Stranded in Florida

Hi from Gainesville, Florida.

I am stranded here with all American Airlines flights to Bolivia cancelled. Jeanie and Andrew are in Santa Cruz with plenty of food and gasoline. The political unrest is nowhere near our house, but with things heating up, I need to be there. Please pray that a flight would open up soon for me to go home.

Ron

Here is an article from google that is a pretty good summary:

Tense, fearful feeling grips Bolivia's economic heartland
14 Sep, 2008, 0741 hrs IST, AGENCIES
SANTA CRUZ-BOLIVIA: Santa Cruz, Bolivia's most
economically vital state, was in the grip of fear and suffering fuel
shortages over the weekend as a conflict pitting it and other rebel
regions against the leftwing government deepened.

Hundreds of cars lined up in front of service stations around the
city of Santa Cruz - capital of the state of the same name - waiting
for limited deliveries of gasoline and diesel. Drivers slept for hours
in their vehicles to receive a ration of 10 liters (2.5 gallons).

Families also lined up to fill compressed gas cylinders needed for
cooking. Around the state, trucks transporting food and goods
were held up at roadblocks manned by anti-government
protesters. The unrest was also affecting Santa Cruz's airport.
Passengers arriving on the few flights still going to Bolivia during
the crisis found a blockade at the road entrance to the facility
prevented taxis from getting through.

Cellular and land telephone lines were patchy at best, with the
biggest operator, state-run Entel, badly affected by the ransacking
of its offices in the city. But with most residents of the state
backing conservative governor Ruben Costas in his struggle with
President Evo Morales, there was little overt violence.

There was, however, fear. Eugenio Ondo, a street vendor in an
indigenous district that was one of the few enclaves dominated by
pro-Morales sentiment, said the normally busy market where he
was working was "empty, no activity." "There are provocations
every day, every night," he said, as he sold a cup of caramel and
cream to a customer.

Nearby, another vendor, Jose Luis Garcia, explained that the
outlying neighborhood was being harrassed in the evenings by a
rightwing group called the Youth Union which has ties to the
governor and other opposition figures. "People are afraid that the
Youth Union will come here from the town to burn everything," he
said.

In several places around Santa Cruz, mainly Entel and
government offices, the scars of rampages that have shaken the
city this week were evident. The glass exterior of an Entel building
with transmission equipment was pocked with jagged holes where
anti-government militants had thrown rocks.

A street away, offices for "agricultural reform" were closed with
burnt furniture stacked outside and the place sealed with yellow
tape declaring entry to be prohibited. Someone had scrawled
"Evo Murderer" on a wall. Government vehicles belonging to the
office were nearby, all their windows smashed and their panels
badly dented.

The center of Santa Cruz was calm, with people reading and
sitting on benches in the main square. But around them, usually
busy shops were empty, with a few shuttered. A Christian concert
exhorting peace was the principal animation in the city on
Saturday.

A few hundred people, some clutching Bibles or flags, marched
up to the stage to hear the band appeal for an end to the violence
between tropical tunes dedicated to Jesus Christ.