Bolivia Travellers Guide
Total Area:1,098,580 sq km Land Borders: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru
Population: 8,989,046
Life Expectancy: 66 years HIV % Total Poulation:0.1%
Ethnic Groups: Quechua 30%, mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 30%, Aymara 25%, white 15%
Languages:Spanish (official), Quechua (official), Aymara (official)
President:Juan Evo MORALES Ayma GDP - Per Capita: $2,900
Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon BOLIVAR, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and countercoups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in 1982, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep-seated poverty, social unrest, and illegal drug production. In December 2005, Bolivians elected Movement Toward Socialism leader Evo MORALES president - by the widest margin of any leader since the restoration of civilian rule in 1982 - after he ran on a promise to change the country's traditional political class and empower the nation's poor majority.