President Evo Morales won international sympathy for what Bolivians have dubbed “that strange episode in Europe” – when France, Italy, Portugal and Spain refused to allow Morales and his presidential jet to transit through European airspace on the unfounded suspicion that fugitive US whistle-blower, Edward J. Snowden, was on board [WR-13-26]. However, the Bolivian government subsequently was left embarrassed after Brazil’s defence ministry claimed that Bolivian authorities had violated the immunity of a Brazilian military plane carrying Defence Minister Celso Amorim during a visit to La Paz in 2011. The Morales government quickly apologised to Brazil, but there are niggling…

Bolivia’s homicide rate is on the rise, Interior Minister Carlos Romero admitted in June. The government led by President Evo Morales says that citizen security is a key priority. Citing new government figures, on 29 June Romero told reporters that Bolivia’s homicide rate was 11 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012. According to latest available data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Bolivia’s homicide rate was 8.9 per 100,000 in 2010. While Romero stressed that Bolivia’s figure was “a long way away” from the levels of Central America - where Honduras tops the list with 91.6 per…