CIA - The World Factbook

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.

Central South America, southwest of Brazil

slightly less than three times the size of Montana

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

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

9,775,246 (July 2009 est.)

25.82 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)

7.05 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)

-1.05 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)

3.17 children born/woman (2009 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)

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)

2 February 1967; revised in August 1994; voters approved a new constitution on 25 January 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 National Congress or Congreso Nacional consists of Chamber of Senators or Camara de Senadores (27 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; 70 members are directly elected from their districts and 60 are elected by proportional representation from party lists to serve five-year terms); note - under representational rules established by the 2009 Constitution, the National Congress will become the Plurinational Legislative Assembly or Asamblea Legislativa Plurinacional; the number of Deputies will remain at 130, but the number of Senators will rise to 36

Supreme Court or Corte Suprema (judges appointed for 10-year terms by National Congress); District Courts (one in each department); provincial and local courts (to try minor cases); Constitutional Tribunal (five primary or titulares and five alternate or suplente magistrates appointed by Congress; to rule on constitutional issues); National Electoral Court (six members elected by Congress, Supreme Court, the president, and the political party with the highest vote in the last election for four-year terms); note - under the 2009 Constitution, all Constitutional and Supreme Court judges will be elected by popular vote

Free Bolivia Movement or MBL [Franz BARRIOS]; Movement Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo MORALES Ayma]; Movement Without Fear or MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO]; National Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Mirta QUEVEDO]; National Unity [Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana]; Poder Democratico Nacional or PODEMOS [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Social Alliance [Rene JOAQUINO]

Sole Confederation of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB

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

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 early 2008, higher earnings for mining and hydrocarbons exports pushed the current account surplus to 9.4% of GDP and the government's higher tax take produced a fiscal surplus after years of large deficits. Private investment as a share of GDP, however, remains among the lowest in Latin America, and inflation remained at double-digit levels in 2008. The decline in commodity prices in late 2008, the lack of foreign investment in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, and the suspension of trade benefits with the United States will pose challenges for the Bolivian economy in 2009.

$43.08 billion (2008 est.)

$40.8 billion (2007)

$18.94 billion (2008 est.)

4.457 million (2008 est.)

16.7% of GDP (2008 est.)

52.7% of GDP (2008 est.)

13% (31 December 2008)

6.5% (31 December 2007)

11.46% (31 December 2008)

12.86% (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$3.032 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$4.729 billion (31 December 2007)

$NA (31 December 2008)

$4.759 billion (31 December 2007)

$2.263 billion (31 December 2007)

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

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

5.668 billion kWh (2007 est.)

5.092 billion kWh (2007 est.)

61,790 bbl/day (2007 est.)

31,500 bbl/day (2007 est.)

18,500 bbl/day (2007 est.)

8,600 bbl/day (2007 est.)

465 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.)

14.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)

3 billion cu m (2007 est.)

11.7 billion cu m (2007 est.)

750.4 billion cu m (1 January 2008 est.)

$1.789 billion (2008 est.)

$6.384 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

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

Brazil 46%, US 9.8%, Japan 7.6%, Argentina 5.8%, South Korea 4.8%, Peru 4.1% (2007)

$4.782 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.)

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

Brazil 29.9%, Argentina 16.2%, Chile 10.5%, US 9.8%, Peru 8.1% (2007)

$7.864 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$4.603 billion (31 December 2008 est.)

$6.88 billion (31 December 2004)

bolivianos (BOB) per US dollar - 7.253 (2008 est.), 7.8616 (2007), 8.0159 (2006), 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004)

3.254 million (2007)

AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)

gas 4,883 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,475 km; refined products 1,589 km (2008)

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) (2009)

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)

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)