State Department Warning Forces Cancellation of Duke in Andes Program

OCT. 23 UPDATE: Duke University on Thursday decided that students participating in the Duke in the Andes study abroad program can return to Bolivia's capital city now that the U.S. State Department has lifted its travel warning to Bolivia.

The travel warning was lifted late Wednesday.

Margaret Riley, director and assistant dean for study abroad, said travel arrangements are still being made, but she hopes the students will be able to return to La Paz and resume their coursework sometime next week.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University has cancelled its Duke in the Andes study abroad program and is evacuating the 15 participants because of political instability and rioting in Bolivia's capital city.

The decision to cancel the program came late Thursday, shortly after the U.S. State Department issued a warning that urged Americans with access to transportation to immediately leave the country. The State Department also warned against travel to Bolivia.

Of the 15 students participating in Duke in the Andes, which began Aug. 7, seven attend Duke. Throughout the week, Duke's Office of Study Abroad has been communicating regularly with the students' parents and the Bolivia-based officials running the program.

"The Department of State travel warning was ultimately the deciding factor," said Margaret Riley, Duke's director and assistant dean for Study Abroad. "In accordance with our standard procedures, such a definitive statement from them could not be ignored. Our Risk Management Office and other university administrators agreed."

The situation is most precarious in La Paz, the capital city, where rioting has interrupted public transportation, including at the airport, and caused a shortage of goods. The Duke in the Andes program, which features coursework in Latin American cultural studies, is based in La Paz.

The students left La Paz about a week ago, for a trip to Santa Cruz. Last weekend, they couldn't return to La Paz as scheduled because the airport was closed, and they have remained in Santa Cruz since.

Because the students were on the brief excursion to Santa Cruz, they left most of their belongings with their host families in La Paz. That meant the students had copies of their passports with them, but not the originals.

That posed a challenge -- now solved -- in trying quickly to arrange departure back to the U.S.

Riley's office has arranged for "authorization to travel" letters to be written for the students through the U.S. Consulate's Office in Santa Cruz, with assistance from the Consular Affairs Overseas Office in Washington, D.C.

Details about when the students will leave, and whether they will be able to still earn credit for the courses they were taking, are being worked out. The students have been told to leave immediately, and Riley hopes they will be aboard flights this weekend.

Once it is safe to do so, program officials will return to La Paz and arrange to have the students' belongings packed and sent back to the U.S.

Riley said the decision to cancel the program was a difficult one.

"We had been hoping that the troubles would dissipate," she said. "But these troubles have been building for weeks."

The Duke in the Andes program was created in 1995 and runs both fall and spring semesters. Riley said her office has not yet made a decision about whether the spring 2004 program will go on as planned. So far, 22 students have applied to participate in that program.