Bolivia

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codara The Republic of Bolivia is a landlocked country in western South America. It is bordered by Brazil in the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina in the south, and Chile and Peru in the west. Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon Bolivar, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825;Democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of poverty, social unrest, and drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, resolving disputes with coca growers over Bolivia's counter-drug efforts, and waging an anticorruption campaign.

1 History
- 1.1 Social Crisis and the nationalization of hydrocarbon resources (2000-2005)
- 1.2 Evo Morales, Movement toward Socialism
2 Resistance Movements
- 2.1 The Ayllu Movement
- 2.2 The Water War in Cochabamba
3 Politics
4 Geography
5 Economy
6 Demographics
7 Culture
8 Miscellaneous topics
9 External links

[edit] History

Bolivia has long been inhabited by advanced cultures, the most important being the civilization of Tiahuanaco. It became part of Tahuantinsuyu, or Inca empire, in the 15th century. When the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, Bolivia, rich in silver deposits, was incorporated in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and later that of La Plata.

Struggle for independence began in 1809, but it remained part of Spain until 1825, when it was liberated by SimÃ³n BolÃvar, for whom the nation was later named. After briefly being part of a union with Peru, Bolivia became fully independent. In following years, Bolivia lost a lot of ground through wars like War of the Pacific and sales.

Faced with racial and cultural troubles, Bolivia has known revolution and military coups. A military junta was overthrown in the early 1980s to reinstate democracy.

[edit] Social Crisis and the nationalization of hydrocarbon resources (2000-2005)

In April 2000, the social movements in Bolivia got together to protest the privatization of water provision in Cochabamba. Three years earlier, the government had sold rights to manage water in the city to Aguas del Tunari, a conglomerate led by Bechtel corporation. After making investments, the company raised water prices dramatically. They also made drawing water from community wells or gathering rainwater illegal, giving Aguas del Tunari exclusive rights. Protests that included Cochabamba residents and coca growers turned violent. Roadblocks paralized parts of the country. The protesters were helped along by policemen, who took the opportunity to go on strike for higher wages. Finally the government gave into the protesters demands and revoked the water contract. It was an unprecedented moment of unity for the Bolivian social movements against neoliberal reform. 1-2

During, February 2003, four-year economic recession, tight fiscal situation, and longstanding ethnic tensions mounted again in a police revolt that nearly toppled the government of President SÃ¡nchez de Lozada; several days of unrest left more than 30 persons dead. The government stayed in power but remained unpopular. Widespread protests broke out in October and revealed deep dissatisfaction with the government. Approximately 80 people died during the demonstrations which led President SÃ¡nchez de Lozada to resign from office on October 17. In a constitutional transfer of power, Vice President Carlos Mesa assumed the Presidency and promised to hold a binding referendum on the export of Bolivian natural gas. The referendum took place on July 18, and the electorate voted overwhelmingly in favor of development of the nation's hydrocarbon resources. Mesa planned to detail the government's development plans in legislation to be introduced to Congress. Mesa enjoyed popularity with the Bolivian public, but he faced the same difficulties â social divisions, a radical opposition committed to extra-parliamentary action, and an ongoing fiscal deficit â as the previous administration.

On June 6, 2005, President Carlos Mesa was forced to enter his resignation as over 80,000 protestors surrounded the presidential palace and congress demanding nationalization of the gas industry. The indigenous protestors argued that indigenous communities, two thirds of Bolivia's population, were not adequately represented in government. Consequently, the campesinos and indigenous population, angered by the inequitable dividends paid by the multinational petroleum companies, set up roadblocks throughout the country and placed all the major cities under siege. With Carlos Mesa stranded in the Palace of Plaza Murillo, the congress and senate closed, protestors roamed through the streets of La Paz threatening to drive the "corbateros" (those clothed in suits and ties) from the country.

A civil war was averted when, on June 9, 157 members of congress converged on the Casa de La Libertad in Sucre and nominated Eduardo RodrÃguez, then serving as President of the Supreme Court, to the Presidency of the Republic. President Rodriguez, to avert a civil war, promised to hold new national elections in December 2005.

[edit] Evo Morales, Movement toward Socialism

The 2005 Bolivian presidential election was held on December 18, 2005. The two main candidates were Juan Evo Morales Ayma of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) Party, and Jorge Quiroga, leader of the Democratic and Social Power (PODEMOS) Party and former head of the AcciÃ³n DemocrÃ¡tica Nacionalista (ADN) Party.

Morales won the election with 54 percent of the votes, an absolute majority. He was sworn in on January 22, 2006 for a five-year term. For the first time since the Spanish Conquest in the early 1500's, Bolivia, a nation with a majority indigenous population, has an indigenous leader, and Morales has stated that the 500 years of colonialism are now over.

[edit] Resistance Movements

An Army Truck with Anti-ALCA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas).

[edit] The Ayllu Movement

The term âaylluâ refers to âa uniquely Andean kinship based ethnic and territorial federation characterized by rotating leadership.â The movement includes both the Aymara and Quechua indigenous peoples and argues for a ârefounding of the country based on authentic participatory democracy.â This involves concepts of ârotating leadership, extensive consultation, with the goals of communal consensus and an equitable distribution of resources.â Rivera Cusicanqui notes that these principles âare in direct conflict with those of liberal democracy, based on the individual citizens as both rational and proprietary, and as the logical subject of national economic advancement.â Therefore, the Ayllu concept of participatory democracy differs sharply from western concepts of direct democracy which are generally thought of as involving referenda. Furthermore, rotating leadership can be utilized to prevent the entrenchment of figures of authority and power, as well as keeping the distance between political leadership and citizen close, which helps to prevent a separation between political decision making and those affected by it.

These ideas follow anarchist concepts of how to socially organize, and how to limit an unequal power balance among those in a community. The equitable distribution of resources further attempts to ensure that the amount of authority one individual can wield over another, in this case economically, has limits placed upon it.

In the Ayllus, the indigenous peoples have argued for replacing neoliberalization with mutual aid and solidarity. Both mutual aid and solidarity are crucial to anarchist thought. âMutual aidâ was advocated by Kropotkin in his book of the same name, while solidarity is one of the prime tenants upon which anarchist thought rests.

The Aymara and Quechua further envision the refoundation of the country involving a greater recognition of indigenous rights by granting local and regional power to âcommunal Indian assemblies.â These assemblies of the neighbourhood, union, factory, and ayllu, using the institutional structures mentioned above, would acquire political, economic, and cultural autonomy from the state, and thus resultantly self-determination. Thus, a prime goal of the Ayllu movement involves decentralizing decision making structures away from state institutional control. However, while advocating this, it is important to note that they do not want to destroy the Bolivian state, but rather redefine where authority rests within its boundaries. While they accept the territorial definition of the state and their citizenship within it, they reject its current institutional framework and power structures. In this regard, the Ayllu movement has made a beneficial tactical choice in achieving their self-determination.

Talk of destroying the Bolivian state itself can prove detrimental to efforts to secure international support from NGOs, and international organizations such as the United Nations, for their cause. The increasing perception of indigenous activists as terrorists among authorities in the United States makes this stance crucial in avoiding international condemnation. Therefore, the objectives of the Ayllu movement are heavily based on the redistribution of power in order to implement more participatory decision making and local autonomy. The Aymara and Quechuaâs utilization of protests as a method to achieve their objectives further demonstrates a move away from the focus on change through state institutions and towards direct action and citizen political participation. This case is strengthened when the current movement is contrasted against previous indigenous nationalist movements which have sought to overthrow the state.

The Ayllu movement, with such a large percentage of the Bolivian population participating in it as explained earlier, represents a serious effort to both challenge structures of authority in the nation and to institute an entirely different process of political decision making along anarchist lines. In doing so the movement embraces key anarchist principles, whether knowingly or not, which call for an empowerment of citizens through libertarian means while reducing the authority of the state over political decisions which affect them.

[edit] The Water War in Cochabamba

In Cochabamba the perception among common people exists that the leaders of the large national unions no longer serve the interests of the rank and file workers in the city, but instead have been corrupted by the state, and made subservient to it. This has resulted in distrust among the working class which has led to âthe atomization, fragmentation, and individualism of social struggles and labor actionsâ which have occurred since the end of military dictatorship in 1982.[31] Attitudes towards electoral politics tend to have people looking primarily for what they can get from political parties.[32] People do not express interest in belonging to political parties and âhave no faith or conviction in the promises of programs of distinct parties and candidatesâ.[33] Thus, a move towards direct action increases the chances that their political desires will be reflected in response to their actions.

Oscar Olivera, spokesperson for the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life, which organized against water privatization expresses that âthe working class has had to learn to represent itself politically.[34] Such a stance rejects electoral politics as the only acceptable definition of democracy, which is the view held by international institutions such as the World Bank, and International Monetary Fund.[35] The Coalition in Defense of Water and Life âCoordinadoraâ operated as an umbrella organization during the Water War, with a diverse collection of formal and informal groups operating under it, initially included People on the March, the Committee in Defense of Water and the Family Economy, peasants and irrigation farmers, the Federation of Factory Workers (of Cochabamba), local water committees, and urban neighbourhood water co-ops. The water co-ops operated wells autonomously and were not connected to Cochabambaâs central water system. Later, unionized factory workers outside of the Federation of Factory Workers, as well as Cochabamba residents connected to the main water system, joined the coalition.[36]

Therefore, much basic grassroots organizing work for the Coordinadora had already been completed. This has several ramifications. First, it demonstrates that the structure of the Coordinadora was not simply reactionary as it might appear from the outside, but rather was able to draw on existing organizations and mobilization. Second, this allowed it to focus more quickly on responding to the political decision of privatizing the cityâs water.

In the Coordinadora those involved came to believe âthat meetings, assemblies, and barricades were the main instruments of struggle and liberation.â[37] Associated with this was a rejection of the authority of decision making politicians and businesspeople.[38] These views demonstrate the rise of interest in participatory assemblies and an increased bypassing of state institutions. Both of these constitute a movement away from and therefore fall within, and also show the connections which exist between direct action and direct democracy. In organizing towards direct action and protest through a grassroots manner, participatory democracy utilizing meetings and assemblies was used in order to make decisions. The use of barricades represents the employment of direct action and an example of citizens making direct decisions over issues which affect them without using an intermediary against the company Tunari Water,[39] which was granted rights to control water in the city by the government. Therefore, the Water War embodies the anarchist characteristics of direct action, horizontal organizing, participatory assemblies, and the bypass of state institutions while not attempting to seize such powers structures.

[edit] Politics

The president, elected every five years, is head of state and head of government, and appoints a cabinet of ministers. The Bolivian parliament consists of two chambers, the Camara de Senadores, or Senator's Chamber, has 27 seats, and the Camara de Diputados, or Deputies' Chamber has 130.

[edit] Geography

Bolivia is a landlocked nation. The west of Bolivia is situated in the Andes mountain range, with the highest peak, Nevado Sajama at 6,542 m. The centre of the country is formed by a highland plateau, the Altiplano, where most of the Bolivians live. The east of the country is lowland, and covered by the Amazonian rainforests. Lake Titicaca is located on the border between Bolivia and Peru. In the west, in the department of Potosi, lies the Salar De Uyuni, the world's largest salt flats.

Major cities are La Paz, Sucre, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and Cochabamba.

[edit] Economy

Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American countries, has made considerable progress toward the development of a market-oriented economy. Failures President SÃ¡nchez de Lozada (1993-97) included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and becoming an associate member of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as well as the privatisation of the state airline, telephone company, railroad, electric power company, and oil company. Silver mines boomed among this age, being the country's greatest export. The Spanish were said to have taken enough silver out of Bolivia to build a bridge across to Spain.

Growth slowed in 1999, in part due to tight government budget policies, which limited needed appropriations for anti-poverty programs, and the fallout from the Asian financial crisis. In 2000, major civil disturbances in April, and again in September and October, held down overall growth to 2.5%. Bolivia's GDP failed to grow in 2001 due to the global slowdown and laggard domestic activity. Growth is expected to pick up in 2002, but the fiscal deficit and debt burden will remain high.

[edit] Demographics

An indigenous woman votes in the elections that made Evo Morales president

The majority of present day Bolivians are descended from Amerindian peoples who pre-date both the Inca and the Spanish.

Approximately 56% of the population is believed to be of unmixed indigenous ancestry, comprised principally of AymarÃ¡s (30%) and Quechuas (25%). A large minority of Bolivians are also of European descent, either of mestizo (those of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry) or unmixed European ancestry (mainly Spanish creoles), 30% and 15% respectively.

Of the three official languages of Bolivia, two are Native American languages: AymarÃ¡ and Quechua, the other being Spanish. Although Spanish is spoken by about three-quarters of the entire population - as the first and only language of Whites and mestizos - of the Amerindian who do speak Spanish, most use it as a second language. Despite this, Spanish continues to be the language give most priority, partly due to the monopoly held by Whites and mestizos on the country's economy and political life. It also serves for the purposes of legislature, commerce and trade with its regional neighbours.

Virtually all Bolivians are Roman Catholic, although the practice of the religion has been syncretized with many indigenous elements of the various Amerindian religious traditions. native languages are Quechua and Aymara and spanish

[edit] Culture

Bolivian culture has many Inca and other Indian influences in religion, music and clothing, such as the well known bowler hats. The most well known fiesta is the UNESCO heritage 'El carnaval de Oruro'. Entertainment includes soccer, which is the national sport, played on almost every street corner. Also, zoo's are a popular attraction with a diverse population of cool creatures.

Entertainment includes soccer, which is the national sport, played on almost every street corner. Also, zoo's are a popular attraction with a diverse population of cool creatures.