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Why the World Got It Wrong with Bolivia
And the lessons we can learn from it
For many people, Bolivia is not a well-known country. It lies, landlocked, in the centre of South America in between Peru, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, with a population of 11 million. With diverse landscapes, from deserts and salt flats, to jungles and mountain ranges, it is a country of extremes. La Paz, Bolivia’s political capital, is also a city with extremities. Their subway is not underground, but in the sky, with cable cars taking you up and down — enough to make you hold on tightly to the hand rails. But perhaps what is most striking are the people, multiethnic and multilingual, with an ethnic distribution of around 30% Quechua, 25% Aymara, and the rest white, Hispanic or mixed. Bolivia thus is a country of diversities, in land and in people.
On a Sunday afternoon in Cochabamba, a city in the centre of Bolivia, I sat with my boyfriend and his mom in front of the television, watching the government unravel after three weeks of protests that rocked the country. We all sat in awe, and the country was holding its breath. Then the news came, Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, was resigning. Almost…
