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Bolivia Page |
Welcome to ElectionInfo.com's pages on Bolivia
Official Name: Republic of Bolivia
Capital: La Paz (seat of government); Sucre (legal capital and seat of judiciary)
Area: 1,098,580 square kilometres (424,164 square miles)
Major cities (Population)
La Paz 1,246,000 (1995 estimate)
Santa Cruz 694,616 (1992)
Cochabamba 404,102 (1992)
Oruro 183,194 (1992)
Sucre 130,952 (1992)
Potosí 112,291 (1992)
Population: 7,414,000 (1995 estimate)
Population growth rate: 2.4 per cent (1990-1995 average)
Type of government: Republic
Independence: 6 August 1825 (from Spain)
Constitution: 2 February 1967
Voting Rights: Universal and compulsory for married citizens at age 18; universal and compulsory for single citizens at age 21
Government
A president, vice president, and cabinet form the executive branch of the government. The National Congress (Congreso Nacional) consists of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The Supreme Court forms the independent judicial branch. Elections are held every four years. The voting age is 18 for those who are married and 21 for those who are single.
Recent History
Since its independence Bolivia has experienced about 190 coups. Its first president was overthrown in 1828, and the country experienced decades of factional strife, revolutions, and military dictatorships. Much of its original territory was lost between 1879 and 1935 in wars with Chile, Brazil, and Paraguay. The War of the Pacific (1879–1884) resulted in the loss of Bolivia’s access to the sea, and the coastline Bolivia lost is now part of Chile.
In the 1940s dissidents of both the political right and left began to organize into opposition parties on a national level, resulting in several violent revolts. The government attempted to improve conditions and stabilize the country during the 1950s, but a military coup ended the reforms in 1964. Ernesto “Che” Guevara, a Cuban Argentine and former aide to Cuban premier Fidel Castro, led a guerrilla campaign until he was shot dead in 1967. A series of coups brought various dictators to power, each of them oppressive to the majority indigenous populations. In elections held in late 1979, none of the candidates received a majority vote. Congress gave an interim presidency to Walter Guevara Arze, but he was overthrown by a military coup the same year. The military government changed hands once again. Dr Siles Zuazo won the 1980 national election, but was overthrown less than a month later by General Luis García Meza. His regime embarked on a wave of terror, and he was replaced a year later. The economy deteriorated, inflation soared to more than 14,000 per cent a year, and pressure for change increased.
In 1985, after another indecisive election, Congress elected Víctor Paz Estenssoro as president. During his presidential term he introduced austerity measures. Consequently annual inflation fell to below 20 per cent, and the economy improved. Peaceful transfers of power took place in 1989, when Jaime Paz Zamora was elected president, and in 1993, when Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada was voted into office. Lozada’s vice-president, Víctor Hugo Cárdenas, is an Aymara and the first indigenous person in South America to achieve such a high office, a fact that has raised hopes for greater equality for the indigenous peoples.
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