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1 1 (September 1, 2021)

handle is hein.crs/govegpe0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Re inforrning the IegisIathve de Bolivia: An Overview After a year of political instability and more than a decade of tense relations with the United States, Bolivia has a new president who has vowed to work with the Biden Administration. Luis Arce took office in November 2020 after winning 55% of the vote in October 2020 elections in which his Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party maintained a legislative majority. President Arce is seeking to help Bolivia recover from the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and pursuing justice for human rights violations committed in 2019. Background Chronic instability, poverty, corruption, and deep ethnic and regional cleavages have stymied Bolivia's development (see Figure 1). 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 disproportionally affected by poverty and inequality. 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 make 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 leaders perceived to have governed on behalf of the elite led to the election of Morales, president of the coca growers' union and a self-identified person of Aymara descent. PoIca 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) favoring 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 Chivez of Venezuela in taking a hostile stance toward the United States. In 2008, he expelled the ~sear h Se ate 'e1914 Updated September 1, 2021 U.S. Ambassador for allegedly fomenting opposition to his government, charges the State Department said were false. Figure I. Bolivia at a Glance Sources: CRS, based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Instituto Nacional de Estadisticas (INE), and Trade Data Monitor (TDM). Under Morales, Bolivia ranked partly free in Freedom House's Freedom in the World reports, scoring lowest on issues related to due process and judicial independence. 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. Bolivia's first-round election in October 2019 was marred by allegations of fraud in the vote tabulation. The country's electoral agency said Morales won a narrow first-round victory. The opposition rejected that result, and 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, clashes between Morales supporters and the opposition, and an army declaration urging him to step down, Morales resigned and sought asylum in Mexico. Three individuals in line to succeed Morales also resigned. The MAS has criticized OAS election observers for contributing to Morales's ouster. Interir 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

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