There has been some unrest in Cochabamba in the last few days. Before anyone starts to worry about me, it was confined to Cochabamba and seems to have calmed down now. Cochabamba is over 200km from La Paz (straight-line distance), and there are also a few mountains between the two cities.

Bolivia is divided into departments, something like Canada’s provinces. There are 9 departments, and each has an elected leader, who is called a Prefect (similar to the Premier of a Province). The most recent election was the first time that the Prefects were elected and not appointed by the President. The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is on the left side of the political scale. However, several of the Prefects are much further on the right. This all makes for interesting political dynamics! In addition to this, there are several Prefects who want their departments to separate from Bolivia. This is how the problems in Cochabamba flared up.

Cochabamba is an area very much divided in its political support. Some people support the President, but it is one of the departments with a right-leaning Prefect. The Prefect was intending to call a referendum to decide whether the department should separate from Bolivia. A lot of people apparently didn’t like this and started to protest in Cochabamba and were calling for the resignation of the Prefect. Then out came his supporters, marching in support of the Prefect. Roads in and out of Cochabamba were all blocked by protesters. Unicef has an office in Cochabamba, and it has been closed for most of last week in order to keep staff safe. During 4 or 5 days of marches and protesting, over 100 people were injured and 2 people were killed. The situation has calmed down now, after the President asked for an end to the violence and that his supporters remove the blockades.

Bolivians were concerned that this could escalate into something larger, which they have seen before. Apparently 3 years ago there was a similar uprising in Cochabamba, for reasons which I don’t know, and access to the city was cut off for a month. Cochabamba is a hub for transport of food and other goods, so when trucks can’t get through the rest of the country suffers as well.

This has all made for an interesting first few days in Bolivia! I have yet to understand all the politics behind the situation, but I'm sure I will gain a better understanding as time goes on.