Bolivia

LA PAZ, Sept 11 (NNN-TELOESUR) — The Bolivian Government announced the creation of the General Directorate for the Protection of Indigenous Nations and Peoples (DIGEPIO) following the enactment of Supreme Decree 4793.

Bolivian Minister of Justice and Institutional Transparency, Iván Lima, said the objective of the DIGEPIO will be to address the needs of populations in vulnerable situations, noting that it will be part of the judicial structure.

LA PAZ, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Bolivia accumulated 55 monkeypox cases in less than a month after the first infection was recorded, with an average of two cases per day, the Ministry of Health and Sports announced Friday.

Three new cases were registered in the department of Santa Cruz, bringing the overall figure in that region to 47, with one recovery.

The department with the second most cases was Cochabamba with five, followed by La Paz with three, and Potosi with one.

LA PAZ, July 9 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The Bolivian government announced the creation of the state-run Empresa Pública Productiva de Industrialización to start the production of a new brand of toothpaste made from coca leaves to fulfill the Constitutional mandate to capitalize on a native and ancestral natural resource, which is the cultural heritage of the country.

LA PAZ, March 2 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — At least 14 people have been killed in various car accidents and other incidents across Bolivia during Carnival weekend, including a hit-and-run case Sunday in Cochabamba, which alone resulted in nine deaths.

Dancers, musicians, and spectators were returning home after participating in the parade in the Cochabamba region when they were hit by a car believed to have been driven by a drunk person.

LA PAZ, Feb 7 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora has confirmed the discovery of large gas reserves which -he hoped- would yield substantial profits to the country.

The new finding was, named the Margarita-10 well, is located at the Margarita-Huacaya field in the departments of Chuquisaca and Tarija, Arce said during an official appearance in Oruro. He also announced exploration work in the area has been going on since last year with “good results.”

LA PAZ, Sept 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least 23 people, including three children, were killed after a bus plunged off a cliff in central Bolivia, police and witnesses said.

    The bus, carrying 33 people, plummeted 400 meters down a cliff in Cochabamba state at around 11 am Monday.

    “I stepped on the brake and there was no brake,” said the driver, whose wife died in the accident.

    The dead also included three children aged one, two and six, according to the police Facebook statement. Five other victims remain to be identified, it added.

LA PAZ, Sept 4 (NNN-TELESUR) — Bolivia’s Civil Defense Vice Minister Juan Calvimontes said that about 95 percent of the forest fires that started in the Beni and Santa Cruz departments on Aug 1 have been extinguished.

“Currently, there are only fires in San Matias municipality, in Santa Cruz department, where the Army and fire brigades remain to prevent fire from causing great havoc,” Calvimontes said, adding that all fires will be contained by next week.

LA PAZ, Aug 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Former Bolivian President Jeanine Anez harmed herself by cutting her lower arms while in jail on Saturday, her lawyer Norka Cuellar told local media after police reported what they categorised as attempted suicide.

“This is a cry for help from the former president. She feels very harassed,” the lawyer told reporters.

“The doctor came in and found her with the cuts. On her left wrist she has three cuts, they have sutured her,” Cuellar said.

LA PAZ, Jul 13 (NNN-XINHUA) – At least 24 people died and another 10 were injured, after a public transportation bus plunged into a ravine, more than 100 metres deep in the southern Bolivian department of Chuquisaca, police and medical workers said.

The director of the Traffic Operational Unit, Colonel Jose Luis Assaf, told reporters, the number of fatal victims may rise due to the severity of their injuries.

(Reuters) --- The death toll from COVID-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean passed 1 million people on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, with the pandemic worsening in the part of the world with the highest per capita death rate.

From the dusty highlands of Bolivia to the Brazilian metropolis of São Paulo, the pandemic has swamped underfunded healthcare systems after spreading fast across nations where many people survive hand-to-mouth and have been unable to enter lockdown.