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Country : Bolivia Official name: República de Bolivia (Republic of Bolivia) |
Historical profile
Bolivia was inhabited by the ancient Aymará civilisation, which was conquered by the Incas.
1538 The Incas were conquered by the Spanish.
1825 After many revolts against Spanish rule, independence was gained under the leadership of Simón Bolívar.
1826 Bolivia's first constitution was established.
1879–83 War of the Pacific between Bolivia, Peru and Chile. The combined forces of Bolivia and Peru suffered a humiliating defeat against Chile's armed forces. As a result of the war, a new mining elite linked to the traditional ruling oligarchy was established, supported by external capitalist interests. Civil groups split into two parties – Conservatives and Liberals – reflecting regional and economic interests.
1898 Conservatives and Liberals clashed in a civil war which was eventually won by the Liberals, who were associated with tin mining and the middle-classes and were concentrated in the area around La Paz. The Liberals rewrote the constitution, establishing centralised political control and the separation of powers between the legislature, executive and judiciary. Up until the 1930s, the elite became more coherent, drawing in the rural gentry to form a coherent oligarchy. However, literacy and property requirements excluded Indians from political life.
1933–35 The Chaco Wars were fought against Paraguay. Paraguay gained a large part of the Chaco region, but the land was mainly arid and infertile. However, this laid the basis of a realignment of Bolivian politics with the middle-class joining the working-class and campesinos (peasant farmers) to form a broad revolutionary movement.
1941 Formation of the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) (Nationalist Revolutionary Movement), a broad multi-class coalition to combat the power of the traditional oligarchy and US imperialism.
1952 The Bolivian revolution, led by the MNR, followed a period of economic decline and the fragmentation and collapse of the old elite. The tin mines were nationalised, land reform was also initiated and universal suffrage was granted. A state-capitalist development programme was initiated, backed by the IMF and later by the US's Alliance for Progress.
1964 A coup d'état was led by Vice President René Barrientos Ortuño. The military continued to implement similar policies to the MNR's state-capitalist model.
1969 Barrientos died in a mysterious helicopter crash which many suspect was an assassination. A five-month civilian interregnum ensued before another coup. A brief period of military populism saw the rise of the Bolivian left, the expulsion of the US Peace Corps and the creation of a Soviet-style People's Assembly.
1971 A violent coup led by Colonel Hugo Banzer Suárez resulted in the repression of labour leaders and left-wing politicians in a period of bureaucratic authoritarianism known as the Banzerato.
1978 Strains within the ruling elite and pressure from President Jimmy Carter of the US forced Banzer to call elections.
1978–1982 A period of political turbulence with seven military and two civilian governments, each lasting an average of six months. Meanwhile, political parties split into different factions, resulting in 70 different parties – the MNR alone split into thirty parties – resulting in a weak civil society.
1979 The Acción Democrática Nacionalista (ADN) (Democratic Nationalist Action) was formed by Bánzer.
1982 Siles Zuazo was elected president, although his rule was ineffective as he struggled to please both the IMF and growing militant elements within the civilian population. Meanwhile, the Bolivian economy collapsed with hyperinflation and high levels of foreign debt.
1985 Elections followed Siles' resignation. After his election as president, Paz Estenssoro of the MNR, implemented the Nueva Política Económica (NPE) (New Economic Policy) and brought about a process of economic liberalisation. He also formed a Pact for Democracy with the ADN to resolve the impasse between the executive and legislature.
1989 The Pact for Democracy broke down. A Patriotic Pact between the ADN and the Movimiento de la Izquierda Revolucionaría (MIR) (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) led to the election of Paz Zamora of the MIR as president.
1993 Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada of the MNR won the presidential elections amid allegations of corruption levelled at Paz Zamora.
1998 Hugo Bánzer was elected president following popular discontent with economic liberalisation measures initiated by the MNR. However, Bánzer's rule intensified efforts to restructure the economy along lines prescribed by the IMF while the government carried out a militaristic coca-eradication programme under US pressure.
2001 Bánzer resigned due to ill health and was replaced by Vice President Jorge Quiroga.
2002 Hugo Bánzer died. Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (known universally by his nickname `Goni') was elected president by Congress.
2003 On 12--13 February, mainly in La Paz, there was an uprising against the government when striking police officers and civilian protesters clashed with government troops. More street protests against the government were made in October. On 17 October, President Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada resigned and Vice President Carlos Mesa was sworn in as president.
2004 In April, President Mesa signed a natural gas export deal with Argentina. Opponents said that the deal pre-empted a referendum on gas exports due on 18 July.
2005 On 6 March, President Carlos Mesa offered his resignation to Congress after 17 months in office, as a new wave of anti-government protests spread throughout Bolivia; on 8 March, Congress unanimously rejected his offer. On 7 June, President Carlos Mesa of Bolivia again offered his resignation in an effort to resolve a national crisis over how to divide up the country's natural gas wealth. President Mesa's resignation was accepted on 9 June. Hormando Vaca Díez (president of the Congress) and Mario Cossío (president of the Chamber of Deputies), who would have been first and second in line to become president, refuse to assume the post, allowing the president of the Supreme Court, Eduardo Rodríguez, to take the office.
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