Scary goings-on in Bolivia

So, as I understand it, among a range of other violence, including
radical rightist youth trashing national government offices, a group of
paramilitaries armed by the regional governor in Pando has ambushed a
group of peasants and killed something like thirty of them. The US
State department has issued a travel warning, and urged the cessation of
all "nonessential travel" to Bolivia.

Evo also expelled the US ambassador (it's about damn time--from what
I've read, he's an incompetent fool) for meeting with leaders of the
opposition, and the US retaliated in kind.

Leave it to the Bush administration to make the wise and mature choice.

Scary.

Hopefully, Evo Morales is smarter than W. Wouldn't be hard.

I've (of course) been following the situation as closely as I can,
though it's difficult to know what's going on when things are happening
so quickly. However, I'm wondering where this leaves me--I'm supposed
to go to Cochabamba on Oct. 4. Cochabamba has been pretty calm through
this most recent outbreak, as I understand it, but I go in through Sta.
Cruz, which is the epicenter of the troubles.

The Boren people want me to sign a waiver, and also have offered to push
back my program or make changes to my proposed program. I've mentioned
the idea that I might like to do my language training in Peru instead,
and we'll see what they say to that.

If scholars who study civil war are correct, two of the biggest things
needed for longstanding, costly civil wars are terrain (jungle and
mountains, especially) and low weight, high-value goods. Bolivia has
(a) lots of mountains, (b) lots of jungle, and (c) lots of cocaine.

Lucky them.

If researchers are right, Bolivia could be in for a bad stretch if
violence gets worse.