and Army

By Franz Chávez
Coca farmers and their families are calmly but closely keeping an eye on the camps of soldiers sent to destroy their crops in the Isiboro Sécure nature reserve, in the central Bolivian department (state) of Cochabamba.

BOLIVIA: Slash-and-Burn Agriculture Gone Haywire

By Franz Chávez
Because of a rash of fires lit intentionally to expand farmland and grazing areas, the residents of the central Bolivian city of Santa Cruz are breathing air that has more than twice the level of suspended particles than the maximum allowed by health authorities.

Fires Burn Out of Control

By Franz Chávez and - -
The residents of Santa Cruz, Bolivia are suffering the effects of air pollution caused by more than 2,000 forest fires that were started to clear land for crops and cattle.

BOLIVIA: Moving Towards a Decentralisation of Justice

By Franz Chávez
As public demand for local conflict resolution mechanisms and dissatisfaction with law enforcement institutions are growing in Bolivia, the government, judiciary and social organisations are preparing for a decentralisation of the justice system.

BOLIVIA: Foreign Prices for Local Petroleum

By Franz Chávez
The Bolivian government, with its hands tied by a promise to charge international prices for petroleum produced in the country by foreign corporations, agreed to a 100-day price freeze on gasoline after the biggest protest ever by the capital's transport workers.
Interior view of oil well towe - hoto Stock

Foreign Prices for Local Petroleum

By Franz Chávez and - -
Demands have been revived in Bolivia for nationalizing a valuable natural resource: hydrocarbons.

BOLIVIA: Small-Town Mayors Demand Life Insurance Against Violence

By Franz Chávez
Mayors in Bolivia are demanding life insurance as a condition for staying in their posts, as the campaign for the December municipal elections gets underway. Their demand took formal shape after a mayor accused of corruption by local residents was killed by an enraged mob in the central square of an Andean highlands town.

BOLIVIA: Indians Want Recognition of Diversity and a Share of the Wealth

By Franz Chávez
Bolivia, South America's poorest country, is caught up in a state of social effervescence, with indigenous communities from the tropical eastern part of the country and the western highlands fighting for government policies that respect their cultures, languages and territories.

ENERGY-BOLIVIA: Voters Back Changes to Natural Gas Policy

By Franz Chávez
A majority in Bolivia voted in favour of the proposed changes to the government's natural gas policy, according to the preliminary results of Sunday's referendum, which means the state oil company will regain control over the country's energy resources and the 78 contracts with foreign oil firms may be renegotiated.

ENERGY-BOLIVIA: Voters Set to Decide on the Future of Gas Reserves

By Franz Chávez
Bolivian voters will go to the polls Sunday to decide how this impoverished country's huge natural gas reserves should be exploited.

BOLIVIA: Export Boom Amidst Social Unrest

By Franz Chávez
This year the main international highways in western Bolivia have been constantly blocked by indigenous and peasant farmer associations mounting protests.

ENVIRONMENT-BOLIVIA: Chainsaws Threaten Nature Preserve

By Franz Chávez
Residents of the town of Apolo, in northeast Bolivia, have been using chainsaws to open a path through Madidi National Park, while the government and defenders of biodiversity say the route would mostly benefit illegal exports of precious wood.
The capybara, the world's biggest rodent, is a resident of Bolivia's Madidi Park - Mauricio Ramos

Chainsaws Threaten Bolivian Nature Preserve

By Franz Chávez and - -
Residents of the town of Apolo, in northeast Bolivia, are preparing to use chainsaws to open a path through Madidi National Park, while the government and defenders of biodiversity say the route would mostly benefit illegal exports of precious wood.

BOLIVIA: Lynching of Mayor – a Distortion of Indigenous Justice

By Franz Chávez
In Aymara indigenous communities in Bolivia, punishments like public whippings or humiliating donkey-rides are commonly meted out to local authorities considered inept or corrupt.

BOLIVIA: Deep Division Over Referendum on Natural Gas

By Franz Chávez
A succession of ministers of mining and hydrocarbons in Bolivia have attempted to lead the process of reforming the laws governing the industry, since the country's president was forced to step down late last year by protests over natural gas policy.

BOLIVIA: Companies Belonging to Enron, Shell Under Scrutiny

By Franz Chávez
Bolivia is investigating companies belonging to U.S. corporate giant Enron and the Dutch-British Shell for illegal manoeuvres involving the commercialisation and transportation of natural gas and unauthorised exports to the Brazilian city of Cuiabá.

BOLIVIA: Natural Gas Dispute Sees Awakening of the Guarani

By Franz Chávez
Guaraní Indians staged a peaceful five-day protest in which they surrounded the grounds of the oil transnationals Repsol-YPF and Maxxus, which operate in Bolivia's largest natural gas field.

BOLIVIA: Military Protests Legal Ruling

By Franz Chávez
Bolivia's top military brass and President Carlos Mesa met Monday to discuss a Constitutional Court ruling that overturned a military justice decision that acquitted four soldiers in the shooting deaths of two civilians during street protests in February 2003.

MAY DAY-BOLIVIA: Ex-Miners Recover Pensions with Dynamite

By Franz Chávez
Former Bolivian miners, excluded from the pension system that emerged during the Latin American wave of privatisations, have won a meagre monthly payment of 60 dollars - but the price was one worker who blew himself up with dynamite and the threat of three more to follow his example.

BOLIVIA: Rising Demand for Tin Holds Out Hope for Impoverished Highlands

By Franz Chávez
The tap tap tap of the hammer and chisel in networks of underground galleries in Bolivia's Andean highland region could give way to the pneumatic pounding of powerful hydraulic rock drills if tin mining makes a comeback.

BOLIVIA: Democracy Under Pressure

By Franz Chávez
University students in Bolivia took to the streets again Friday after the harsh police crackdown they suffered Thursday, while a mediating commission was set up to try to reach an understanding between the government and the groups involved in the demonstrations.
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