Bolivia

**Bolivia**, officially known as the **Plurinational State of Bolivia**, is a landlocked country in South America. It shares land borders with Peru, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. One-third of the country is covered by the Andes mountain range.

## History

### Twentieth and Early Twenty-First Century

During the early 20th century, tin replaced silver as the country's most important source of wealth. A succession of governments controlled by the economic and social elite followed laissez-faire capitalist policies through the first thirty years of the 20th century.

Living conditions of the native people, who constitute most of the population, remained deplorable. With work opportunities limited to primitive conditions in the mines and in large estates having nearly feudal status, they had no access to education, economic opportunity, and political participation. Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932–35), where Bolivia lost a great part of the Gran Chaco region in dispute, marked a turning-point.

The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), the most historic political party, emerged as a broad-based party. Denied its victory in the 1951 presidential elections, the MNR led a successful revolution in 1952. Under President Víctor Paz Estenssoro, the MNR, having strong popular pressure, introduced universal suffrage into his political platform and carried out a sweeping land-reform promoting rural education and nationalization of the country's largest tin mines.

12 years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided. In 1964, a military junta overthrew President Estenssoro at the outset of his third term. The 1969 death of President René Barrientos Ortuño, a former member of the junta who was elected president in 1966, led to a succession of weak governments. Alarmed by the rising Popular Assembly and the increase in the popularity of President Juan José Torres, the military, the MNR, and others installed Colonel (later General) Hugo Banzer Suárez as president in 1971. He returned to the presidency in 1985–1989, 1993–1997, and 2002–2003.

The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been active in providing finances and training to the Bolivian military dictatorship in the 1960s. The revolutionary leader Che Guevara was killed by a team of CIA officers and members of the Bolivian Army on 9 October 1967, in Bolivia. Elections in 1979 and 1981 were inconclusive and marked by fraud. There were coups d'état, counter-coups, and caretaker governments. In 1980, General Luis García Meza Tejada carried out a ruthless and violent coup d'état that did not have popular support. He pacified the people by promising to remain in power only for one year. At the end of the year, he staged a televised rally to claim popular support and announced, "Bueno, me quedo", or, "All right; I'll stay [in office]." After a military rebellion forced out Meza in 1981, three other military governments in 14 months struggled with Bolivia's growing problems. Unrest forced the military to convoke the Congress, elected in 1980, and allow it to choose a new chief executive. In October 1982, Hernán Siles Zuazo again became president, 22 years after the end of his first term of office.

In 1993, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada ran for president in alliance with the Tupac Katari Revolutionary Liberation Movement, which inspired indigenous-sensitive and multicultural-aware policies. In 1993, Sanchez de Lozada introduced the Plan de Todos, which led to the decentralization of government, introduction of intercultural bilingual education, implementation of agrarian legislation, and privatization of state owned businesses. The plan explicitly stated that Bolivian citizens would own a minimum of 51% of enterprises; under the plan, most state-owned enterprises (SOEs), though not mines, were sold. This privatization of SOEs led neoliberal structuring that acknowledged a diverse population within Bolivia.

In the 1997 elections, General Hugo Banzer, leader of the Nationalist Democratic Action party (ADN) and former dictator (1971–78), won 22% of the vote, while the MNR candidate won 18%. At the outset of his government, President Banzer launched a policy of using special police-units to eradicate physically the illegal coca of the Chapare region. Between January 1999 and April 2000, large-scale protests erupted in Cochabamba, Bolivia's third largest city, in response to the privatisation of water resources by foreign companies and a subsequent doubling of water prices. On 6 August 2001, Banzer resigned from office after being diagnosed with cancer. He died less than a year later. Vice President Jorge Fernando Quiroga Ramírez completed the final year of his term.

In the June 2002 national elections, former President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (MNR) placed first with 22.5% of the vote, followed by coca-advocate and native peasant-leader Evo Morales (Movement Toward Socialism, MAS) with 20.9%. A July agreement between the MNR and the fourth-place MIR, which had again been led in the election by former President Jaime Paz Zamora, virtually ensured the election of Sánchez de Lozada in the congressional run-off, and on 6 August he was sworn in for the second time. The MNR platform featured three overarching objectives: economic reactivation (and job creation), anti-corruption, and social inclusion.

In 2003 the Bolivian gas conflict broke out. On 12 October 2003 the government imposed martial law in El Alto after 16 people were shot by the police and several dozen wounded in violent clashes. Faced with the option of resigning or more bloodshed, Sanchez de Lozada offered his resignation in a letter to an emergency session of Congress. After his resignation was accepted and his vice president, Carlos Mesa, invested, he left on a commercially scheduled flight for the United States.

Evo Morales won the 2005 presidential election with 53.7% of the votes, an absolute majority, unusual in Bolivian elections. On 1 May 2006, Morales caused controversy when he announced his intent to re-nationalize Bolivian hydrocarbon assets. Fulfilling a campaign promise, on 6 August 2006, Morales opened the Bolivian Constituent Assembly to begin writing a new constitution aimed at giving more power to the indigenous majority.

Morales failed to achieve support for a fourth term in a 2016 referendum, when his third term ended in 2020. However, Morales managed to stage a self-coup in 2017, securing him a fourth term by force. This was met with widespread protests against him, which were violently repressed. Bolivia slowly regressed into an authoritarian state.

### Latin Spring

*See Full Articles: Latin Spring & 2022 Bolivian coup d'etat*

Inspired by events across Latin America, Bolivian citizens took the streets of Sucre and La Paz to demand better socioeconomic conditions, as well as the resignation of Evo Morales. However, riot police were deployed across the dual capitals, who violently attempted to repress the protests. As protests swelled, many natives joined the protests, believing Morales was not doing enough to represent them. Violent clashes continued to grow between police and protesters. On 20 August, protesters declared the beginning of a revolution against Morales and his government, and began to barricade themselves inside major squares in Sucre and La Paz.

The crisis continued into September, with the United Nations trying to mediate a solution. However, the military began to fracture into two factions; pro-Morales and pro-Revolution. Skirmishes broke out between pro-Morales and pro-Revolution factions on the streets of La Paz. Eventually Admiral Armando Pacheco Gutierrez became the leader of the pro-Revolutionary forces, and moved quickly to unite the two factions of the military. On 9 September a truce was reached the military tentatively reunited. Using the so-called truce between the military factions, Gutierrez launched a coup d'etat against Morales on 12 September.

Morales was arrested and the government collapsed, with Gutierrez taking control of the country. Many of the anti-Morales protesters became anti-coup protesters, but Gutierrez promised to repair the broken economic and political system in Bolivia. This caused many of the protesters to disperse.

## Government and Politics

Bolivia is officially a democracy, but has been under semi-military rule since 2022. The President of Bolivia is elected from military approved-candidates for a five-year term, renewable once. The President is the head of state and government, and exercises executive power. The President has the power to dismiss the Legislative Assembly, when requested to by the Leader of the Assembly after securing a 2/3 majority and the approval of the military.

The President is the titular Commander-in-Chief of the military, but control of the military is vested in the Chief of Staff, who acts the military representative in issues of government. The Plurinational Legislative Assembly has legislative power and has the right to challenge military candidates for President. Members of the President's cabinet must also be sitting members of the Assembly.

### Foreign Relations

Bolivia's foreign relations have been strained, but since the Latin Spring, relations with Colombia, Argentina and Chile have rapidly improved. Chile allows Bolivia the use of its ports to give it access to the ocean. Bolivia's relations with Peru remain strained after the new government in Peru cancelled the Special Economic Zone for Bolivia in Ilo. Bolivia is a member of the Organisation of American States and supported Colombia in it's involvement in the Mexican Civil War, while opposing the intervention of the United States and Cuba.

### Administrative Regions

Bolivia has nine departments—Pando, La Paz, Beni, Oruro, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Tarija.

According to what is established by the Bolivian Political Constitution, the Law of Autonomies and Decentralization regulates de procedure for the elaboration of Statutes of Autonomy, the transfer and distribution of direct competences between the central government and the autonomous entities.

## Economy

A major blow to the Bolivian economy came with a drastic fall in the price of tin during the early 1980s, which impacted one of Bolivia's main sources of income and one of its major mining industries. Since 1985, the government of Bolivia has implemented a far-reaching program of macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform aimed at maintaining price stability, creating conditions for sustained growth, and alleviating scarcity. A major reform of the customs service has significantly improved transparency in this area. Parallel legislative reforms have locked into place market-liberal policies, especially in the hydrocarbon and telecommunication sectors, that have encouraged private investment. Foreign investors are accorded national treatment.

Bolivia has the second largest natural gas reserves in South America. The government had a long-term sales agreement to sell natural gas to Brazil through 2019, which was renewed to continue through to 2035. The government held a binding referendum in 2005 on the Hydrocarbon Law. The US Geological Service estimates that Bolivia has 5.4 million cubic tonnes of lithium, which represent 50%–70% of world reserves. However, to mine for it would involve disturbing the country's salt flats (called Salar de Uyuni), an important natural feature which boosts tourism in the region. The government does not want to destroy this unique natural landscape to meet the rising world demand for lithium.

## Military

The Bolivian military comprises three branches: Ejército (Army), Naval (Navy) and Fuerza Aérea (Air Force). The legal age for voluntary admissions is 18; however, when the numbers are small the government recruits anyone as young as 14. The tour of duty is generally 12 months. The Bolivian government annually spends $130 million on defense. The Bolivian army has around 50,000 men. There are six military regions (regiones militares—RMs) in the army. The army is organized into ten divisions. The military also plays an important and influential role in government, since the 2022 Bolivian coup d'etat.