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The Andean region probably has been
inhabited for some 20.000 years. Beginning about the 2nd century B.C.,
the Tiwanakan culture developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca.
This culture, centered around and named for the great city of Tiwanaku,
developed advanced architectural and agricultural techniques before it
disappeared around 1200 A.D., probably because of extended drought.
Roughly contemporaneous with the Tiwanakan culture, the Moxos in the
eastern lowlands and the Mollos north of present-day La Paz also
developed advanced agricultural societies that had dissipated by the
13th century of our era. In about 1450, the Quechua-speaking Incas
entered the area of modern highland Bolivia and added it to their
empire. They controlled the area until the Spanish conquest in 1525.
During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called
"Upper Peru" or "Charcas" and was under the authority of the Viceroy of
Lima. Local government came from the Audiencia de Charcas located in
Chuquisaca (La Plata - modern Sucre). Bolivian silver mines produced
much of the Spanish empire's wealth, and Potosi, site of the famed Cerro
Rico--"Rich Mountain"-was, for many years, the largest city in the
Western Hemisphere. As Spanish royal authority weakened during the
Napoleonic wars, sentiment against colonial rule grew. Independence was
proclaimed in 1809, but 16 years of struggle followed before the
establishment of the republic, named for Simon Bolivar, on August 6,
1825.
Independence did not bring stability. For nearly 60 years, coups and
short-lived constitutions dominated Bolivian politics. Bolivia's
weakness was demonstrated during the War of the Pacific (1879-83), when
it lost its seacoast and the adjoining rich nitrate fields to Chile.
An increase in the world price of silver brought Bolivia a measure of
relative prosperity and political stability in the late 1800s. During
the early part of the 20th century, tin replaced silver as the country's
most important source of wealth. A succession of governments controlled
by the economic and social elites followed laissez-faire capitalist
policies through the first third of the century.
Living conditions of the indigenous peoples, who constituted most of the
population, remained deplorable. Forced to work under primitive
conditions in the mines and in nearly feudal status on large estates,
they were denied access to education, economic opportunity, or political
participation.
Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932-35) marked a turning
point. Great loss of life and territory discredited the traditional
ruling classes, while service in the army produced stirrings of
political awareness among the indigenous people. From the end of the
Chaco War until the 1952 revolution, the emergence of contending
ideologies and the demands of new groups convulsed Bolivian politics.
The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) emerged as a broadly based
party. Denied its victory in the 1951 presidential elections, the MNR
lead the successful 1952 revolution. Under President Victor Paz
Estenssoro, the MNR introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out a
sweeping land reform, promoted rural education, and nationalized the
country's largest tin mines. It also committed many serious violations
of human rights.
Twelve years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided. In 1964, a
military junta overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his
third term. The 1969 death of President Rene Barrientos, a former member
of the junta elected President in 1966, led to a succession of weak
governments. Alarmed by public disorder, the military, the MNR, and
others installed Col. (later Gen.) Hugo Banzer Suarez as President in
1971. Banzer ruled with MNR support from 1971 to 1974. Then, impatient
with schisms in the coalition, he replaced civilians with members of the
armed forces and suspended political activities. The economy grew
impressively during Banzer's presidency, but demands for greater
political freedom undercut his support. His call for elections in 1978
plunged Bolivia into turmoil once again.
Elections in 1978, 1979, and 1980 were inconclusive and marked by fraud.
There were coups, counter-coups, and caretaker governments. In 1980,
Gen. Luis Garcia Meza carried out a ruthless and violent coup. His
government was notorious for human rights abuses, narcotics trafficking,
and economic mismanagement. Later convicted in absentia for crimes
including murder, Garcia Meza was extradited from Brazil and began
serving a 30-year sentence in 1995.
After a military rebellion forced out Garcia Meza in 1981, three other
military governments in 14 months struggled with Bolivia's growing
problems. Unrest forced the military to convoke the Congress elected in
1980 and allow it to choose a new chief executive. In October 1982--22
years after the end of his first term of office (1956-60)--Hernan Siles
Zuazo again became President. Severe social tension, exacerbated by
economic mismanagement and weak leadership, forced him to call early
elections and relinquish power a year before the end of his
constitutional term.
In the 1985 elections, the Nationalist Democratic Action Party (ADN) of
Gen. Banzer won a plurality of the popular vote, followed by former
President Paz Estenssoro's MNR and former Vice President Jaime Paz
Zamora's Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). But in the
congressional run-off, the MIR sided with MNR, and Paz Estenssoro was
chosen for a fourth term as president. When he took office in 1985, he
faced a staggering economic crisis. Economic output and exports had been
declining for several years. Hyperinflation had reached an annual rate
of 24,000%. Social unrest, chronic strikes, and unchecked drug
trafficking were widespread.
In four 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 not a problem. However, his 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. The highly successful
shock treatment that restored Bolivia's financial system also led to
some unrest and temporary social dislocation.
Although the MNR list headed by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada finished first
in the 1989 elections, no candidate received a majority of popular votes
and so in accordance with the constitution, a congressional vote
determined who would be president. The Patriotic Accord (AP) coalition
between Gen. Banzer's ADN and Jaime Paz Zamora's MIR, the second- and
third-place finishers, respectively, won out. Paz Zamora assumed the
presidency and the MIR took half the ministries. Banzer's center-right
ADN took control of the National Political Council (CONAP) and the other
ministries.
Paz Zamora was a moderate, center-left president whose political
pragmatism in office outweighed his Marxist origins. Having seen the
destructive hyperinflation of the Siles Zuazo Administration, he
continued the neo-liberal economic reforms begun by Paz Estenssoro,
codifying some of them. Paz Zamora took a fairly hard line against
domestic terrorism, personally ordering the December 1990 attack on
terrorists of the Nestor Paz Zamora Committee (CNPZ—named after his
brother who died in the 1970 Teoponte insurgency) and authorizing the
early 1992 crackdown against the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK).
Paz Zamora's regime was less decisive against narcotics trafficking. The
government broke up a number of trafficking networks but issued a 1991
surrender decree giving lenient sentences to the biggest narcotics
kingpins. Also, his administration was extremely reluctant to pursue net
eradication of illegal coca. It did not agree to an updated extradition
treaty with the U.S., although two traffickers have been extradited to
the U.S. since 1992. Beginning in early 1994, the Bolivian Congress
investigated Paz Zamora's personal ties to accused major trafficker
Isaac Chavarria, who subsequently died in prison while awaiting trial.
MIR deputy chief Oscar Eid was jailed in connection with similar ties in
1994; he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison in
November 1996. Technically still under investigation, Paz Zamora became
an active presidential candidate in 1996.
The 1993 elections continued the tradition of open, honest elections and
peaceful democratic transitions of power. The MNR defeated the ADN/MIR
coalition by a 34% to 20% margin, and the MNR's Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez
de Lozada was selected as president by an MNR/MBL/UCS coalition in the
Congress.
Sanchez de Lozada pursued an aggressive economic and social reform
agenda. He relied heavily on successful entrepreneurs-turned-politicians
like himself and on fellow veterans of the Paz Estenssoro Administration
(during which Sanchez de Lozada was planning minister). 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 state oil
corporation, telecommunications system, electric utilities, and others.
The reforms and economic restructuring were strongly opposed by certain
segments of society, which instigated frequent social disturbances,
particularly in La Paz and the Chapare coca-growing region, from 1994
through 1996.
In the 1997 elections, Gen. Hugo Banzer, leader of the ADN, won 22% of
the vote, while the MNR candidate won 18%. Gen. Banzer formed a
coalition of the ADN, MIR, UCS, and CONDEPA parties which hold a
majority of seats in the Bolivian Congress. The Congress selected him as
president and he was inaugurated on August 6, 1997.
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