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A military coup in 1964 was followed by a
period of undemocratic rule. During the 1970s repression
increased and all parties and unions were banned. After
a period of new coups and economic crisis, democracy was
restored in 1982. But the situation remained
politically, socially and economically unstable. Growing
gaps and disputed gas recovery led to violent mass
protests in the early 2000s. In the wake of the riots,
farmer leader Evo Morales was elected president in 2005.
The military coup in November 1964 (see Older
history) became the beginning of almost two decades of
undemocratic rule. With the support of the United
States, the miners' union and Marxist student movements
were fought.
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ABBREVIATIONFINDER:
List of most commonly used acronyms containing Bolivia. Also includes historical, economical and political aspects of the country.
After several military coups, General Hugo Bánzer
took power in 1971. He initially ruled with the support
of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR), but
from 1974 parties and trade unions were banned and human
rights violations increased. The economy grew, but this
was largely through foreign loans, while investment in
industry was neglected.
Growing resistance within the country and pressure
from the United States forced Bánzer in 1978. A chaotic
period followed when several elections were held and
several coups followed. The military regimes brought the
country near the ruin. The United States, which has long
been a close ally, became increasingly critical of the
lack of democracy and the regime's involvement in the
rapidly growing cocaine trade.
In 1982, the military saw itself forced to relinquish
power. To the president, Congress named the winner in
the last election, held in 1980. It was Hernán Siles
Zuazo, a veteran who returned after being the second
president of the Revolution in 1956-1960. Siles Zuazo
now led an outbreak group from the original MNR, called
MNRI ("Left MNR"), and had support from the
Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) and the Communist
Party.
 Debt crisis and neoliberalism
Despite the government's left wing, the economic
crisis soon forced austerity. Strikes broke out and the
country ended up in an acute debt crisis. The government
lost its majority in the congress and paralyzed. When
galloping inflation was at 25,000 percent and 70 per
cent of export income went to pay off the external debt,
Siles Zuazo was forced to announce new elections.
The 1985 election brought Siles Zuazo's revolutionary
comrade, President Victor Paz Estenssoro to power. The
MRC leader, who had previously pursued a left-wing
policy, was now pushing neoliberal reforms to get the
economy organized. The government announced a state of
emergency in order to be able to make cuts, which not
least shocked the previously allied country organization
COB (Central Obrera Boliviana).
The new right stamp was formalized when the MRC
signed a "pact for democracy" with the former dictator
Bánzer's right-wing Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN).
Inflation declined and the economy showed some recovery.
The price for this was paid to the workers, the
peasants and the middle class. Unemployment rose as
unprofitable state companies were wound up and cheap
foreign goods knocked out domestic production. Social
and political unrest followed in the wake of the
collapse of the tin market in 1985, when 25,000 miners
became unemployed.
In the protection of exemptions, neoliberal policy
was further pursued under the following governments led
by MIR's Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993) and MR's Gonzalo
Sánchez de Lozada (1993-1997). Meanwhile, military
assistance from the United States to the fight against
the cocoa growers encountered violent reactions among
small farmers. Corruption spread, and many high-ranking
people were revealed to be in contact with the koala
forces.
Bánzer's return
The harsh economy and constant corruption scandals
paved the way for Hugo Bánzer in the 1997 elections.
Many longed for the form of stability that prevailed
during his dictatorship in the 1970s. His right-wing
party ADN formed a coalition government with several
other parties. When the cancer patient Bánzer was forced
to resign in 2001, Vice President Jorge Quiroga Ramírez
took over. Bánzer died without having been brought to
justice for the human rights crimes committed during the
dictatorship for which he was accused.
During the Banzar government, more and more organized
resistance emerged on several fronts. Cocoa growers in
the Chapare region, many of them former miners who lost
their jobs, objected to the attempts to eradicate the
crop. The cocoa growers were led by an Evo Morales who
belonged to the Aymara people.
Another Aymara leader, Felipe Quispe, organized
roadblocks and other actions against government policy.
An attempt to sell the Cochabamba municipal water
company to a foreign company triggered the so-called
water war. After months of riots, the government was
forced to back down.
The 2002 election meant that Sánchez de Lozada
returned as president. He won after a second round of
elections, which was then held in Congress, over the Evo
Morales. After the election, the economic crisis
deepened and social unrest increased. The
dissatisfaction and a fiery conflict between the police
and the military contributed to the violence in La Paz
that claimed more than 30 people's lives in February
2003.
The 1990s discovery of huge natural gas reserves
provided Bolivia with new and growing export earnings.
But they also reinforced the political conflicts. The
opposition to the government came increasingly towards
the plans to build a pipeline through Chile to sell
natural gas abroad. Indigenous peoples and the country's
organization COB demanded that the country's own energy
needs be met, and that the raw material should be
refined (turned into liquid gas) in Bolivia.
Gas war and mass protests
That the pipeline would go through Chile aroused
anger for historical reasons (see Foreign Policy and
Defense). The so-called gas war escalated in September
2003 when mass demonstrations were conducted in several
cities. In many places the roads were blocked off. La
Paz was besieged, and after a few weeks food and fuel
shortages arose. When the military again attacked
protesters in October, some 70 people were killed and
over 400 injured.
Shortly thereafter, Sánchez de Lozada departed and
fled the country. Vice President Carlos Mesa took over
as president. He promised a referendum on gas exports
and a review of the constitution. Concerns were
suppressed, and the 2004 referendum contributed to the
reorganization of energy policy (see Natural Resources,
Energy and the Environment).
In the spring of 2005, protests rose again, mainly in
La Paz and the twin city of El Alto. The driving force
behind demonstrations and roadblocks was Evo Morales and
his party The Movement for Socialism (MAS), which called
for social justice, legalization of the cook and the
stateization of the entire oil and gas industry. In La
Paz, the presidential palace and congress building were
surrounded by crowds, and in June 2005 President Mesa
resigned.
Morales becomes president
The result was a new election in December, and now
MAS candidate Evo Morales won with over half of the
votes already in the first round of elections. Morales,
who promised to nationalize the natural gas industry,
increase the influence of indigenous peoples and develop
a new constitution, received massive support from small
farmers who objected to the eradication of coca
cultivation in collaboration with the United States. But
he also managed to attract parts of the middle class by
fading down the most radical leftist rhetoric. MAS also
managed to secure its own majority in the Chamber of
Deputies and became the largest party in the Senate.
The new government took office in January 2006. Among
the ministers were miners and representatives of both
indigenous people and business. Bolivia made a marked
turn to the left, when the neoliberal policies that
dominated for three decades were abandoned.
Morales explained that natural assets would become
state-owned. In May, the military was ordered to occupy
oil and gas fields. The foreign power companies were
allowed to continue their operations, but under new
conditions (see Natural Resources, Energy and the
Environment). The redistribution of land that the
President also promised began in June (see Agriculture
and Fisheries).
Increased regional self-government
Another election promise was fulfilled when a
so-called constituent assembly was appointed by the
voters in July 2006, with the task of drawing up a
proposal for a new constitution. MAS got just over half
of the seats in the congregation, while the other
members were mainly right-wing politicians. Sharp
contradictions soon became apparent and led the
opposition to boycott the assembly in protest of the
voting rules.
Voters also had to decide on increased
self-government for the country's nine ministries.
Demands had long been placed on greater autonomy in the
four rich departments of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and
Pando in the east, where the country's oil and gas
reserves exist. Here, too, the proposal won, while
Morales' camp, which was dominant in the five western
ministries, opposed it. In total, 58 percent of voters
rejected the proposal for increased autonomy.
The interconnected conflicts on the new constitution
and on the question of the ministry's autonomy made the
political situation increasingly explosive. An
underlying contradiction was the distribution of
revenues from the oil and gas industry. The deep divide
between regions and people groups soon seemed to
threaten to break up the country. Street protests,
strikes and riots occurred throughout the country.
Violent clashes broke out in Cochabamba in early
2007, between Morale supporters and people loyal to the
ministry's Governor Manfred Reyes Villa. Cochabamba is
located in the middle of Bolivia and constitutes a
borderland between high and lowlands, both
geographically and socio-culturally.
A majority of the department's residents - including
many coca growers from the Chapare region - had voted
with the Highlands region in the referendum on
self-government, but the governor belonged to the
right-wing opposition and had the support of landowners
and industrialists. When a couple of people were killed
and government buildings were set alight, the military
set in, and the riots erupted.
Pact for national unity
Work on the new constitution continued, but the
contradictions persisted. In November 2007, a majority
of the Constituent Assembly adopted a final proposal.
But almost the entire opposition boycotted the meeting
when the decision was made. The opposition felt that the
constitutional proposal was too colored by Morale's
policy and would give too much power to the president.
In protest of the proposal, Santa Cruz, Beni, Tarija
and Pando declared self-government. The situation seemed
urgent. In an effort to unite the country and move
forward in the constitutional process, President Morales
and the governors of the four outbreak ministries
entered into a "pact for national unity" in January
2008.
The four ministries held a referendum on increased
autonomy on their own initiative. The voters said yes,
but the central government in La Paz declared the votes
illegal. As a result, Morales announced a national
referendum in August, about the Bolivians' confidence in
the country's president, vice president and governors in
eight of the nine departments (the ninth was newly
elected).
Morales and Vice President Álvaro García Linera
received support from just over 67 percent of voters.
The governors of the four most opposition ministries
also received the support of the people to remain. Only
two governors were forced to step down, including Reyes
Villa in Cochabamba.
After gaining people's confidence, Morales announced
the planned referendum on the proposal for a new
constitution, triggering new violent demonstrations in
the eastern ministries. The unease culminated when a
group of Morales supporters were killed in Pando. The
government sent military, proclaimed state of emergency
and allowed to arrest Governor Leopoldo Fernández, who
was accused of ordering the assault. Then the situation
calmed down.
New constitution
Now Morales and the opposition agreed to start a
dialogue to resolve the conflict and stop the violence.
An agreement was reached after Morales promised not to
stand for re-election more than once. The settlement
meant that a referendum on the constitution would be
held in January 2009 and new elections in December the
same year.
In the referendum, just over 61 percent of voters
said yes to the constitution. The turnout was over 90
percent. The new constitution, which came into force in
February, meant strengthening the rights of indigenous
peoples, increased state control over the economy,
increased self-government for the ministries and the
possibility of direct re-election of the president (see
Political system).
In the 2009 election, the opposition was led by the
then-formed Right Alliance Progress for Bolivia-National
Assembly (PPB-CN), whose leader Manfred Reyes Villa
received just over a quarter of the vote in the
presidential election. The opposition was alarmed by the
ruling party's MAS dominance, which allowed it to enact
laws and amend the constitution on its own, without
regard to other parties. But PPB-CN was in principle
dissolved before the 2014 elections.
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