Event Notes: Indigenous Bolivians Retract Threat To Block Off Dakar Rally

The indigenous Bolivian communities that threatened to block the path of the Dakar Rally have suspended their planned blockade. The communities had originally said that they would "prevent the Dakar Rally's motorcycle and quad categories from crossing the southeast region of the country during the seventh and eighth stages on Sunday and Monday" (EP, 1/8). ... Swiss national football team coach Ottmar Hitzfeld called Manaus being one of 12 of Brazil's 2014 World Cup host sites "almost irresponsible." Hitzfeld: "It seems almost irresponsible to me to have to play football in a place in the middle of the Amazon jungle. I believe the reason for this decision was commercial" (EFE, 1/8).