DOKTORSKA DEZERTACIJA

In early April the often-forgot country of Bolivia, tucked away in he Andes, grabbed the world's attention when the city of Cochabamba erupted in a public uprising over water prices. In 1999, following World Bank advice, Bolivia granted a 40 year privatization lease to a subsidiary of the Bechtel Corporation, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people survive. Immediately the company doubled and tripled water rates for some of South America's poorest families.

Writing directly from the scene, The Democracy Center's executive director, Jim Shultz, captured the developments of this story as it broke, in a series of dispatches and articles that circulated to thousands around the world via the Internet and were also reprinted in newspapers and magazines across the U.S. and Canada. They are presented here in chronological order. Additional information and photos of the Bolivian water uprising are available at: www.americas.org.