Looks like my dad picked a bad time to visit the motherland:
Thousands took to the streets in the capital, chanting anti-government slogans and demanding the president resign despite his announcement Monday that he will shelve controversial plans for natural gas exports.
The plans to sell gas to the United States and Mexico had already provoked massive protests in recent days in which at least 16 people have been killed.
It’s sad to think that people are protesting to stop natural gas exports, which are estimated would have brought in $1.5 BILLION dollars a year to our country. However, the union leaders are probably right in that the benefits would not reach them. Instead, the income would finds its way into the pockets of the Bolivian upperclass businessmen and foreign companies that would oversee the project.
A good summary of the situation is here at oneworld.net