Bolivia

§1. Bolivia Introduction

Background:
  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. Comparatively 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
  majority.

§2. Bolivia Geography

Location:
  Central South America, southwest of Brazil

Geographic coordinates:
  17 00 S, 65 00 W

Map references:
  South_America

Area:
  total: 1,098,580 km²
  land: 1,084,390 km²
  water: 14,190 km²

Area - comparative:
  slightly less than three times the size of Montana

Land boundaries:
  total: 6,743 km
  border countries: Argentina 832 km, Brazil 3,400 km, Chile 861 km, Paraguay
    750 km, Peru 900 km

Coastline:
  0 km (landlocked)

Maritime claims:
  none (landlocked)

Climate:
  varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid

Terrain:
  rugged Andes Mountains with a highland plateau (Altiplano), hills, lowland
  plains of the Amazon Basin

Elevation extremes:
  lowest point: Rio Paraguay 90 m
  highest point: Nevado Sajama 6,542 m

Natural resources:
  tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead,
  gold, timber, hydropower

Land use:
  arable land: 2.78%
  permanent crops: 0.19%
  other: 97.03% (2005)

Irrigated land:
  1,280 km² (1998 est.)

Natural hazards:
  flooding in the northeast (March-April)

Environment - current issues:
  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

Environment - international agreements:
  party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol,
    Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea,
    Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber
    83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
  signed, but not ratified: Environmental Modification, Marine Life
    Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection

Geography - note:
  landlocked; shares control of Lago Titicaca, world's highest navigable lake
  (elevation 3,805 m), with Peru

§3. Bolivia People

Population:
  8,989,046 (July 2006 est.)

Age structure:
  0-14 years: 35% (male 1,603,982/female 1,542,319)
  15-64 years: 60.4% (male 2,660,806/female 2,771,807)
  65 years and over: 4.6% (male 182,412/female 227,720) (2006 est.)

Median age:
  total: 21.8 years
  male: 21.2 years
  female: 22.5 years (2006 est.)

Population growth rate:
  1.45% (2006 est.)

Birth rate:
  23.3 births/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Death rate:
  7.53 deaths/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Net migration rate:
  -1.22 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 est.)

Sex ratio:
  at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
  under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
  15-64 years: 0.96 male(s)/female
  65 years and over: 0.8 male(s)/female
  total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (2006 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
  total: 51.77 deaths/1,000 live births
  male: 55.31 deaths/1,000 live births
  female: 48.05 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
  total population: 65.84 years
  male: 63.21 years
  female: 68.61 years (2006 est.)

Total fertility rate:
  2.85 children born/woman (2006 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
  0.1% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
  4,900 (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths:
  less than 500 (2003 est.)

Nationality:
  noun: Bolivian(s)
  adjective: Bolivian

Ethnic groups:
  Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, Aymara 25%,
  white 15%

Religions:
  Roman Catholic 95%, Protestant (Evangelical Methodist) 5%

Languages:
  Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)

Literacy:
  definition: age 15 and over can read and write
  total population: 87.2%
  male: 93.1%
  female: 81.6% (2003 est.)

§4. Bolivia Government

Country name:
  conventional long form: Republic of Bolivia
  conventional short form: Bolivia
  local long form: Republica de Bolivia
  local short form: Bolivia

Government type:
  republic

Capital:
  La Paz (seat of government); Sucre (legal capital and seat of judiciary)

Administrative divisions:
  9 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento); Beni, Chuquisaca,
  Cochabamba, La Paz, Oruro, Pando, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Tarija

Independence:
  6 August 1825 (from Spain)

National holiday:
  Independence Day, 6 August (1825)

Constitution:
  2 February 1967; revised in August 1994

Legal system:
  based on Spanish law and Napoleonic Code; has not accepted compulsory ICJ
  jurisdiction

Suffrage:
  18 years of age, universal and compulsory (married); 21 years of age,
  universal and compulsory (single)

Executive branch:
  chief of state: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January 2006);
    Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006); note - the
    president is both chief of state and head of government
  head of government: President Juan Evo MORALES Ayma (since 22 January
    2006); Vice President Alvaro GARCIA Linera (since 22 January 2006); note
    - the president is both chief of state and head of government
  cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president
  elections: president and vice president elected on the same ticket by
    popular vote for five-year terms; election last held 18 December 2005
    (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma elected president; percent of vote
    - Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 53.7%; Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez 28.6%;
    Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 7.8%; Michiaki NAGATANI Morishit 6.5%; Felipe
    QUISPE Huanca 2.2%; Guildo ANGULA Cabrera 0.7%

Legislative branch:
  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; 69 are directly
  elected from their districts and 61 are elected by proportional
  representation from party lists to serve five-year terms)
  elections: Chamber of Senators and Chamber of Deputies - last held 18
    December 2005 (next to be held in 2010)
  election results: Chamber of Senators - percent of vote by party - NA%;
    seats by party - PODEMOS 13, MAS 12, UN 1, MNR 1; Chamber of Deputies -
    percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - MAS 73, PODEMOS 43, UN
    8, MNR 6

Judicial branch:
  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)

Political parties and leaders:
  Bolivian Socialist Falange or FSB [Romel PANTOJA]; Civic Solidarity Union
  or UCS [Johnny FERNANDEZ]; Free Bolivia Movement or MBL [Franz BARRIOS];
  Marshal of Ayacucho Institutional Vanguard or VIMA [Freddy ZABALA];
  Movement of the Revolutionary Left or MIR [Jaime PAZ Zamora]; Movement
  Toward Socialism or MAS [Juan Evo MORALES Ayma]; Movement Without Fear or
  MSM [Juan DEL GRANADO]; National Revolutionary Movement or MNR [Gonzalo
  SANCHEZ DE LOZADA]; New Republican Force or NFR [Manfred REYES-VILLA];
  Pachakuti Indigenous Movement or MIP [Felipe QUISPE Huanca]; Poder
  Democratico Nacional or PODEMOS [Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez]; Socialist
  Party or PS [Jeres JUSTINIANO]

Political pressure groups and leaders:
  Cocalero groups; indigenous organizations; labor unions; Sole Confederation
  of Campesino Workers of Bolivia or CSUTCB [Roman LOAYZA]

International organization participation:
  CAN, CSN, FAO, G-77, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC,
  IFRCS, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO (correspondent), ITU,
  LAES, LAIA, Mercosur (associate), MIGA, MINUSTAH, MONUC, NAM, OAS, ONUB,
  OPANAL, OPCW, PCA, RG, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMISET, UNOCI,
  UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTO

Diplomatic representation in the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador Jaime APARICIO Otero
  chancery: 3014 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
  telephone: [1] (202) 483-4410
  FAX: [1] (202) 328-3712
  consulate(s) general: Houston, Miami, New York, Oklahoma City, San
    Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC

Diplomatic representation from the US:
  chief of mission: Ambassador David N. GREENLEE
  embassy: Avenida Arce 2780, La Paz
  mailing address: P. O. Box 425, La Paz; APO AA 34032
  telephone: [591] (2) 216-8000
  FAX: [591] (2) 216-8111

Flag description:
  three equal horizontal bands of red (top), yellow, and green with the coat
  of arms centered on the yellow band; similar to the flag of Ghana, which
  has a large black five-pointed star centered in the yellow band

§5. Bolivia Economy

Economy - overview:
  Bolivia, long one of the poorest and least developed Latin American
  countries, reformed its economy after suffering a disastrous economic
  crisis in the early 1980s. The reforms spurred real GDP growth, which
  averaged 4% in the 1990s, and poverty rates fell. Economic growth, however,
  lagged again beginning in 1999 because of a global slowdown and homegrown
  factors such as political turmoil, civil unrest, and soaring fiscal
  deficits, all of which hurt investor confidence. In 2003, violent protests
  against the pro-foreign investment economic policies of President SANCHEZ
  DE LOZADA led to his resignation and the cancellation of plans to export
  Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern
  hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial natural
  gas law that imposes on the oil and gas firms significantly higher taxes as
  well as new contracts that give the state control of their operations.
  Bolivian officials are in the process of implementing the law; meanwhile,
  foreign investors have stopped investing and have taken the first legal
  steps to secure their investments. Real GDP growth in 2003-05 - helped by
  increased demand for natural gas in neighboring Brazil - was positive, but
  still below the levels seen during the 1990s. Bolivia's fiscal position has
  improved in recent years, but the country remains dependent on foreign aid
  from multilateral lenders and foreign governments to meet budget
  shortfalls. In 2005, the G8 announced a $2 billion debt- forgiveness plan
  over the next few decades that should help reduce some fiscal pressures on
  the government in the near term.

GDP (purchasing power parity):
  $23.73 billion (2005 est.)

GDP (official exchange rate):
  $9.848 billion (2005 est.)

GDP - real growth rate:
  3.4% (2005 est.)

GDP - per capita (PPP):
  $2,700 (2005 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:
  agriculture: 12.6%
  industry: 35%
  services: 52.4% (2005 est.)

Labor force:
  4.22 million (2005 est.)

Labor force - by occupation:
  agriculture NA%, industry NA%, services NA%

Unemployment rate:
  8% in urban areas; widespread underemployment (2005 est.)

Population below poverty line:
  64% (2004 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share:
  lowest 10%: 1.3%
  highest 10%: 32% (1999)

Distribution of family income - Gini index:
  60.6 (2002)

Inflation rate (consumer prices):
  4.9% (2005 est.)

Investment (gross fixed):
  9% of GDP (2005 est.)

Budget:
  revenues: $2.848 billion
  expenditures: $3.189 billion; including capital expenditures of $741
    million (2005 est.)

Agriculture - products:
  soybeans, coffee, coca, cotton, corn, sugarcane, rice, potatoes; timber

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

Industrial production growth rate:
  5.7% (2004 est.)

Electricity - production:
  4.25 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - consumption:
  3.963 billion kWh (2003)

Electricity - exports:
  0 kWh (2003)

Electricity - imports:
  10 million kWh (2003)

Oil - production:
  42,000 bbl/day (2005 est.)

Oil - consumption:
  48,000 bbl/day (2003 est.)

Oil - exports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - imports:
  NA bbl/day

Oil - proved reserves:
  458.8 million bbl (1 January 2002)

Natural gas - production:
  6.72 billion m³ (2003 est.)

Natural gas - consumption:
  1.74 billion m³ (2003 est.)

Natural gas - exports:
  2.9 billion m³ (2001 est.)

Natural gas - imports:
  0 m³ (2001 est.)

Natural gas - proved reserves:
  679.6 billion m³ (1 January 2002)

Current account balance:
  $376 million (2005 est.)

Exports:
  $2.371 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Exports - commodities:
  natural gas, soybeans and soy products, crude petroleum, zinc ore, tin

Exports - partners:
  Brazil 40%, US 13.9%, Colombia 8.7%, Peru 6.3%, Japan 4.5% (2004)

Imports:
  $1.845 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.)

Imports - commodities:
  petroleum products, plastics, paper, aircraft and aircraft parts, prepared
  foods, automobiles, insecticides, soybeans

Imports - partners:
  Brazil 29.7%, Argentina 17.6%, US 10.8%, Chile 7.7%, Peru 7.3% (2004)

Reserves of foreign exchange and gold:
  $1.688 billion (December 2005)

Debt - external:
  $6.43 billion (2005 est.)

Economic aid - recipient:
  $221 million (2005 est.)

Currency (code):
  boliviano (BOB)

Exchange rates:
  bolivianos per US dollar - 8.0661 (2005), 7.9363 (2004), 7.6592 (2003),
  7.17 (2002), 6.6069 (2001)

Fiscal year:
  calendar year

§6. Bolivia Communications

Telephones - main lines in use:
  625,400 (2004)

Telephones - mobile cellular:
  1,800,800 (2004)

Telephone system:
  general assessment: new subscribers face bureaucratic difficulties; most
    telephones are concentrated in La Paz and other cities; mobile cellular
    telephone use expanding rapidly
  domestic: primary trunk system, which is being expanded, employs digital
    microwave radio relay; some areas are served by fiber-optic cable; mobile
    cellular systems are being expanded
  international: country code - 591; satellite earth station - 1 Intelsat
    (Atlantic Ocean)

Radio broadcast stations:
  AM 171, FM 73, shortwave 77 (1999)

Television broadcast stations:
  48 (1997)

Internet country code:
  .bo

Internet hosts:
  16,045 (2005)

Internet users:
  350,000 (2005)

§7. Bolivia Transportation

Airports:
  1,067 (2005)

Airports - with paved runways:
  total: 16
  over 3,047 m: 4
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 4
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 5
  914 to 1,523 m: 3 (2005)

Airports - with unpaved runways:
  total: 1,051
  over 3,047 m: 1
  2,438 to 3,047 m: 3
  1,524 to 2,437 m: 60
  914 to 1,523 m: 207
  under 914 m: 780 (2005)

Pipelines:
  gas 4,860 km; liquid petroleum gas 47 km; oil 2,457 km; refined products
  1,589 km; unknown (oil/water) 247 km (2004)

Railways:
  total: 3,519 km
  narrow gauge: 3,519 km 1.000-m gauge (2004)

Roadways:
  total: 60,762 km
  paved: 4,314 km (including 11 km of expressways)
  unpaved: 56,448 km (2003)

Waterways:
  10,000 km (commercially navigable) (2005)

Merchant marine:
  total: 25 ships (1000 GRT or over) 125,674 GRT/193,117 DWT
  by type: bulk carrier 1, cargo 10, chemical tanker 1, container 1,
    passenger/cargo 2, petroleum tanker 9, refrigerated cargo 1
  foreign-owned: 8 (Argentina 1, Egypt 1, Iran 1, Singapore 2, Taiwan 1, US
    1, Yemen 1) (2005)

Ports and terminals:
  Puerto Aguirre (on the Paraguay/Parana waterway, at the Bolivia/Brazil
  border); also, Bolivia has free port privileges in maritime ports in
  Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Paraguay

§8. Bolivia Military

Military branches:
  Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Navy (Fuerza Naval; includes Marines), Air Force
  (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana) (2004)

Military service age and obligation:
  18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual number of
  volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected,
  including conscription of boys as young as 14; one estimate holds that 40%
  of the armed forces are under the age of 18, with 50% of those under the
  age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12 months (2002)

Manpower available for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,923,234 (2005 est.)

Manpower fit for military service:
  males age 18-49: 1,311,414 (2005 est.)

Manpower reaching military service age annually:
  males: 101,101 (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - dollar figure:
  $130 million (2005 est.)

Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
  1.4% (2005 est.)

§9. Bolivia Transnational Issues

Disputes - international:
  Chile rebuffs Bolivia's reactivated claim to restore the Atacama corridor,
  ceded to Chile in 1884, offering instead unrestricted but not sovereign
  maritime access through Chile for Bolivian natural gas and other
  commodities

Illicit drugs:
  world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru) with an
  estimated 26,500 hectares under cultivation in August 2005, an 8% increase
  from 2004; intermediate coca products and cocaine exported mostly to or
  through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to European drug markets; cultivation
  steadily increasing despite eradication and alternative crop programs;
  money-laundering activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the
  borders with Brazil and Paraguay


<Factbook 2006>
