Bolivia is a country in west-central South America. The country has great natural wealth, though its location, nestled within two ranges of the Andes, prevents easy access to its riches. Mountains and tropical forests make transportation difficult. Because it is landlocked—meaning that it does not border an ocean—Bolivia has no seacoast for ships. The mountains hold rich deposits of minerals, but they must be mined at altitudes of 13,000 to 15,000 feet (4,000 to 4,550 meters) where physical labor is extremely difficult. Mahogany, rubber, cinchona, and other valuable trees are abundant, but they grow in highly inaccessible tropical rainforests. La Paz is Bolivia’s administrative capital, home to the executive and legislative branches of government. Sucre is the judicial capital, where the Supreme Court meets. Area 424,165 square miles (1,098,581 square kilometers). Population (2020 est.) 11,634,000.
Bolivia is the fifth largest country by land area in South America. It is twice the size of France and nearly three times the size of the U.S. state of Montana. More than 10 million people live in Bolivia, most of them at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) or more.
Of all the countries in South America, only Bolivia and Paraguay are landlocked. Bolivia is bordered to the north and east by Brazil, to the southeast by Paraguay, to the south by Argentina, to the southwest and west by Chile, and to the northwest by Peru. Most of the people of Bolivia live in the western two-fifths of the country. There the Andes Mountains extend from north to south in two lofty parallel ranges. To the west along the border with Chile is the Cordillera Occidental, or Western Range. To the east of this range is the Cordillera Oriental, whose northern section near La Paz is called the Cordillera Real, or Royal Range. The peaks of the western range rise more than 21,000 feet (6,350 meters), blocking easy access to the Pacific Ocean. The western range also contains numerous active volcanoes. The eastern range is less formidable, with ridges and passes providing access to the montaña, or eastern foothills, and to the lowlands.
Between the mountain ranges stretches the Altiplano, or high plain, with an average altitude of about 13,000 feet (4,000 meters). It is about 500 miles (800 kilometers) long and 40 to 60 miles (65 to 100 kilometers) wide. It is the largest plateau in the Andes system. Across the northwestern boundary of Bolivia and Peru lies Lake Titicaca. At 12,500 feet (3,810 meters), it is the highest large body of navigable water in the world and the second largest lake in South America. Its fresh water drains through the Río Desaguadero to Lake Poopó, where much of it evaporates, causing that lake to be salty. The northern and eastern Andean slopes form the montaña region. The slopes are interspersed with deep valleys known as the Yungas.
In southern Bolivia the Andes are formed by a high, tilted block called the Puna. It has west-facing escarpments and more gentle eastward slopes down to the plains. The Puna is broken up by the Valles, a system of fertile valleys and mountain basins that are generally larger and less confined than those in the Yungas.
The country’s tropical and semitropical lowlands form the region known as the Oriente. It makes up about 60 percent of Bolivia’s total area, forming a broad crescent around the Andes. The northeastern plains are drained through branches of the Amazon River. The southern plains, part of the vast lowland area called the Gran Chaco, drain southeasterly toward the Atlantic Ocean through the Paraguay-Paraná River system.
Bolivia lies wholly within the tropics, but its climate varies considerably with altitude. The high peaks are cold enough to remain covered with snow and ice the year around. The Altiplano and adjoining slopes—from 10,000 to 14,000 feet (3,000 to 4,200 meters)—are cool, with average temperatures ranging between 45 and 52 °F (7 and 11 °C) during the day. At night, however, temperatures are much colder and fall below freezing during the winter. The western half of the Altiplano has a dry climate. Its eastern half, influenced by Lake Titicaca, is more humid. The warm and humid Yungas have annual temperatures ranging between 60 and 68 °F (16 and 20 °C) and are warmer as they slope toward the plain. The Oriente is hot and tropical, with a mean annual temperature of 77 °F (25 °C) in the south and up to 80 °F (27 °C) in the north.
Bolivia has a single rainy season, which lasts from December through March. In the Yungas, annual rainfall ranges up to 53 inches (1,350 millimeters) and occurs throughout the year, though it is heaviest between December and February. Rainfall in the Oriente varies within the region. It ranges from 40 inches (1,000 millimeters) in the south to 70 inches (1,800 millimeters) or more in the far north. The tropical northeastern plains receive abundant rains. The Gran Chaco, in the southeast, receives seasonal rain. Its grasslands, called savannas, offer abundant pasture for cattle in the wet season. However, the livestock may suffer in the dry season when pastures wither and streams and water holes disappear. The high ridges of the Cordillera Real block the rain-bearing winds from the east, so the Altiplano and the Cordillera Occidental receive little moisture. The southern areas are drier than the north.
Because of the dryness and cold temperatures in the Altiplano and the Cordillera Occidental, those regions have few trees. Natural growth is mainly the tough bunchgrass called ichu, the tola bush, yareta moss, and reeds from the shallow waters of lakes. The Yungas region, however, is covered in mountain rainforest that includes an enormous variety of tropical hardwoods, dyewoods, medicinal plants, and fruit trees. Characteristic trees of the region include the green pine, laurel, cedar, and tarco. The cinchona tree, from which quinine is made, and the coca shrub, the source of cocaine, are also indigenous there. Bolivia’s Amazonian rainforest is located in the far north in the department of Pando and adjacent areas. Among the thousands of different trees there are Hevea brasiliensis (the most common rubber tree), Bertholletia excelsa (the source of Brazil nuts), and mahogany.
Bolivian highland animal life is distinguished by the presence of members of the camel family—the llama, alpaca, guanaco, and vicuña, all native to the Andes. The llama and alpaca are domesticated varieties of the wild guanaco, which survives in the mountains. The Andean condor, a New World vulture and the largest flying bird in the Americas, roosts and breeds in Bolivia at elevations between 10,000 and 16,000 feet (3,000 and 4,900 meters). The rich animal life of the northern forests includes such mammals as the jaguar (the largest of the American cats), sloth, tapir, and several species of monkey. The largest of the numerous reptiles is the caiman (a member of the alligator family). Among the many fish species is the carnivorous piranha. Many brightly colored birds, notably parrots and toucans, also inhabit Bolivia’s forests.
Mestizos—persons of mixed Indian and European heritage—make up more than two-thirds of Bolivia’s population. Indians account for about one-fifth of the total. The largest Indian groups are the Quechua, Aymara, and Guaraní. People of European descent, mainly Spanish, represent some 5 percent of the population. The majority of Bolivians are Roman Catholic, though a small percentage are Protestant or belong to other faiths. Under the 2009 constitution, Spanish and 36 indigenous languages are recognized as official languages in Bolivia. Previously only Spanish, Quechua (the language of the Inca), and Aymara were official languages of the country.
Most of the people of Bolivia live on the Altiplano and on the rocky slopes and eastern valley pockets above it. Much farming in the area is still of the subsistence type, done on tiny land holdings. There are few places on Earth where people farm in so high, cold, and dry a region. Yet, centuries ago the highland Indians of Peru and Bolivia learned how to make a living there. They domesticated the llama and alpaca to supply meat, milk, hides, fuel, and wool. They built irrigation canals to bring water to their fields. They also developed hardy food plants such as the highland grain crops quinoa and cañahua. These grains are highly nutritious and remain staple foods in Bolivia.
Another popular food is chuño, made from the potato. Spread on the grass in the early winter, the potatoes freeze at night and thaw in the daytime until they become soggy. Then preparers tramp them to squeeze out moisture and remove part of the peel. The potatoes are then left in the sun to dry. They become small, hard pellets that will keep without spoiling for months—even years. They can then be used in stews with llama meat or mutton. In the spring quinoa leaves are added to the stew.
Houses in rural areas of the Bolivian highlands are often small, windowless huts made of stone and adobe clay with thatched grass or reed roofs. Tola sticks, yareta, and llama dung are frequently used for cooking and heating fuel. The huts may be cold and gloomy. At night the people may sleep on the earthen floor, wrapping themselves in llama hides for warmth.
Highland Indian women in both rural and urban areas still wear traditional multilayered skirts (polleras) and colorful shawls. Hats always complete the outfit. The shapes of the hats vary with different locations and with the marital status of the wearers. For example, in the Quechua town of Tarabuco (near Sucre), single women wear woolen hats, but married women don leather hats of a completely different style. The men of the highlands often wear handwoven striped ponchos over shirt and pants and a knitted wool helmet, called a lluchu, which has flaps to keep their ears warm. Sometimes they set a felt hat over the helmet.
Efforts to bring schooling to Indians and other rural people in Bolivia have brought the country’s overall rate of illiteracy down to 7.5 percent. Primary education for children 6 to 13 years of age is free and officially compulsory, although school attendance is difficult to enforce in some areas. Secondary education, lasting up to 4 years, is not compulsory. Most education is state-supported, but private institutions are permitted. The largest institutions of higher learning are the University of San Andrés (founded 1930) in La Paz and the University of San Simón (1832) in Cochabamba. Bolivia also has universities in the cities of Oruro, Potosí, Santa Cruz, Sucre, Tarija, and Trinidad.
In Bolivia as elsewhere, large numbers of people have left their farms and settled in cities. At the beginning of the 20th century, less than 10 percent of Bolivians lived in urban areas. At the beginning of the 21st century, more than two-thirds of Bolivians were city dwellers. High rates of population growth created many problems for the cities. The increase in population was so rapid that cities were not able to keep pace in providing adequate shelter, jobs, and services. Housing became inadequate, and the quality of drinking water was poor. Pollution levels rose with the increased number of factories and motor vehicles. Despite the abundance of people to provide labor, many rural emigrants, though eager to secure work, were not skilled to enter the burgeoning service-dominated marketplace. By the early 21st century this had led to a greatly fragmented economic society.
La Paz is the country’s administrative capital. Most government functions are carried out there. However, the Bolivian Supreme Court meets at Sucre, the judicial capital. La Paz is on the Altiplano, as is Oruro, a tin center. Most other cities are in the Cordillera Real. Cochabamba and Sucre lie in fertile basins. Potosí, one of the highest towns in the world, is famous for its mineral wealth. Santa Cruz, in east-central Bolivia, has grown rapidly since the late 20th century and is now the country’s largest city.
Bolivia is well endowed with natural resources. Among the country’s most valuable assets are its mineral deposits, petroleum and natural gas deposits, and renewable natural resources, such as agricultural and forest products. Its economic development has been limited, however, by high production costs and lack of investment. Persisting obstacles include an inadequate transportation infrastructure and the country’s landlocked location. Average per capita income is low, and Bolivia remains one of the poorest countries in South America.
The economy of Bolivia has traditionally relied heavily on agriculture. Roughly 30 percent of the workforce today makes a living by farming. However, farming accounts for only about one-seventh of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Both potatoes and oca (another edible tuber) are indigenous to the Altiplano. Other important crops grown there include quinoa, cañahua, barley, wheat, fava beans, and corn (maize). Among the enormous variety of crops produced in the Yungas are coffee, cacao, citrus fruits, bananas, avocados, pineapples, mangoes, and papayas. In the warm, agreeable climate of the Valles, corn, wheat, barley, alfalfa, and grapes are grown, and sheep and dairy cattle are raised. In the Oriente around Santa Cruz, soybeans are the main crop. Farther north, the Beni region is notable for its large cattle ranches. Tropical hardwoods are exploited in the forests of northern La Paz, Pando, Beni, and Santa Cruz areas, although the logging of rainforests has become a matter of environmental concern.
Mining is Bolivia’s leading industry, with much of the country’s export income normally coming from minerals. The main mining area is in the Cordillera Real from Oruro to Potosí. Zinc is the country’s most abundant mineral, though large quantities of tin, lead, silver, and gold are also mined for export. There are oil and natural gas fields in the Camiri-Santa Cruz area. A natural gas pipeline extends from Santa Cruz to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and an oil pipeline extends to the Chilean port of Arica. Natural gas, along with metals and petroleum, is one of Bolivia’s most important exports. In 1999 construction was completed on a major natural gas pipeline extending from Santa Cruz to São Paulo, Brazil. This undertaking brought a much-needed boost to the Bolivian economy. In 2006 President Evo Morales nationalized both the country’s natural gas reserves and its oil industry, giving the state control of energy production.
Although manufacturing historically contributed little to the Bolivian economy, by the early 21st century it accounted for more than one-tenth of the country’s GDP. The increased presence of industry provided jobs, primarily in food and beverage processing and textile production. The high market value of soybeans was reflected by their increased importance both in local agriculture and as a processed food. Wool goods and gold jewelry are also important manufactured items. Other manufactures include machinery, furniture, bricks, cement, and a wide range of small goods designed to meet the needs of a limited domestic market.
The diverse activities of the service sector now account for most of Bolivia’s jobs and income. Tourism, in particular, plays an increasingly important role in the economy as Bolivia attracts larger numbers of foreign tourists. Major Bolivian tourist sites are Lake Titicaca and its surroundings, including Inca ruins on the Island of the Sun and pre-Inca ruins at Tiwanaku. The main Tiwanaku site was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2000. The historic centers of Potosí and Sucre were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1987 and 1991, respectively. Other tourist attractions include Indian villages on the Altiplano and the city of La Paz itself.
Bolivia’s main trading partners include Brazil, Argentina, the United States, China, Peru, and Japan. Metals and natural gas account for most of Bolivia’s legitimate export trade. Soybeans and quinoa are the principal agricultural exports. Machinery and equipment for industry and transport are among the major imports. Although illegal, trade in cocaine became an important economic asset beginning in the 1970s. It continues to have a significant but decreasing impact on the Bolivian economy. Bolivian and U.S. drug enforcement agencies have made progress against cocaine trafficking activities. Nevertheless, the demand for cocaine in foreign countries has continued to feed the drug trade in Bolivia.
Transportation has been one of Bolivia’s greatest problems. The country’s location amid the formidable ranges of the Andes made it difficult to link Bolivia with its neighbors or to build roads and railways linking areas within Bolivia itself. The main rail system, located in the west, was built mostly between the 1890s and the 1920s. The system links Bolivia with ports in neighboring Chile. The eastern railroad system is centered at Santa Cruz. During the 1950s, it was extended to link to Brazil and to Argentina. By 2001, there were also rail links to Peru. The Santa Cruz–Cochabamba highway, finished in 1954, closed the last gap in a Pacific-to-Atlantic rail-and-highway route. Road transport developed rapidly in highland Bolivia and around Santa Cruz beginning in the mid-1950s. By the early 21st century there were connecting paved highways for most major cities. Bus and truck services on unpaved roads connect numerous towns and rural communities. However, journeys in these areas are slow and often hazardous, particularly on the narrow, winding mountain roads. Air transport is the only fast link between Bolivia’s major cities. International airlines connect La Paz and Santa Cruz with other cities in the Americas and around the world.
Bolivia is a republic, governed by an elected president and a two-chamber legislature. The president is elected by popular vote every five years, as is the vice president. Both officials must belong to the same political party. A ruling by the Constitutional Tribunal in 2017 eliminated limits on the number of terms the president may serve. The president appoints members of a cabinet, who assist the president in decision-making and other matters concerning the executive branch of the government.
The Bolivian legislature is called the National Congress. It consists of a Chamber of Senators, which has 36 members, and a Chamber of Deputies, composed of 130 members. Like the president and vice president, all senators and deputies are elected by popular vote every five years. The country is divided into nine political divisions called departments. Each department has representation in the national legislature.
The judicial branch of the government is headed by the 12-member Supreme Court and the 7-member Constitutional Tribunal. The Constitutional Tribunal decides the constitutionality of laws and resolves conflicts between the branches and levels of government. The lower courts include district, provincial, and local courts. The laws of Bolivia are dictated by the country’s constitution, a new version of which was approved in 2009.
The richly carved monuments and stone walls of a ruined city at Tiwanaku in the Titicaca Basin indicate that an advanced people lived in what is now Bolivia perhaps 1,000 years ago. When the Spaniards invaded the area in the early 16th century, it was part of the powerful Inca Empire. After conquering the native people in 1538 the Spaniards governed the region, first under the viceroyalty of Peru and later under that of Buenos Aires.
Led by General Antonio José de Sucre, the Bolivians won their independence in 1825 and named the new republic after Simón Bolívar, who drafted its first constitution. In the War of the Pacific, which lasted from 1879 to 1884, Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile. In the Chaco War, from 1932 to 1935, Bolivia lost most of the disputed Chaco region to Paraguay.
A social-reform party seized power by revolution in 1952. The party nationalized the country’s largest tin mines and the railroads, initiated land reforms, and gave all adults the right to vote. During the 1950s Bolivia’s economy suffered severely.
During the latter half of the 20th century, the Bolivian government underwent continuous turmoil. In 1964 a military junta ousted the social-reform government, introduced new economic reforms, and welcomed foreign investors. However, the junta and a subsequent government were overthrown by coups in September 1969 and in October 1970, respectively. The leftist regime that followed fell during a coup in August 1971. Colonel Hugo Bánzer Suárez assumed the presidency. His regime was severely repressive. Under Bánzer, the government suppressed the labor movement, sent troops to occupy the mines, and suspended all civil rights. Despite this, his period in office oversaw an unprecedented increase in the Bolivian economy. He ruled until July 1978, when elections were held. When the results of these elections were voided, the leading candidate took control under a state of siege. A junta overthrew him in November.
Because no candidate won a majority in the 1979 election, an interim president was named, but a military coup later that year overthrew the civilian government. The next interim president, Lydia Gueiler Tejada, was ousted in July 1980 by a right-wing junta headed by General Luis García Meza. García Meza resigned in August 1981. Strikes and economic crises continued throughout the decade.
The National Congress, which had been suspended in 1980, was recalled in October 1982. It confirmed the 1980 presidential victory of Hernán Siles Zuazo. When Victor Paz Estenssoro became president in 1985, it was the first democratic transfer of power in 25 years. It was also the fourth time Estenssoro had been elected as president—he had previously been elected as president in 1952, 1960, and 1964. The latter term was ended when Estenssoro’s regime was overthrown by a military junta.
In the May 1989 presidential election, none of the nine candidates won a majority. The National Congress chose Jaime Paz Zamora as president. When another indecisive election occurred in 1993, the Congress selected Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada as president. Sánchez de Lozada began a program of free-market reforms that brought Bolivia’s hyperinflation under control and increased the country’s economic growth rate. The privatization of many state-owned industries prompted widespread unrest and a wave of labor strikes in the mid-1990s. Despite this upheaval, the economy was greatly strengthened during Sánchez de Lozada’s term in office. In 1997, Bolivia once again elected Colonel Hugo Bánzer to the presidency. His time in office was short-lived, however. In 2001, battling cancer, Bánzer resigned from office. His vice president, Jorge Quiroga, finished his term.
Sánchez de Lozada won the 2002 presidential elections, but his term was plagued by a recession and peasant protests. He was forced to resign in October 2003 and was replaced by Vice President Carlos Mesa Gisbert. Mesa was unable to prevent additional violent demonstrations, and he too resigned.
In December 2005 Juan Evo Morales Ayma was elected as Bolivia’s first Indian president. Morales fought for more rights for indigenous communities, for less-harsh restrictions on coca farmers, and for more taxes on the wealthy. Opponents of Morales’s reforms staged political demonstrations, some of which turned violent. A recall referendum on Morales’s leadership was held in August 2008, but the majority of Bolivians voted to keep him in office. In another referendum held in January 2009, voters approved a new constitution that would allow Morales to seek a second consecutive five-year term (previously the constitution limited the president to a single term).
Under Morales, Bolivia remained politically divided between the wealthy provinces and the impoverished indigenous communities. On the other hand, inflation was brought under control and the economy was growing faster than the regional average. In April 2009 Morales signed a law authorizing early presidential and legislative elections, set to take place that December. Morales easily won a second term in the country’s presidential election.
In his second term, Morales presided over an economy that prospered because of a surging international market for natural gas. He initiated a broad range of infrastructure projects. In 2013 the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that Morales could run for a third presidential term. The following year he was reelected president again. By 2015, however, the price of natural gas in the international market was plummeting, and the price drop had begun to take a toll on the Bolivian economy. Some of Morales’s critics blamed him for having failed to diversify the country’s economy. In a referendum held in 2016 Bolivians rejected—by a vote of about 51 percent against to 49 percent for—a constitutional change that would have allowed Morales to run for another term as president in 2019. Morales initially accepted the result of the referendum, but his party later challenged the constitutional limits on reelection in court. In late 2017 Bolivia’s Constitutional Tribunal sided with Morales’s party and removed term limits on the presidency. The following year the country’s Electoral Tribunal approved Morales’s candidacy in the 2019 presidential election.
The presidential polling took place on October 20, 2019. According to the official results, Morales defeated former president Carlos Mesa by a margin of 47.08 percent to 36.51 percent. Under Bolivian election law, Morales was able to avoid a runoff because his margin of victory was greater than 10 percent. Mesa and other members of the opposition claimed that the election had been rigged. They cited irregularities with the ballot count, including a period of 24 hours during which reporting of the official vote tally was inexplicably suspended by the electoral authorities. Protests and strikes over the election results soon erupted throughout the country. Morales denied that vote-rigging had occurred. His government, however, agreed to have the Organization of American States (OAS) carry out an audit of the presidential election. After completing its audit, the OAS concluded that “clear manipulations” of the voting system had indeed taken place and recommended that Bolivia hold a new election. Morales initially announced that another election would be held, but widespread protests against the president continued. The chief of Bolivia’s armed forces soon called on Morales to step down. Morales did so on November 10, claiming that he was the victim of a “civic coup.” He fled Bolivia for Mexico, which had offered him political asylum, and in December relocated to Argentina, where he was granted refugee status.
Jeanine Áñez, deputy leader of the Chamber of Senators, became interim president in the wake of the resignations of the vice president and the leaders of the Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies, allies of Morales. A new election was later scheduled to take place on May 3, 2020. In the meantime, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Bolivia especially hard, overwhelming hospitals and generating one of the world’s highest per capita death rates. Áñez herself contracted COVID-19 but soon recovered. Critics accused her of mishandling the health crisis and exploiting it to cling to power. Her right-wing administration was also accused of brutally suppressing pro-Morales demonstrations. The election was pushed back first to September 6 and then to October 18.
From his exile in Argentina, Morales handpicked his former finance minister, Luis Arce, as his party’s presidential candidate. After Áñez withdrew from the race, Mesa, running again, became the most formidable candidate from the right or center. When all the votes were counted, Arce had garnered more than 55 percent of the vote, compared with only about 29 percent for Mesa. Arce’s margin of victory eliminated the need for a runoff.
Robert N. Thomas
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