Bolivia

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Police guards outside Bolivia’s presidential palace abandoned their posts Saturday, increasing pressure on President Evo Morales as he seeks to curb nationwide unrest after a disputed election.

Officers also climbed onto the roof of a nearby police station holding Bolivian flags and signs proclaiming “The Police with the People.” Police retreated to their barracks in at least three cities, and there were reports that some in two cities were openly declaring mutinies.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — President Evo Morales on Thursday declared himself victor of the weekend election, stirring more anger among his opponents who have protested for days claiming fraud in the vote count, while the U.S., Brazil, Argentina and Colombia joined in calling for Bolivia to hold a runoff between the incumbent and his top challenger.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Bolivia’s electoral authority announced Monday night that President Evo Morales was close to avoiding a runoff in his re-election bid, touching off protests by the leader’s opponents already upset by a sudden halt in the release of the vote count.

A crowd burned the offices of the electoral body in the southern city of Sucre, and groups of Morales’ supporters and opponents clashed in a number of places.

21 October 2019; AFP: Evo Morales, seeking a controversial fourth term, led Bolivia's presidential election race Sunday but faces a historic second round run-off against opposition rival Carlos Mesa, partial results showed.

Morales had 45 percent of the vote to Mesa's 38 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal announced, with most of the votes counted.

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — South America’s longest-serving leader is seeking an unprecedented fourth term in Bolivian elections on Sunday, but polls suggest Evo Morales is in the tightest race of his career.

The 59-year-old leftist is favored to win the first round vote, but he’s likely to be forced into a December runoff where he could be vulnerable to a united opposition.

The son of impoverished Aymara shepherds, Morales came to prominence leading social protests and won election as Bolivia’s first indigenous president in 2006.

SANTA CRUZ DE LA SIERRA (Bolivia), Oct 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched through the streets of Bolivia’s largest city, turning up heat on President Evo Morales as they voiced outrage over his government’s response to wildfires that have razed broad swaths of the country’s forests this year.

Protesters in the wealthy, industrial city of Santa Cruz brandished placards at the demonstration late on Friday calling for a “punishment vote” against Morales in the upcoming Oct 20 presidential election.

CONCEPCION, Bolivia (Reuters) - Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country’s lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region.

The fires this year are Bolivia’s worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land across the country nearly doubling in under three weeks, destroying swaths of biodiverse forest and ranches and farms that sustain thousands of people.

5 September 2019; AFP: Wildfires raging in Bolivia's forests and grasslands since May have destroyed 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres), officials said Wednesday, amid an $11 million effort by the government to contain them.

Environmentalists blame laws enacted under leftist President Evo Morales, who has encouraged the burning of forest and pasture land to expand agricultural production, while the government attributes the blazes to dry weather and winds.

LA PAZ, Sept 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Wildfires raging in Bolivia’s forests and grasslands since May have destroyed 1.7 million hectares, officials said Wednesday, amid an $11 million effort by the government to contain them.

Environmentalists blame laws enacted under President Evo Morales, who has encouraged the burning of forest and pasture land to expand agricultural production, while the government attributes the blazes to dry weather and winds.

LA PAZ, Sept 4 (NNN-Xinhua) — Bolivian anti-narcotics forces seized 220.7 tons of drugs during 8,261 operations between January and September this year, an official said.

With the support of some international bodies, Bolivia’s antinarcotics model is “producing important results,” Deputy Interior Minister Jose Luis Quiroga told the press.

Of the 220.7 tons of drugs seized, 6.6 tons were cocaine paste, 4.9 were cocaine, 204.5 corresponded to marijuana plantations and 4.5 to marijuana ready for sale, the minister said.