112-437: René Emilio Barrientos Ortuño (30 May 1919 – 27 April 1969) was a Bolivian military officer and politician who served as the 47th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively from 1964 to 1966 and from 1966 to 1969. During much of his first term, he shared power as co-president with Alfredo Ovando from 1965 to 1966 and prior to that served as the 30th vice president of Bolivia in 1964. General Barrientos came to power after
224-575: A neoliberal structuring. The reforms and economic restructuring were strongly opposed by certain segments of society, which instigated frequent and sometimes violent protests, particularly in La Paz and the Chapare coca -growing region, from 1994 through 1996. The indigenous population of the Andean region was not able to benefit from government reforms. During this time, the umbrella labor-organization of Bolivia,
336-462: A new constitution changed the country's official name to "Plurinational State of Bolivia" to reflect the multi-ethnic nature of the country and the strengthened rights of Bolivia's indigenous peoples under the new constitution. The region now known as Bolivia had been occupied for over 2,500 years when the Aymara arrived; however, present-day Aymara associate themselves with the ancient civilization of
448-450: A candidate for president in the general elections that were held in July 1966 . With the most important civilian leaders (Paz, Hernán Siles and Juan Lechín ) in exile, Barrientos was easily elected, and was sworn in during August 1966. General Barrientos was quite charismatic, and was throughout his presidency popular with ordinary Bolivians, aided by the fluency with which he spoke Quechua ,
560-685: A child hero of the Pacific War, 1879–1884), an aid paid until the end of secondary school to parents whose children are in school in order to combat school dropout, and the Single Health System, which since 2018 has offered all Bolivians free medical care. The reforms adopted made the Bolivian economic system the most successful and stable in the region. Between 2006 and 2019, GDP grew from $ 9 billion to over $ 40 billion, real wages increased, GDP per capita tripled, foreign exchange reserves rose, inflation
672-457: A clandestine Marxist supporter, denouncing Barrientos and many of his aides as being on the CIA 's payroll. The episode embarrassed the administration and cast doubts about the president's judgment (after all, it was he who was friends with, and had appointed, Arguedas to the most important ministry post in the government). In the aftermath of the mining massacres and anti-guerrilla campaign, Barrientos
784-584: A clash with the Bolivian army." Rodriguez said the US government had wanted Che in Panama, and "I could have tried to falsify the command to the troops, and got Che to Panama as the US government said they had wanted", but that he had chosen to "let history run its course" as desired by 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
896-625: A fourth, and the 2016 Bolivian constitutional referendum asked voters to override the constitution and allow Evo Morales to run for an additional term in office. Morales narrowly lost the referendum; however, in 2017 his party then petitioned the Bolivian Constitutional Court to override the constitution on the basis that the American Convention on Human Rights made term limits a human rights violation. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights determined that term limits are not
1008-549: A guerrilla force was discovered to be operating in the Bolivian southeast under the leadership of the Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara in the Bolivian jungle. Barrientos was very concerned with Guevara's alleged popularity among the miners in the southwestern part of the country, and clamped down in the area with some very heavy-handed measures (such as the San Juan massacre ). Guevara felt that such an atrocity by
1120-433: A human rights violation in 2018; however, once again the Bolivian Constitutional Court ruled that Morales has permission to run for a fourth term in the 2019 elections, and this permission was not retracted. "[T]he country's highest court overruled the constitution, scrapping term limits altogether for every office. Morales can now run for a fourth term in 2019 – and for every election thereafter." The revenues generated by
1232-496: A new Marxist guerrilla movement emerged in the lowlands near La Paz, this time constituted mostly by Bolivian university students aligned with the outlawed Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army, or ELN). The new guerrilla outbreak was easily controlled, but Ovando's response had been rather vacillating and timid. He offered a generous safe haven to guerrillas who gave up the fight, for example, in contrast to Barrientos' call for "heads on spikes" in 1967. The forces of
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#17329089389271344-667: A partly-free democracy as of 2023, with a 66/100 score. Modern Bolivia is a charter member of the United Nations (UN), Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Organization of American States (OAS), Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), Bank of the South , ALBA , and the Union of South American Nations (USAN). Bolivia remains a developing country , and the second-poorest in South America, though it has slashed poverty rates and now has one of
1456-426: A ruthless and violent coup d'état that did not have popular support. The Bolivian Workers' Center , which tried to resist the putsch, was violently repressed. More than a thousand people were killed in less than a year. Cousin of one of the most important narco-trafficker of the country, Luis García Meza Tejada favors the production of cocaine. He pacified the people by promising to remain in power only for one year. At
1568-549: 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
1680-403: A third term as President of Bolivia. The opposition argued that a third term would be unconstitutional, but the Bolivian Constitutional Court ruled that Morales' first term under the previous constitution did not count towards his term limit. This allowed Evo Morales to run for a third term in 2014, and he was re-elected with 64.22% of the vote. During his third term, Evo Morales began to plan for
1792-471: A tragic helicopter crash on 27 April 1969. His vice-president, a little-known Christian-Democrat politician named Luis Adolfo Siles , was sworn as president soon thereafter, in accordance to the Constitution. Siles' poor relations with Ovando led Siles to support the candidacy of the popular Mayor of La Paz, Armando Escobar, as the true successor of the now-constantly eulogized Barrientos, threatening to spoil
1904-478: A wholly independent state. Sucre opted to create a brand new state and on 6 August 1825, with local support, named it in honor of Simón Bolívar. The original name was Republic of Bolívar. Some days later, congressman Manuel Martín Cruz proposed: "If from Romulus , Rome, then from Bolívar , Bolivia" (Spanish: Si de Rómulo, Roma; de Bolívar, Bolivia ). The name was approved by the Republic on 3 October 1825. In 2009,
2016-473: A wide biome in each city and region. It includes part of the Pantanal , the largest tropical wetland in the world, along its eastern border. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay to the southeast, Argentina to the south, Chile to the southwest, and Peru to the west. The seat of government is La Paz , which contains the executive, legislative, and electoral branches of government, while
2128-717: Is now the Bolivian Andes, and extending its control into the fringes of the Amazon basin. The Spanish conquest of the Inca empire began in 1524 and was mostly completed by 1533. The territory now called Bolivia was known as Charcas, and was under the authority of Spain. Local government came from the Audiencia de Charcas located in Chuquisaca (La Plata—modern Sucre ). Founded in 1545 as a mining town, Potosí soon produced fabulous wealth, becoming
2240-529: Is the official and predominant language, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status, of which the most commonly spoken are Guaraní , Aymara , and Quechua . Well before Spanish colonization , the third part of the high region of Bolivia was an Andean part of great Inca Empire , among which was born the most important culture of America: the Tihuanaco culture in La Paz-Bolivia that converges
2352-429: The 1964 Bolivian coup d'état which overthrew the government of President Victor Paz Estenssoro . During his three-year rule, Barrientos and the army suppressed leftist opposition to his regime, including a guerrilla group led by Che Guevara in 1967. On 27 April 1969, Barrientos was killed in a helicopter crash near Arque , Bolivia. He may have been assassinated, but that has not been conclusively proven. Barrientos
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#17329089389272464-610: The Acre territory, and the War of the Pacific (1879), in which Chile seized the country's Pacific coastal region. Bolivia experienced a succession of military and civilian governments until Hugo Banzer led a US-backed coup d'état in 1971, replacing the socialist government of Juan José Torres with a military dictatorship . Banzer's regime cracked down on left-wing and socialist opposition parties, and other perceived forms of dissent, resulting in
2576-555: The Bolivian Constituent Assembly to begin writing a new constitution aimed at giving more power to the indigenous majority. 2009 marked the creation of a new constitution and the renaming of the country to the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The previous constitution did not allow a consecutive reelection of a president, but the new constitution allowed for just one reelection, starting the dispute if Evo Morales
2688-554: The CIA 's payroll. This event embarrassed US military School of the Americas (SOA) graduate Barrientos as a US-controlled puppet, and prompted Ovando to distance himself from the president with an eye to the projected 1970 elections. (The US SOA notoriously trained many Latin American dictators and death squads in counterinsurgency tactics and torture and disappearance techniques). The worries proved unnecessary, for Barrientos perished in
2800-595: The Central Obrera Boliviana (COB), became increasingly unable to effectively challenge government policy. A teachers' strike in 1995 was defeated because the COB could not marshal the support of many of its members, including construction and factory workers. In the 1997 elections, General Hugo Banzer , leader of the Nationalist Democratic Action party (ADN) and former dictator (1971–1978), won 22% of
2912-692: The Chaco War (1932–1935), where Bolivia lost a great part of the Gran Chaco region in dispute, marked a turning-point. On 7 April 1943, Bolivia entered World War II , joining part of the Allies , which caused president Enrique Peñaranda to declare war on the Axis powers of Germany , Italy and Japan . In 1945, Bolivia became a founding member of the United Nations. The Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR),
3024-735: The Chané-Guaraní culture is found in Samaipata , Bolivia. The largest carved stone in the world was later populated by the Incas and the Spanish, who found the carved archaeology known in Quechua as "El Fuerte." This intervention by different ethnic groups outside their territories was a dispute between Amazonian and Andean cultures, and the Incas were later expelled by the Guaraní tribes in defense of their territories in
3136-616: The Organization of American States (OAS) released a preliminary report concluding several irregularities in the election, though these findings were heavily disputed. The New York Times reported on 7 June 2020 that the OAS analysis immediately after the 20 October election was flawed yet fuelled "a chain of events that changed the South American nation's history". After weeks of protests, Morales resigned on national television shortly after
3248-640: The Peru-Bolivian Confederation , with de Santa Cruz as the Supreme Protector . Following tension between the Confederation and Chile, Chile declared war on 28 December 1836. Argentina separately declared war on the Confederation on 9 May 1837. The Peruvian-Bolivian forces achieved several major victories during the War of the Confederation : the defeat of the Argentine expedition and the defeat of
3360-469: 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 to
3472-508: The Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country located in central South America . It is a country with the largest geographic extension of Amazonian plains and lowlands, mountains and Chaco with a tropical climate, valleys with a warm climate, as well as being part of the Andes of South America and its high plateau areas with cold climates, hills and snow-capped mountains, with
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3584-648: The Tiwanaku Empire , which had its capital at Tiwanaku , in Western Bolivia. The capital city of Tiwanaku dates-back as early as 1500 BC, when it was a small, agriculturally-based village. The Aymara community grew to urban proportions between AD 600 and AD 800, becoming an important regional power in the southern Andes . According to early estimates, the city covered approximately 6.5 square kilometers (2.5 square miles) at its peak, and had between 15,000 and 30,000 inhabitants. However, in 1996, satellite imaging
3696-472: The massacre of miners at Siglo XX in June 1967, and the so-called Arguedas Affair of 1968. In early 1967, a guerrilla force had been discovered to be operating in the rural Bolivian southwest under the leadership of the Argentine-Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara . While the popular insurgency was eventually crushed by the US-trained Bolivian military troops under American CIA command, Guevara
3808-515: The state of Acre , in the Acre War , important because this region was known for its production of rubber. Peasants and the Bolivian army fought briefly but after a few victories, and facing the prospect of a total war against Brazil, it was forced to sign the Treaty of Petrópolis in 1903, in which Bolivia lost this rich territory. Popular myth has it that Bolivian president Mariano Melgarejo (1864–71) traded
3920-414: The 15 parachutists fell to their death before a large crowd assembled to view the event. Recriminations flew as to who should be held responsible for the carnage. Barrientos, as Air Force commander, decided to put on a demonstration of his own, and jumped from an airplane himself using one of the parachutes that had failed to open during the earlier debacle. His point was that there had been nothing wrong with
4032-509: The Americas. It is the 27th largest country in the world , the largest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere , and the seventh largest landlocked country on earth, after Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Chad, Niger, Mali, and Ethiopia. The country's population, estimated at 12 million, is multiethnic , including Amerindians , Mestizos , Europeans , Asians , Africans , Arabs , Jews and some other mixtures throughout. Spanish
4144-482: The Army Commander Alfredo Ovando — toppled Paz in a violent coup d'état and installed himself as co-president in a Junta alongside General Ovando. His idea all along was to capitalize on his popularity and run for elections, with the full support of the Bolivian military establishment now in control of the country. To this end, he resigned his co-presidency in early 1966 and registered himself as
4256-553: The Bolivian coast . Chile took control of today's Chuquicamata area, the adjoining rich salitre ( saltpeter ) fields, and the port of Antofagasta among other Bolivian territories. Since independence, Bolivia has lost over half of its territory to neighboring countries. Through diplomatic channels in 1909, it lost the basin of the Madre de Dios River and the territory of the Purus in the Amazon, yielding 250,000 km to Peru. It also lost
4368-528: The Bolivian Army Rangers captured Guevara and executed him in October 1967. Barrientos had directly ordered Guevara's execution after his capture. While temporarily enhancing the president's stature, this only started more troubles for Barrientos. While the army was fighting the guerrillas, the miners of Siglo XX (a state-owned Bolivian mining town) declared themselves in support of the insurgency, prompting
4480-465: The Bolivian Army and Air Force would be the tipping point in his favour in rallying the miners to his communist cause, but eventually the miners signed an agreement with the government-owned mining company Siglo XX , which agreement Guevara felt undermined his reason for being there. The war between the national forces under President Barrientos and Che Guevara's militia did not end there, but eventually
4592-454: The Bolivian economy. The public also perceived a significant amount of public sector corruption. These factors contributed to increasing social protests during the second half of Banzer's term. Between January 1999 and April 2000, large-scale protests erupted in Cochabamba , Bolivia's third largest city at the time, in response to the privatization of water resources by foreign companies and
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4704-565: The Bolivian military and failed to fully satisfy the increasingly more belligerent forces of the Left, especially the workers and students. Worse, the military (in whose name he served) had become polarized, with some sectors supporting the President and even calling for a further leftward turn (General Juan José Torres ) and others criticizing Ovando and urging a more conservative, anti-Communist, and pro U.S. stance (General Rogelio Miranda ). In June 1970,
4816-499: The Bolivian operations of the U.S.-based Gulf Oil Corporation and called on known leftist intellectuals to become part of his cabinet. Ovando also announced his political adherence to the principles espoused by other so-called "leftist military" regimes then in vogue in Latin America, foremost of which were the regimes of Peru's Juan Velasco and Panama's Omar Torrijos . Ovando's populist stance surprised many conservative members of
4928-475: The Bolivian political elites, many of whose members may have been waiting for their turn to occupy the Presidential palace for years. This was no exception, and Paz's controversial move would soon prove harmful to him. Paz, surprisingly to some, chose General Barrientos as his running mate in that year's elections, and the two were sworn in on 6 August 1964. Just three months later, Barrientos — in tandem with
5040-646: The Chilean government and public rejected the peace treaty. Chile organized a second attack on the Confederation and defeated it in the Battle of Yungay . After this defeat, Santa Cruz resigned and went to exile in Ecuador and then Paris, and the Peruvian-Bolivian Confederation was dissolved. Following the renewed independence of Peru, Peruvian president General Agustín Gamarra invaded Bolivia. On 18 November 1841,
5152-590: The Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces General Williams Kaliman had urged that he do so to restore "peace and stability". Opposition Senator Jeanine Áñez declared herself interim president, claiming constitutional succession after the president, vice president and both head of the legislature chambers. She was confirmed as interim president by the constitutional court who declared her succession to be constitutional and automatic. International politicians, scholars and journalists are divided between describing
5264-550: 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,
5376-500: 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
5488-571: The Spanish authorities in the Viceroyalty of the Rio de La Plata, but the following year the Spanish American wars of independence raged across the continent. Bolivia was captured and recaptured many times during the war by the royalists and patriots. Buenos Aires sent three military campaigns, all of which were defeated, and eventually limited itself to protecting the national borders at Salta. Bolivia
5600-447: The Spanish empire. Likewise Bolivia was born as a nation in the city of Sucre, considered by its history the constitutional and historical capital of the country since August 6, 1825 sixteen years of fighting would follow before the establishment of the Republic, named for Simón Bolívar . Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Bolivia lost control of several peripheral territories to neighboring countries, such as Brazil's of
5712-543: The United States. The country's internal situation became unfavorable for such political action on the international stage. After a resurgence of gas protests in 2005, Carlos Mesa attempted to resign in January 2005, but his offer was refused by Congress. On 22 March 2005, after weeks of new street protests from organizations accusing Mesa of bowing to U.S. corporate interests, Mesa again offered his resignation to Congress, which
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#17329089389275824-454: The battle de Ingavi took place, in which the Bolivian Army defeated the Peruvian troops of Gamarra (killed in the battle). After the victory, Bolivia invaded Peru on several fronts. The eviction of the Bolivian troops from the south of Peru would be achieved by the greater availability of material and human resources of Peru; the Bolivian Army did not have enough troops to maintain an occupation. In
5936-430: The carefully laid plans of Ovando. Furthermore, Ovando had been undergoing a political metamorphosis, and had come to conclude that he had to move to the Left in order to be acceptable as president in the ideologically super-charged atmosphere of the late 1960s. The changes he planned to institute could be difficult to enact in the presence of a potentially hostile Congress. For these reasons, Ovando decided not to wait for
6048-725: The city of Sucre on 25 May 1809 and the Chuquisaca Revolution (Chuquisaca was then the name of the city) is known as the first cry of Freedom in Latin America. That revolution was followed by the La Paz revolution on 16 July 1809. The La Paz revolution marked a complete split with the Spanish government, while the Chuquisaca Revolution established a local independent junta in the name of the Spanish King deposed by Napoleon Bonaparte. Both revolutions were short-lived and defeated by
6160-708: The city of Sucre - Bolivia on May 25, 1809, being the first region of rebellion against the Spanish empire of an entire continent based on the Creole law students of the University San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca who inspired by the French revolution arose the first uprising of America, which thanks to this revolution in Sucre, the other Ibero-American countries (Latin Americans) were able to revolt and become independent of
6272-405: The commander Juan Buendía defeated a detachment led by Bolivian colonel José María García, who died in the confrontation. Bolivian troops left Tacna, Arica and Tarapacá in February 1842, retreating towards Moquegua and Puno. The battles of Motoni and Orurillo forced the withdrawal of Bolivian forces occupying Peruvian territory and exposed Bolivia to the threat of counter-invasion. The Treaty of Puno
6384-561: The conditions attached to the loan were unacceptable. On 26 June 2024, a military coup attempt led by Juan José Zúñiga ended after lasting only 5 hours. In the evening of 26 June, Bolivian police arrested Zúñiga. Alfredo Ovando Alfredo Ovando Candía (6 April 1918 – 24 January 1982) was the Commander of the Bolivian Air Forces and ambassador who served as the 48th president of Bolivia twice nonconsecutively, first as co-president with René Barrientos from 1965 to 1966 and then as de facto president from 1969 to 1970. Ovando
6496-423: The constitutional capital is Sucre , the seat of the judiciary. The largest city and principal industrial center is Santa Cruz de la Sierra , located on the Llanos Orientales (eastern tropical lowlands), a mostly flat region in the east of the country with a diverse non-Andean culture. The sovereign state of Bolivia is a constitutionally unitary state divided into nine departments . Its geography varies as
6608-518: The country to bring back the revolutionary leader Víctor Paz Estenssoro , then in exile, once the rebellion succeeded. In 1957, Barrientos was rewarded when he was named commander of the Bolivian Air Force. Known as a rather obsequious, sycophantic supporter of the MNR, he slowly became famous throughout the country for his uncommon, and very public, feats of valor. In 1960, for example, a live parachute jump demonstration by Bolivian Air Force soldiers ended in disaster when their equipment failed and 3 of
6720-436: The district of Locumba – Tacna, a column of Peruvian soldiers and peasants defeated a Bolivian regiment in the so-called Battle of Los Altos de Chipe (Locumba). In the district of Sama and in Arica, the Peruvian colonel José María Lavayén organized a troop that managed to defeat the Bolivian forces of Colonel Rodríguez Magariños and threaten the port of Arica. In the battle of Tarapacá on 7 January 1842, Peruvian militias formed by
6832-399: The eastern plains of Bolivia. Spanish conquistadores , arriving from Cusco , Peru, and Asunción , Paraguay, forcibly took control of the region in the 16th century. During the subsequent Spanish colonial period , Bolivia was administered by the Real Audiencia of Charcas . Spain built its empire, in large part, upon the silver that was extracted from Potosí Bolivia's mines , from there,
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#17329089389276944-462: The economic and social elite followed laissez-faire capitalist policies through the first 30 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
7056-449: The elections (which no one could guarantee he could win, with the popular Escobar as candidate) and on 26 September 1969, he executed a coup d'état that overthrew Siles. Ovando's short (13 month) dictatorship was difficult and marked by political violence. Upon taking office, he declared himself in favor of fundamental changes aimed at enhancing the deplorable living conditions of the vast majority of Bolivians. To this end, he nationalized
7168-423: The elevation fluctuates, from the western snow-capped peaks of the Andes to the eastern lowlands, situated within the Amazon basin . One-third of the country is within the Andean mountain range. With an area of 1,098,581 km (424,164 sq mi), Bolivia is the fifth-largest country in South America after Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Colombia, and, alongside Paraguay, is one of two landlocked countries in
7280-604: The end of his first term of office (1956–1960). In 1993, Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was elected president in alliance with the Tupac Katari Revolutionary Liberation Movement , which inspired indigenous-sensitive and multicultural-aware policies. Sánchez de Lozada pursued an aggressive economic and social reform agenda. The most dramatic reform was privatization under the "capitalization" program, under which investors, typically foreign, acquired 50% ownership and management control of public enterprises in return for agreed upon capital investments. In 1993, Sanchez de Lozada introduced
7392-488: 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
7504-507: The equipment or the training, simply bad luck; this incident cemented his popularity among certain sections of the population. Furthermore, the ruling MNR helped prop up his standing, as the MNR leadership constantly extolled General Barrientos' virtues, portraying him as a paragon of the new kind of military officer the revolution had fostered. By the early 1960s, while the ruling MNR party had begun to fall apart due to personal and policy differences between its leading members, Barrientos' stock
7616-519: The event as a coup or a spontaneous social uprising against an unconstitutional fourth term. Protests to reinstate Morales as president continued becoming highly violent: burning public buses and private houses, destroying public infrastructure and harming pedestrians. The protests were met with more violence by security forces against Morales supporters after Áñez exempted police and military from criminal responsibility in operations for "the restoration of order and public stability". In April 2020,
7728-466: The fastest-growing economies on the continent (in terms of GDP). Its main economic resources include agriculture, forestry , fishing, mining, and goods such as textiles and clothing, refined metals, and refined petroleum . Bolivia is very geologically rich , with mines producing tin , silver, lithium , and copper. The country is also known for its production of coca plants and refined cocaine . In 2021, estimated coca cultivation and cocaine production
7840-415: The first Chilean expedition on the fields of Paucarpata near the city of Arequipa . The Chilean army and its Peruvian rebel allies surrendered unconditionally and signed the Paucarpata Treaty. The treaty stipulated that Chile would withdraw from Peru-Bolivia, Chile would return captured Confederate ships, economic relations would be normalized, and the Confederation would pay Peruvian debt to Chile. However,
7952-409: The free-market and privatization-policies of its predecessor. The relatively robust economic growth of the mid-1990s continued until about the third year of its term in office. After that, regional, global and domestic factors contributed to a decline in economic growth. Financial crises in Argentina and Brazil, lower world prices for export commodities, and reduced employment in the coca sector depressed
8064-526: The globalization of the world arose by creating the first silver coins, which were then stamped with the " $ " sign, inspired by Potosí and Spanish royalty. There, the saying was born: "You are worth a Potosí", which means innumerable wealth. In fact, Bolivia was the first territory where the First Libertarian Cry of Latin America arose in the city of Charcas or city of the four names, now known as
8176-457: 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, Sánchez 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
8288-567: The interim government took out a loan of more than $ 327 million from the International Monetary Fund to meet the country's needs during the COVID-19 pandemic . New elections were scheduled for 3 May 2020. In response to the coronavirus pandemic , the Bolivian electoral body, the TSE, made an announcement postponing the election. MAS reluctantly agreed with the first delay only. A date for
8400-464: The interruption, the official count showed Morales fractionally clearing the 10-point margin he needed to avoid a runoff election, with the final official tally counted as 47.08 percent to Mesa's 36.51 percent, starting a wave of protests and tension in the country. Amidst allegations of fraud perpetrated by the Morales government, widespread protests were organized to dispute the election. On 10 November,
8512-451: The land for what he called "a magnificent white horse" and Acre was subsequently flooded with Brazilians, which ultimately led to confrontation and fear of war with Brazil. In the late 19th century, an increase in the world price of silver brought Bolivia relative prosperity and political stability. During the early 20th century, tin replaced silver as the country's most important source of wealth. A succession of governments controlled by
8624-633: The largest city in the New World with a population exceeding 150,000 people. By the late 16th century, Bolivian silver was an important source of revenue for the Spanish Empire . A steady stream of natives served as labor force under the brutal, slave conditions of the Spanish version of the pre-Columbian draft system called the mita . Charcas was transferred to the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata in 1776 and
8736-519: The leader of the small Christian Democrat Party of Bolivia, Dr. Luis Adolfo Siles . He was fiercely anti-communist and pro-free market. Accepting more military aid and acquiescing to the training of special forces designed to combat possible communist-inspired insurgencies (under the aegis of the Alliance for Progress ) made Barrientos particularly popular with Washington. Barrientos had ample opportunity to prove his anti-Communist credentials in 1967, when
8848-493: The military academy in 1943 and earning his pilot's license in 1945. Later in the 1940s, he gravitated toward the reformist Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario, or MNR) party of Víctor Paz Estenssoro . Barrientos played a part in the Bolivian National Revolution of 1952, when the MNR toppled the established order and took power. In fact, he was given the task of flying out of
8960-468: 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. Twelve years of tumultuous rule left
9072-401: The most important native language among the Bolivian peasantry. Barrientos was skilled at manipulating the masses with his oratory, which often allowed him to present himself as both a populist and conservative, a revolutionary and a "law-and-order" advocate. Purporting to be a staunch Christian, Barrientos actively courted the church, and in fact, chose as his running mate in the 1966 elections
9184-576: The new election was delayed twice more, in the face of massive protests and violence. The final proposed date for the elections was 18 October 2020. Observers from the OAS, UNIORE, and the UN all reported that they found no fraudulent actions in the 2020 elections. The general election had a record voter turnout of 88.4% and ended in a landslide win for MAS which took 55.1% of the votes compared to 28.8% for centrist former president Carlos Mesa. Both Mesa and Áñez conceded defeat. On 8 November 2020, Luis Arce
9296-556: The oath of office in August 1966, Ovando returned to his post as Commander of the Bolivian Air Forces. Uncharismatic but tenacious, Ovando was biding his time, counting on the fact that he would be the logical choice to run for elections once Barrientos' term ended in 1970, perhaps with some electoral "help" from the outgoing administration. Soon, major differences emerged between Ovando and the president, however, especially in regard to
9408-603: The partial nationalization of hydrocarbons made it possible to finance several social measures: the Renta Dignidad (or old age minimum) for people over 60 years old; the Juana Azurduy voucher (named after the revolutionary Juana Azurduy de Padilla, 1780–1862), which ensures the complete coverage of medical expenses for pregnant women and their children in order to fight infant mortality; the Juancito Pinto voucher (named after
9520-543: The past and Barrientos hoped to rebuild his political capital. However, on 27 April 1969, a Hiller OH-23 helicopter of the Bolivian Air Force (nicknamed Holofernes ) that was carrying him struck telephone cables near Arque , killing Barrientos, his aide-de-camp and the pilot. An assassination has been considered a possibility but never proven. Bolivia in South America (gray) Bolivia , officially
9632-609: The people from Buenos Aires, the capital of the Viceroyalty, coined the term " Upper Peru " (Spanish: Alto Peru ) as a popular reference to the Royal Audiencia of Charcas. Túpac Katari led the indigenous rebellion that laid siege to La Paz in March 1781, during which 20,000 people died. As Spanish royal authority weakened during the Napoleonic Wars , sentiment against colonial rule grew. The struggle for independence started in
9744-404: The presidency in 1997 through 2001. Juan José Torres, who had fled Bolivia, was kidnapped and assassinated in 1976 as part of Operation Condor , the U.S.-supported campaign of political repression by South American right-wing dictators. The United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) financed and trained the Bolivian military dictatorship in the 1960s. The revolutionary leader Che Guevara
9856-549: The president to send troops to regain control. This led to the San Juan massacre, when soldiers opened fire on the miners and killed around 30 men and women on Saint John's Day, called Día de San Juan in Spanish, 24 June 1967. Further, a major scandal erupted in 1968 when Barrientos' trusted friend and Minister of Interior, Antonio Arguedas, disappeared with the captured diary of Che Guevara, which soon surfaced in, of all places, Havana . From abroad, Arguedas confessed himself to have been
9968-439: The reformist Revolutionary Nationalist Movement party, better known as the MNR. Ovando lived through the relative deprivation, reduced budgets, and loss of prestige of the defeated Bolivian army during the early years of MNR rule. By the early 1960s, President Víctor Paz Estenssoro came to rely more heavily on the military in the face of growing political divisions among the governing elites. Equally as important in this rebirth
10080-484: The right had had enough. On 6 October 1970, an anti-government coup d'état took place via a junta of commanders of the Bolivian Military . However, the polarized forces of the military were evenly split. Much blood was shed on the streets of various major cities, with garrisons fighting each other on behalf of one camp or the other. Eventually, President Ovando sought asylum in a foreign embassy, believing all hope
10192-499: The role the new armed forces played in the national arena. The most popular of these military leaders was, of course, the dashing Barrientos. In 1961, Paz Estenssoro had the Bolivian Constitution amended in order to be allowed to run for consecutive re-election, feeling that only he had the standing to keep the crumbling MNR together. Traditionally, attempts such as these (known as "prorroguismo") have been strongly condemned by
10304-422: The ruins of Pumapunko that had a great commercial influence in the Andes of South America reaching Ecuador, Chile and Peru. The largest territory of Bolivia on the eastern side of the lowlands of the north and east of the country were inhabited by independent non-Andean Amazonian tribes with their own civilization and language, cultures and ethnicities that prevail to this day. One of the best known archaeologies of
10416-455: The torturing and murders of countless Bolivian citizens. Banzer was ousted in 1978 and, twenty years later, returned as the democratically elected President of Bolivia (1997–2001). Under the 2006–2019 presidency of Evo Morales , the country saw significant economic growth and political stability, but was also widely accused of democratic backsliding and was described as a competitive authoritarian regime. Freedom House classifies Bolivia as
10528-494: The vice-president and former head of the Air Force René Barrientos , toppled Paz from power. They ruled together in a Junta (sometimes called "The Co-Presidency) until January 1966, when Barrientos resigned in order to register himself as a candidate. At that point Ovando became sole President, leading the country to the elections from which the popular Barrientos emerged victorious. With the new president having taken
10640-524: 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. The Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) of Jaime Paz Zamora remained a coalition-partner throughout the Banzer government, supporting this policy (called the Dignity Plan). The Banzer government basically continued
10752-514: Was 39,700 hectares and 317 metric tons, respectively. Bolivia is named after Simón Bolívar , a Venezuelan leader in the Spanish American wars of independence . The leader of Venezuela, Antonio José de Sucre , had been given the option by Bolívar to either unite Charcas (present-day Bolivia) with the newly formed Republic of Peru, to unite with the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata , or to formally declare its independence from Spain as
10864-431: Was a native of Tarata , department of Cochabamba . His father was of Spanish ancestry while his mother was Quechua . After his father died when he was a child, Barrientos was sent to a Franciscan orphanage. He left the orphanage at 12 and attended a private high school while working odd jobs to pay the tuition. After graduating, he entered the military academy in La Paz . He was a career military officer, graduating from
10976-492: Was accepted on 10 June. The chief justice of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodríguez , was sworn as interim president to succeed the outgoing Carlos Mesa. Evo Morales won the 2005 presidential election with 53.7% of the votes. On 1 May 2006, Morales announced his intent to re-nationalize Bolivian hydrocarbon assets following protests which demanded this action. Fulfilling a campaign promise, on 6 August 2006, Morales opened
11088-457: Was born in Cobija from an upper-middle-class family of immigrants parents from Extremadura , Spain and Piedmont , Italy. He started his long military career in the early 1930s, when he served in the Chaco War against Paraguay . Originally rather apolitical, he was chosen (among others) to lead the reconstituted Armed Forces of Bolivia in the aftermath of the 1952 Revolution that installed in power
11200-483: Was captured and executed in October 1967. This event fostered a major spin-off scandal that surfaced in 1968. That year, Barrientos' trusted friend and Minister of Interior, Antonio Arguedas, disappeared with the captured diary of Che Guevara, which soon surfaced in Havana. From abroad, Arguedas confessed himself to have been all along a clandestine Marxist supporter, and denounced Barrientos and many of his aides as being on
11312-430: Was clearly on the rise. In addition, President Paz Estenssoro (elected to a second term in 1960) was leaning more heavily on military support to restore order to various parts of the country where rival pro-MNR militias had turned against each other, often on behalf of specific MNR leaders. Disarming the militias (who had been allowed to keep their weapons since the 1952 Revolution) became a priority to Paz, and this enhanced
11424-458: Was enabled to run for a second term arguing he was elected under the last constitution. This also triggered a new general election in which Evo Morales was re-elected with 61.36% of the vote. His party, Movement for Socialism , also won a two-thirds majority in both houses of the National Congress . By 2013, after being reelected under the new constitution, Evo Morales and his party attempted
11536-478: Was essentially eliminated, and extreme poverty fell from 38% to 15%, a 23-point drop. During the 2019 elections, the Transmisión de Resultados Electorales Preliminares (TREP) (a quick count process used in Latin America as a transparency measure in electoral processes) was interrupted; at the time, Morales had a lead of 46.86 percent to Mesa's 36.72, after 95.63 percent of tally sheets were counted. Two days after
11648-464: Was finally freed of Royalist dominion by Marshal Antonio José de Sucre , with a military campaign coming from the North in support of the campaign of Simón Bolívar . After 16 years of war the Republic was proclaimed on 6 August 1825. In 1836, Bolivia, under the rule of Marshal Andrés de Santa Cruz , invaded Peru to reinstall the deposed president, General Luis José de Orbegoso . Peru and Bolivia formed
11760-495: Was killed by a team of CIA officers and members of the Bolivian Army on 9 October 1967, in Bolivia. Félix Rodríguez was a CIA officer on the team with the Bolivian Army that captured and shot Guevara. Rodriguez said that after he received a Bolivian presidential execution order, he told "the soldier who pulled the trigger to aim carefully, to remain consistent with the Bolivian government's story that Che had been killed in action during
11872-571: Was lost. But the leftist military forces re-asserted themselves under the combative leadership of General Juan José Torres , and eventually triumphed. Embarrassed by his quick abandonment of the fight, and worn out by 13 grueling months in office, Ovando agreed to leave the presidency in the hands of his friend, General Torres. The latter was sworn in and rewarded Ovando with the Bolivian ambassadorship to Spain . Ovando remained in Madrid until 1978, when he returned to Bolivia. In his latter years, he supported
11984-547: Was not a violent or domineering culture; to expand its reach, the state exercised great political astuteness, created colonies, fostered local trade agreements (which made other cultures rather dependent), and instituted state cults. As rainfall gradually decreased, the stores of food supplies decreased, and thus the elites lost power. Tiwanaku disappeared around AD 1000. The area remained uninhabited for centuries thereafter. Between 1438 and 1527, Incan Empire expanded from its capital at Cusco , gaining control over much of what
12096-415: Was seen by some as a brutal dictator at the service of foreign interests while masquerading as a democrat. Eager to do some damage control and repair his once-excellent relations with the campesinos (Bolivian farm workers), the president took to traveling throughout the country to present his position, even to the smallest and remotest of Bolivian villages. It was a tactic that had yielded him good results in
12208-437: Was signed on 7 June 1842, ending the war. However, the climate of tension between Lima and La Paz would continue until 1847, when the signing of a Peace and Trade Treaty became effective. A period of political and economic instability in the early-to-mid-19th century weakened Bolivia. In addition, during the War of the Pacific (1879–83), Chile occupied vast territories rich in natural resources south west of Bolivia, including
12320-555: Was sworn in as President of Bolivia alongside his Vice President David Choquehuanca . In February 2021, the Arce government returned an amount of around $ 351 million to the IMF. This comprised a loan of $ 327 million taken out by the interim government in April 2020 and interest of around $ 24 million. The government said it returned the loan to protect Bolivia's economic sovereignty and because
12432-409: Was the considerable pressure exerted by the United States to modernize and equip the troops for a decidedly more political role: that of fighting possible Cuba-styled Communist insurgencies. When Paz Estenssoro amended the Constitution in 1964 in order to allow himself to run for re-election (a largely frowned-upon move in the largely personalistic world of Bolivian politics), General Ovando, along with
12544-572: Was used to map the extent of preserved suka kollus ( flooded raised fields ) across the three primary valleys of Tiwanaku, with the results suggesting a population-carrying capacity of anywhere between 285,000 and 1,482,000 people. Around AD 400, Tiwanaku went from being a locally-dominant force to a 'predatory' state, aggressively expanding its reach into the Yungas and bringing its culture and ways to new peoples in Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. Nonetheless, Tiwanaku
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