Amizade to Return to Bolivia; US Travel Warning Lifted

Bolivia will once again be the site of Amizade’s spring 2009 Andean Semester Program. In late October, the U.S. government quietly lifted a travel warning put in place in September after anti-government protests turned violent in several far eastern Bolivian provinces and political disagreements between the U.S. and Bolivian governments came to head.

Amizade’s program site in Cochabamba (in the country’s western highlands) has been continuously calm and peaceful, and a safe and welcoming place for U.S. students, says Eric Hartman, Amizade’s executive director.

Cochabamba, Bolivia also will be the site of an Amizade summer course, “Indigenous Women’s Literature;” volunteer programs; individual internship placements; and a semester-long program in fall 2009. Amizade has maintained partnerships with community organizations in Cochabamba for a decade and has a staff person based there. For more information, see www.amizade.org.