Bolivia

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor, indigenous majority. However, since taking office, his controversial strategies have exacerbated racial and economic tensions between the Amerindian populations of the Andean west and the non-indigenous communities of the eastern lowlands. In December 2009, President MORALES easily won reelection, and his party took control of the legislative branch of the government, which will allow him to continue his process of change.

Central South America, southwest of Brazil

17 00 S, 65 00 W

South America

slightly less than three times the size of Montana

0 km (landlocked)

none (landlocked)

varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid

rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills, lowland plains of the Amazon Basin

tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower

1,320 sq km (2003)

622.5 cu km (2000)

flooding in the northeast (March-April)

the clearing of land for agricultural purposes and the international demand for tropical timber are contributing to deforestation; soil erosion from overgrazing and poor cultivation methods (including slash-and-burn agriculture); desertification; loss of biodiversity; industrial pollution of water supplies used for drinking and irrigation

landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru

9,947,418 (July 2010 est.)

1.72% (2010 est.)

25.16 births/1,000 population (2010 est.)

6.95 deaths/1,000 population (July 2010 est.)

-1.01 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2010 est.)

3.07 children born/woman (2010 est.)

0.2% (2007 est.)

8,100 (2007 est.)

fewer than 500 (2007 est.)

Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, Aymara 25%, white 15%

Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%

Spanish 60.7% (official), Quechua 21.2% (official), Aymara 14.6% (official), foreign languages 2.4%, other 1.2% (2001 census)

6.4% of GDP (2003)

republic; note - the new constitution defines Bolivia as a "Social Unitarian State"

9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija

6 August 1825 (from Spain)

Independence Day, 6 August (1825)

7 February 2009

based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction; the 2009 Constitution incorporates indigenous community justice into Bolivia's judicial system

18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21 years of age, universal and compulsory (single)

bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional consists of Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (36 seats; members are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms) and Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130 seats total; 70 uninominal deputies directly elected from a single district, 7 "special" indigenous deputies directly elected from non-contiguous indigenous districts, and 53 plurinominal deputies elected by proportional representation from party lists; all deputies serve five-year terms)

Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms); District Courts (one in each department); Plurinational Constitutional Court (five primary or titulares and five alternate or suplente magistrates elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms; to rule on constitutional issues); Plurinational Electoral Organ (seven members elected by the Assembly and the president; one member must be of indigenous origin to six-year terms); Agro-Environmental Court (judges elected by popular vote from list of candidates pre-selected by Assembly for six-year terms; to run on agro-environmental issues); provincial and local courts (to try minor cases)

Bolivia-National Convergence or PPB-CN [Manfred REYES VILLA]; Movement of Social Patriotic Union or Muspa [Ana Maria FLORES Sanzetenea]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo MORALES Ayma]; National Unity or UN [Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana]; People or Gente [Roman LOAYZA]; People for Liberty and Sovereignty or Pulso [Alejo VELIZ]; Social Alliance or AS [Rene JOAQUINO]; Social Democratic Bolivia or BSD [Rime CHOQUEHUANCA]

Bolivian Workers Central or COR; Federation of Neighborhood Councils of El Alto or FEJUVE; Landless Movement or MST; National Coordinator for Change or CONALCAM; Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB

CAN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITSO, ITU, LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNASUR, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNFICYP, UNIDO, Union Latina, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO

three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat of arms centered on the yellow band; red stands for bravery and the blood of national heroes, yellow for the nation's mineral resources, and green for the fertility of the land

Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Following a disastrous economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates in the 1990s. The period 2003-05 was characterized by political instability, racial tensions, and violent protests against plans - subsequently abandoned - to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial hydrocarbons law that imposed significantly higher royalties and required foreign firms then operating under risk-sharing contracts to surrender all production to the state energy company in exchange for a predetermined service fee. After higher prices for mining and hydrocarbons exports produced a fiscal surplus in 2008, the global recession in 2009 slowed growth. A decline in commodity prices that began in late 2008, a lack of foreign investment in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, a poor infrastructure, and the suspension of trade benefits with the United States will pose challenges for the Bolivian economy in 2010.

$45.11 billion (2009 est.)

$43.89 billion (2008 est.)

$41.36 billion (2007 est.)

$17.76 billion (2009 est.)

2.8% (2009 est.)

6.1% (2008 est.)

4.6% (2007 est.)

$4,600 (2009 est.)

$4,600 (2008 est.)

$4,400 (2007 est.)

4.534 million (2009 est.)

8.5% (2009 est.)

7.5% (2008 est.)

60% (2006 est.)

59.2 (2006)

44.7 (1999)

17.2% of GDP (2009 est.)

42% of GDP (2009 est.)

45.8% of GDP (2008 est.)

3.3% (2009 est.)

14% (2008 est.)

13% (31 December 2008)

6.5% (31 December 2007)

13.87% (31 December 2008)

12.86% (31 December 2007)

$3.998 billion (31 December 2008)

$3.032 billion (31 December 2007)

$6.339 billion (31 December 2008)

$4.729 billion (31 December 2007)

$5.433 billion (31 December 2008)

$4.759 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2009)

$2.672 billion (31 December 2008)

$2.263 billion (31 December 2007)

soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber

mining, smelting, petroleum, food and beverages, tobacco, handicrafts, clothing

2.9% (2009 est.)

5.495 billion kWh (2007 est.)

4.665 billion kWh (2007 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

0 kWh (2008 est.)

51,360 bbl/day (2008 est.)

60,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)

10,950 bbl/day (2007 est.)

6,172 bbl/day (2007 est.)

465 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)

14.2 billion cu m (2008 est.)

2.41 billion cu m (2008 est.)

11.79 billion cu m (2008 est.)

0 cu m (2008 est.)

750.4 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)

$780 million (2009 est.)

$2.015 billion (2008 est.)

$4.819 billion (2009 est.)

$6.448 billion (2008 est.)

natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore, tin

Brazil 60.1%, US 8.3%, Japan 4.1% (2008)

$4.079 billion (2009 est.)

$4.641 billion (2008 est.)

petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft parts, prepared foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans

Brazil 29.4%, Argentina 15.7%, US 10.1%, Chile 9.1%, Peru 6.9%, China 4.6% (2008)

$8.581 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$7.722 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$5.349 billion (31 December 2009 est.)

$5.931 billion (31 December 2008)

$NA (31 December 2009)

$5.998 billion (31 December 2008)

$NA (31 December 2009)

$63.8 million (31 December 2008)

bolivianos (BOB) per US dollar - 7.0699 (2009), 7.253 (2008), 7.8616 (2007), 8.0159 (2006), 8.0661 (2005)

690,000 (2008)

4.83 million (2008)

AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)

48 (1997)

.bo

105,031 (2009)

1 million (2008)

952 (2009)

gas 5,192 km; liquid petroleum gas 51 km; oil 2,488 km; refined products 1,590 km (2009)

10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2007)

Puerto Aguirre (inland port on the Paraguay/Parana waterway at the Bolivia/Brazil border); Bolivia has free port privileges in maritime ports in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

Bolivian Armed Forces: Bolivian Army (Ejercito Boliviano, EB), Bolivian Navy (Fuerza Naval Boliviana, FNB; includes marines), Bolivian Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana, FAB) (2010)

18-49 years of age for 12-month compulsory military service; when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; 15-19 years of age for voluntary premilitary service, provides exemption from further military service (2009)

1.3% of GDP (2009)

Chile and Peru rebuff Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to Chile in 1884, but Chile offers instead unrestricted but not sovereign maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas and other commodities; an accord placed the long-disputed Isla Suarez/Ilha de Guajara-Mirim, a fluvial island on the Rio Mamore, under Bolivian administration in 1958, but sovereignty remains in dispute

world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an estimated 29,500 hectares under cultivation in 2007, increased slightly when compared to 2006; third largest producer of cocaine, estimated at 120 metric tons potential pure cocaine in 2007; transit country for Peruvian and Colombian cocaine destined for Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Europe; cultivation generally increasing since 2000, despite eradication and alternative crop programs; weak border controls; some money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade; major cocaine consumption (2008)