The Future of Democracy in Bolivia, with Gabriel Hetland

12/13/19 • 25 min

It’s been about a month since Evo Morales resigned as president of Bolivia following weeks of civil protests over disputed results of the country’s general election in October.

After initially seeking asylum in Mexico, Morales flew to Argentina on Thursday to be granted refugee status.

Gabriel Hetland, an assistant professor of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies, shares his insights on the political crisis and why he believes the resignation was a military coup.

Hetland’s research focuses on urban and national politics, participatory democracy and social movements. Learn more about his work.

Article mentioned: “Many wanted Morales out. But what happened in Bolivia was a military coup” (Written by Gabriel Hetland for The Guardian)

Photo credit:”Quito, Acto en solidaridad con el señor Presidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Evo Morales,” by Cancillería Ecuador.

The UAlbany News Podcast is hosted and produced by Sarah O'Carroll, a Communications Specialist at the University at Albany, State University of New York, with production assistance by Patrick Dodson and Scott Freedman.

Have a comment or question about one of our episodes? You can email us at [email protected], and you can find us on Twitter @UAlbanyNews.

It’s been about a month since Evo Morales resigned as president of Bolivia following weeks of civil protests over disputed results of the country’s general election in October.

After initially seeking asylum in Mexico, Morales flew to Argentina on Thursday to be granted refugee status.

Gabriel Hetland, an assistant professor of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies, shares his insights on the political crisis and why he believes the resignation was a military coup.

Hetland’s research focuses on urban and national politics, participatory democracy and social movements. Learn more about his work.

Article mentioned: “Many wanted Morales out. But what happened in Bolivia was a military coup” (Written by Gabriel Hetland for The Guardian)

Photo credit:”Quito, Acto en solidaridad con el señor Presidente del Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia, Evo Morales,” by Cancillería Ecuador.

Have a comment or question about one of our episodes? You can email us at [email protected], and you can find us on Twitter @UAlbanyNews.

Previous Episode

How a Traveling Salesman in the 1970s Became a Leading Opponent to the Death Penalty

James Acker, a distinguished teaching professor at the School of Criminal Justice, and Brian Keough, head of the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, are among the founders of the University’s National Death Penalty Archive (NDPA).

The NDPA contains a repository of publicly-accessible materials that track the history of capital punishment in the United States.

Acker and Keough join the series to share about the digitization efforts of a collection by M. Watt Espy, a researcher who spent three decades of his life gathering and indexing documentation of legal executions for what would become the nation’s largest database on capital punishment.

The M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives has since added 6,000 executions to the list through the verification process of Espy’s work.

Espy began the project in the 1970s as a traveling salesman pedaling encyclopedias and cemetery plots, among other goods. While the scholar was originally an advocate for capital punishment, he became an avid opponent following growing concerns about racial prejudice in the legal system.

During a pre-Internet era, Espy documented over 15,000 executions conducted between 1608 and 2002.

Espy died in 2009 at the age of 76.

The University at Albany Libraries was responsible for salvaging the “Espy File” from Espy’s home in Headland, A.L. following his passing and moving the database to its current home at the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives.

The NDPA is a partnership between the University at Albany Libraries and the Capital Punishment Research Initiative (CPRI) at the University’s School of Criminal Justice.

Learn more about the Espy Project.

Image from the "Espy File" collection: Mug shot of George Stinney, a 14-year-old who was convicted of murdering two white girls in Alcolu, S.C. He was executed by electric chair in 1944.

Have a comment or question about one of our episodes? You can email us at [email protected], and you can find us on Twitter @UAlbanyNews.

Next Episode

Where Drones are Headed in 2020, with Michael Leczinsky and Don Berchoff

Michael Leczinsky, a professor of practice in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC), and Don Berchoff, CEO and founder of TruWeather Solutions, join the series to share their predictions for what ethical and technological challenges the drone industry will face in the new year.

TruWeather Solutions focuses on providing weather data and business analytics for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The company is a participant in Empire State Development's (ESD) START-UP NY Program and is affiliated with the UAlbany Innovation Center and Innovate 518.

The UAlbany Innovation Center helps grow technology ventures and seeks to harness the intellectual capital of four research clusters at UAlbany, including: climate and environmental science research, biomedical science and biotechnology, forensic sciences and cybersecurity, and advanced data analytics.

Innovate 518 is the Capital Region's Innovation Hot Spot. The program, a NYSTAR initiative by ESD, is managed by the University at Albany.

Photo by Patrick Dodson.

Have a comment or question about one of our episodes? You can email us at [email protected], and you can find us on Twitter @UAlbanyNews.