Damas y Caballeros,

Just the other day (10-18-03) the president of Bolivia stepped down due to a communal cry for his removal. For the past month or so Bolivia has been experiencing a country wide strike where the international borders were closed by angry farmers and indigenous groups. Since the removal of the president, the strike has ceased, but tensions are still on edge. I had lunch this afternoon with two Peruvian women here in Chile and they put the number of deaths during the strike period at around 70. Most assuredly not AP quality facts, but probably not far from the truth.

Needless to say, the US government is advising all of its foreign travellers to leave Bolivia, and those travelers considering entry to reconsider. This bring me to the point of this post. As of now Bolivia has been axed from my list of countries to travel to.

Let us all hope the situation improves now that some of the strikers' demands have been met.

For a quick and typical history of Bolivia, to make all this much less surprising, see "Bolivia as a Soap Opera," listed on the home page.