Word: paz
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...armed the mineworkers, traditionally the most leftist group in Bolivia, with rifles and organized them into local militia units. And, correctly assessing the potential of the dormant masses in the countryside, MNR representatives moved into the towns and villages around La Paz and Cochabamba to awake the peasants to an awareness of the injustices they had suffered for so long. Were the peasants to continue to work as slaves, the MNR asked, to put meat on the tables of the hacendados, the large estate owners, while they themselves had to eat potatoes...
Armed with my peanuts, I walked away from the center of the village. Two-story adobe structures lined the street. These were not the miserable hovels that one sees massed in the slums of La Paz or Cochabamba. They were solid, and only occasionally did one see a crack in the wall. And, in contrast to the piles of garbage that collect in the urban neighborhoods, here the streets were virtually spotless. I stopped at one house where a man was digging at some newly-sprouted crops that popped out of well-groomed furrows. In the small yard adjoining...
...migration from the country to the city has accelerated at a frantic pace in recent 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...
...hotel and the flickering outdoor food kiosks of the Indian Quarter to eat dinner with some Westerners I'd met in a cafe earlier that day. The main streets of the downtown area were quiet now, in contrast to the bustle of the tourists, businessmen, cocaine-pushers (La Paz is the cocaine capital of the world). I walked past the neon signs of the restaurants and clubs that dotted the fashionable blocks of the Prado, La Paz's most fashionable street...
...gone to serve in the Peace Corps. He had originally worked in southern Bolivia, in the same area Che had operated in, but after a left-wing military coup in 1971 he had been forced out of the country with the rest of the corps. He was in La Paz on vacation from Nicaragua, where he was working. He told me of his experiences while in Bolivia, and how he'd been shot at during the time of the coup. We talked about Che and why he had failed. The Englishman, looking at his watch, decided to order another banana...