Plus Ça Change ...

I was beginning to think something was missing as I had not seen a single demonstration since I arrived, but I should not have worried. This morning the traffic was cut in the main square. The reason was to  protest against discrimination in the Teacher Training College of Paracaya. I had already heard about this. It seems that in the altiplano where there is an Aymara majority students from other ethnic groups are not being allowed to register and in the rest of the country a percentage of places is being reserved for Aymara students.

This would seem to follow the same vein as what is happening in the political field. When a mayor is elected who does notbelong to the president's party, they are making all kinds of allegations to remove them from power and even sending people to prison. Several mayors have taken refuge in Paraguay and Argentina. Since many of these people are educated, they have devised the strategy of giving up their position so that new elections can be held and to date they have all won again.  So far the results of these second elections are being respected.

Then there is the future of the president, Evo Morales.  All indications seem to be that he is preparing the ground to be declared president for life.

Yesterday in the main square of La Paz he decorated 6 soldiers.  Why? Because they were arrested by the Chilean police. They were pursuing some people involved in bringing contraband vehicles into Bolivia from Chile but they crossed the border and weredetaiend by the Chilean carabineros. As a result Evo has decorated them and raised them to the rank of marshall!