| Bolivia Estado Plurinacional de Bolivia Tetã Hetãvoregua Mborivia Wuliwya Suyu Puliwya Mamallaqta | |
|---|---|
| Capital | Sucre La Paz |
| Common languages | Spanish Guarani Aymara Quechua |
| Government | Unitary presidential republic |
• President | Luis Arce |
• Vice President | David Choquehuanca |
| Area | |
• Total | 1,098,581 km² |
| Population | |
• 2019 estimate | 11,428,245 |
| Currency | Boliviano |
Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a country in South America. The current ruling party of Bolivia is the Movement for Socialism (or Movimiento al Socialism in Spanish commonly referred to as MAS) which besides a year long coup in 2019, has been in power since 2006. The MAS party has implemented many socialist policies that has achieved numerous social achievements. Bolivia has been the target of multiple CIA coups.
History
Pre-Colonial Bolivia
Bolivia is home to numerous indigenous nations and most notably home to part of the Incan Empire, a thriving civilisation that lasted from around 1400 until about 1533 when it fell as a result of Civil War, Disease brought from Europe, and Colonization by Spain led by the brutal Conquistador Francisco Pizarro.[1]
Spanish Colonization of Bolivia
The initial looting of South America by European forces were initially fixated on silver and gold to personally enrich the conquistadors, but the invading forces soon realised this would not be a sustainable source of wealth since merely increasing the amount of gold and silver would eventually just cause inflation for the colonising forces. The real source of wealth for the Spanish was found in brutal exploitation of the indigenous nations through the encomienda system.[2] The encomienda system granted land and indigenous subjects, which were essentially slaves, as a reward to nobles and soldiers from Spain.[2] Most of the class politics in modern Bolivia can trace their roots to colonization and the encomienda system. The feudal nature of the encomienda system would change over time, but the process of extracting labor and resources from Bolivians to the imperial core (the U.S. and Europe) has remained a principal problem for Bolivians which would not be effectively overcome until the seizing of state power by the Movement for Socialism in 2006.
Bolivian Independence
During the 19th century, Independence movements swept through the Americas. The racial and class politics of Latin America was and is very complex with competing notions of independence such as the independence for nobility, indigenous nations, and African slaves who were now large in number due to the Atlantic Slave Trade. South American independence movements began gaining ground in the early 1800s and were led by elite Creole (mixed race) South Americans who had increasingly differing desires than those of the colonial authorities. Simón Bolívar, along with his right hand man Antonio José de Sucre, led multiple wars and rebellions over the course of decades beginning around 1800 against Spanish Royalists in modern day Columbia, Ecuador, and Venezuela in pursuit of a united South American Republic.[3] In the Southern Cone, Argentina and Chile, José San Martín led an army made up of former slaves and poor peasents in a triumphant march across the Andes mouintains to defeat the Spanish royalists in Chacabuco Chile in july of 1821.[3] The struggel against the Spanish Crown finaly ended on Juy 26 of 1822 when Bolívars' and San Martíns' armies converged in Ecuador to defeat the Spanish ending a two decade long struggle.
Post-independence Bolivian history up until the 1950s, was a tumultuous time marked by devastating wars, coups, and internal struggles amongst the ruling elites typically on conservative and liberal grounds.
The War of the Pacific (1879-1882)
The War of the Pacific was fought between neighbouring Peru and Chile which resulted in the devastating loss of territory including Bolivia's crucial access to the sea. This war caused Bolivia to become one of only two landlocked countries in South America with the other being neighbouring Paraguay. Bolivia's status as a landlocked country has had negative impacts to this day and remains a diplomatic issue between Bolivia and Chile.
The Chaco War (1932-1935)
The Chaco War is a war fought between Bolivia and Paraguay over the sparsely populated and semi-arid land between the two countries. Some attribute the war to a dispute between the U.S. oil company Standard Oil (backing Bolivia) and the Royal Dutch Shell backing Paraguay.[4] By the end of the war, tens of thousands lay dead on both sides.
Like all wars, the soldiers were the poor masses who were made up of the indigenous peasantry and the urban middle class who would both become aware of the others mutual states of impoverishment.[4] After the war, the opressed draftees were not very eager to return to their roles passivley. Indigenous activists who had gained a new perspective on their exploitation would go on to form the first labor unions of Bolivia in the years following the Chaco War.[4]
The major results of the Chaco War was another humiliating loss of territory and human loss which had larger consequences in the raising of class conciseness of the oppressed indigenous masses. The following decades would see the formation of organized indigenous labor become a crucial political force in Bolivia.
Operation Condor
In 1971, the United States overthrew the left-wing president Juan Torres, who was later kidnapped and killed by CIA-backed death squads. His successor, Hugo Banzer, tortured and executed thousands of dissidents and brutally crushed a strike of tin workers. In 1975, the CIA gave Banzer information that was used to locate and target leftist priests and nuns.
Movement for Socialism
In 2006, Evo Morales, a member of the Movement for Socialism party and the first indigenous president of Bolivia, was elected. He was president until 2019, when the CIA organized a military coup against him after he won the 2019 election by more than 10%. The United States created over 60,000 fake Twitter accounts to spread capitalist propaganda and Jeanine Áñez took power without an election. Áñez was an imperialist liberal who called the indigenous Aymara people "satanic."[5] In 2020, a general election was held and Luis Arce, another member of Movement for Socialism, won the election in a landslide. This election was confirmed to be fair by international observers.[6]
In January of 2022, the Bolivian government intercepted US weapons that were intended for right-wing separatist groups in the wealthy Santa Cruz region.[7]
References
- ↑ Mark Cartwright (2015-8-14). "Inca Civilization"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Teresa A. Meade (2017). A History of Modern Latin America: 1800 to the present 2nd Edition: 'Chapter 2; Colonial Background' (p. 26).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Teresa A. Meade (2017). A History of Modern Latin America: 'Chapter 3: Competing Notions of Freedom; South American Independence Movements' (pp. 73-75). USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Marc Becker (2017). Twentieth century Latin American revolutions: 'Chapter 3: Bolivia's nationalist revolution, 1952-1964; Chaco War' (pp. 84-85). Rowman & Littlefield.
- ↑ Valentina De Marval (2019-11-15). "Did Bolivia’s interim president delete anti-indigenous tweets?" AFP Fact Check. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
- ↑ "ONU, OEA y Uniore descartan fraude en elecciones generales" (2020-10-23). Página Siete. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
- ↑ Ben Norton (2022-01-15). "Bolivian intercepts US weapons shipment to right-wing separatist region" Moderate Rebels.