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Bolivia (its capital La Paz) and neighboring states

Wealth and National Well-Being

Country Comparisons:
2010: see chart

World Factbook:

Bolivia is one of the poorest and least developed countries in Latin America. Following a disastrous economic crisis during the early 1980s, reforms spurred private investment, stimulated economic growth, and cut poverty rates in the 1990s. The period 2003-05 was characterized by political instability, racial tensions, and violent protests against plans - subsequently abandoned - to export Bolivia's newly discovered natural gas reserves to large northern hemisphere markets. In 2005, the government passed a controversial hydrocarbons law that imposed significantly higher royalties and required foreign firms then operating under risk-sharing contracts to surrender all production to the state energy company in exchange for a predetermined service fee. After higher prices for mining and hydrocarbons exports produced a fiscal surplus in 2008, the global recession in 2009 slowed growth. A decline in commodity prices that began in late 2008, a lack of foreign investment in the mining and hydrocarbon sectors, a poor infrastructure, and the suspension of trade benefits with the United States will pose challenges for the Bolivian economy.

People

Migration
2009: More people leaving than arriving. A net loss of 1.05 persons per 1,000 population.

Ethnicity
Quechua (Indian) 30 percent, Aymara (Indian) 25 percent, Mixed Indian and white 30 percent, white 15 percent. 

Geography

South America, landlocked and mountainous.

Government

Independence from Spain in 1825. Since then, according to the Factbook, "nearly 200 coups and counter-coups.

World Factbook (2011): "republic; note - the new constitution defines Bolivia as a 'Social Unitarian State'." Bolivia has a bicameral legislature.

Capital: La Paz

Recent History

Evo Morales first assumed office as president in January 2006. He was elected with 53.7% of the popular vote. In a recall referendum in August, 2008, more than two-thirds of the voters chose to keep him in office. Morales won a presidental election in December 2009 by 63% of the vote.

Morales describes himself as an Amerindian. He is of Aymara descent.

October 2009: President Morales is named "World Hero of Mother Earth" by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

February 10, 2011: President Morales is under pressure because of food shortages. He abandons a public event in the face of an angry protests in the mining city of Oruro. There have been protests in other Bolivian cities.

SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/