Spain Dream Ends For Hundreds Of Bolivians

Hundreds of Bolivians desperate to travel to Spain to seek jobs before the European country enacts a visa requirement.

Hundreds of Bolivians desperate to travel to Spain to seek jobs before the European country enacts a visa requirement on Sunday were left on the ground after an airline canceled flights.

About 100 of the stranded ticket holders on Bolivia's struggling LAB airline, began a hunger strike on Friday in the Cochabamba and Santa Cruz airports, demanding their money back.

In the past two years tens of thousands of people from Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, have flown as tourists to Spain then stayed to work, swelling the number of illegal Bolivian immigrants in Spain to 300,000 from 17,000.

"This is a human drama. We could see this scam coming and the Transportation Superintendent was extremely slow in correcting problems at LAB and various travel agencies," government ombudsman Waldo Albarracin told local radio.

He said LAB knowingly sold tickets on flights it did not have enough airplanes to fly. At least four LAB flights were delayed and then cancelled this week, local media reported.

LAB General Manager Franklin Taendler and two other LAB executives have been under arrest since Wednesday, and state prosecutors have accused them of fraud.

The exodus to Spain, encouraged by travel agents, led to a run on the national passport agency this year, a scandal over illegal passports, and scenes of indigenous women cutting off their traditional braids at sidewalk hair salons to try to look like tourists.

Four years ago there were no direct flights from Bolivia to Spain, recently there have been 15 a week as airlines and tour agents stepped up business before the visa requirement begins on April 1.

Bolivians began lining up this week outside the Spanish embassy to apply for the new visas.

"I want to go to work, to improve my living conditions because it's really bad here in Bolivia. You only make enough to eat, to eat and nothing else," said Genaro Loza in the visa line.

In recent weeks, Spain began turning away hundreds of Bolivians at airports, and this week 82 Bolivians on a cruise from Brazil to Spain were barred from staying on shore in Spain. In Italy, the cruise ship's next stop, the Bolivians were put on a charter plane back to Bolivia.