Word: altiplano
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...first view of La Paz, Bolivia's capital and largest city, approached from the west, is perhaps one of the most spectacular moments in world travel. From the border with Peru the bus jaunts along a stumbly dirt road for three hours through the barren spaces of the altiplano, the 14,000-foot-high plateau that covers the western third of Bolivia. Above the tree line, this gaping wasteland is broken only by the occasional adobe huts and the surrounding protective adobe walls of the Aymara Indians, who have scratched out a living here for countless centuries. Soon the huts...
...layout of La Paz can be viewed as a metaphor for the stark contrasts between wealth and poverty that pervade all Latin American societies. Dug into the stony walls near the top of the canyon are the most wretched hovels, those of the peasants most recently arrived from the altiplano. The weather in this part of the city, which is 12,500 feet above sea level, is pleasant on a clear day; at night, however, the cold is brutal. The air is very thin, and breathing becomes difficult after any strenuous activity. As the bus descends along...
...years. In 1966 La Paz had a population of 325,000; today, it is estimated to be close to 600,000. The annual per capita income in Bolivia is an astoundingly meager $200, the lowest in South America. The bulk of this poverty is concentrated in the wind-swept altiplano that surrounds La Paz. For centuries the Aymara lived here in isolation, speaking their own Indian tongue and showing a hostile back to any intruders. However, with each passing year, improved transportation and communication led to increased contact with the city, and the peasants became less and less willing...
...thus a potent group that strikes frequently. During one protest against Barrientos in 1967, the President went down into the mines to confront them. An angry miner held out a dynamite stick and, to scare the President, threatened to blow the assemblage higher than Bolivia's Andean Altiplano. Barrientos grabbed the stick, held it out to be lit and called the miner's bluff. Last year Barrientos took charge in the jungle of the government troops who cornered and killed Che Guevara...
...revolution that toppled the country's tin-mining aristocracy, Paz organized a heavyhanded political police and created almost a one-party state. He also gave the country its first taste of competent government. He built new roads, commenced an ambitious project of resettling campesinos from the Altiplano on more fertile farm areas in the eastern lowlands. After his reelection in 1960, Paz expanded his programs until today some 150,000 campesinos have been resettled. New cars clog the streets of the capital, La Paz, and new buildings rise above the old Spanish city...