Unrest & Blockades

The day dawned bright and sunny but the clouds of social unrest seem to be growing. Today's plan was to go to the MANACO shoe factory to collect our order and take it up to San Benito. However, as I was waiting for Primo to come, the phone rang and he said that he could not get down from San Benito to Cochabamba because there is a transport blockade and no forms of transport are running - or being allowed to run.

He called the Manager of the Manaco factory to say that we would not be able to get down as arranged, and he told him not to come before Friday because Quillacollo where the factory is located, is one of the main hot spots and they were not even opening the doors. Yesterday the march got out of hand there and any vehicle that had the misfortune to pass by had its windows broken by people wielding sticks. We have been told not to go before Friday, but that knocks out the whole programme as on Friday I am supposed to be going up to Chaki Kh'ocha on the puna to speak to the children and their families and teachers.

I must now wait at the hotel to see whether later in the morning things calm down and Primo can get down to town. If he could manage to do that, we could do what we had planned for tomorrow inside the city and juggle things around. From the hotel I can hear lots of fireworks, which here always means there is unrest.