Bolivia: Tensions Rising as Vote Looms

By Federico Fuentes Green Left Weekly (radical newspaper) New South Wales, Australia Bolivian President Evo Morales (right) arrives to meet with United States State Department official Thomas Shannon (not depicted) at the Palacio Quemado presidential palace on July 23 in La Paz. (Photo: Aizar Raldes / AFP-Getty Images) Tensions and uncertainties continue to rise as what some are calling a bout of "referendumitis" sweeps through Bolivia. On July 23—one day after the right-wing opposition to Bolivia's first indigenous president, Evo Morales, demanded a referendum on the controversial issue of the nation's capital—the sole magistrate remaining on the Constitutional Tribunal called into question the constitutionality of the recall referendums set for Aug. 10 that will determine the fate of Morales and eight out of nine of the... [read full story]