USHAHIDI: making sense out of violence in Bolivia

The most likely social disruption to happen in Cochabamba city, which the third in importance of my home country Bolivia on upcoming months are urban riots that will give raise to police riots and all this violence in consequence, most probably will result in a siege. All the process can occur in matter of 3-5 days, whereas, the siege could last up to 2 months!!!.

The reason?
Last May the 1st, president Evo Morales decreed nationalization of electric companies. Employees of the unique electric provider that has been intervened (ELFEC) are now unhappy.

Probably these people suspect that they are in high risk of loosing their jobs. This is something that usually happens in Bolivia: historically, the governing party kicks away employees to replenish those positions with their own people. I have seen this kind of corruption in the “first -class- world” also, but not in such a huge scale.

Yet, the most important cause of a potential clash is that this company is private, yes/ok, but it does not belong to any foreign capital!! ELFEC belongs to the very same employees, they bought shares of the firm some years ago, their shares are divided with the telocomunications company which also belongs to 1/3 of the citizens of Cochabamba who own 52% of the company.

My country has an outstanding record of sieges and riots; actually, this is the customary way for civilians to “straighten out” our relationships with private (usually foreign) investors and public authorities……since I can remember.

Hence, the sorts of data (urgent information) I would track through Ushahidi are:


Monitoring riots:

• Exact coordinates where bursts of violence are taking place (or took place)
• Where these violent herds are heading out to
• Names and numbers of Missing people resulting from clashes
• Number and location of Wounded victims
• The condition of these wounded (serious/slight)
• Murders resulting (names and numbers)
• Damages to public & private property
• Unjustified violence reports

• Damages to public & private property
• Continuity of power supply
• Violence bursts
• Number and condition of Seriously wounded victims
• Number and condition chronic patients at hospitals and households
• Number and condition of elderly people, pregnant women and children
• Number and condition of diabetic patients (& similar diseases)
• Location of open roads as clandestine entrances/exits to the city

Resources to share:

Location and remaining amount of:

• Food supply
• Drinking water
• Fuel/gas
• Batteries
• Torches and candles

• Ambulances
• Paramedics
• Volunteering nurses and surgeons
• Volunteering Pharmacists
• Medicines:
• Insulin, Antibiotics, bandages, etc.
• Any other person volunteering to help

Talking of which, there is the need to get information from and share collected data with journalists, hoping that they make ethical use this information.

There is something that is keeping me awake at nigh: the probability of the government
blocking Bolivia’s Internet connection, just like it happened in Myanmar. In order to minimize the impact of this contingency, we would have to install one of our terminals somewhere outside Bolivia. In such a case, we will have to rely only on SMS and landline phone reports.

On the other hand, Bolivian authorities probably will not find out about Ushahidi as on this first go. Something similar happened with the aid delivered by Spain to Haiti last January: they did not know about the existence of Ushahidi. Hence, during the first days of the quake, the Spanish aid somehow got “lost in translation”.