flopping over deep, dark eyes. "The British have always had this policy of invasion and elimination. Certainly they are going to be fascinated by what is happening here." This would be a good place to explain just what is happening in Bolivia, but a little history and geography first. Bolivia, a landlocked country, is bordered by Brazil in the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west. Two-thirds of its almost nine million inhabitants are indigenous Amerindian Aymara and Quechua, approximately 1% are African descendants of slaves brought over for mining, and the remainder are descendants of European settlers, primarily Spanish. The conquistadores arrived early in the 16th century and extracted metal resources, mostly silver and tin, for all they were worth, ruthlessly exploiting the indigenous population and creating in the minds of most Bolivians a terrible suspicion of foreign exploitation of natural resources. The conquistadores and their mixed descendants, the minority mestizo, had clung to power for 500 years until Morales's victory in December. He was installed as president on January 22. Immediately, there was consternation in the northern hemisphere, especially in Washington. Morales's party, MAS (Movement Towards Socialism), a loose conglomeration of leftist unions and social interest groups, had campaigned on a ticket of decriminalisation of coca cultivation and nationalisation of natural resources. What, outsiders wondered, would this mean for the US's war on drugs? What, too, would it mean for international mining, oil and gas companies that had ploughed