Et Cetera

For several hundred Bolivian gold miners, death arrived last Monday with a swiftness that was quite literally breathtaking as an entire mountainside collapsed on their heads. More than 150 residents of the town of Llipi were confirmed dead, and hundreds more are believed buried beneath a 35-ft. wall of rain-loosened mud that cut through the remote mining camp. Although Llipi is only 120 miles from La Paz, relief convoys required 15 to 20 hours to negotiate mountain roads. Ten rescuers were killed when their bus plummeted from a cliff, and a handful of helicopters fought heavy rains to deliver badly needed food and medicine.