Bolivia’s economic growth has been hindered both by the landlocked location of the country and by a difficult internal geography of steep mountains and seasonally flooded plains. The situation is ameliorated by agreements with Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay that cover railway connections and duty-free shipping from eastern river ports via the Hidrovía (Paraguay-Paraná Waterway), giving Bolivia access to Atlantic Ocean ports; another treaty, made with Peru in 1993, grants Bolivia overland access to the Pacific Ocean. Following a defense accord signed between Bolivia and Chile in 2008, the port of Iquique in Chile began to transport Bolivian goods freely for the first time since 1904, when a treaty cut off Bolivia’s Pacific outlet. Barges carry soybeans and other crops from Puerto Aguirre (Puerto Quijarro) in eastern Bolivia to Atlantic ports; the ships return with food products, diesel fuel, and industrial goods. The immense river system provides an important means of domestic transportation throughout the tropical lowlands.

The main rail system is in the west; it was built mostly between the 1890s and the 1920s and links the major Andean cities and mines with the Pacific ports of Antofagasta and Arica (both in Chile) and Matarani (Peru), the latter line being connected by shipping across Lake Titicaca. Isolated from this network, the eastern railroad system has its nucleus at Santa Cruz city, which was linked by rail to Corumbá in Brazil and to Argentina via Yacuiba during the 1950s. Since the privatization of the national rail system in 1996, its use for the transport of soybeans, mineral products, and consumer goods has increased rapidly. In 2007, President Morales announced his intention to nationalize Bolivia’s railroads and take full control of the state company, the National Railroad Enterprise (Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles; ENFE), as part of his plan to reverse the country’s privatization efforts of the 1990s. The use of railroads for transporting passengers has decreased, however, as bus services have expanded.

Road transport has developed rapidly in highland Bolivia and around Santa Cruz since the mid-1950s, and there are connecting paved highways for most major cities as well as for the colonization centers of the Santa Cruz region. Bus and truck services on unpaved roads connect numerous towns and farming communities, yet journeys in these areas are slow and often hazardous, particularly on the narrow, winding mountain roads, which are seldom lined with guardrails. Along the Andean roadsides are numerous white crosses, tributes to those who have died from collisions or from careening off the road.

Air transport is the only fast link between Bolivia’s major cities and is the primary means by which the isolated settlements in the Oriente are connected to the rest of the country, especially in the rainy season, when roads are often destroyed by heavy rains and landslides. The airline Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano (LAB) was founded by a small group of German businessmen in 1925, and in the second half of the 20th century it played an indispensable political role in helping Bolivia maintain control over the plains and the eastern border regions. LAB flies international routes to South American capitals, as well as to other cities such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Manaus (all in Brazil), Panama City (Panama), and Miami (Florida, U.S.). A newer airline, AeroSur, also provides air passenger service to most Bolivian cities, some tropical towns, and Buenos Aires. The Bolivian Air Force company (Transportes Aéreos Militares; TAM) carries passengers to small towns in the tropical Bolivian lowlands, and numerous foreign-owned airlines also serve the country. In the mid-1990s Santa Cruz opened a new airport, which was considered to be one of the more modern on the continent and quickly became Bolivia’s main air hub.

Government

Bolivia was declared independent in 1825 and adopted its first constitution in 1826. Despite revisions and numerous military coups, the state has retained a unitary system of government, whether elected or under military dictatorship, the latter having held sway for much of Bolivia’s history. A heavily revised version of the 1967 constitution was promulgated in 1994. According to that document, executive power is vested in a president who is directly elected by popular vote for a five-year term. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of votes, the National Congress must select the president from among the two leading contenders. In January 2009 a new constitution was approved that allowed the president to serve another consecutive five-year term. The bicameral legislature consists of a 36-member Chamber of Senators and a 130-member Chamber of Deputies; members of the legislature are directly elected for five-year terms. The judicial system is headed by a 12-member Supreme Court and a 5-member Constitutional Tribunal, which decides the constitutionality of laws and resolves conflicts between the branches and levels of government. The new constitution required that judges be elected; since 1967 members of both judicial bodies had been appointed by Congress to 10-year terms.

The country is divided into nine departamentos, each of which is headed by a prefect appointed by the president. Departments are subdivided into provincias administered by subprefects, and these provinces are subdivided into cantones administered by corregidores. Since the enactment of the Popular Participation Law in 1994, the country has also been divided into municipios (“municipalities”), which manage 20 percent of the public sector budget; thus, many communities that had been neglected by the central and provincial governments were able to initiate much-needed public works projects.

Women have voted in Bolivian elections since 1938, but literacy and property requirements nevertheless restricted electoral participation to a tiny proportion of the population until the National Revolution of 1952, when universal suffrage was introduced. The nation’s political system is largely controlled by three political parties; numerous smaller parties ranging in outlook from conservative to left-wing also play a role in the country’s political life. Interparty alliances have often been formed to permit national and municipal governments to function.