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 coups and countercoups, with the last coup occurring in 1978. 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.

In December 2009 and October 2014, President MORALES easily won reelection. His party maintained control of the legislative branch of the government, which has allowed him to continue his process of change. In February 2016, MORALES narrowly lost a referendum to approve a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to compete in the 2019 presidential election. However, a 2017 Supreme Court ruling stating that term limits violate human rights provided the justification for MORALES to be chosen by his party to run again in 2019.

MORALES attempted to claim victory in the 20 October 2019 election, but widespread allegations of electoral fraud, rising violence, and pressure from the military ultimately forced him to flee the country. An interim government, led by President Jeanine ANEZ Chavez, prepared new elections that took place on 18 October 2020.

• mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 68%, indigenous 20%, White 5%, cholo/chola 2%, Black 1%, other 1%, unspecified 3% ;
• 44% of respondents indicated feeling part of some indigenous group, predominantly Quechua or Aymara (2009 est.)

note: results among surveys vary based on the wording of the ethnicity question and the available response choices; the 2001 national census did not provide "mestizo" as a response choice, resulting in a much higher proportion of respondents identifying themselves as belonging to one of the available indigenous ethnicity choices;

the use of "mestizo" and "cholo" varies among response choices in surveys, with surveys using the terms interchangeably, providing one or the other as a response choice, or providing the two as separate response choices

Bolivia ranks at or near the bottom among Latin American countries in several areas of health and development, including poverty, education, fertility, malnutrition, mortality, and life expectancy. On the positive side, more children are being vaccinated and more pregnant women are getting prenatal care and having skilled health practitioners attend their births.

Bolivia’s income inequality is the highest in Latin America and one of the highest in the world. Public education is of poor quality, and educational opportunities are among the most unevenly distributed in Latin America, with girls and indigenous and rural children less likely to be literate or to complete primary school.

The lack of access to education and family planning services helps to sustain Bolivia’s high fertility rate—approximately three children per woman. Bolivia’s lack of clean water and basic sanitation, especially in rural areas, contributes to health problems. Between 7% and 16% of Bolivia’s population lives abroad (estimates vary in part because of illegal migration). Emigrants primarily seek jobs and better wages in Argentina (the principal destination), the US, and Spain.

In recent years, more restrictive immigration policies in Europe and the US have increased the flow of Bolivian emigrants to neighboring countries. Fewer Bolivians migrated to Brazil in 2015 and 2016 because of its recession; increasing numbers have been going to Chile, mainly to work as miners.

chief of state:

• President Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (since 8 November 2020);
• Vice President David CHOQUEHUANCA Cespedes (since 8 November 2020);
• note - the president is both chief of state and head of government

note: former President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma resigned from office on 10 November 2019 over alleged election rigging; resignations of all his constitutionally designated successors followed, including the Vice President, President of the Senate, President of the Chamber of Deputies, and First Vice President of the Senate, leaving the Second Vice President of the Senate, Jeanine ANEZ Chavez, the highest-ranking official still in office;

her appointment to the presidency was endorsed by Bolivia's Constitutional Court, and she served as interim president until the inauguration of Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora, winner of the 18 October 2020 presidential election

head of government:

President Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (since 8 November 2020); Vice President David CHOQUEHUANCA Cespedes (since 8 November 2020)

cabinet:

Cabinet appointed by the president

elections/appointments:

• president and vice president directly elected on the same ballot one of 3 ways: candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, or at least 40% of the vote and 10% more than the next highest candidate;
• otherwise a second round is held and the winner determined by simple majority vote;
• president and vice president are elected by majority vote to serve a 5-year term;
• no term limits (changed from two consecutive term limit by Constitutional Court in late 2017);
• election last held on 18 October 2020

election results:

• Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora elected president;
• percent of vote - Luis Alberto ARCE Catacora (MAS) 55.1%;
• Carlos Diego MESA Gisbert (CC) 28.8%;
• Luis Fernando CAMACHO Vaca (Creemos) 14%;
• other 2.1%

description:

bicameral Plurinational Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional consists of:; Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (36 seats; members directly elected in multi-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote; members serve 5-year terms); Chamber of Deputies or Camara de Diputados (130 seats; 70 members directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote, 53 directly elected in single-seat constituencies by proportional representation vote, and 7 - apportioned to non-contiguous, rural areas in 7 of the 9 states - directly elected in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote; members serve 5-year terms)

elections:

Chamber of Senators - last held on 18 October 2020 (next to be held in 2025); Chamber of Deputies - last held on 18 October 2020 (next to be held in 2025)

election results:

Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - MAS 21, ACC 11, Creemos 4;; Chamber of Deputies - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - MAS 75, ACC 39, Creemos 16

chief of mission:

Ambassador Walter Oscar SERRATE CUELLAR (since 2 December 2019)

chancery:

3014 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 483-4410

FAX:

[1] (202) 328-3712

consulate(s) general:

Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Washington, DC

note: in September 2008, the US expelled the Bolivian ambassador to the US in reciprocity for Bolivia expelling the US ambassador to Bolivia; in November 2019, the interim Bolivian Government names Oscar SERRATE Cuellar as its temporary special representative to the US

chief of mission:

Ambassador (vacant); Charge d'Affaires Bruce WILLIAMSON (since December 2017)

telephone:

[591] (2) 216-8000

embassy:

Avenida Arce 2780, Casilla 425, La Paz

mailing address:

3220 La Paz Place, Dulles, VA, 20189-3220

FAX:

[591] (2) 216-8111

note: in September 2008, the Bolivian Government expelled the US Ambassador to Bolivia, Philip GOLDBERG, and both countries have yet to reinstate their ambassadors

• 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

note: similar to the flag of Ghana, which has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band; in 2009, a presidential decree made it mandatory for a so-called wiphala - a square,

multi-colored flag representing the country's indigenous peoples - to be used alongside the traditional flag

Bolivia is a resource rich country with strong growth attributed to captive markets for natural gas exports – to Brazil and Argentina. However, the country remains one of the least developed countries in Latin America because of state-oriented policies that deter investment. Following an economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms in the 1990s spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates.

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 2005-06, the government passed hydrocarbon laws 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;

the laws engendered much public debate. High commodity prices between 2010 and 2014 sustained rapid growth and large trade surpluses with GDP growing 6.8% in 2013 and 5.4% in 2014. The global decline in oil prices that began in late 2014 exerted downward pressure on the price Bolivia receives for exported gas and resulted in lower GDP growth rates - 4.9% in 2015 and 4.3% in 2016 - and losses in government revenue as well as fiscal and trade deficits.

A lack of foreign investment in the key sectors of mining and hydrocarbons, along with conflict among social groups, pose challenges for the Bolivian economy. In 2015, President Evo MORALES expanded efforts to court international investment and boost Bolivia’s energy production capacity.

MORALES passed an investment law and promised not to nationalize additional industries in an effort to improve the investment climate. In early 2016, the Government of Bolivia approved the 2016-2020 National Economic and Social Development Plan aimed at maintaining growth of 5% and reducing poverty.

general assessment:

• lowest GDP in the area;
• much of the population live in remote valleys and telecommunications is poor;
• consumers pick from multiple long-distance carriers for each call;
• reliability, and coverage have steadily improved, but some remote areas are still underserved;
• operators plan to extend fiber to all 339 municipal capital cities by 2022;
• move from 3G to LTE available by all 3 mobile companies;
• 92% of all Internet is through smartphone;
• broadband services remain expensive by the lack of competition and that fact that Bolivia is landlocked and does not have access through submarine cables;
• MNP (mobile number portability) launched in October 2018;
• Bolivian Space Agency planning to launch a second telecom satellite after 2020 (2020)

domestic:

• 6 per 100 fixed-line, mobile-cellular telephone use expanding rapidly and teledensity stands at 101 per 100 persons;
• most telephones are concentrated in La Paz, Santa Cruz, and other capital cities (2019)

international:

• country code - 591;
• Bolivia has no direct access to submarine cable networks and must therefore connect to the rest of the world either via satellite or through terrestrial links across neighboring countries;
• satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat (Atlantic Ocean) (2019)

note: the COVID-19 outbreak is negatively impacting telecommunications production and supply chains globally; consumer spending on telecom devices and services has also slowed due to the pandemic's effect on economies worldwide;

overall progress towards improvements in all facets of the telecom industry - mobile, fixed-line, broadband, submarine cable and satellite - has moderated