Peace Corps volunteers forced to go it alone in Bolivia

In February, an American Fulbright scholar said a U.S. Embassy security official had asked him for the names and addresses of any Venezuelans or Cubans living in Bolivia. The official also allegedly asked Peace Corps volunteers for similar information. The State Department called the requests inappropriate and denied using the programs to gather intelligence. But Morales publicly condemned the security officer, and Bolivian officials have widely repeated the accusation that the Peace Corps is involved in intelligence gathering.

This time, the volunteers’ departure, and subsequent suspension of the program, was strictly based on safety concerns and was not retaliation for the ambassador’s expulsion, according to Peace Corps officials. The volunteers left “due to increasing civil unrest, including blockading of major transportation routes, and escalating violence against Bolivian citizens,” said Peace Corps spokeswoman Josie Duckett. The program does not anticipate sending volunteers to Bolivia until next fall at the earliest, Duckett said.

The American and Bolivian governments seem to agree that the evacuation was necessary.

“The less presence of the United States in Bolivia, the better,” Juan Ramon Quintana, Bolivia’s minister of the presidency, said in an interview. “We believe the security policies of the United States have damaged the constitutional rights of the students of the Peace Corps, by tasking some of them to do intelligence work.”

Swanson spent 36 hours on buses to get from Lima back to Cochabamba. Not long after his return to Mizque, he went on a local radio station and explained why the Peace Corps had left.

“I think it was a good move we were taken out of the country,” he said later. “I obviously consider it safe enough for myself to be here. ... In the end, the country goes through these mini- ...,” he paused.

“It has mood swings, right, it goes through these times when it’s really not that safe to be here,” he said.

But he had missed Bolivia. He wanted to finish up his many projects, say goodbye to his friends and see his girlfriend again.

For now, he can be found walking the cobblestone streets of Mizque, the lone American in khaki pants and running shoes, unemployed, smiling, now truly a volunteer. “I pretty much decided to not let this evacuation influence my goals,” he said.

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