History of Bolivia (1982–present)
Republic of Bolivia República de Bolivia | |||||||||
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1982–2010 | |||||||||
Motto: "¡La unión es la fuerza!" (Spanish) "Unity is Strength!" | |||||||||
Anthem: Eduardo Rodríguez | |||||||||
• 2006-2010 | Evo Morales (last) | ||||||||
Legislature | National Congress | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | October 10 1982 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 22 January 2010 | ||||||||
Currency | Bolivian peso | ||||||||
ISO 3166 code | BO | ||||||||
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History of Bolivia |
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Bolivia portal |
The history of Bolivia since 1982 begins with the restorations of democracy after the rule of the military junta of 1982. Evo Morales held the presidency from 2006 to 2019. A new constitution was enacted in 2009. Bolivia's population has roughly doubled over this period, from 5 million in 1980 to 10 million as of 2012.
Hernán Siles Zuaso (1982–85)
The former president Hernán Siles Zuazo assumed the presidency of Bolivia on 10 October 1982,[1] following a general strike that brought the country close to civil war. Severe social tension, exacerbated by economic mismanagement and weak leadership, forced Siles Zuaso to call early elections and relinquish power a year before the end of his constitutional term.[citation needed]
Víctor Paz Estenssoro (1985–1989)
In the
When Estenssoro took office in 1985, he faced a staggering economic crisis. Economic output and exports had been declining for several years.[citation needed] Hyperinflation had reached an annual rate of 24%. Social unrest, chronic strikes, and unchecked drug trafficking were widespread. In 4 years, Paz Estenssoro's administration achieved economic and social stability. The military stayed out of politics, and all major political parties publicly and institutionally committed themselves to democracy. Human rights violations, which badly tainted some governments earlier in the decade, were no longer a problem. However, Estenssoro's remarkable accomplishments were not won without sacrifice. The collapse of tin prices in October 1985, coming just as the government was moving to reassert its control of the mismanaged state mining enterprise, forced the government to lay off over 20,000 miners.[citation needed]
Under pressure from the United States to control coca production, Bolivia passed Law 1008 to enable eradication. Protests by coca growers in Chapare against the proposed law were met by the Villa Tunari massacre in which 12 farmers were killed.[2]
Jaime Paz Zamora (1989–1993)
In the 1989 elections, Jaime Paz Zamora agreed to Patriotic Accord coalition between his MIR party and their former enemy, Gen. Hugo Banzer's ADN. Paz Zamora assumed the presidency, and the MIR took half the ministries, while Banzer's party took control of the National Political Council (CONAPOL) and the other ministries. Banzer was promised the presidency if the alliance was successful in the following election.
Two days after taking power, the government implemented Supreme Decree 21060 (followed by DS 21660), known as the ‘New Economic Policy’, which included reforms for monetary and fiscal stabilisation, the unification of the exchange rate system, tax reform, trade liberalisation, and freezes on wages. These packages were supported with lines of credit arranged by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Paz Zamora was a moderate, center-left President whose political pragmatism in office outweighed his
Paz Zamora was less decisive against
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (1993–1997)
The
Sánchez de Lozada pursued an aggressive economic and social reform agenda. The most dramatic change undertaken by the Sanchez de Lozada government was the capitalization program, under which investors acquired 50% ownership and management control of public enterprises, such as the
The Sánchez de Lozada presidency also twice amended the Bolivian Constitution of 1967, defining Bolivia as a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation, and some Indigenous rights were legally recognized.[3]
Hugo Banzer Suárez (1997–2001) and Jorge Quiroga Ramírez (2001–2002)
In the 1997 elections, the ADN formed a coalition of the MIR, UCS, and CONDEPA parties. As a result, the ADN's leader, former dictator Hugo Banzer, returned to power at age 71 as a democratically elected leader.
Between January and April 2000, a
After a lung cancer diagnosis, Banzer resigned in August 2001, and was succeeded by his vice-president Jorge Quiroga.
MNR Presidencies (2002–2005)
In the
Several days before Bolivians went to the voting booths, the U.S. ambassador Manuel Rocha warned the Bolivian electorate that if they voted for a candidate known to have links with drug-trafficking, referring indirectly to Morales, the US would cut off foreign aid and close its markets to the country. Because of the public outrage this statement generated, Morales received nearly 21% of the vote, putting him only a couple points behind Sánchez de Lozada.[4]
During this period, a divisive conflict known as the
Mesa was inaugurated and promised to address the demands of the protesting majority. In the face of mounting protests, he resigned on March 7, 2005, claiming he was unable to continue governing the country. With promises of support, he withdrew his resignation.
In May–June 2005, Mesa again tendered his resignation and in a hastily convened session of the Parliament in
Evo Morales (2006–2019)
This section needs to be updated.(November 2019) |
The deterioration of the Bolivian political system contributed towards the rise of a loose confederation of indigenous social movements, the MAS and other parties, with the head of the MAS Evo Morales, a former
In March 2006 Morales announced the increase of the minimum wage by 50%. However, 60 percent of Bolivian workers are part of the informal economy, thus limiting the extent of such a legally mandated increase in wages.[5]
On May 1, 2006, Evo Morales nationalized most of Bolivia's natural gas fields, which many indigenous Bolivians had demanded for years. Troops were sent in to occupy the gas fields and take back control from foreign companies that day.[6] Many fields were operated by Petrobras, Brazil's largest energy company, and this political development was expected to strain relations between Morales and leftist Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On October 29, 2006 the Morales government signed agreements with eight foreign gas firms including Petrobras, to give the Bolivian national gas company a majority stake in the gas fields, bringing the nationalization to completion.[7]
On May 4, 2008 autonomy referendums were held in four eastern departments, in which they declared themselves autonomous from the central government. All four referendums passed.[8] Evo Morales deemed this referendum illegal. Turnout was at 70%.[9]
In February 2009 a new constitution was enacted by Evo Morales. This gave Bolivians of indigenous descent more economic and political rights.[clarification needed]
Morales won a third term in
See also
References
- La Opinion(in Spanish). 10 October 2010. Retrieved 10 February 2014.
- ^ "Evo rinde homenaje a mártires de la masacre de Villa Tunari". Cambio. 2009-06-16. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2010-11-30.
- ^ Schilling-Vacaflor, A. (2011). Bolivia's New Constitution: Towards Participatory Democracy and Political Pluralism? Revista Europea De Estudios Latinoamericanos Y Del Caribe / European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, (90), 3-22. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23047817
- ^ Jeremy D. Rosner and Mark Feierstein, "Hindering Reform In Latin America", The Washington Post, August 6, 2002
- ^ "En Bolivie, le président Evo Morales promet une hausse de 50% du salaire minimum" (in French). Le Monde. March 21, 2006.
- ^ BIF Bulletin No 2
- ^ "Analysis: Bolivia's gas nationalization". UPI. November 1, 2006.
- ^ BIF Bulletin Special Edition May 2008
- ^ Bolivia's referendum sees low turnout
- ^ "Bolivia elects Evo Morales as president for third term". The Guardian. Archived from the original on December 18, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
- ^ "Andrés de Santa Cruz y Evo Morales". www.paginasiete.bo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on August 22, 2016. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
- ^ "Bolivian court clears way for Morales to run for fourth term". Reuters. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
- ^ Helen Regan, Kay Guerrero and Dakin Andone (12 November 2019). "Bolivia's Evo Morales on plane to Mexico amid political crisis". CNN. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
- ^ "Una ley fija el 18 de octubre como fecha tope para las elecciones en Bolivia". abc (in Spanish). 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2021-03-17.
Further reading
- Crabtree, John, and Laurence Whitehead, eds. Unresolved tensions: Bolivia past and present (2008) excerpt
- Farthing, Linda C., and Benjamin H. Kohl. Evo's Bolivia: Continuity and Change (2014) excerpt
- Heath, Dwight B. Historical dictionary of Bolivia (1972) online
- Klein, Herbert S. A Concise History of Bolivia (2nd ed. Cambridge UP, 2021) excerpt; also 2003 edition online
- Lehman, Kenneth D. "Completing the revolution? The United States and Bolivia's long revolution." Bolivian Studies Journal 22 (2016): 4-35 online.
- Lehman, Kenneth Duane. Bolivia and the United States: A limited partnership (University of Georgia Press, 1999).
- Morales, Waltraud Q. A brief history of Bolivia (2nd ed. Infobase Publishing, 2010) online.
- Ribando, Clare, ed. "Bolivia: Political and economic developments and relations with the United States." (Congressional Research Service, 2006) online.
- Thomson, Sinclair, et al., eds. The Bolivia Reader: History, Culture, Politics (Duke University Press, 2018).
- Webber, Jeffery R. From Rebellion to Reform in Bolivia: Class Struggle, Indigenous Liberation, and the Politics of Evo Morales (2011)
- Young, Kevin A. Blood of the earth: resource nationalism, revolution, and empire in Bolivia (University of Texas Press, 2017).