Just a quick update on the Bolivia situation:
- Eight people were killed yesterday in fighting in Bolivia’s Pando province. The protests and violence led American Airlines to cancel all flights through Saturday. Flights should resume Sunday, just in time for Yoli. But we’ll have to keep an eye on that.
- Evo’s decision to boot the American ambassador led the U.S. to (obviously) do the same to the Bolivian ambassador. Then Chavez joined the fun and deported the American ambassador in Venezuela. As Jim Shultz points out, this diplomatic tit-for-tat comes at a time when Bolivia sorely needs diplomatic intervention from the outside.
- There’s little hope for peace. In fact, Miguel at Pronto passed along this bit of news from La Razon: A pro-Evo civilian group called the “Poncho Rojos” are mobilizing to recapture the government installations captured two days ago by the “civicos.”