• Bolivian Indigenous park confirmed to be a stronghold for the critically endangered horned curassow
• Laser technology discovers 11 historic hidden settlements under Amazon rainforest
• Bolivia opens its largest solar farm

• Bolivia: Maharishi Tower of Invincibility, housing development being planned
• Latin America: Students raising Bolivia to invincibility
• Latin America: Yogic Flyers create smooth transformations in Bolivia; Colombian students promote invincibility

• Bolivia: A drought alert for receding Lake Titicaca has Indigenous communities worried for their future
• 'Made of plastic': Cleaning up Bolivia's Uru Uru lake
• Bolivia struggles to contain fires scorching farms, forests

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bolivian Indigenous park confirmed to be a stronghold for the critically endangered horned curassow
22 April 2023 - The critically endangered horned curassow is a bird found only in three protected areas in Bolivia, where it plays an important role in dispersing seeds across the forest. Inside Bolivia's Isiboro Secure National Park and Indigenous Territory (TIPNIS), conservationists from Asociacion Armonia rigged up a network of nine camera traps and 15 audio recorders. (more)

Laser technology discovers 11 historic hidden settlements under Amazon rainforest
27 May 2022 - The Amazon Rainforest is a dense, unique, and vast expanse of forest stretching over 2 million square miles. Ecologically critical to our Earth, it also is a gem of human history. Ruins of settlements lie hidden under the dense vegetation, but modern laser technology can help reach the forest floor and search for evidence of past civilization. A recent study in Nature announced 11 'new' historic settlements were discovered in Llanos de Mojos, a region of the Bolivian Amazon. These sites were sophisticated, with water systems and pyramid-like structures. (more)

Bolivia opens its largest solar farm
10 September 2018 - Bolivian President Evo Morales unveiled the country's latest and largest renewable energy project on Saturday (8 September), a 180-hectare solar panel plant in the southern city of Potosi. The Uyuni Photovoltaic Solar Plant has the capacity to generate 60 MW of power, sufficient for the needs of 880,000 people, half of the population in the Potosi region. (more)

Pollution levels in Bolivia plummet on nationwide car-free day
4 September 2017 - Air pollution levels have plunged in cities across Bolivia as the country marked a nationwide car-free day in which all non-emergency vehicles were banned from city streets. The car-free event started 18 years ago in Cochabamba, one of Latin America's five most polluted cities, and has gradually taken root across the country. By 2011, it had become so popular that Bolivia's legislature declared a yearly 'Day of the Pedestrian and Cyclist in Defence of Mother Earth.' (more)

No alcohol, no violence: life inside the Bolivian community led by women
17 February 2017 - Visually, there is little to distinguish the barrio of Maria Auxiliadora from the other barrios of the working-class southern periphery of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Despite its innocuous appearance, a remarkable history sets this neighbourhood apart: since 1999, Maria Auxiliadora has worked to create a safe environment free from domestic violence, under the leadership of women. Families wishing to live there have to abide by the rules established in the community: no sales of alcohol, and no gender-based attacks. [Its success] has been recognised on an international level. The community was a finalist in the 2008 World Habitat Awards, run by Building and Social Housing Foundation in partnership with UN Habitat. The nomination explicitly recognised the project's success in reducing domestic violence and promoting female leadership in a traditionally patriarchal culture. (more)

South America: Enlisting an army to save a forest
5 October 2016 - Erika Cuellar taps local talent in her efforts to conserve South America's Gran Chaco, one of the planet's largest unknown wilderness areas. During more than a decade of scientific research in South America's Gran Chaco, the massive tropical dry forest that spreads over parts of Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, Cuellar enlisted local villagers and indigenous people to help navigate and better understand one of the planet's largest unknown wilderness areas, home to over 4,000 animal, bird, and plant species. Adapting paramedic-style training, she developed a parabiologist program that turns out field experts adept in science and conservation skills. (more)

Indigenous Bolivians welcome Aymara New Year in dawn ceremony
22 June 2016 - Hundreds of indigenous Bolivians raised their hands to the sun rising over the Cordillera Real mountain range and danced to music around a blazing fire to usher in the Aymara New Year. The celebration on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca included offerings to Pachamama, or mother earth, for a bountiful crop. About 2 million Bolivians trace their heritage totally or partially to the Aymara (more)

Bolivian teddy bear exhibit brings history to life
1 December 2015 - Hundreds of teddy bears, many dressed in traditional costumes, featured in a new permanent exhibition at La Paz's Elsa Paredes de Salazar doll museum are teaching Bolivian children about recent key events in the history of their country. (more)

Peru gives landlocked Bolivia a piece of Pacific coast to call its own
20 October 2015 - It might be a strip of sand without even a jetty but a small stretch of the Pacific coast now harbours Bolivia's dream of regaining a coast and becoming a maritime nation. The landlocked Andean country has won access to a patch of Peru's shoreline, fuelling hopes that Bolivia will once again have a sea to call its own. President Evo Morales signed a deal with his Peruvian counterpart, Alan García, allowing Bolivia to build and operate a small port about 10 miles from Peru's southern port of Ilo. (more)

New York couple returns stolen Andean paintings to Bolivia (with AP video)
9 April 2015 - Two colonial-era paintings that were stolen from a provincial church in 2002 have been returned to Bolivia by the New York City art collectors who purchased them unaware of their history. Richard and Roberta Huber presented the large paintings to Bolivian President Evo Morales on Thursday at the Presidential Palace. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bolivia: Maharishi Tower of Invincibility, housing development being planned
9 October 2009 - Plans are taking shape in Bolivia to construct a large housing development according to principles of Maharishi Sthapatya Veda--Vedic Architecture in accord with Natural Law--surrounding a Maharishi Tower of Invincibility. (more)

Latin America: Students raising Bolivia to invincibility
24 December 2008 - In 2008 in Bolivia, two courses in Yogic Flying (an aspect of the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme) have been offered to students--one at the beginning of the year, and another just completed. There are now about 1,500 Yogic Flyers in the schools, with plans for expansion of the programme in the coming year. These students are among 61,000 from 158 schools in 19 Latin American countries currently practising Transcendental Meditation, and 14,000 practising Yogic Flying. (more)

Latin America: Yogic Flyers create smooth transformations in Bolivia; Colombian students promote invincibility
4 June 2008 - On a recent Maharishi Global Family Chat, Raja Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja of Latin America for the Global Country of World Peace, spoke about the softening influence of the Yogic Flyers on the political transformation in Bolivia, and progress in establishing a large group of students practising this technique in a school in Colombia. (more)

Bolivia to be a model of Invincibility for all Latin America - Part II
24 May 2008 - Raja Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja of Latin America, reported recently on Maharishi Global Family Chat about the growing application of Consciousness-Based Education in schools and communities in Bolivia, and about government support for a Maharishi Tower of Invincibility and Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture. (more)

Bolivia to be a model of Invincibility for all Latin America - Part I
23 May 2008 - Raja Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja of Latin America, reported recently on Maharishi Global Family Chat about the growing application of Consciousness-Based Education in schools and communities in Bolivia, and about government support for a Maharishi Tower of Invincibility and Maharishi Vedic Organic Agriculture. (more)

Student Yogic Flyers create invincibility for Bolivia and Latin America
17 March 2008 - Speaking on a recent Global Family Chat, Dr Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja (Administrator) of Latin America for the Global Country of World Peace, reported that the required number of Yogic Flyers has already been reached in Bolivia. (more)

Bolivia to have 10,000 Yogic Flyers by end of year
14 March 2008 - Dr Fernando Zubieta Zegarra, National Director of the Global Country of World Peace for Bolivia, reported on the tremendous success of achieving invincibility for his country through implementing Maharishi's programmes for peace. (more)

Students create harmony and positivity throughout Bolivian community
9 September 2007 - In Bolivia, a country that has achieved the number the of Yogic Flyers necessary to create national invincibility, the people of Santiago de Machaca are reaping the benefits of--and expressing their appreciation for--the harmony and positivity created by students at a local school who have been practising Yogic Flying for the last month, reported Dr Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja (Administrator) of Latin America for the Global Country of World Peace. (more)

Bolivian mountain paradise home to 300 Yogic Flyers
17 August 2007 - In a remote highland town of Bolivia, where traditional indigenous culture is maintained more than any other place in Latin America, and which is often compared with Tibet, one third of the town's population is practising Transcendental Meditation, and 300 people (over ten per cent of the town's population) are gathering together twice daily to practise the advanced TM-Sidhi Programme, including Yogic Flying. (more)

Bolivia surpasses requisite number of Yogic Flyers for Invincibility
5 August 2007 - Dr Jose Luis Alvarez, Raja (Administrator) of Latin America for the Global Country of World Peace, reported on 3 August 2007 that Bolivia has achieved more than the number of Yogic Flyers required to crown the country with Invincibility. This was accomplished on Guru Purnima Day. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Bolivia: A drought alert for receding Lake Titicaca has Indigenous communities worried for their future
12 August 2023 - A 70-year-old man's feet sink into the soil as he passes abandoned boats where there used to be the water of Lake Titicaca. The highest navigable lake in the world has receded to what Bolivian authorities say are critically low levels due to a persistent drought. (more)

'Made of plastic': Cleaning up Bolivia's Uru Uru lake
8 April 2021 - Bolivia's Uru Uru lake is more plastic than water, with discarded bottles, containers, toys and tires stretching out towards the horizon, a dystopian image reflecting years of human pollution and the scar of climate change. The highland lake in the Oruro Department of western Bolivia suffered a major drought in 2016 that drastically lowered its water levels while rivers that flow into it have deposited mountains of plastic waste in its waters over years. (more)

Bolivia struggles to contain fires scorching farms, forests
30 September 2020 - Bolivian firefighters, members of the military and citizens fighting to protect their homes were battling to contain flames that have ripped through more than a million hectares (2.5 million acres) of farmland and forests, officials said on Wednesday [30 September]. ... The fires so far have not outpaced last year's fire season, the worst in Bolivia's history. Regional neighbors Argentina and Brazil are struggling to contain fires that threaten to reach historic levels amid drought and dry weather. (more)

Firefighters in Bolivia lose hope of taming blazes as burned area doubles
22 September 2019 - 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. (more)

Shrinking glaciers cause state-of-emergency drought in Bolivia
28 November 2016 - The government of Bolivia, a landlocked country in the heart of South America, has been forced to declare a state of emergency as it faces its worst drought for at least 25 years. Much of the water supply to La Paz, the highest capital city in the world, and the neighbouring El Alto, Bolivia's second largest city, comes from the glaciers in the surrounding Andean mountains. But the glaciers are now shrinking rapidly, illustrating how climate change is already affecting one of the poorest countries in Latin America. The three main dams that supply La Paz and El Alto are no longer fed by runoff from glaciers and have almost run dry. (more)

Unchecked pollution befouling majestic Lake Titicaca
25 June 2015 - Lake Titicaca is South America's largest body of fresh water. As human and industrial waste from nearby cities increasingly contaminate the famed lake that straddles the border between Bolivian and Peru, the native Aymara people who rely on it for food and income say action must be taken before their livelihoods die off. Locals fear the tourism industry is next. Each year, some 750,000 tourists visit the 12,470-foot-high (3,800 meter-high) Lake Titicaca for its reed boats, pre-Columbian ruins, and majestic views of snowcapped Andean peaks. (more)

Bolivian president vows to expand coca crops
21 July 2014 - Bolivian President Evo Morales has been re-elected head of the country's largest union of coca growers and promises to expand crops if he wins a third term as the nation's leader. Morales told union members Sunday that Bolivia needs a new law regarding coca production. Current law allows nearly 30,000 acres of coca leaf to be grown for traditional use. One proposal would expand the permitted acreage, including in the Chapare region that is Morales' political base, to more than 49,000 acres. The United Nations, however, has estimated Bolivia already grows more than that, with nearly 57,000 acres believed dedicated to the crop last year. (more)

New Bolivia law would allow 10-year-olds to work
4 July 2014 - Bolivia's Congress has passed legislation to allow children as young age 10 to work as long as it does not interfere with their education and is done independently to help the child's family make ends meet. The legislation otherwise lowers the legal working age to 12 -- again, as long the job does not interfere with the child's education. A regional official with the UN International Labor Organization, Carmen Moreno, says the legislation passed Wednesday night would make Bolivia the first country to make work by 10-year-olds legal. Moreno called the legislation worrisome considering that Bolivia is a signatory a UN convention that sets 14 as the minimum age for child labour. (more)

Bolivian anti-graft officer held on extortion charge in Miami
6 September 2013 - A senior Bolivian police official, accused of flying to Miami in late August to extort $30,000 from a prominent businessman seeking asylum in the United States, will remain in jail until a bond hearing next week, a judge ordered on Friday. FBI agents arrested the deputy chief of Bolivia's police anti-corruption unit, Mario Fabricio Ormachea Aliaga, in a sting operation 31 August after meeting with Humberto Roca, the former president of AeroSur, once Bolivia's largest private airline. Ormachea was identified in court documents as a police Colonel, although a top Bolivian police official denied he held that rank and said he had been dismissed from his job on 28 August. The arrest could further damage already frosty US relations with Bolivia's socialist president Evo Morales, only weeks after Bolivia accused Washington of trying to 'kidnap' Morales when his plane was denied permission to fly over France and Portugal. (more)

Rural Andean churches plagued by sacred art theft
26 August 2013 - Increasingly bold thefts plague colonial churches in remote Andean towns in Bolivia and Peru, where authorities say cultural treasures are disappearing at an alarming rate. At least 10 churches have been hit so far this year in the two culturally rich but economically poor countries. 'We think the thefts are being done on behalf of collectors,' said the Rev. Salvador Piniero, archbishop of Peru's highlands Ayacucho province. Religious and cultural authorities say criminal bands are stealing 'to order' for foreigners. Bolivian churches have been robbed 38 times of 447 objects since 2009 -- of highly stylized decorative silverwork, canvases, polished gold, and silver altar pieces and gem-encrusted jewelry, said the country's cultural patrimony chief, Lupe Meneses. Cultural officials in the Andes have long struggled to protect Incan and pre-Columbian cultural treasures. Now, colonial sacred art has become a similar worry. By law, it is all national patrimony, its export illegal. But poor, rural parishes are on their own. (more)