American Airlines Staff

You will have heard that 35 years to the day a US-sponsored coup overthrew the democratically elected government of Chile, the US ambassador-this time to Bolivia- was asked to leave the country after being accused by President Evo Morales of conspiring with the opposition to bring about a civil coup against the elected government.

The expulsion was linked to a spate of violence led by armed thugs funded by the opposition that has resulted in the ambush and deaths of around 30 indigenous people in the Pando region, all clearly part of a wider strategy to derail the process of political change the Bolivian people have consistently demanded through the ballot box.

The news has not received the attention it deserves as the world’s financial system stood on the brink of collapse for most of last week. But for those of you interested in US-Latin American relations, you might want to know about the reaction of American Airlines to this. Citing a state of civil unrest in the country, the company stopped all flights to Bolivia-the only airline to do so-and kept this for about a week.

Thankfully flights have resumed and I have been able to return to Bolivia but not before hearing through Karen what one unidentified staff member of American Airlines in Miami had to say about the reasons for the company’s stance. ‘As long as he [Evo Morales] is alive, I don’t think American Airlines will be flying to Bolivia’. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.