Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Bolivia Swears In First Indian President, 01/23/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/bolivia_1-23.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Where is Bolivia?

2. What is an indigenous person?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What major event occurred in Bolivia over the weekend?

Evo Morales, the first Indian elected president of the South American nation of Bolivia, was sworn in Sunday.

2. What did Morales promise?

Promising to improve the situation for the poor by reclaiming natural resources and moving away from U.S. policies, Morales demonstrated a continuing shift to the left in Latin American politics.

3. What is the economic situation in Bolivia?

Locked between Peru, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, with no access to the ocean for trade or fishing, Bolivia is among the poorest countries in Latin America.

Roughly two-thirds of Bolivians live on less than $2 a day.

4. What is Morales' opinion of the United States economic policies? How has he described them?

Morales has protested the "neo-liberal" economic policies of the United States, a term that many in the region use to describe free trade.

Morales has said that he welcomes dialogue with the United States, which he refers to as "the empire."

"If the empire wants to support us, the support will be welcome," he said. "With the United States, we want agreements, but not subordination."

5. What are Morales' opinions regarding the illegal drug trade in Bolivia?

Once the leader of the Bolivia's coca farmers, Morales has long protested the U.S.-backed coca eradication plans.

Coca, the main ingredient in the illegal drug cocaine, should be grown for medicinal and traditional uses, Morales has said, though he also has promised to fight the drug trade.

"This political tool for the sovereignty of the people -- legally called the movement toward socialism -- was born to defend this coca leaf, to defend our land and territory," Morales said while campaigning.

6. What does Morales plan to do about Bolivia's rich natural gas resources? What do experts believe is likely to occur?

Morales has promised to take over the gas reserves from the large oil and gas companies that have bought the rights to extract and sell the gas.

"It's just not possible that Bolivians are (sitting) on top of the gas and going without gas. This has to end," Morales said while visiting neighbor Argentina in the days before his inauguration.

Industry analysts believe that Morales is more likely to renegotiate oil company contracts, set higher taxes and stricter controls over production levels and prices, rather than wholly take over the industry, the BBC reported.

7. What is the current official reaction of the U.S. to Morales' election?

And although he promised to be a "nightmare to the United States," Morales seems to have softened that stance since the election. He met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon Saturday, to discuss how to continue a U.S.-Bolivian dialogue.

"We want the Bolivian people to succeed and for the Bolivian people to succeed, this government needs to succeed," Shannon said.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. One major area of contention between the U.S. and Morales is his opinion regarding the role of coca in Bolivia. What does Morales feel about the issue? What is U.S. opinion? Can there be a compromise between the two sides of this issue? If yes, what could it be?

2. What is the history of the indigenous people of Bolivia? Why is this election so significant to them? What might it represent for the future of Bolivia?

3. Describe the relationship between Bolivia and large oil and gas companies. How are they interdependent? Create a natural gas policy plan that would satisfy both parties.

Write a 300-500 word essay on either of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.