The politics of Bolivia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is head of state, head of government and head of a diverse multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Both the Judiciary and the electoral branch are independent of the executive and the legislature. After the 2014 election, 53.1% of the seats in national parliament were held by women, a higher proportion of women than that of the population.
Bolivia traditionally has maintained normal diplomatic relations with all hemispheric states except Chile. Foreign relations are handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by the Chancellor of Bolivia, Fernando Huanacuni Mamani, the successor of David Choquehuanca Céspedes.
Juan Evo Morales Ayma is a Bolivian politician and cocalero activist who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country's first president to come from the indigenous population, his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and multinational corporations in Bolivia. A socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) party.
Elections in Bolivia gives information on elections and election results in Bolivia.
The Plurinational Legislative Assembly is the national legislature of Bolivia, placed in La Paz, the country's seat of government.
The Movement Without Fear is a progressive political party in Bolivia. MSM was founded on March 1, 1999.
The current Constitution of Bolivia came into effect on February 7, 2009 when it was promulgated by President Evo Morales. after being approved in a referendum with 90.24% participation. The referendum was held on January 25, 2009, and the constitution was approved by 61.43% of voters.
Social unrest in Cochabamba involved violent clashes between supporters and opponents of Cochabamba Prefect Manfred Reyes Villa in the departmental capital city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, reaching their peak on January 11 and 12, 2007. The policies of the President Evo Morales and the agenda of his Movement towards Socialism (MAS) party in the Constituent Assembly were opposed by politicians in other political parties, notably Reyes Villa. The prefect's opposition to Morales' policies angered the President's supporters, and early in 2007 demonstrations in Cochabamba escalated into violent clashes between Reyes Villa's civic movement and urban and rural social movements who called for his ouster. During the violence, coca farmer Juan Tica Colque and the young student Christian Urresti (17) were killed. Coca farmer Luciano Colque (48) was mortally wounded by blows from civic movement protesters and died of cranial trauma on February 27. Some 200 people were wounded in the clashes.
The domestic policy of the Evo Morales administration refers to the domestic policy initiatives of the current President of Bolivia, including past pre-presidential advocacies by Morales.
Isiboro Sécure National Park and Indigenous Territory is a protected area and Native Community Land in Bolivia situated between the north of the Cochabamba Department and the south of the Beni Department. It protects part of the Bolivian Yungas ecoregion. The indigenous people living within the park belong to the Tsimané, Yuracaré, and Mojeño-Trinitario peoples. The southern portion of the park has been colonized by agricultural settlers, primarily coca farmers, since the 1970s. The Bolivian government estimates that 10% of the park has been deforested by their presence.
The history of Bolivia since 1982 begins with the restorations of democracy after the rule of the military junta of 1982. Evo Morales has held the presidency since 2006. A new constitution was enacted in 2009. Bolivia's population has roughly doubled over this period, from 5 million in 1980 to 10 million as of 2012.
The 2010 Bolivian regional elections were held on 4 April 2010. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 5 million people. Among the officials elected are:
The first Bolivian judicial election was held on 16 October 2011. The national vote was held to elect magistrates to serve on the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, the Plurinational Constitutional Tribunal, the Agro-environmental Tribunal and members of the Council of the Judiciary. It was originally scheduled to be held on 5 December 2010, but officials of the National Electoral Court and of the MAS majority in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly delayed it. The vote will be the first time that a Latin American country directly elects its highest judicial officials.
The National Coordination for Change is a Bolivian political coordination of social movements aligned with the governing Movement for Socialism-Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP). It was founded on 22 January 2007, during the Constituent Assembly of 2006-2007. CONALCAM mobilizes its member organizations in support of the "process of change" which includes the drafting and implementing of a new Constitution as well as a variety of social reforms.
Fidel Andrés Surco Cañasaca is a Bolivian politician from the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples (MAS-IPSP) political party. Surco began his career as a union leader from Alto Beni, La Paz, and rose to leadership in the Federation of Colonizers of La Paz and later the Syndicalist Confederation of Intercultural Communities of Bolivia. He also served as President of the National Coordination for Change from 2008 to 2010. He served .as Senator from La Paz department in Bolivia's Plurinational Legislative Assembly from 2010 to 2015. In December 2016, he sought to become the Vice President of the MAS-IPSP at the party's Ninth Congress, but consensus was not reached. In January 2017, the position was awarded to Gerardo García, another former leader of the Intercultural Confederation.
Félix Patzi Paco is a Bolivian academic and politician. Since May 31, 2015, he is the governor of La Paz Department. A member of the Aymara ethnic group, he has been active in supporting indigenous movements in Bolivia.
Coca has been cultivated in medium-altitude parts of the Bolivian Andes since at least the Inca era, primarily in the Yungas north and east of La Paz. Cultivation expanded substantially in the 1980s into the Chapare region of Cochabamba and some production flowed into the international cocaine market. The US-backed efforts to criminalize and eradicate coca as part of the War on Drugs were met by the cocalero movement's growing capacity to organize. Violence between drug police and the Bolivian armed forces on one side and the movement on the other occurred episodically between 1987 and 2003. The cocaleros became an increasingly important political force during this period, co-founding the Movement for Socialism – Political Instrument for the Sovereignty of the Peoples party. Coca growers from both the Yungas and the Chapare have advocated for policies of "social control" over coca growing, maintaining a pre-set maximum area of cultivation as an alternative to drug war policies. In 2005, cocalero union leader Evo Morales was elected president of Bolivia. Morales has pursued a combined policy of legalizing coca production in the Chapare and Yungas and eradication of the crop elsewhere.
