Bolivia Before Evo: A Brief History of Bolivia 1952-2005 - Anna

Bolivia, South America’s poorest and most unstable country, has a long history of mobilization and activism. Considering that up until 1982 it had experienced more coups than it had years of democratic governances, its political instability is evident. Much of this can be attributed to the divide of the Bolivian society along geographic, ethnic, ideological and class-based lines. The main divide is between the indigenous groups of the West and the mostly of European descent residents of the east, which also represents a stark contrast of rich and poor, a phenomenon that is well-known in Bolivia. Although nearly two-thirds of Bolivia’s population is comprised indigenous people, historically they have been dismissed to the edge of Bolivia’s civic, economic and political institutions.  

Bolivia’s indigenous population, who predominantly live as subsistence farmers, ranges from poor to extremely destitute while east of the Andes a wealthy minority have a higher standard of living than most South Americans. Bolivia’s indigenous people have routinely been excluded from Bolivian political economic and social processes and throughout history have felt exploited, believing that the wealthy minority of the east has partitioned the country’s best farmland and natural gas reserves for their own benefit. Throughout history there has been much conflict between these two groups with the indigenous people mostly favoring nationalism, socialism, anti-U.S. policies and just wanting more rights in general while those in the east often favor strong ties with the U.S. as well as foreign trade and exporting. During the 20th century, attempts at reorganization and reform in South America’s poorest and most unstable country were overshadowed by military coups, rule of dictators and bankruptcy. There are patterns of the same people coming into power, social movements unable to maintain collective unity and of the government going back and forth between nationalism and privatization as the person in power continuously changes.

It wasn’t until 1952 that the State attempted to incorporate into the national life the indigenous population of Bolivia. This significant turning point was due to the 1952 revolution which was started by a successful revolt led by the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR)—a loose coalition of coal miners, Indian subsistence farmers and middle-class mestizos—bringing President Paz Estenssoro to power. The MNR also introduced universal adult suffrage, a sweeping land reform, promoted rural education and nationalized the country’s largest tin mines. The MNR party ruled Bolivia for 12 years but their popularity began to decrease when they failed to boost the economy resulting in rampant inflation and declining farm productivity.

Authoritarian Military Rule 1964-1982-

Estenssoro was overthrown by a military coup in 1964 at the start of his third term followed by another prolonged period of authoritarian military rule filled with coups and right-wing military dictatorships. Between 1964 and 1985 there were over 15 different dictators and military groups in power. Of these, only a few managed to remain in power more than a year or two. Rene Barrientos and co-president Alfredo Ovando supported a program of “revolutionary nationalism”. According to Ovando, the only way to end Bolivia’s underdevelopment was to allow and to encourage the military to manage the economy and intervene in domestic politics.  

The 1970s were dominated by dictator and general Hugo Banzer whose populist military government had the support of the MNR party as well its traditional rightest opponent during the first few years. Banzer closed the universities, arrested opposition opponents and returned Bolivia to a pro-U.S. foreign policy. Driven largely by the heavy demand for Bolivia’s commodity exports, Banzer oversaw rapid economic growth. But by 1974 labor unrest intensified as the economy experienced a slowdown and the military regime resorted to greater repression in order to maintain political control. Pressured by the U.S. and Europe to liberalize and restore civilian democratic rule, Banzer announced a presidential election for 1980. Banzer was forced to resign in 1978 by the military which soon gained control of the government and delayed the elections until 1982.

Economic Crisis of the 1980s-

Civilian rule and a democratic government were restored in 1982. In that year, Hernán Siles Zuazo and the Democratic Popular Unity (UDP) party, a loose coalition of 20-odd leftist and non-aligned political parties and movements, were elected to power with the goal of resuming the nationalist project of the MNR 30 years before. It was in the early 1980s that Bolivia faced the most severe economic crisis of the preceding three decades, foreign debt amounting to nearly $3 billion U.S. dollars. The Siles Zuazo government attempted to address this crisis negotiating several tentative stabilization programs with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) but during 1985 the international tin market collapsed and Bolivia’s inflation reached an annual rate of over 24,000 percent. The UDP proved unable to maintain any sort of collective unity and opposition forced them and Siles Zuazo to give up power through a new round of elections in 1985.

The 1985 presidential election became a head-to-head contest between former military dictator Banzer and MNR founder Paz Estenssoro. After luring support from the Movement of the Revolutionary Left with promises of state patronage, Paz Estenssoro was elected president for the fourth time since 1952. Abandoning his left-wing allies and populist past, Paz Estenssoro implemented one of the strictest economic stabilization packages ever implemented in Latin America.

The “New Economic Policy” (NPE) aimed at ending Bolivia’s hyperinflation and dismantling the many large, and what critics believed were inefficient, state enterprises created during the revolution. The result illustrates the best and worst of free markets. The NPE successfully ended hyperinflation, dropping from 8,170 percent to a more manageable 9 percent. On the other hand, 35,000 factory workers and 20,000 miners lost their jobs because of privatization. On top of this, there was a downturn in the global tin market and the cost of commodities in Bolivia soared causing the middle class to slip into poverty, increasing the country’s already high poverty levels. Thousands were forced to relocate for work which resulted in the opposition to the country’s ruling political elite no longer being limited to a particular region or industry but instead was diffused throughout the country.

Free-Market Reforms of the 1990s-

Jaime Paz Zamora succeeded Paz Estenssoro as president in 1989 and continued with the market reform policies, overseeing modest economic recovery aided by the a rebound in the tin market. In the early 1990s, the government offered tax incentives to attract foreign investors in the mining industry. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, a mining entrepreneur and Paz Estenssoro’s former planning minister was elected president in 1993. Lozada represented a new generation of MNR leaders, committed to modernizing Bolivia through private capital investment from abroad.

He pursued privatization and continued free-market reforms, but also launched a social security program and granted more resources to poor urban and indigenous communities. The discovery of natural gas reserves in the late 1990s provoked heated controversy over ownership of natural resources and the extent to which Bolivia should pursue “neo-liberal” economic policies favoring foreign capital investment. This debate put the natural gas-rich eastern provinces of Santa Cruz against social movements supported by poorer communities of central and western Bolivia.

Coca-Eradication and Privatization Conflicts

Conflict over natural gas, privatization and coca eradication resulted in a new generation of social protests. The social movements claimed to represent Bolivians who had suffered discrimination and exclusion from the country’s mainstream political and economic institutions, this encompassed a variety of groups including indigenous communities, cocaleros and shantytown dwellers. The social movements were very anti-capitalist, favored socialism and nationalism, and had a deep-seated suspicion of foreign companies. The social movements distinguished themselves from political parties by encouraging disruptive forms of protest like road blockades and occupations of government buildings.

Hugo Banzer came to power again in 1997, this time through democratic elections. During his campaign he promised to halt privatization, but he continued most of the economic policies of Lozada. Pressure from the U.S. led the Banzer administration to implement the Dignity Plan, an aggressive coca-eradication program by the Bolivian armed forces. Although somewhat successful in aims of eradicating coca fields, the Dignity Plan increased rural poverty and social protest movements among the mostly indigenous coca farmers (cocaleros) of the Chapare region. Evos Morales, who was a coca farmer and is now Bolivia’s current president, led cocaleros in violent uprisings against the efforts of the U.S.

In 1999, followed by recommendations from the World Bank, the Bolivian government privatized the water of Cochabamba which resulted in the price of water increasing by 50%. This caused an uproar from poorer inhabitants of the region and in April 2000, violent demonstrations occurred disputing the contract on the grounds that the poor would be deprived of universal access to water. The government was forced to break the contract. Morales was one of the leaders of this protest as well. The water war, the country’s economic difficulties and the anti-coca campaign led to increasing political assertiveness by indigenous people and initiated a period of intense conflict between the social movements and the government. In the 2002 election, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was elected president a second time winning by only two points against Morales, whose popularity was growing along with U.S. opposition to him.

Unsettled Social Unrest and the Rise of Evo Morales

Already experiencing violent protests earlier that year after proposed tax increases, in September 2003 Lozada announced plans to export natural gas to the U.S. and Mexico through a port in Chile, Bolivia’s traditional enemy. This resulted in more demonstrations that continued into October. Lozada sent troops to break up the blockades of the highways which resulted in at least 80 demonstrators dead. This caused even more violent protests and to try to end the violence Lozada resigned and went into exile, leaving the government in the hands of vice president Carlos Mesa.

Mesa attempted to resolve the dispute between the supporters and opponents of a foreign corporate role in the extraction and sales of natural gas through a national referendum which was approved in July 2004. Mesa resigned in June 2005 after protests by labor and indigenous groups about his failure to veto an oil and gas taxation law as he said he would. They demanded that the industry be nationalized and continued demonstrations, isolating Bolivia’s major cities at which point Mesa resigned.

Congress agreed on Eduardo Rodríguez Veltze, president of the Supreme Court, to step in as interim president. He was sworn in on June 10, 2005 and immediately called for a special national election in December 2005. It was the December 2005 presidential election that gave way to Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales. As the December 2005 election approached Morales focused on his three main campaign issues: increasing the rights of Bolivia’s indigenous people, nationalizing the economy and protecting Bolivia’s coca production. With the support of fellow indigenous Bolivians, Morales embodied native Indian culture. Since 2005, how has Morales addressed these three central issues? Does he still have the indigenous support that got him into office?

Bibliography-

"A Brief Recent History of Bolivia and the Rise of President Morales." Council on Hemispheric Affairs. COHA Staff, 26 Jan. 2009. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://www.coha.org/a-brief-recent-history-of-bolivia-and-the-rise-of-president- morales/>. Allen, M.D., Dr. J. Michael , and Dr. Jerrold Post, M.D. "The Rise of Evo Morales – A Psychobiographical Profile." Diplomacy Foreign Affairs. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. <http://diplomacyandforeignaffairs.com/from-bolivias-coca-fields-to-the-presidency-the-rise-of-evo-morales-a-psychobiographical-profile/>. BBC. "Bolivian president quits amid turmoil." BBC News. BBC, 18 Oct. 2003. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3202216.stm>. CNN. "Bolivia's president resigns: U.S. troops to assess situation after month of violent clashes." CNN. Cable News Network, 17 Oct. 2003. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/americas/10/17/bolivia.president/>. GuideBolivia. "2000: The war of water." Guidebolivia: Bolivia today. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.guidebolivia.com/divers/histoire/gb_annees2000.htm>. One World Nations Online. "History of Bolivia." One World Nations Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/History/Bolivia-history.htm>. Rohter, Larry. "Bolivian Leader Resigns and His Vice President Steps In." The New York Times. The New York Times, 17 Oct. 2003. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/18/world/bolivian-leader-resigns-and-his-vic e-president-steps-in.html>. The Washington Post. "Bolivia." Country Guides. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/countries/bolivia.html?nav=el>.

Silver, Rubber, and Gas - Sam

Silver, Rubber, and Gas: Early Bolivian history from a perspective of geography and resources

Brief Timeline

8,000-10,000 B.C.________People arrive in Bolivia
1,600 B.C. - 1,200 A.D.____Tiwanaku Culture: rise and then fall
1430___________________Incas control Bolivian Highlands
1532___________________Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizarro, conquer the Inca
1544___________________Silver discovered at Potosí
1650___________________Potosí has largest population in Western Hemisphere: 160,000
1825___________________16 years of war in S. America leads to Bolivian independence
1800s__________________ Rubber replaces silver as major export
1825-1985______________ Great political instability (frequent changes of govt and military rule)
1883___________________Bolivia loses access to the Pacific in war with Chile
1952___________________MNR party enacts a reform agenda: land distribution, suffrage.
1980s__________________Natural gas becomes major export

Bolivia’s destiny as a nation has always been tied up with its geography and mineral resources. The first complex civilization in the Bolivian Highlands, centered around the ceremonial site Tiwanaku, was the result of a technological innovation that took advantage of this geography: a series of elevated fields and canals that allowed these early Bolivians to filter the relatively salinated water of Lake Titicaca for crops such as potatoes and quinoa. This system helped regulate drought and flood conditions and supported roughly 100,000 people (in an area that now supports only 7,000). The Tiwanakans expanded to a large area (including parts of Peru, Chile, and Argentina) from 700-1200 C.E.

When the Inca took over the highlands as early as 1430, it was partially in search of gold and other resources. For a great portion of the Spanish colonial period, Bolivia was known almost exclusively for its incredibly profitable silver mine at Potosí. It’s remarkable that during much of the 17th century the city near the mine, in a hard-to-get-to mountainous area in what is now Southern Bolivia, was home to the largest population in the Western Hemisphere. Between 1556 and 1783, 41,000 tons of silver were exported from Potosí by the Spanish.

The workers in the mine were initially indigenous Aymara and Quechua conscripts. Later, African slaves were brought in to fulfill the demand. “Those not actually worked to death or killed in accidents succumbed to pulmonary silicosis [a lung disease] within a few years.” A pattern was developing here that would be repeated (at least in generalities, if not in specifics) many times: Bolivia has access to incredible natural resources, but, through military and other means, is forced to allow outside groups (first Spain, later multinational corporations) to gain most of the profits from the extraction of these resources.

In the early 1800s, independence from Spain led to more local political representation but little change in the distribution of profits from natural resources. For the most part, the local elite now had more political power, and often the same elite now had control over some of the profits of the extraction of silver and, as silver began to run out, rubber and tin.

Conflict over natural resources also played a large part in two wars that lead Bolivia to shrink substantially between 1825 (independence) and 1935. The first of these, in the early 1880s, was over the Atacama Desert, “a six-hundred-mile stretch of Pacific Coast where scarce a drop of rain has ever fallen.” This land represented Bolivia’s only access to the ocean (and easy international trade). When sodium nitrate deposits were discovered there, in the 1870s, both Peru and Chile became interested in the land. In the resulting war, Chile took control of Bolivia’s only access to the ocean. This pattern was repeated again in the Chaco War (1932-35), against Paraguay. The Chaco, like the Atacama, is a desolate area that only became valuable with the discovery of oil. Bolivia’s loss in this conflict meant a doubling in Paraguay’s land area.



Another feature of geography helps explain Bolivia’s history and its tendency to rely on a single cash crop. Bolivia, after the war with Chile, lacked a port. Also, any trade that needed to make it out of Bolivia needed to go through the incredibly steep Andes Mountains. Economist Jeffrey Sachs points out that, because of the prohibitive costs of transporting goods, “the only products that Bolivia has ever been able to export are commodities with a very high value per unit weight because only these commodities can successfully overcome the high transportation costs.” First silver, then gold, rubber, hydrocarbons, and now coca are all products that can make a lot of money even after schlepping them through the mountains. While coca has long had traditional and ceremonial uses in Bolivia (made into a mildly invigorating tea or chewed raw), when refined it becomes cocaine.

A great deal of Bolivia’s contemporary questions and turmoil--from coca production and regulation, natural gas export rights, and questions about access to lithium deposits under the salt flats--are tied to this long history of exploitation and access. Bolivia is the poorest country in South America, primarily because it has been unable to retain profits from its natural resources, and to broadly spread these resources in a way that improves infrastructure, education, and the quality of life for the vast majority of its citizens. Have the changes in the last 15 years done anything to disrupt this pattern?

Sources

Augustin, Byron. Bolivia. New York: Scholastic, 2001.

Armstrong, Kate. Bolivia. New York: Lonely Planet, 2007.

Burgess, Joe. New York Times. How Bolivia Lost its Hat. April 3rd, 2012.

Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire: A concise history of Latin America. New York: Norton, 2001.

Galeano, Eduardo. Open Veins of Latin America. Mexico City: Siglo XXI, 1971.

Griffin, Brandon et al. The Rough Guide to Bolivia. New York: Rough Guides, 2012.

Sachs, Jeffrey. The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin, 2005.

Economic Overview - Neal

Bolivia is currently one of the most financially poor countries in South America. Over 60 percent of the nation’s people live below the poverty line and in terrible conditions. In addition to strong internal efforts, some outside groups (such as habitat for humanity or UNICEF) have been trying to help progress things like infrastructure and access to good education, but it has been a hard struggle. Especially with the amount of outside aid that is being accepted going down (partially due to the amount that the president Evo Morales is allowing), the improvement is slow going. The country has done several things to try help but is ultimately doing a fair amount of harm to the local residents. To lock down a loan around 140 million dollars, the government was forced to privatize public industries. These include oil refineries and water systems.


This has meant that there are situations that could have ended in some residents have been made to pay much more for things like water because of the privatization of the industries. A statistic says that at one point, citizens were spending up to 23% of their monthly income to buy clean water. Not helped by outside or internal subsidies, the people are receiving little to no help to reduce the cost. Things like this have lead to civil unrest, protests, and riots.


Though depending on the location of population, the generally accepted amount of money earned each year is somewhere around $1500 USD1. On a related note, the unemployment rate seems to be somewhere around 7%2. Despite the amount of people employed, it still seems that many families posses little to no money which all goes to food, water, homes, and necessities, often leaving things like higher or specialized education to be prioritized very low. Also due to low financial stability and the inability to buy healthy nutritious foods, malnutrition is a large problem for children. Because of it, around 25% of children under five are suffer from stunting as a result3. In addition, most of the population of Bolivia, especially the indigenous, do not have access to health care or proper sanitation.


However, there is a hope and hard work being done. Hundreds of organizations and mission groups are being sent to Bolivia each year. Some groups do volunteer work, trying to help further develop civil infrastructure. Others are focused on providing and implementing systems to sanitize and transport clean water. Yet another large chunk of the volunteers are helping to provide free or affordable health care for the residents of Bolivia. Even with all of these efforts to help Bolivia, the scale at which they are being done is relatively small compared to what is needed. With the recent focuses that seem to be making Bolivia isolate itself from large outside corporations, countries like china4 and the U.S. (and some corporations within) have been trying to increase the public infrastructure of Bolivia (Some of which Morales has accepted). There has also recently been financial backing from the world bank to increase the Bolivian school systems, that have been helping more and more students be able to feel comfortable and increase the quality of education.


Lots of people who are not physically going to Bolivia are working here to help the process too. Sending money, donating to groups, sponsoring children, collecting and sending materials and supplies are all things being done by people in the U.S. and around the world to help Bolivians out. Also even though all the difficulties and troubles, the Bolivian nation has developed strongly culturally and has actually ranked high on some “happiest countries” statistics.


Despite the poor economic standings Bolivians go on living but as with any relatively foreign culture, in a different way. There are some small things that it might be easier for an American to adjust or relate to, things that would be could be perceived as an inconvenience more than anything. Conditions that force either the purchase or boiling of the drinking water, is easily comparable to Scattergood with the reverse osmosis filter for the well water and big five gallon jugs. Its just something that might take a little to get used to. There are other things though that may not be as easy to acclimate to. Families in poverty, making less in a year than what some in America spend on week long vacations. The riches of Bolivia lies in the culture rather than the economics. The idea of money, wealth, and material goods is so closely related to status in the united states that it is easy to lose track of what it actually means to prosper.


1http://www.boliviaweekly.com/bolivian-annual-income-comparison-2005-2009/2312/

2http://www.tradingeconomics.com/bolivia/unemployment-rate

3http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/country-profiles/bolivia

4http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-12/20/content_17185657.htm

Environmental Issues - Annie

Environmental Issues

Deforestation

Deforestation is a large threat to the health of Bolivia’s environment. Between 1990 and 1995 around 3 million hectares of forest were lost. Bolivian forests are cut down mostly to make room for more farmland, but also for livestock grazing, and to harvest tropical timber which is then exported.

It is difficult for the bolivians that live in the lowland rainforests to get around deforestation because they depend heavily on raising livestock and agriculture for their income. Agricultural methods such as overgrazing and the traditional style of farming known as ‘slash and burn’ where existing vegetation will be cut down and then burned before seeds are sown.

These methods not only lead to deforestation, but soil erosion and a loss of soil fertility.

Demand from international traders for tropical lumber has been a big economic component pushing along this process even faster. In the past, the Bolivian government has also been pushing for more settlement of the underpopulated rainforest areas aggravated the issue.

When you lose forestland, you not only lose animal and plant species due to a loss of habitat, but you will also find deforestation linked to the build-up of greenhouse gases, soil erosion, sedimentation in the rivers and lakes, and climate change.

Soil Erosion

Soil erosion happens in all ecosystems. It is typically caused by water, wind or simply gravity. It becomes a problem when the rate of erosion is faster than the rate of soil creation. Deforestation, overgrazing and farming are all things that can increase the rate of soil erosion, thus creating an imbalance in the environment while also changing how fertile the remaining soil is. Erosion is a problem, especially in Bolivia, due to how mountainous the country is. The loss of vegetation that helps hold the soil together and absorb excess water, leads to large amounts of fertile top soil eroding away.

Government

While Bolivian President Evo Morales may be thought  of internationally as being a strong supporter of environmental rights, when you look closer you find that his actions do not match his words.

In 2010 Evo held a climate change conference in Cochabamba, Bolivia and got the ball rolling by introducing four big ideas. Two of which are: nature should be given rights in order to protect ecosystems from being wiped out, and, those who violated those rights would have to deal with legal consequences.

The Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park (TIPNIS) is a beautiful place full of thousands of different animals birds and plants. It also happens to be one of the poorest areas in Latin America. The park is protected as a national park, but also as the home to a few different groups of indigenous people. Evo wants to build a highway that goes straight through the middle of the park and has been quoted as saying “Whether they like it or not, we will build that road,"(Cabitza). He argues that the connection between isolated communities and towns will benefit all of Bolivia including the indigenous living in TIPNIS.

Mauricio Cuellar, one of the leaders in TIPNIS, says he "regrets that, despite Morales' self-depiction as a protector of "Mother Earth" and the rights of indigenous people, the president wants to go ahead with a project which the TIPNIS residents say will lead to environmental degradation.”

Those living in TIPNIS were so outraged that more than 1,000 of them started to march to defend the place they call home. By the time those marching reached La Paz, tens of thousands of Bolivians had spilled out onto the streets to greet the marchistas as if they were heroes. They gave speeches and showed that the power of public protest was as strong as ever. The people had everything to lose, and were willing to give up much more to protect the rights that had been fought long and hard for. Morales ended up canceling the plans to build the road, although there are those who still view him in a negative light.

All of these issues may not seem much more related than the fact that they are all related to the environment, but they bring up some questions for me about how Governments know where to draw lines, how they are able to make laws and improve infrastructure while at the same time keeping the people happy, and doing what is right for the environment. If it hurts the people/environment in the short term, is it worth it to do something that would benefit everyone in the long run? Those are some questions I will be taking with me as we go on our journey to Bolivia. I may never come across the answer, but in thinking about them I hope to gain a better understanding of how things work.

Bolt , Alina. "bolivia-guide." bolivia-guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://bolivia-guide.com/about-bolivia.php?id=64&tid=td2>.

Cabitza, Mattia. "Evo Morales plays a double game on Bolivia's environment."theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 4 July 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/jul/04/bolivia-evo-morales-hypocrisy-environment>.

Keate, Georgiana . "Why Evo Morales did a U-turn on the TIPNIS Amazon highway." New Internationalist All posts RSS. N.p., 28 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2014. <http://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2011/10/28/evo-morales-bolivia-rainforest/>.

Klein , Naomi . "A New Climate Movement in Bolivia | The Nation." A New Climate Movement in Bolivia | The Nation. N.p., 22 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2014. <http://www.thenation.com/article/new-climate-movement-bolivia>.

Evo Morales- Jaci

The president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is leading a socialist movement. Socialism is a governmental policy in which the government is in charge of regulating production, distribution and exchange. This means that Evo is trying to redistribute the wealth. While some of the country has really taken to this, there is a big portion of the country that is against this movement. There is a big divide in the country and this is causing rioting in the streets. It is not uncommon for a riot to break out either started by the government, to try to dismantle an organized group of opposition, or started by the group themselves. It is currently apparent that people in the West side of the country, with higher incomes and European descent are much more likely to be against Evo, and Indigenous people on the East side of the country tend to be more in favor of him.

It is clear that Evo Morales is much more popular with the indigenous groups, and it is quite obvious why. Evo has made it very clear that he is intending to lead his country in favor of the indigenous people. Evo himself is indigenous and was a coca farmer up until his career in politics. Because of these things, he strives to connect with these people most and to begin to hold them up higher in the eyes of society.

On the other hand many people are against Morales because they think he is too radical in his socialist beliefs. People living in the Western half of the country feel that they are in some ways being neglected, because Evo has made it so clear that he is governing for the indigenous people. Many people in the West also feel that their opinions and needs from the government are not being allowed to be shared. It seems that Evo is prohibiting them, from making their opinions too loud. It is a common belief in Bolivia that 85% of news is censored by the government. The Western half of the country is typically wealthier than the East. This somewhat explains why they tend to disagree with Evo’s socialist way of governing. They know that it will most likely result in them losing money. In 2010, Evo lost a majority of trust of these wealthier people by taking control over many private funds and distributing the money to thousands of poor Bolivians.

             While Evo disappointed the West half of the country, for most of his presidency he has been very popular among the indigenous groups until recently, when he had a major setback with the indigenous people. He angered the people in two major ways. The first was when he tried to end government fuel subsidies. He said that this would be a helpful thing to do because of the amount of fuel that was being smuggled out of the country. Morales said that the lowering of fuel prices made it easier for these people to smuggle gas out of the country. This resulted in the price of fuel increasing by 70 percent. This major change brought about violent protests. Although Evo seemed to be somewhat in denial about the protesting this brought about, after a while, he backed down and returned the prices back to normal. The second major upset 

more directly affects the indigenous people. Evo planned to build a highway through part of the Amazon, a homeland for many indigenous people. This led to a massive protest of more than 700 indigenous groups marching for more than nine weeks, from their home in the amazon to La Paz. Once again after these protests, Evo backed down, and he decided not to build the road.

In trying to uphold this socialist movement Evo has also been dismissing the U.S in many ways. Recently Evo has gotten rid of almost every U.S connection with Bolivia. He has kicked out the DEA, the U.S ambassador and the U.S aid agency. The reasoning behind him dismissing the U.S. ambassador and the U.S aid agency he would not give specifically, but he did share that he thought they were trying to undermine his socialist way of governing, and convince the citizens of Bolivia that he was doing something wrong. He has also suspected them of funding certain organizations that were against him and his way of leading. He kicked out the DEA because they were trying to take control over coca farming, and trying to eradicate the growing of coca plants. Some believe that the DEA was only trying to eradicate the production of cocaine, not all coca plants. Others, like Evo, were worried they were going to end it all. Coca farming is a very important tradition to Bolivia’s economy and culture. It has brought in a lot of money to the Bolivian people, especially indigenous farmers. Coca is sold to make tea, balms, gum, and many more things. There is also a large amount of coca being made into cocaine.

While there is a big separation in the country of those against, and those for Evo Morales, overall good things are happening for the economy of Bolivia. In 2013 the economy had grown by 6.5 percent. He had balanced the budget as well as paid off an enormous amount of debt that the country had owed. It is uncertain whether or not this growth will be long term, or if it is just a small spike. It is also uncertain whether or not this is directly in result of what Evo has been doing. The market in South America is up, and commodity prices are high. This could be the sole explanation for the economic growth. Either way, for the time being the country is doing better economically.

Bibliography

Valdez, Carlos, and Frank Bajak. "Bolivia’s President Expels U.S. Aid Agency." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 02 May 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bolivias-president-expels-us-aid-agency/2013/05/01/a290899e-b28b-11e2-baf7-5bc2a9dc6f44_story.html>.

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