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1 1 (May 16, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govegpd0001 and id is 1 raw text is: infm ming ~search Se nate 'e1914 Updated May 16, 2022 Bolivia: An Overview After experiencing instability following the ouster of populist President Evo Morales (2005-2019), Bolivia remains politically polarized but has begun to recover economically under President Luis Arce. Arce, Morales' former finance minister, took office in November 2020 after a first-round victory in October 2020 elections in which his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party maintained a legislative majority. High natural gas prices related to the Ukraine conflict have helped Bolivia's economy recover from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. U.S. relations with Bolivia remain challenging, in part because of Bolivia's 2008 expulsion of the U.S. Ambassador and U.S. law enforcement and development agencies. Background Chronic instability, poverty, corruption, and deep ethnic and regional cleavages have stymied Bolivia's development. Bolivia won independence from Spain in 1825, experiencing frequent military coups and periods of authoritarian rule for much of its history. The country reestablished democratic civilian rule in 1982. Bolivia's population is among the most ethnically diverse in South America. In the 2012 census, some 41% of the population self-identified as Indigenous (Quechua or Aymara). The rest of the population is of European, mixed European and Indigenous, or African descent. Bolivian Indigenous peoples benefitted from the National Revolution of 1952, which led to land reform and expanded suffrage. Nevertheless, they remained underrepresented in the political system prior to Morales's government and continue to be disproportionally affected by poverty. Cultivation of the coca leaf remains a contentious issue in Bolivia and in Bolivian-U.S. relations. Many of Bolivia's Indigenous communities consider the coca leaf sacred and use it for traditional, licit purposes (the leaf also is used to produce cocaine). Opposition to years of U.S.-backed forced coca eradication policies led to the rise of coca growers' trade unions and a related political party, the MAS. In 2005, years of protest against those policies led to the election of Morales, president of the coca growers' union and a self-identified person of Aymara descent. Political Conditions Morales and the MAS transformed Bolivia. Morales decriminalized coca cultivation outside of traditional zones where it had been legal, increased state control over the economy, used natural gas revenue to expand social programs, and enacted a new constitution (2009) protecting the rights and autonomy of indigenous peoples. Previously underrepresented groups increased their representation at all levels of government. In foreign policy, Morales aligned Bolivia with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela in taking a hostile stance toward the United States. In 2008, he expelled the U.S. Ambassador for allegedly fomenting opposition to his government, charges the State Department said were false. Figure I. Bolivia at a Glance Sources: CR5, based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas (INE), and Trade Data Monitor (TDM). Under Morales, the government launched judicial proceedings against its opponents, dismissed hundreds of judges, and restricted freedom of the press. Concerns increased after the Constitutional Tribunal ended constitutional limits on reelection in 2017, overruling a 2016 referendum in which voters rejected allowing Morales to run for a fourth term. In October 2019, allegations of fraud in vote tabulation marred Bolivia's first-round election. The electoral agency said Morales won a narrow first-round victory; the opposition rejected that result. Organization of American States (OAS) election observers found irregularities in the process. Protesters demanded a new election, and then Morales's resignation. After a police mutiny and an army declaration urging him to step down, Morales resigned and sought asylum. Three officials in line to succeed Morales also resigned. The MAS maintains that the OAS observers contributed to Morales's ouster. Interim Government Opposition Senator Jeanine Anez, formerly second vice president of the senate, declared herself senate president and then interim president on November 12, 2019. Anez, a conservative, sought to erase the ethnic pluralism Bolivia had embraced under Morales. Anez issued a decree giving the military permission to participate in crowd-control efforts and immunity from certain prosecutions for doing so. A report by a Group of Independent Experts (GIEI) from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights asserted that grave violations of human rights occurred under Anez, including two massacres in November 2019.

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