American Airlines and Bolivia

My sunday flight out of La Paz was cancelled due to what American Airlines says, ¨is a unstable situation in Santa Cruz.¨ My only question is, why are Bolivian airlines such as Aerosur flying in and out of Santa Cruz. My friend yesterday had no problem getting out of Santa Cruz to Sucre yesterday with Aerosur. When I visited Aerosur today, they told me all flights were on and there were no problems…¨todo normal.¨  When I told the people from AA that flights with Bolivian airlines were flying as normal, they were surprised- even their own representatives are in the dark.

Obviously, there is something else going on. Could it have to do with Evo Morales´s publicly asking the U.S embassador to Bolivia, Philip Goldberg, to leave the country on Wednesday? My best guess is that the tense political relations between Bolivia and the United States have something do to with my two cancelled flights.

Now the only way to get home before my classes is to spend a lot of money with Aerosur and fly to Argentina. From there, AA will get me home.  I do not foresee any problems with this plan and will be home sunday morning.

You never know with Bolivia

My flight was cancelled out of La Paz today due to civil unrest and rioting in Santa Cruz. American Airlines always makes a stop from La Paz to Santa Cruz to pick up more passangers before heading to Miami, and now Santa Cruz´s airport has been blocked off by the protests. My flight is now set for sunday. I´m keeping my fingers crossed I make it home then!

This time around Bolivia has been even more of a political hot bed as blockades, riots, and stirkes have been almost twice as frequent in my short visit now than compared to the six months I was here before. 

And since probably not many of Bolivia´s problems have made the news in the States, I´ll update for those who are interested.  According to the news here, rioters for autonomy in Santa Cruz have now:

 ¨Sacked and torched the local headquarters of Entel, the phone company. [The theft of all those Entel pre-pay phone cards was a particular contribution to democracy.]

Invaded and taken over the local offices of the national authorities dealing with taxes and land issues.

Engaged in a six-hour battle with soldiers.

Stole some guns…¨

But that is not all! Due to the uprisings in Santa Cruz as well as in Tarija and Trinadad, Evo Morales has now publicly asked the U.S embassador to Bolivia to leave, saying, ¨I ask the foreign minister to find the legal and diplomatic framework to return him urgently to his country. We do not want separatists, divisionists, people who conspire against the unity. We do not want people who work against democracy.” As you can see Evo in part blames the U.S government for the uprisings.  If you thought the United States could not get any more more unpopular internationally, guess again. Hopefully we can start working toward change in November.