Another fun thing in 2006: Bolivia, last year, elected its first native president, who is decidedly left-wing. I believe he spent the new year visiting Fidel Castro in Cuba, and, according to the BBC, earlier in the week "gave an interview to the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera in which he accused President George Bush of practising terrorism in Iraq". All of this before he is even officially president, which happens next month. This, combined with his earlier comments on legalizing the growing of coca, the plant used to make cocaine, would seem to indicate 2006 could be the year Bolivia spends a good deal of time in the news in the US. Let's all sit back and watch the fireworks!

And perhaps, Pat Robertson can make the same call for state-sponsored assisination of Evo Morales as he did for Hugo Chavez... on second thought, I'd rather go outside the US papers for Bolivian news than listen to that rot again here. Now, hopefully, Mexico will wake up and follow another route--how great would it be if the Zapatista's could actually make a huge impact this year? Unlikely, but ahh, we can hope...