Bolivia's Mother Country: A Historical Perspective

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country in west-central South America. It is named after Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar, who led the Spanish American wars of independence in the early nineteenth century. Bolivia was established in 1825, after breaking away from Spanish rule. The country has a rich history, once forming part of the ancient Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) empire and later becoming part of the Inca empire in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

Bolivia's mountainous western region is one of the highest inhabited areas in the world, with the Andes reaching their greatest breadth and complexity in the country. The country has a population of around 12 million, with two-thirds of its people being of indigenous descent.

Bolivia's Mother Earth Laws

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country in South America. It is named after Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar, who led various independence movements in Latin America. Bolivia's population is multiethnic, with Amerindians, Mestizos, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Arabs, Jews, and other groups making up its citizenry. The official and predominant language is Spanish, although 36 indigenous languages also have official status.

In 2010, Bolivia passed the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which defines Mother Earth as:

> "...the dynamic living system formed by the indivisible community of all life systems and living beings whom are interrelated, interdependent, and complementary, which share a common destiny; adding that "Mother Earth is considered sacred in the worldview of Indigenous peoples and nations."

The law establishes Mother Earth as a "collective subject of public interest" and declares that both Mother Earth and life-systems (which combine human communities and ecosystems) are titleholders of inherent rights. These rights include:

• The right to life and the maintenance of life-sustaining processes
• The right to the diversity of life
• The right to water
• The right to clean air
• The right to equilibrium and restoration
• The right to live free of contamination

The law also gives Mother Earth a legal personality, allowing her to bring an action to defend her rights through her representatives (humans).

In 2012, a heavily revised version of the law was passed as the Framework Law of Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well. This law sought to operationalize the rights established in the previous law within the context of Integral Development for Living Well.

However, the implementation and effectiveness of these laws have been questioned. Critics argue that there are discrepancies between the laws and the constitution, as well as issues with government political and economic interests, language ambiguity, underlying contradictions, and enforceability problems. Additionally, there are concerns that the laws contradict other laws and regulations in Bolivia that prioritize human beings and promote the industrialization and exploitation of natural resources.

Despite these challenges, Bolivia's Mother Earth Laws represent an attempt to recognize the rights of nature and protect the country's rich biodiversity and ecosystems.

The country's indigenous population

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, has the largest proportion of indigenous people in South America, making up around two-thirds of the population. The country is home to 36 recognised indigenous peoples, with the majority in the Andes being Quechua-speaking peoples (49.5%) and Aymara (40.6%), who self-identify as 16 nations. In the lowlands, the Chiquitano (3.6%), Guaraní (2.5%) and Moxeño (1.4%) peoples are in the majority and, together with the remaining 2.4%, make up 20 recognised Indigenous Peoples.

Indigenous peoples in Bolivia, or Native Bolivians, are Bolivians who have predominantly or totally Amerindian ancestry. They constitute anywhere from 20 to 60% of Bolivia's population of 11,306,341, depending on different estimates. An additional 30–68% of the population is mestizo, having mixed European and indigenous ancestry.

Indigenous Bolivians have faced many years of marginalization and a lack of representation. However, the late twentieth century saw a surge of political and social mobilization in Indigenous communities. The 1952 Bolivian National Revolution that liberated Bolivians and gave Indigenous peoples citizenship still gave little political representation to Indigenous communities. It was in the 1960s and 1970s that social movements such as the Katarista movement began to also include Indigenous concerns. The Katarista movement, consisting of the Aymara communities of La Paz and the Altiplano, attempted to mobilize the Indigenous community and pursue an Indigenous political identity through mainstream politics and life.

In 1991, the Bolivian government signed the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, a major binding international convention protecting indigenous rights. On 7 November 2007, the government passed Law No. 3760 which approved of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 1993, the Law of Constitutional Reform recognized Indigenous rights.

In 2011, Bolivian Indigenous activists started a long protest march from the Amazon plains to the country's capital, against a government plan to build a 306 km highway through a national park in Indigenous territory. This led to the Chaparina Massacre on 25 September 2011, where national police brutally repressed Indigenous marchers protesting the construction of a government-proposed highway through the TIPNIS indigenous territory and national park.

One of the biggest successes for Bolivia's Indigenous community was the election of Evo Morales, former leader of the cocaleros and Bolivia's first Indigenous president. Morales attempted to establish a plurinational and postcolonial state to expand the collective rights of the indigenous community. The 2009 constitution recognized the presence of the different communities that reside in Bolivia and gave Indigenous peoples the right of self-governance and autonomy over their ancestral territories. Expanding on the Constitution, the 2010 Framework Law of Autonomies and Decentralization outlined the legal rules and procedures that indigenous communities must take to receive autonomy. Through these decentralization efforts, Bolivia became the first plurinational state in South America.

In 2015, Bolivians made history again by selecting the first Indigenous president of the Supreme Court of Justice, Justice Pastor Cristina Mamani. Mamani is a lawyer from the Bolivian highlands from the Aymara community.

The War of the Pacific

The war was fought on the Pacific Ocean, in the Atacama and Peruvian deserts, and the mountainous interior of Peru. The first five months consisted of a naval campaign, as Chile struggled to establish a supply corridor for its forces in the Atacama Desert. Chile's land campaign eventually overcame the Bolivian and Peruvian armies. Bolivia withdrew after the Battle of Tacna in May 1880, leaving Peru to fight alone. Chilean forces occupied Lima, Peru's capital, in January 1881.

Chile gained significant resource-rich territory from Peru and Bolivia, including the Peruvian province of Tarapacá and the Bolivian department of Litoral, turning Bolivia into a landlocked country. The conflict had a profound and long-lasting impact on the societies of all three countries involved.

Bolivia's natural resources

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the largest landlocked country in the Southern Hemisphere and the fifth-largest country in South America. Bolivia is considered a developing country and is the second-poorest in South America. However, it has one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, largely driven by its natural resources.

Mining

Bolivia is very geologically rich, with mines producing tin, silver, lithium, copper, zinc, lead, iron ore, and gold. Bolivia has the largest concentration of lithium in the world, with reserves of around 5.5 million tons. The country also has the second-largest natural gas reserves in South America, with an estimated 27.6 trillion cubic feet of reserves. Mining is a major sector of the Bolivian economy, with most of the country's exports being dependent on it.

Agriculture and Forestry

Bolivia's arable land is another important natural resource, with the country's agrarian sector contributing 23% to the nation's gross domestic product in 1987. The country's essential crops include coffee, soybeans, and sugar, which are also exported to other nations. Bolivia's livestock industry is also one of the country's most well-developed sectors, with farmers rearing cattle, pigs, goats, and sheep.

Coca

Bolivia is the world's third-largest cultivator of coca, a crop that is used to produce cocaine. Coca is Bolivia's most lucrative agricultural product, and the country is the third-largest producer of cocaine.

Oil

Bolivia has an estimated 2,475,558,137 cubic feet of oil reserves, which are primarily located in the eastern and southern edges of the country. The government has made efforts to privatize the oil sector to make it more profitable.

The Bolivian National Revolution

Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country in central South America. It is named after Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan leader in the Spanish American wars of independence. The country gained independence from Spain in 1825, after the Chuquisaca Revolution of 1809 in the city of Sucre sparked the first cry of freedom in Latin America.

On 6 April 1952, Seleme was dismissed from the junta, losing control of the 2000-man La Paz police force. This was a key element in the coup, so the timing of the revolt had to be immediate. On 9 April, supporters of the revolution announced on the state-controlled radio station that the revolution had been successful. The La Paz police force, on the direction of Seleme and his chief of police Donato Millán, had taken control of the city. However, it was unclear if they could hold the city against the 8000 troops that General Torres Ortiz was bringing to La Paz. The revolutionaries' situation looked bleak when they found that the supply of weapons and ammunition they were counting on was not in the state arsenal.

Seleme and Millán assessed their situation and decided to seek asylum in the Chilean embassy. However, the MNR had deeper support than most Bolivian coups d'etats. Armed worker militias appeared and fought the army effectively. The Bolivian army was made up of young conscripts with no real allegiance to the government, and they were persuaded to change sides. In a few days of fighting, the Bolivian army was defeated, either by military defeat or defection to the side of the revolutionaries. Bolivia was now in the hands of a radical political movement with popular support and a legitimate claim to power, having won the last election.

The new government established universal suffrage, with neither literacy nor property requirements. They also moved to control the armed forces, purging many officers associated with past Conservative Party regimes, drastically reducing the forces' size and budget, and requiring officers to take an oath to the MNR. The government also nationalised the mines of the three great tin companies, making the export and sale of all minerals a state monopoly. They set up the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Comibol) to run state-owned mines. A far-reaching agrarian reform was the final important step taken by the revolutionary government. In 1953, the government established the Agrarian Reform Commission, using advisers from Mexico, and decreed the Agrarian Reform Law. The law abolished forced labour and established a program of expropriation and distribution of the rural property of the traditional landlords to the Indian peasants.

Although these major steps were never reversed, the revolution is regarded as unfinished because it lost momentum. Divisions within the MNR seriously weakened its attempt to incorporate the support of the Indian peasants, the workers, and the middle class for the government. The country also faced severe economic problems as a result of the changes enacted by the government. The nationalisation of the mines had a negative effect on the economy, and declining tin prices on the world market contributed to the economic problems in the mining sector. The decline of agricultural production also contributed to the rapidly deteriorating economy during the first years of the revolution.

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