Bolivia+-+Robbie+Berube

The Republic of Bolivia media type="youtube" key="h71c1SJtlaQ" height="271" width="364"toc
 * =__The Flag__=

[] **Green**: represents the wealth of the nature and the hope, as a principle of the society **The symbol:** is the Bolivian coat of arms. It has an alpaca which is the national animal. It is surrounded by muskets and Bolivian flags. [] [] Bolivia is in central south America. It borders Brazil to the north and the east, Peru and Chile to the west and Paraguay and Argentina to the south. The capital cities are Sucre and La Paz. They have two because the liberal party the Conservative Party did not agree. The population of la paz is 835,361. The population of Sucre is 224,838. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at 3,600 meters above sea level. Bolivia is the fifth largest country in south america. Bolivia has a total population of 10,118,683. [] [] media type="youtube" key="xIDZfyjDkKk" height="283" width="504"
 * Red ** : represents the blood from the heroes for the birth and preservation of the Republic
 * Yellow ** : represents the wealth and resources.
 * =__Location__=
 * =__ Interesting places in Bolivia __=
 * Bolivia is home to the highest navigable lake in the world. It is lake Titicaca and it is 3810 meters (12,382.5 feet) above sea level. It is also one of the deepest lakes in the world.
 * This is the largest salt deposit is in Bolivia. It is called the Salar de Uyuni. There is over 64 million tons of salt. When it rains the water forms a thin layer over the salt and creates a beautiful reflection of the sky. Amazingly underneath all of that salt is the worlds largest deposit of lithium. Many battery manufactures are interested in this deposit but that would mean destroying the beautiful salt flats.
 * Copacabana is a huge tourist attraction in Bolivia. It is on the beautiful lake Titicaca.


 * =Interesting Facts=
 * Bolivia is a plurinational county.
 * The head of state or president is Juan Evo Morales Ayma. The vice president is Alvaro Garcia Linera. They serve a five year term as president and vice president and are elected by the people.
 * The literacy rate of Bolivia is only 86.7%.
 * The education is very diverse in Bolivia. In the rural areas children average about 4.2 years of school. in the urban areans they average about 9.4 years in school
 * Bolivia has a few religions. about 78% of the people are Roman Catholic, somewhere between 16% and 19% are protestant. there is also mormons, muslims, jewish people. There is a mormon temple in Cochabamba that serves about 100,000 mormons around the country. There are also indigenous religions practiced in Bolivia by the Quechua, Aymara, Guarani, and Chiquitano people.
 * =Exports=
 * Natural gas
 * Silver
 * Zinc
 * Soybeans
 * Tin
 * Gold
 * Lead
 * Brazil nuts
 * Wood
 * Sun flowers
 * =Imports=
 * Transportation equipment
 * Construction equipment
 * Mining equipment
 * Consumer products
 * =Languages=

Bolivia has an amazing amount of indigenous languages that are still spoken. The two official languages are Spanish and Quechua. about 60% speak spanish and about 20% speak Quechua. The rest speak many indigenous languages. here are all the other languages: 1. Aymara 2. Aymara, Central 3. Ayoreo 4. Baure 5. Bolivian Sign Language 6. Callawalla 7. Canichana 8. Cavineña 9. Cayubaba 10. Chácobo 11. Chipaya 12. Chiquitano 13. Chorote, Iyo'wujwa 14. Ese Ejja 15. Guaraní, Eastern Bolivian 16. Guaraní, Western Bolivian 17. Guarayu 18. Ignaciano 19. Itene 20. Itonama 21. Jorá 22. Leco 23. Machinere 24. Movima 25. Pacahuara 26. Pauserna 27. Plautdietsch 28. Quechua, North Bolivian 29. Quechua, South Bolivian 30. Reyesano 31. Saraveca 32. Shinabo 33. Sirionó 34. Spanish 35. Tacana 36. Tapieté 37. Toba 38. Toromono 39. Trinitario 40. Tsimané 41. Uru 42. Wichí Lhamtés Nocten 43. Yaminahua 44. Yuqui 45. Yuracare [|http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_languages_are_spoken_in_Bolivia#ixzz1voHq8c9U]


 * =Timeline=

6000BC Researchers in 2007 reported that evidence for the use of chili peppers date back to this time in Ecuador. Botanists if general agreed that chili peppers originated in Bolivia. Evidence for early use was also found in the Bahamas, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. (SFC, 2/16/07, p.A7)

3000BC The use of coca in Bolivian culture can be traced back to at least this time. It is commonly called hoja sagrada, or sacred loaf. (SFC, 6/29/00, p.A12)

1200 The Inca Empire conquered the area of Bolivia around this time and remained in control until arrival of Spaniards. (AP, 12/17/05)

c1470 The Quechua-speaking Incas came to dominate what is now Bolivia a mere 75 years before the Spaniards arrived. (NH, 11/96, p.37)

1545 The Spanish discovered the silver mines of Potosi, Bolivia. From the town of Cerro Rico, which means Hill of Riches, they took out the equivalent of $2 billion from one mountainside. (NH, 10/96, p.4)(NH, 11/96, p.38)

1548 Jul 16, La Paz, Bolivia, was founded. (MC, 7/16/02)

1561 Santa Cruz (Bolivia) was founded by the Spaniard Nuflo de Chavez as a bulwark against Portuguese expansion. (WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)

1573 The city of Potosi, Bolivia, at the foot of Cerro Rico grew to surpass Seville, Madrid, Rome or Paris. (NH, 11/96, p.38)

1600 Feb 18, Arequipa, Peru, was destroyed by an earthquake. Huaynaputina was the site of a monogenetic silicic eruption that ranks greater than 1883 Krakatau and 1991 Mt. Pinatubo in magnitude. A 26 hour-long plinian eruption devastated the socioeconomic fabric of southern Peru and neighboring Chile and Bolivia. (SSFC, 6/24/01, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/ydmwzba)

1781 Tupak Katari, Aymara Indian leader, laid siege to La Paz, Bolivia, for 109 days. A Spanish army finally broke through and Katari was executed by being drawn and quartered. (SFC, 4/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A1)

1783 Jul 24, Simon Bolivar (d.1830), was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He was a soldier and statesmen who led armies of liberation throughout much of South America, including Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Peru and Bolivia, which took its name from Bolivar. Bolivar, called "the Liberator," was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of national independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia that lasted 8 years but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Bolivar died of tuberculosis. (AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP, 7/24/97)(HNQ, 3/30/00)

1809 Jul 16, A well-prepared revolutionary insurrection burst out in La Paz, Bolivia. (http://flagspot.net/flags/bo-l.html)

1809 Jul 27, In Bolivia a proclamation of independence of the La Paz colony, said to have been written by Priest Medina and the first proclamation of that kind, was released and sent to the other main cities of the colony, hoping they would support the uprising. (http://flagspot.net/flags/bo-l.html)

1825 Aug 6, Simon Bolivar drew up a constitution for Bolivia in which a life president appointed his successor. Sucre served as the sole capital until losing a brief civil war to La Paz in 1899. Upper Peru became the autonomous republic of Bolivia. (Econ, 7/1/06, p.77)(AP, 7/21/07)(AP, 8/6/08)

1826-1828 Gen. Antonio Jose de Sucre (1793-1830), Venezuela-born national hero of Ecuador, served as president of Bolivia. (www.famousamericans.net/antoniojosedesucre/)

1830 Dec 17, Simon Bolivar (b.1783), called "the Liberator," died of TB in Santa Marta, in Colombia. He was a leader in Venezuela for struggles of national independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia that lasted 8 years, but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. In 2006 John Lynch authored “Simon Bolivar: A Life.” (AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP, 12/17/97)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.77)

1830 Mayor de San Andres, Bolivia’s major university, was founded in La Paz. (www.ddg.com/LIS/aurelia/boltou.htm)

1834 Bolivia’s Penal Code of 1834, Article 139, stated: "Anyone who conspires directly and in fact to establish another religion in Bolivia or (promotes) that the Republic cease to profess the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Religion, is traitor and will be punished with the death penalty." (http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/rihand/Bolivia.html)

1839 Jan 20, Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay. (AP, 1/20/98)

1860-1947 Don Simon Iturbi Patino, part Indian Bolivian miner, made a fortune in tin. While working as a clerk a customer in debt offered him the deed to an old tin mine. It turned out to be one of the richest deposits on earth. He served as an ambassador to Spain and France but was shunned by Bolivian aristocracy (WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)

1879-1883 In the War of the Pacific, Chile’s army won the nitrate-rich desert lands from Peru and Bolivia. The war was fought over the treatment of Chilean investors in the desert territories. The area remained in contention until a 1929 agreement proposed by Pres. Herbert Hoover. (SFC, Z-1, 4/28/96, p.5)(SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)

1887 Nov 28, Ernst Roehm, early Nazi and German staff member, later Bolivian leader, was born. (MC, 11/28/01)

1898 In Bolivia Sucre began to lose its pre-eminence to La Paz following a decline at the nearby silver mine at Potosi. (Econ, 7/28/07, p.39)

1899 La Paz became the seat of Bolivia’s legislative and executive branches after winning a brief civil war against Sucre, which retained the country’s high courts. (AP, 8/6/97)(Econ, 7/1/06, p.77)(AP, 7/21/07)

1904 Oct 20, Bolivia and Chile signed a treaty ending the War of the Pacific. The treaty recognized Chile's possession of Bolivia's nitrate-rich coastal province of Antofagasta, but provided for construction of a railway to link La Paz, Bolivia, to Arica on the coast. (HN, 10/20/98)(Econ, 12/6/03, p.34)

1907 Robert Leroy Parker and Harry Longabaugh, known as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, held up another bank in Argentina. They sold their ranch in Patagonia to a beef syndicate and went to Bolivia where they were gunned down by soldiers after robbing a mine payroll. (SFC, 1/19/98, p.A10)

1926 May 10, Hugo Banzer (d.2002), later dictator and president, was born in Concepcion. (SFC, 5/6/02, p.B5)

1926-1930 Hernando Siles Reyes led the country. (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)

1928 Dec 5, Paraguay initiated a series of clashes, which led to full-scale war with Bolivia in spite of inter-American arbitration efforts. Both belligerents moved more troops into the Chaco Boreal, a wilderness region north of the Pilcomayo River and west of the Paraguay River that forms part of the Gran Chaco. By 1932 war was definitely under way. (www.onwar.com/aced/data/charlie/chaco1932.htm)

1929 Jun 3, Chile, Peru & Bolivia signed an accord about the Tacna-Arica area. Chile and Peru accepted a proposal by Pres. Herbert Hoover over the outcome of the 1879-1893 War of the Pacific. Chile would retain Arica and return Tacna to Peru and grant access to the Arica port as a compromise. The accord was not implemented until 1999. (SFEC, 11/14/99, p.A22)(MC, 6/3/02)

1931 Mar 5, In Bolivia President Daniel Salamanca Urey (1869-1935) became president. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Salamanca)

1932-1935 The Chaco War was fought between Paraguay and Bolivia. The war was waged over disputed territory in the Chaco Boreal, a plain shared by both South American countries. Although outnumbered and poorly equipped, the Paraguayan army won every major engagement with the Bolivians. Some 90,000 people were killed in the war. A commission of neutral nations awarded most of the disputed territory to Paraguay in 1938. (HNQ, 7/18/98)(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A10) 1932-1935 Prisoners of the Chaco War built the one-lane Unduavi-Yolosa highway from La Paz to the Yungas region. It was called the world's most dangerous highway and every week at least one vehicle fell off its edge. (SFC, 2/24/00, p.A12)

1933 May 10, Paraguay declared war on Bolivia. (MC, 5/10/02)

1933 Dec 11, Reports said Paraguay had captured 11,000 Bolivians in the war over Chaco. (HN, 12/11/98)

1934 Nov 27, In Bolivia President Daniel Salamanca Urey (1869-1935) was suddenly deposed by the Bolivian military. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Luis_Tejada_Sorzano)

1934 Dec 1, In Bolivia Jose Luis Tejada Sorzano (1882-1938) was installed as president by the military. He served to 1936 and was succeeded by David Toro. (SFC, 4/25/09, p.E1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Luis_Tejada_Sorzano)

1935 Jun 14, A commission of neutral nations (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and the United States) declared an armistice in the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay. A definite settlement was finally reached in 1938. (http://countrystudies.us/bolivia/15.htm)

1936 The YPFB (Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos) was created with the exclusive right to explore, produce and distribute hydrocarbons. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A8)

1937 Bolivia under the nationalist administration of General David Toro nationalized its energy sector. Toro cancelled the Standard Oil Company's oil contracts and seized the US company's holdings in exchange for a 1.7 million dollar indemnification. (http://coanews.org/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=872)

1941 Jun 7, Jaime Laredo, violinist (Queen Elisabeth of Belgium prize 1959), was born in Bolivia. (SC, 6/7/02)

1942 Jun 7, Victor Paz Estensorro founded the National Revolutionary Movement (MNR party). (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1952 Apr 9, A popular uprising in Bolivia broke the grip by three families on the rich silver and tin lodes of Oruto and Potosi in the altiplano. This led to the state owned Minera de Bolivia known as Camibol. Hernan Siles Zuazo led the revolution that brought far-reaching social and economic reforms. Feudalism was replaced with universal suffrage. Every business of note was passed into the hands of the state. (WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-9)(SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(WSJ, 8/15/95, p. A-6)(MC, 4/9/02)

1952 In Bolivia the MNR Party was the driving force behind a national revolution that launched agrarian reforms, the universal right to vote, and the nationalization of the country’s mines. The MNR was also accused of assassinations and torture. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)(Econ, 12/12/09, p.40) 1952 In Bolivia many of the largest haciendas were broken up as part of agrarian reforms, thousands of indigenous worked on the plantations in near slavery. (AP, 7/5/03)

1952-1956 Victor Paz Estensorro founder of the National Revolutionary Movement, served his 1st of 4 terms as president. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1953 Bolivia’s agrarian reform of 1953, born of the1952 revolution, was adversely affected by corruption and pressure groups. By 1996, 55 million hectares had been handed over to large landholders, and 45 million hectares to small farmers. (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32429)

1953-1955 Bolivia’s President Paz Estenssoro established universal suffrage. The government reduced the size and budget of the armed forces. The three major tin companies were nationalized, to be run by the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (Comibol). Strongly influenced by peasants, the government enacted sweeping agrarian reform. Miners organized the Bolivian Labor Federation (COB). (http://tinyurl.com/s7dzd)

1956-1960 In Bolivia Hernan Siles Zuazo (1913-1996) became president. (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)

1960-1964 Victor Paz Estensorro founder of the National Revolutionary Movement, served his 2nd of 4 terms as president. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1964 Hugo Banzer was appointed director of the military academy. (SFC, 5/6/02, p.B5)

1964 A string of military coups began in Bolivia, but it returned to democratic rule in 1982. (AP, 12/17/05)

1964-1965 Victor Paz Estensorro founder of the National Revolutionary Movement, served his 3rd of 4 terms as president. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1965-1981 Military regimes ran the country. Their human rights violations were documented in the 1993 book “Never Again for Bolivia” by Jesuit author Federico Aguilo. (SFC, 3/15/97, p.A11)

1967 Pres. Barrientos had peasant support with distribution of 25-acre plots and the adoption of Indian rights measures. This made it very difficult for revolutionary activity to take hold. (SFC, 5/12/96, Z1p.4)

1967 Jan, Ernesto “Che” Guevara began organizing the National Liberation Army in Bolivia. (SFC, 5/12/96, Z1p.4)

1967 Apr, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was imprisoned in Bolivia shortly before the capture of Che Guevara [see Nov 17]. (www.tamilnation.org/ideology/debray.htm)

1967 Aug 31, Haydee Tamara Bunke Bider, aka Tania the Guerrilla, was killed when her guerrilla column was ambushed by Bolivian soldiers. The remains of Bider, who was born in Argentina, were uncovered in Sep. 1998 in Vallegrande and returned to Cuba, her adopted homeland. (SFC, 12/15/98, p.A17)

1967 Oct 8, Che Guevara was captured by US trained Bolivian Rangers near Vado del Yeso. (SFC, 5/12/96, Z1p.4)(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A10)

1967 Oct 9, Latin American guerrilla leader Che Guevara (b.1928), Ernesto Serna, was executed while attempting to incite revolution in Bolivia. Guevara was captured the previous day and executed on the orders of Bolivia’s Pres. Gen. Rene Barrientos. Guevara believed that a man of action could revolutionize a people and strove to fight what he perceived as the American domination of Latin America. ”Pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.” (A United people will never be overcome.) (AP, 10/9/97)(SFC, 12/23/04, p.A18)(SFC, 10/9/07, p.A17)

1967 Oct 10, The body of Che Guevara was laid out at the Lord of Malta Hospital in Villegrande, Bolivia, 300 miles from the site of capture. The next day his body vanished. His body was found in a common grave on Jun 28, 1997. (SFC, 5/12/96, Z1p.1)(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.A10)

1967 Nov 17, French author Regis Debray (b.1940) was sentenced to 30 years in Bolivia. Debray (b.1940) was jailed in Bolivia shortly before Che Guevara was captured and was convicted of having been part of Guevara's guerrilla group. He was released in 1970 after an international campaign for his release which included Jean-Paul Sartre, André Malraux, General De Gaulle and Pope Paul VI. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regis_Debray)

1968 Bolivia’s Gen. Juan Jose Torres selected economist Hugo Torresgoitia as vice president. (SFC, 7/14/03, p.A2)

1969 Apr 27, Gen. Rene Barrientos (b.1919), military president of Bolivia, died in a helicopter crash. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Barrientos_Ortu%C3%B1o)

1969 Nov 5, Bolivia nationalized its energy sector a 2nd time. Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz, the Minister of Mines and Petroleum, nationalized the assets and concessions of the Gulf Oil Company, under the administration of General Alfredo Ovando Candia (1969-1970). (http://countrystudies.us/bolivia/60.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/blqnw7)

1970 Nov 27, Pope Paul VI, visiting the Philippines, was slightly wounded at the Manila airport by Benjamin Mendoza, a dagger-wielding Bolivian painter disguised as a priest. (AP, 11/27/02)

1970 Dec 23, French journalist Regis Debray (b.1940), arrested in 1967, was freed in Bolivia. (www.indopedia.org/1970.html)(www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n03/hard01_.html)

1971 Jan, Gen. Juan Jose Torres dismissed Hugo Banzer from his position as director of the military academy. Banzer followed with a coup attempt and was exiled to Argentina. (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5221/is_/ai_n19134773)

1971 Aug 22, A coup led by Col. Hugo Banzer Suarez deposed leftist army Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres, who had created a Soviet-style legislature. Torres fled to Argentina. (WUD, 1994, p. 1688)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A11)(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)

1971 Oct, Bolivia restored the death penalty for terrorism, kidnapping, and crimes against government and security personnel. In 1997 the death penalty was abolished for ordinary crimes. (http://tinyurl.com/6384qk)(www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/countryfacts/bolivia.html)

1971-1978 Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez served as the military dictator and ruled the country through repression and torture. (SFC, 3/15/97, p.A10)

c1973 In Bolivia Pres. Hugo Banzer met with Chilean military authorities. The Chilean military Operation Condor sought Chilean exiles in Bolivia and other countries for return to Chile for execution. (SFEC, 11/29/98, p.A26)

1974 Hugo Banzer, military dictator of Bolivia, prohibited all political activity. (SFC, 5/6/02, p.B5)

1976 May 11, Col. Joaquin Zenteno Anaya, Bolivia’s ambassador to France, was assassinated in Paris. Members of the Che Guevara brigade claim credit. Zenteno had led the army division that captured and executed Che Guevara in 1967. (http://openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/1976-5/1976-05-11-ABC-13.html)

1976 Jun 2, Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres (b.1920), ousted as president of Bolivia in 1971, was kidnapped by a death squad in Argentina and killed. He was a victim of the Condor Plan, a South American military pact between Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay to exchange intelligence information and help each other hunt down suspected leftists. (SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Jos%C3%A9_Torres)

1976 Carla Rutila was abducted as a baby in Bolivia, where her parents were fighting as leftist guerrillas with the National Liberation Army, or ELN. Her father, Uruguayan Enrique Luca Lopez, was killed, and her mother, Argentine Graciela Rutila Artes, disappeared after being taken to a secret torture center in Buenos Aires, the Automotores Orletti garage. At age 10 she discovered her true identity through DNA tests advocated by the human-rights group Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo. In 2010 Rutila (35) testified against Eduardo Ruffo, the agent who adopted her, and said that from the age of 3 until she was rescued at 10, Ruffo physically and sexually abused her. Ruffo was not arrested until 2006, when a judge found sufficient evidence to charge him with human-rights violations. (AP, 8/19/10)

1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian initiative designed to coordinate the joint development of the Amazon Basin. (http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)

1978 Jul 21, In Bolivia Gen’l. Juan Pereda Asbun overthrew Pres. Banzer in a coup. (WUD, 1994, p.1691)

1979 Nov 16, Lidia Gueiler (1921-2011) became the second woman to lead a Latin American nation. She served as president of Bolivia when she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup d'etats. She assumed the presidency after a deadly popular revolt ousted coup leader Gen. Alberto Natusch Busch. (AP, 5/10/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Gueiler_Tejada)

1980 Jul 17, In Bolivia a bloody coup installed a reactionary (and cocaine-tainted) dictatorship led by general Luis Garcia Meza. Former president (1956-1960) Hernan Siles Zuazo (1914-1996), who had won the most votes in elections flew to exile. He returned in 1982, when the military's experiment had ran its course and the Bolivian economy was on the verge of collapse. He served a 2nd term from 1982-1985. (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(http://tinyurl.com/3andtr)

1981 Aug 4, In Bolivia Pres. Luis Garcia Meza, 1980 military coup leader, was succeeded by Gen. Celso Torrelio (1933-1999). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Garc%C3%ADa_Meza_Tejada)

1982 Oct 10, In Bolivia Hernan Siles Zuazo (1914-1996) became president again and served to 1985. His presidency restored democracy after 18 years of harsh military rule. (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(AP, 12/17/05)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Siles_Zuazo)

1983 Jan 25, Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France, was arrested in Bolivia. (www.exilordinaire.org/rubriques/?keyRubrique=klaus_barbie2)

1983 Feb 5, Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie (d.1991), expelled from Bolivia, was brought to trial in Lyon, France. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. (MC, 2/5/02)(AP, 2/5/03)

1985 Hyperinflation and a hostile Congress cut short the term of Pres. Hernan Siles Zuazo and early elections were called. Colonel Hugo Banzer Suarez won the election but lost out to a coalition alliance. Pres. Paz Estenssoro led the country and initiated a neoliberal reform to save the country from hyperinflation that reached 22,000% per year. (SFC, 8/8/96, p.A22)(SFC, 3/15/97, p.A10)(SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1985 The price of tin crashed and 23,000 miners lost their jobs. (NH, 11/96, p.38)

1985 The IMF couched the country through a maxi-devaluation and fiscal adjustment. (WSJ, 6/19/98, p.A15)

1985 Roberto Suarez, drug dealer, was sentenced to a 15-year prison term. (WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)

1985 Drug traffickers gunned down naturalist Noel Kempff Mercado and a colleague while the pair visited a remote area to record bird calls. (WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)

1985-1986 Jeffrey Sachs, UN special advisor, helped stop the hyperinflation in Bolivia. (Econ, 7/7/07, p.27)

1985-1989 Victor Paz Estensorro founder of the National Revolutionary Movement, served his 4th of 4 terms as president. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

1986-1996 The US provided $1.2 billion in aid. (WSJ, 12/6/96, p.A12)

1988 Aug 8, Sec. of State Shultz narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Bolivia. (www.tkb.org/MorePatterns.jsp?countryCd=BL&year=1988)

1989 Aug 6, Jaime Paz Zamora was inaugurated as president of Bolivia. (AP, 8/6/99)

1989 Arce Gomez was captured in eastern Bolivia and extradited to the United States, where he was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 30 years. Gomez, known as "the minister of cocaine," took part in the July 1980 coup led by then-Gen. Luis Garcia Meza and backed by drug traffickers. In 2009 Gomez was returned to Bolivia to serve a 30-year prison sentence for crimes including genocide and political assassinations. (AP, 7/10/09)

1992 Edmundo Paz Soldan authored his novel “Turing’s Delirium.” It won the Bolivian National Book Award and in 2006 appeared in English translated by Lisa Carter. (SSFC, 7/9/06, p.M3)

1993 The book "Never Again for Bolivia" by Jesuit author Federico Aguilo documented the human rights violations of the military regimes from 1965-1981. (SFC, 3/15/97, p.A11)

1993 Mr. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (Goni) was elected president of Bolivia. In 1995 he began a plan of auctioning off companies to foreign investors. The proceeds were directed to go half for modernizing the companies and half for a pension fund for the people of Bolivia. (WSJ, 8/15/95, p. A-1)

1993 The constitution was changed to allow the next president a five-year term. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A7)

1993 A Bolivian court convicted Arce Gomez in absentia of a series of crimes including armed insurrection and genocide. He was sentenced to 30 years without parole. Gomez was in the US serving time following a conviction for drug trafficking. (AP, 7/10/09)

1994 Mar 21, Bolivia’s Congress approved a new capitalization program. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A8)

1994 Houston based Enron Development Corp. was called in to help develop the Bolivian side of the Bolivia-Brazil natural gas pipeline. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A8)

1995 Dec, The Paris Club of creditor countries will recommend writing off 67% of the country's foreign debt and consolidating the remainder at market interest rates. (WSJ, 12/18/95, p.A-9)

1995 In Bolivia Evo Morales founded the Movement Toward Socialism. He was later elected to congress, and in 2002 narrowly lost the presidential race to Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada. (AP, 12/13/05)

1995 Former Bolivian dictator Luis Garcia Meza Tejada (1980-1981) was extradited to Bolivia from Brazil and began serving a 30 year prison sentence, in the same prison where he once kept his enemies. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Garc%C3%ADa_Meza_Tejada)

1996 May, In Bolivia the Inti-Raymi SA unit of Battle Mountain Gold of Houston accounts for 10% of the country’s annual export. It churns out more gold in its open pit mine with 318 workers than the rest of Bolivia’s 20,000 small stakeholders. (WSJ, 5/23/96, p.A-9)

1996 Aug, In Bolivia a holding dam at a COMSUR owned mine burst and released 230,000 metric tons of sludge containing lead and arsenic into the Rio Pilaya which in turn feeds the Pilcomayo. Local reports called this the worst environmental disaster in Latin America of the century. (NH, 2/97, p.6)

1996 Oct 10, In Bolivia the government reached an agreement with landowners and Indian leaders on a land reform bill. Large landowners received a 50% tax reduction in return for their support. More than 20,000 Indians had staged daily protests over the last 2 weeks. Under the law land could only revert to the state if its owners failed to pay the land tax. (SFC, 10/11/96, p.A17)(Econ, 9/23/06, p.41)

1996 Oct 14, Bilateral agreements with the US held that 12,000 to 19,000 acres of coca production be eradicated. Failure to do so would cause a suspension of foreign aid and approval of funds from agencies such as the World Bank. (SFC, 10/14/96, p.A13)

1996 Bolivia joined Mercosur, the Southern Cone Common Market, as an associated member. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A9)

1996 Bolivia passed a hydrocarbons law that paved the way for privatizations. (Econ, 9/13/03, p.34)

1996 The state oil company, YPFB, was divided into 2 upstream exploration and production units and one transport division. (WSJ, 2/14/97, p.A8)

1996 Dinosaur footprints were discovered on the wall of a limestone quarry near the town of Sucre. (SFEC, 8/2/93, p.A18)

1997 Feb 10, It was reported that heavy rains have destroyed the homes and crops of tens of thousands of farmers. The rains were the heaviest in 3 decades. (SFC, 2/10/97, p.A8)

1997 May 10, It was reported that more than one-fifth of Bolivia’s population was infected with Chagas disease. The ailment is transmitted by triatomine insects that carry the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite. T. Cruzi can enter the bloodstream through scratched skin and causes nerve damage and swelling of the heart and colon that can lead to death after years of infection. (SFC, 5/10/97, p.A10)

1997 Jun 1, The former right-wing gen’l. and president, Hugo Banzer, won the popular vote in elections with 25% [22%] but failed to get a majority. Former Pres. Jaime Paz Zamora was 2nd with 17.5%. Congress chose from among the 2 top contenders on Aug 4. Victor Paz Estenserro was elected by Congress. (SFC, 6/2/97, p.A6)(WSJ, 6/19/98, p.A15)(SFC, 5/6/02, p.B5)

1997 Aug 5, In Bolivia the Congress elected former dictator Hugo Banzer as president. He pledged economic reforms and steps to cut poverty. (WSJ, 8/6/97, p.A1)

1997 Oct 24, The first McDonald’s restaurant opened in La Paz. (SFC,10/24/97, p.D2)

1997 Bolivia’s per-capita annual income was $1,024. (SFC, 12/14/98, p.A12)

1997 Bolivia began registering ships under the Bolivian flag with virtually no restrictions. (WSJ, 10/23/02, p.A1)

1998 Mar 3, It was reported that the US had slashed aid to fight drugs in Bolivia by 75% or some $34 million. Aid in 1997 was $46 million. The allocation was partly shifted to Columbia. (SFC, 3/3/98, p.A9)

1998 Apr 1, The Bolivian Workers’ Confederation called an open-ended strike for wage increases and an end to the coca eradication program. Violent clashes over 4 days had left 3 dead and dozens injured in Chapare. Pres. Hugo Banzer said his government would continue to wipe out cocaine trafficking during his 5-year term. (SFC, 4/798, p.A12)

1998 May 22, Earthquakes destroyed hundreds of homes in central remote mountain towns and at least 60 people were killed. (SFC, 5/23/98, p.A12)

1998 The Bolivian military destroyed some 37,000 acres of coca fields. (SFC, 11/20/99, p.C1)

1998 In Bolivia investment in hydrocarbons exploration and production reached a peak of $605 million. (WSJ, 4/4/05, p.A12)

1999 Aug 23, In Bolivia fires were reported to have destroyed 350,000 acres of farmland, at least 500 homes and much of the town of Ascencion de Guarayos. Thousands of residents were left homeless. (SFC, 8/24/99, p.A11)

1999 Nov 19, In Bolivia a 5-day Conference of American Armies ended. Discussions centered on new roles for the Latin armies such as defending democracy, fighting poverty and eradicating drug smuggling. (SFC, 11/20/99, p.C1)

1999 In Bolivia the Vinto tin smelter was privatized in a $27 million purchase by the British firm Allied Deals. The deal included the nearby Huamuni mine. In 2002 a liquidator sold Vinto for $6 million to a consortium headed by Comsur, a mining company owned by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (Goni), Bolivia’s former president (1993-1997). In 2005 Goni sold Comsur’s Bolivian assets to Glencore, a mining company based in Switzerland for some $220 million, of which $90 million was said to be for the smelter. (Econ, 2/17/07, p.40)

2000 Feb 2, An oil spill was reported to have leaked some 5,000 barrels into the Desaguadero River, which empties into Lake Titicaca. The spill was reported to have reached Lake Poopo and Lake Uru Uru and was spreading to the communities of the Aymara Indians. (SFC, 2/5/00, p.A16)

2000 Apr 8, In Bolivia Pres. Banzer declared a state of emergency following a week of protests. 3 protesters were reported killed in 3 separate clashes which began in Cochabamba over a 20% increase in water rates. (SFEC, 4/9/00, p.C13)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Cochabamba_protests)

2000 Apr 9, In Bolivia thousands of Aymara Indian farmers clashed with soldiers in Achacachi and Batallas. The clashes over economic problems left 3 soldiers and 2 farmers dead. (SFC, 4/10/00, p.A16)

2000 Apr 11, In Bolivia some anti-government protests continued but in Cochabamba tensions eased after the government canceled a contract with Aguas del Tunari, a Bechtel subsidiary, that threatened increased water prices. In 2002 Bechtel demanded $25 million for suspension of the 40-year lease. The dispute was settled in 2006 with no compensations paid. (SFC, 4/12/00, p.A17)(SFC, 2/2/02, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/20/06, p.A8)

2000 Apr 17, Coca leaf farmers in the Yungas region scuffled with truckers in a protest against government plans to destroy illegal coca plantations. (SFC, 4/18/00, p.A10)

2000 May 11, It was reported that long-standing ethnic rivalry between the Laime, Quaquachaca and Jucumani tribes in the Andean highlands had left numerous people dead. (SFC, 5/11/00, p.A18)

2000 Sep-2000 Oct, Protests against the coca eradication program took place and cut off the capital of La Paz with roadblocks. 10 people were killed. (SFC, 1/6/01, p.A7)

2000 Oct 6, Indian leaders and government ministers agreed prop up corn prices, reverse a land titling process and revert water rights back to Indian peasants. This followed 3 weeks of road blocks that had paralyzed the economy. (SFC, 10/7/00, p.A9)

2000 Felipe Quispe (El Mallku, the Great Condor), peasant labor leader, founded the Pachakutik (time will come full circle) Indigenous Movement. (SFC, 4/5/01, p.A12)

2000 A new variety of the titi monkey of the genus callicebus was discovered in Bolivia’s Madidi National Park, a 7,300 square mile area. (SFC, 6/8/04, p.A2)

2001 Feb 22, Walter Poirier, US Peace Corps volunteer, was last seen in La Paz. (SFC, 3/8/01, p.A16)

2001 Jun 7, Former Bolivian president Victor Paz Estensorro, founder of the National Revolutionary Movement, died at age 93. (SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)

2001 Jul 7, Bolivia’s Pres. Banzer (75) was reported to be hospitalized in Washington DC with cancer in his lung and liver. (SFC, 7/7/01, p.B1)(SSFC, 7/8/01, p.A16)

2001 Jul 30, It was reported that Pres. Banzer would step down Aug 6 due to his cancer diagnosis. (WSJ, 7/30/01, p.A1)

2001 Aug 6, Pres. Banzer stepped down form office. Vice Pres. Jorge Quiroga (41) assumed the office. (SFC, 8/7/01, p.A7)

2001 Sep 5, In Bolivia some 125,000 census takers began their count. (SFC, 9/5/01, p.A9)

2001 Felipe Quispe (El Mallku, the Great Condor), peasant labor leader, was reported to be a contender for Bolivia’s 2002 presidential elections (SFC, 4/5/01, p.A10)

2001 Foreign direct investment in Bolivia reached $660 million. (WSJ, 4/4/05, p.A12)

2002 Feb 19, In Bolivia a flash flood in La Paz killed at least 22 people. The death toll later climbed to 52. (SFC, 2/20/02, p.A11)(SFC, 2/21/02, p.A13)

2002 May 5, Hugo Banzer (b.1926), Bolivia’s former dictator (1971-1978) and president (1997-2001), died. (SFC, 5/6/02, p.B5)

2002 Jun 30, Bolivians voted for president and Congress following a campaign in which some candidates urged radically changing the political system and overturning the free-market economy. The economy was sliding and crime so rampant it had provoked lynchings. Many Bolivian voters turned away from traditional candidates in elections for president and Congress, picking a fragmented group that some analysts said could leave the country more unstable. Evo Morales (42), a Aymara Indian of the Movement Toward Socialism party, won 21% of the vote and a seat in Congress. Voters elected 36 Indians to the lower house of 130 seats and 10 Indians to the 27-seat Senate. (AP, 6/30/02)(AP, 7/1/02)(SFC, 7/6/02, p.A8)(SFC, 7/12/02, p.A10)

2002 Jul 19, In Bolivia a crowded bus plunged into a ravine in an Andean road near La Paz, killing 19 and injuring 15. (AP, 7/19/02)

2002 Aug 4, In Bolivia Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (72), a wealthy businessman who grew up in the United States and former president (1882-1997), was voted by Congress (84-43) to the presidency. (AP, 8/5/02)

2002 Sep 2, In Bolivia a bus slid off a muddy shoulder on one the most dangerous highways and plunged into a ravine, killing at least 20 people. (AP, 9/2/02)

2002 Oct 31, The US enacted the Andean Trade Promotion and Drug Eradication Act (ATPDEA) as a replacement for the similar Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). It granted duty-free access to a wide range of exports from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_Trade_Promotion_and_Drug_Eradication_Act)

2003 Jan 18, In Bolivia a bus slammed into a mountainside outside Cochabamba, killing 28 people and injuring at least 30. (AP, 1/20/03)

2003 Feb 12, In Bolivia angry civilians joined striking police officers in a protest that degenerated into riots, leaving at least 17 people dead and Bolivian government buildings in flames. (AP, 2/13/03)(SFC, 2/12/03, p.A9)

2003 Feb 18, The Bolivian Cabinet resigned after violent street protests left 29 dead and the government of Pres. de Lozada near collapse. (AP, 2/18/03)

2003 Feb 19, In Bolivia Pres. de Lozada announced a new Cabinet, replacing eight ministers and eliminating six ministries. (AP, 2/20/03)

2003 Mar 29, The government of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, Bolivia's president, was on the verge of collapse. His ratings were the lowest of any South American leader, and he admitted coups were brewing beneath him. (AP, 3/30/03)

2003 Mar 31, In Bolivia rescue officials struggled to reach victims buried by a landslide that roared through Chima, a gold-mining town in Bolivia's tropical lowlands, killing an estimated 300-400 people. (AP, 4/1/03)(SFC, 4/1/03, p.A8)(AP, 4/2/03)

2003 May 13, It was reported that coca production in Bolivia was on the rise due in part to a failed US-supported crop-substitution program. (WSJ, 5/13/03, p.A1)

2003 Aug 1, In Bolivia police seized 2 tons of cocaine and arrested 20 people in what officials called the country's biggest drug bust in nearly a decade. (AP, 8/1/03)

2003 Aug 2, Bolivian police seized 3 more tons of cocaine meant for shipment to Spain in the country's biggest drug bust ever. (AP, 8/3/03)

2003 Sep 21, In Bolivia a rural roadblock near Warista ended in a clash with police and soldiers that left at least 4 people dead. (SSFC, 9/28/03, p.C2)

2003 Oct 9, Miners angry about a proposal to export oil through Chile clashed with riot troops near the Bolivian capital. At least two people were killed and nine were hurt. (AP, 10/9/03)

2003 Oct 11, Bolivia’s Pres. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and two of his ministers, Carlos Sanchez Berzain and Jorge Berindoague, signed Supreme Decree No. 27209 directing the military to break up demonstrations that blocked fuel truck access to the city of La Paz. (www.boliviasolidarity.org/takeaction/latestactions/sanfran)

2003 Oct 12, In Bolivia violence erupted at El Alto when the military tried to break a blockade against gas trucks bound for Chile. The death toll grew to 59 after 4 days of clashes at El Alto. Finance Ministry officials began a 3-day withdrawal of 13.7 million bolivianos (US$1.8 million). In 2006 Marcela Nogales, the central bank manager, was jailed for releasing the money, which facilitated a military crackdown. In 2011 Bolivia's highest court convicted five former top military commanders of genocide for an army crackdown on the riots that killed at least 64 civilians. It gave them prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years. (http://tinyurl.com/onpns)(SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)(AP, 9/6/06)(AP, 8/30/11)

2003 Oct 13, Bolivia's Pres. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada dropped plans to export natural gas in the face of massive protests that left 18 dead. (SFC, 10/14/03, p.A3)(WSJ, 10/14/03, p.A1)

2003 Oct 14, In Bolivia demonstrations called for the resignation of Pres. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada as 30,000 marched in La Paz. [see Oct 12] (SFC, 10/15/03, p.A11)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.38)

2003 Oct 17, Bolivia's Pres. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (“Goni”) resigned in a letter to Congress. VP Carlos Mesa, a moderate political unknown, took over the presidency. As one of Bolivia's top journalists, Mesa wrote a best-selling book, "Entre urnas y fusiles" (Between the Ballot Box and the Rifle), about the many presidents in this country's often tumultuous history. (Econ, 10/16/04, p.34)(www.boliviasolidarity.org/takeaction/latestactions/sanfran)

2003 Oct 19, In Bolivia Pres. Carlos Mesa swore in a new Cabinet with most ministers independent of the political establishment. (SFC, 10/20/03, p.A3)

2003 Nov 13, Cocaine was reported to generate as much as $500 million of Bolivia's $8.5 billion economic output. Nearly 30,000 acres of coca production was allowed for domestic use. (WSJ, 11/13/03, p.A14)

2003 Nov 21, In Bolivia assailants shot and killed Jessica Nicole Borda (22), the daughter of an American consular official, during a carjacking attempt in the eastern city of Santa Cruz. (AP, 11/21/03)

2003 Dec 23, Flooding in central Bolivia killed at least 19 people and left 40 missing, most of them passengers on a bus that was swept away by a swollen river. (AP, 12/24/03)

2003 Bolivia's former Pres. Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and Jose Sanchez Berzain, the former defense minister, fled to the US. In 2007 a suit was filed against both men for their October, 2003, crackdown on protestors that left 67 people dead. Sanchez Berzain was granted asylum in the US in April 2007. (SFC, 9/27/07, p.A21)(www.boliviasolidarity.org/takeaction/latestactions/sanfran)(AP, 6/19/09)

2004 Feb 11, In Bolivia 2 inmates were voluntarily nailed to crosses by their fellow prisoners as part of a protest for better conditions and shorter sentences that was broadcast on TV. (AP, 2/11/04)

2004 Feb 27, In Bolivia a prosecutor who handled drug cases was killed by a bomb that demolished her car as she started the engine. (AP, 2/28/04)

2004 Mar 30, In Bolivia an angry miner with dynamite strapped to his chest blew himself up inside Congress, also killing two police officers. (AP, 3/30/04)

2004 May, Bolivian public sector unions and many workers began a general strike to force the resignation of Pres. Carlos Mesa due to spending cuts and new taxes. (Econ, 5/8/04, p.37)

2004 Jun 1, In eastern Bolivia army soldiers fought peasants blocking a highway in a clash that killed one soldier and one civilian. (AP, 6/2/04)

2004 Jun 21, In central Bolivia a crowded bus plunged off a 800-foot precipice, killing as many as 38 people. (AP, 6/23/04)

2004 Jul 18, Bolivians voted in favor of exporting the nation's vast natural gas reserves in a referendum designed by the president to defuse social unrest. Voters mandated higher taxes and greater government control over oil and gas. (AP, 7/19/04)(Econ, 7/24/04, p.36)(Econ, 4/23/05, p.38)

2004 Oct 18, In Bolivia thousands of peasants and workers demonstrated in La Paz, demanding that former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada be tried for the deaths of more than 50 people in the suppression of protests that toppled his government one year ago. (AP, 10/18/04)

2004 Dec 5, In Bolivia Indian and peasant organizations promising better access to health care and education won every major city in local elections, trouncing long-dominant parties. (AP, 12/6/04)

2004 Dec 30, Bolivia’s government under Carlos Mesa announced a 23% increase in the cost of diesel fuel and a 10% rise for petrol. Protests soon followed. (Econ, 1/22/05, p.35)

2004 Foreign direct investment in Bolivia fell to $416 million. (WSJ, 4/4/05, p.A12)

2005 Jan 11, A strike by workers and a demonstration that drew hundreds of thousands of people paralyzed Santa Cruz as Bolivia's largest city joined an anti-government protest that has elicited a pledge from the president to resign if things turn violent. The protests forced the government to cancel water concessions to a foreign firm. (AP, 1/12/05)(WSJ, 1/12/05, p.A1)

2005 Jan 28, Bolivia’s Pres. Mesa agreed to allow Santa Cruz residents to elect their own local leaders and hold a national referendum that could extend greater autonomy to other provinces. (AP, 1/28/05)

2005 Feb 3, Bolivia’s Pres. Carlos Mesa shuffled his cabinet in the wake of street protests calling for regional autonomy and objecting to a planned increase in the price of fuel oil. (AP, 2/3/05)

2005 Mar 6, In Bolivia President Carlos Mesa said he would submit his resignation to Congress after 17 months in office, warning that growing protests against Bolivia's oil and gas laws could soon block the country's highways and isolate its main cities. (AP, 3/7/05)

2005 Mar 8, Bolivian lawmakers unanimously rejected a resignation offer by President Carlos Mesa, granting crucial support to his government. (AP, 3/9/05)(Econ, 3/12/05, p.39)

2005 Mar 15, Bolivia's embattled President Carlos Mesa asked the country's legislature to authorize an early presidential election this summer, saying he can no longer govern among growing protests and road blockades. (AP, 3/16/05)

2005 May 17, In Bolivia a measure increasing taxes on foreign oil companies became law. It slapped a 32% production tax on top of royalties of 18% paid by producers of natural gas and oil. The president and thousands of street protesters wanted the industry nationalized. (AP, 5/18/05)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.42)

2005 May 24, In Bolivia thousands of demonstrators blocked major roads in and around La Paz, isolating the city in a protest demanding the nationalization of the oil industry and opposing autonomy for an oil-producing region. (AP, 5/24/05)

2005 May 31, In Bolivia thousands of demonstrators prevented legislators from reaching the congressional building Tuesday, forcing the suspension of their first session after a weeklong recess caused by continued street protests. (AP, 5/31/05)

2005 Jun 3, Bolivia's Pres. Carlos Mesa called a constitutional assembly and a referendum over greater regional autonomies, meeting the key demands behind street protests that have virtually paralyzed La Paz for more than two weeks. (AP, 6/3/05)

2005 Jun 6, President Carlos Mesa, his 19-month-old government unraveling amid swelling street protests and a crippling blockade of the Bolivian capital, announced his resignation in a nationally televised address. (AP, 6/7/05)

2005 Jun 9, In Bolivia Vaca Diez, president of the Senate, relinquished his claim to the presidency, as did the president of the lower house. Eduardo Rodriguez, the Supreme Court chief justice, automatically became president. (AP, 6/10/05)(Econ, 6/18/05, p.34)

2005 Jun 14, A 7.9 earthquake rattled cities in Bolivia and Peru and heavily damaged mountain villages in northern Chile, killing at least 11 people including a family of 6. (WSJ, 6/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 6/15/05) 2005 Jun 14, A UN report showed South America's cocaine output rose by 2 percent last year, bucking a five year downward trend as increases in Peru and Bolivia outpaced Colombia's clampdown on coca cultivation. (AP, 6/14/05)

2005 Sep 9, The presidents of Bolivia, Brazil and Peru inaugurated a $810 million highway project to connect Brazil's Atlantic coast to Peru's Pacific ports before the end of the decade. (AP, 9/9/05)

2005 Sep 20, In Bolivia a fire that has devoured more than 247,000 acres of Amazon forest burned out of control near the Brazilian border. (AP, 9/20/05)

2005 Sep 30, South American presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and Argentina. (AP, 10/1/05)

2005 Dec 18, Socialist Evo Morales (46) waved coca branches as he headed to vote amid jubilant townsfolk who hoped to see him become Bolivia's first Indian president and end a U.S.-backed anti-drug campaign aimed at eradicating their crops. (AP, 12/18/05)

2005 Dec 19, In Bolivia Evo Morales, candidate for the Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), won the presidential elections, a victory that would solidify the continent's shift toward the political left. (AP, 12/19/05)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.42)

2005 Dec 20, Evo Morales, Bolivia's presidential front-runner said he would not allow unlimited production of coca, the crop used to produce cocaine. He said coca farmers should have a say in controlling the crop, but left unclear how that could be accomplished. Morales also said that the current foreign firm contracts for exploration and production of natural gas were illegal and a re-negotiation would be necessary. (AP, 12/21/05)(WSJ, 12/21/05, p.A14)

2005 Dec 27, A close aide said Bolivia’s President-elect Evo Morales will reject US economic and military aid if the US requires continued coca-eradication efforts to get the money. (AP, 12/27/05)

2005 Bolivia’s population was about 8.5 million. (AP, 12/17/05)

2006 Jan 3, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez offered Bolivia's president-elect Evo Morales diesel fuel, trade benefits and help in financing his social reforms as the two leftists cemented ties, reasserting their opposition to US policy in Latin America. (AP, 1/3/06)

2006 Jan 9, Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing and called China an "ideological ally," a day after he invited the communist country to develop Bolivia's vast gas reserves. (AP, 1/9/06)

2006 Jan 13, Bolivia's president-elect ended an around-the-world tour with a promise to respect foreign investments and vowed not to nationalize the Bolivian operations of Brazil's state oil company Petrobras SA. (AP, 1/13/06)

2006 Jan 17, Outgoing President Eduardo Rodriguez fired Bolivia's army chief over his decision to have 28 Chinese shoulder-launched missiles destroyed in the US. (AP, 1/17/06)

2006 Jan 19, In Bolivia a flatbed truck drove off the side of the mountainous road near Tarija, killing at least 38 people. (AP, 1/20/06)

2006 Jan 22, Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, took office with a promise to lift his nation's struggling indigenous majority out of centuries of poverty and discrimination. (AP, 1/22/06)

2006 Jan 23, In Bolivia Evo Morales appointed a Marxist energy minister and a Cabinet of Indians, intellectuals and union leaders, backing his promise to establish a socialist shape. (AP, 1/24/06)

2006 Jan 27, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales cut his salary by more than half and declared no Cabinet minister can collect a higher wage than his own, with the savings to be used to hire more public school teachers. (AP, 1/27/06)

2006 Feb 7, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales asked the US to reconsider a proposed cut in anti-drug aid, and called on the world to strengthen drug-fighting alliances. (AP, 2/7/06)

2006 Feb 13, President Evo Morales appealed to the Bush administration to extradite a former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who fled to the US amid an uprising that left about 60 people dead after a military crackdown on demonstrators. (AP, 2/13/06)

2006 Mar 6, President Evo Morales accused the US government of trying to intimidate Bolivia by announcing it would cut some aid because of a disagreement over the appointment of a military commander. (AP, 3/6/06)

2006 Mar 9, An Argentine air force plane providing aid for Bolivian flood victims crashed outside of La Paz, killing all six people on board. (AP, 3/9/06)

2006 Mar 22, In Bolivia bombs exploded inside two low-budget hotels in La Paz overnight, killing two people and wounding seven. Triston Jay Amero (24), an American from Placerville, Ca., and Alda Ribeiro (45), of Uruguay, were arrested in connection with the bombings. Amero had earlier described himself as “the Superman of Loosers.” (AP, 3/22/06)(SFC, 3/24/06, p.B12)

2006 Mar 31, Military and police forces took control of Bolivia's major airports, one day after hundreds of striking airline workers blocked runways and disrupted flights to three airports. (AP, 3/31/06)

2006 Apr 29, Bolivia's new left-leaning president, Evo Morales, signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on rejecting US-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation. Bolivia became the 3rd member of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). (AP, 4/29/06)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.38)

2006 May 1, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales ordered the oil and gas sector nationalized, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production within six months. The biggest natural gas field was operated by Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras. (AP, 5/2/06)(SFC, 5/2/06, p.A3)(Econ, 5/6/06, p.37)

2006 May 2, Bolivia's leftist government said it would extend control over mining, forestry and other sectors of the economy. Foreign governments warned relations could be damaged. Soldiers guarded natural gas fields and refineries across Bolivia after President Evo Morales ordered the sector nationalized, threatening to evict foreign companies unless they cede control over production within six months. (AP, 5/2/06)

2006 May 3, Bolivia's decision to nationalize its natural gas industry drew challenges from Brazil as top officials pledged to defend current gas contracts and suspend investment in the Bolivian industry. (AP, 5/3/06)

2006 May 4, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor Kirchner, Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in response to Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and to negotiate prices. (Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)

2006 May 9, A plan by Bolivia's leftist government to redistribute up to 54,000 square miles of land to the poor generated protests by leaders in the wealthy province of Santa Cruz, the stronghold of opposition to leftist President Evo Morales. (AP, 5/10/06)

2006 May 11, The EU and Latin America opened a three-day summit in Vienna with over 60 national leaders attending, including Venezuela's fiery, often anti-Washington President Hugo Chavez. Bolivian President Evo Morales said that foreign oil companies would not be compensated for oil and gas resources that have been nationalized, and European Union president Austria called for explanations. (AFP, 5/11/06)

2006 May 12, Relations between Brazil and Bolivia sank to their lowest point in a century, as the two sparred over Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector and threats to seize Bolivian land held by Brazilian farmers. (AP, 5/12/06)

2006 May 13, The presidents of Brazil and Bolivia said they patched things up after days of accusations and threats. (AP, 5/14/06)

2006 May 16, Bolivia's leftist government outlined its plan to redistribute idle land to poor peasants, ruling out mass expropriations and proposing instead the distribution of state-owned property. (Reuters, 5/16/06)

2006 May 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez moved to expand his oil-rich country's influence in Bolivia with a set of accords to secure Venezuela's role in the impoverished Andean nation's recently nationalized energy industry. (AP, 5/26/06)

2006 Jun 1, Bolivian doctors staged a 1-day strike to protest the presence of 600 Cuban physicians providing free care as Pres. Morales cultivates links to Castro. (WSJ, 6/2/06, p.A1)

2006 Jun 3, Bolivia’s leftist President Evo Morales launched a sweeping land reform plan by handing over roughly 9,600 square miles of state-owned land to poor Indians. The ceremony came after talks broke down between Morales and agribusiness leaders on land reforms that involve handing out 77,000 square miles of government land, an area twice the size of Portugal, over the next five years. (AP, 6/3/06)

2006 Jun 14, Four Andean nations (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) agreed to chart new trade plans with the United States without Venezuela. (AP, 6/14/06)

2006 Jun 16, Bolivian President Evo Morales' leftist government says it will fight poverty, hunger and homelessness in South America's poorest nation by investing $6.8 billion through 2010, much of it with ambitious public works projects. (AP, 6/17/06)

2006 Jun 23, Bolivia’s energy minister said that he's seeking criminal charges against ex-President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada and others for allegedly cheating the state in a gas pipeline investment deal. (AP, 6/23/06)

2006 Jun 28, About 150,000 people demanded autonomy for Bolivia's wealthiest state in one of the nation's largest demonstrations ever just four days before a national referendum on the issue. (AP, 6/29/06)

2006 Jun 29, Argentina’s President Nestor Kirchner met Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales and agreed to a 47% price hike for the Bolivian natural gas Argentina needs to fuel South America's second-largest economy. (AP, 6/29/06)

2006 Jul 2, Bolivians voted for a national assembly that will rewrite the constitution. They voted "yes" or "no" on a ballot question on whether to offer the country's nine states greater autonomy in political and financial affairs. President Morales' supporters failed to win control of an assembly that will rewrite Bolivia's constitution, leaving him no choice but to compromise over his ambitious plans to empower the indigenous majority and boost state control over the economy. Morales allies won 132 seats in the 255-person body. Voters in four of Bolivia's nine states overwhelmingly chose greater political and economic autonomy for their states. (AP, 6/29/06)(AP, 7/3/06)

2006 Jul 10, Bolivia's education minister called for an end to religious education in the country's schools, drawing criticism from the Roman Catholic Church which could see its schools affected by the proposed change. (AP, 7/10/06)

2006 Aug 6, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales officially opened a Constituent Assembly to rewrite the nation's constitution. (AP, 8/6/06)

2006 Sep 8, Opponents of President Evo Morales stayed home from work and blocked key streets in four cities to protest the governing party's handling of an assembly that is rewriting the Bolivian constitution. (AP, 9/9/06)

2006 Sep 29, In Bolivia police killed two coca farmers and injured a third in the first violent confrontation over coca eradication since President Evo Morales, himself a former coca grower, was elected last year. An estimate 200 coca growers in the Chapare region ambushed a team of police sent to destroy their crop, planted illegally inside the borders of a national park 220 southeast of the capital of La Paz. (AP, 9/29/06)

2006 Sep 23, In Bolivia 90% of the country’s productive land was still owned by just 50,000 families. Four-fifths of the rural population remained poor. (Econ, 9/23/06, p.41)

2006 Oct 5, In Bolivia rival miners' groups agreed to a truce after a day of clashes over access to one of South America's richest tin mines left at least 9 people dead and 40 injured. (AP, 10/6/06)

2006 Oct 6, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales fired two top mining officials after a clash between rival bands of miners over access to the country's richest tin deposit left at least 16 dead and more at least 80 injured. The 2-day clash at the Huanuni tin mine caused an estimated $2 million in damage and production losses of $200,000 per day. (AP, 10/7/06)(Econ, 10/14/06, p.40)

2006 Oct 10, In Bolivia strikes and demonstrations brought La Paz to a standstill. The independent mining cooperatives said they were breaking their alliance with Pres. Morales. (Econ, 10/14/06, p.40)

2006 Oct 21, In central Bolivia a bus plunged off a mountain road, killing 29 people and injuring 25. (AP, 10/22/06)

2006 Oct 28, In Bolivia 10 energy companies signed up to new terms just before a deadline set by Pres. Morales on May 1. (Econ, 11/4/06, p.46)

2006 Oct 29, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales completed his oil and gas nationalization plan with the last-minute signing of contracts allowing several international companies to continue operating under state control. (AP, 10/29/06)

2006 Oct 31, President Evo Morales backed off his plan to nationalize Bolivia's mining industry, saying that his government can't afford it for now but he still wants to eventually recover control of the nation's mineral wealth. (AP, 11/1/06)

2006 Nov 17, In Bolivia the tin mine at Possokoni Hill in Huanumi reopened after 43 days after the government decreed all miners there must work for Comibol, a state-owned company. In October 6,000 miners had gone on a rampage leaving 16 people dead and over 60 injured in a fight against independent miners. (SFC, 12/8/06, p.A27)

2006 Nov 19, In Bolivia 6 governors of 9 departments announced a break with central government. The 2 main opposition parties walked out of the Senate, leaving it inquorate. The governors opposed moves by Pres. Morales to centralize power, a bill to scrutinize governors’ accounts, and details of voting power of a new Constituent Assembly. (Econ, 11/25/06, p.38)

2006 Nov 28, Bolivia's leftist president won passage of an ambitious land redistribution bill and signed it into law to the cheers of impoverished Indian supporters, who stand to benefit from what eventually could be the confiscation of private holdings the size of Nebraska. In the same session Bolivia's Senate approved nationalization contracts with foreign oil companies. (AP, 11/29/06)

2006 Dec 1, Opposition leaders led a work stoppage in four Bolivian state capitals to protest President Evo Morales' control of an assembly called to rewrite Bolivia's constitution. They opposed the 50% approval for each of the constitution articles as favored by the Morales government. (AP, 12/1/06)(Econ, 12/16/06, p.35)

2006 Dec 3, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales signed contracts giving the government control over foreign energy companies’ operations. (SFC, 12/4/06, p.A11)

2006 Dec 9, In Bolivia South American leaders called for greater continental unity as they opened a two-day summit that drew the region's new wave of leftist leaders. They agreed to create a high-level commission to study the idea of forming a continent-wide community similar to the European Union. (AP, 12/9/06)

2006 Dec 28, A delegation of six US senators led by incoming Majority Leader Harry Reid met with Bolivian President Evo Morales, seeking to smooth relations with the South American country's left-leaning government. (AP, 12/29/06)

2006 Bolivia’s population was about 9 million. (Econ, 12/16/06, p.35)

2007 Jan 1, The government of President Evo Morales approved a decree requiring US citizens to obtain visas to enter Bolivia. Morales said the decree was "a matter of reciprocity." The US government requires Bolivians to obtain visas to enter the United States. (AP, 1/1/07)

2007 Jan 8, Backers of leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales set fire to the Cochabamba state capitol in a protest to demand the resignation of state Gov. Manfred Reyes Villa, who is allied with the conservative opposition. (AP, 1/9/07)

2007 Jan 10, Bolivian President Evo Morales renewed his pledge to nationalize his country's mining industry, saying he would complete the task this year. (AP, 1/10/07)

2007 Jan 11, Protesters seeking the ouster of a Bolivian state governor for his opposition to leftist President Evo Morales battled with the governor's supporters in clashes that left two dead and more than 60 injured. (AP, 1/11/07)

2007 Jan 12, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales proposed a new law to allow recall votes against elected officials, a move that would give protesters demanding the resignation of an opposition-aligned state governor a way to remove him from office. (AP, 1/13/07)

2007 Jan 13, A Bolivian air force plane crashed in a southern state, killing all eight people on board. (AP, 1/14/07)

2007 Feb 2, In Bolivia a high court ruled in favor of a Amauris Sanmartino, a Cuban dissident who was recently deported from Bolivia for criticizing President Evo Morales, saying a law prohibiting foreigners from involvement in the Andean country's politics is unconstitutional. Sanmartino went to Colombia and planned to relocate to Norway. (AP, 2/2/07)(AP, 2/28/07)

2007 Feb 6, More than 20,000 miners from across Bolivia marched into the capital, tossing sticks of dynamite that sent booming explosions echoing through the streets in a protest of President Evo Morales' plans for a steep hike in mining taxes. (AP, 2/6/07)

2007 Feb 7, Officials in Venezuela confirmed that Venezuela will buy whatever legal products Bolivia can make from coca leaf as part of an effort to wean farmers from the cocaine industry. (SFC, 2/8/07, p.A2)

2007 Feb 9, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales declared the Vinto tin smelter to be nationalized. (Econ, 2/17/07, p.40)

2007 Feb 10, It was reported that researchers in Bolivia had found that the more education a Tsimane villager had, the longer he was willing to delay gratification in return for a bigger reward. (Econ, 2/10/07, p.86)

2007 Feb 14, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Bolivian President Evo Morales reached a deal late on how much Brazil will pay for Bolivian natural gas, apparently resolving an issue that has deeply divided the neighboring nations for a year. (AP, 2/14/07)

2007 Feb 16, The ritual sacrifice of a snow-white llama symbolically marked President Evo Morales' nationalization of Bolivia's lone operating tin smelter. (AP, 2/17/07)

2007 Feb 26, In Bolivia police said the body of Simon Matthew Boily (23), a Canadian cyclist, has been found in a mountain ravine more than a month after he set out on the "Highway of Death" from the La Paz on Jan 21. (AP, 2/26/07)

2007 Feb 28, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales officially declared months of deadly flooding a national disaster, committing some $50 million to the crisis that killed 35 people and affected some 72,000 families. (AP, 3/1/07)

2007 Mar 10, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez visited flood-ravaged Bolivia to show off the fact that his country has pledged 10 times more aid than the Bush administration. But local leaders gave him a cool reception, accusing him of meddling in Bolivian politics. (AP, 3/10/07)

2007 Mar 11, In Bolivia Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez called for a socialist counterattack against the American "empire," taking his campaign to upstage President Bush's Latin American tour to a packed gymnasium in a poor, indigenous Bolivian city. (AP, 3/12/07)

2007 Mar 16, The Inter-American Development Bank announced it would forgive $4.4 billion in debt owed by five of the poorest countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The bank excused the foreign debts of Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti and Guyana in an announcement ahead of its annual meeting. (AP, 3/16/07)

2007 Mar 21, Sonia Falcone, former Miss Bolivia (1988), was ordered to leave the United States after pleading guilty to employing four illegal immigrants as household servants at her $10.5 million mansion in Paradise Valley, Ariz. (www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/86326?source=rss&dest=STY-86326)

2007 Mar 27, Roxana Arias Becerra (32), a former Miss Bolivia (1993), was arrested on charges of carrying 1.8 pounds of cocaine while boarding a flight to the Brazilian border. (AP, 3/29/07)

2007 Apr 10, Bolivia opened a new front in its fight to reduce illegal coca production, sending US-backed eradication teams into a traditional coca-growing region in the Andean foothills long avoided by previous governments. (AP, 4/10/07)

2007 Apr 20, Bolivia’s military retook control of a natural gas pipeline to Argentina after days of violent protests at gas installations in southern Bolivia. More than 1,000 protesters had seized the Yacuiba pipeline station run by Transredes, a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. The disturbances killed at least one person and wounded dozens more. (AP, 4/21/07)

2007 Apr 28, President Hugo Chavez said that Venezuela is ready to become the sole energy supplier to Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Haiti, presenting the countries with his most generous offer yet of oil-funded diplomacy in the region. (AP, 4/29/07)

2007 Apr, Bolivia became the 32nd nation to ban or restrict used clothing imports in an attempt to protect native clothing industries. (AP, 7/17/07)

2007 May 12, In Bolivia President Evo Morales vowed to move forward with his campaign to nationalize Bolivia's oil and gas industry while presiding over ceremonies marking the transfer of two Brazilian-owned oil refineries to state hands. (AP, 5/12/07)

2007 May 28, Police found a cocaine laboratory in the southern Bolivian jungle capable of producing 245 pounds of the drug daily, one of the largest drug labs ever discovered there. Satellite photos taken by the US Drug Enforcement Agency revealed the location of the lab. (AP, 5/30/07)

2007 Jun 5, In Bolivia the judiciary stage a one-day strike to counter a presidential assault on its independence. (Econ, 6/9/07, p.41)

2007 Jun 6, President Hugo Chavez called for the creation of a common defense pact between Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Bolivia. The leftist Latin American bloc announced the creation of a development bank to finance joint projects. (AP, 6/7/07)

2007 Jun 28, The Bolivian government began legal proceedings to seize the vast landholdings of a prominent opposition leader, saying the property was fraudulently obtained and should be given to a local Indian tribe. Soybean oil magnate Branko Marinkovic, an outspoken critic of President Evo Morales, said the 64,250 acres targeted by the government were obtained legally and are being used productively. (AP, 6/29/07) 2007 Jun 28, In central Bolivia 3 Bolivian soldiers and a Venezuelan sergeant died when an air force helicopter crashed. (AP, 6/28/07)

2007 Jul 20, Hundreds of thousands of people packed the streets of La Paz to protest efforts to relocate Bolivia's capital in one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the Andean country. La Paz backers said switching the capital from Bolivia's largest city, with a metropolitan population of 1.7 million, to Sucre, population 250,000, would be expensive and divisive. (AP, 7/20/07)

2007 Aug 3, It was reported that Bolivia’s Lake Titicaca is being strangled by city-fed pollution that is driving away local people who draw sustenance from its mythical waters. (AFP, 8/3/07)

2007 Sep 27, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad traveled stopped in Bolivia, where he pledged $1 billion in investment. He pledged investment over the next five years to help the poor Andean nation tap its vast natural gas reserves, extract minerals, generate more electricity and fund agricultural and construction projects. He then visited Venezuela to meet President Hugo Chavez. Chavez embraced the Iranian leader, calling him "one of the greatest anti-imperialist fighters" and "one of the great fighters for true peace." (AP, 9/28/07)

2007 Oct 19, Armed with clubs and waving provincial flags, thousands of residents of Bolivia's wealthiest province seized control of Santa Cruz’s Viru Viru airport from troops sent in by President Evo Morales. The previous day Morales had ordered 220 troops to take control of the airport after workers threatened to block flights that did not pay landing fees to local officials rather than the national airport authority. Television footage showed a Venezuelan air force plane and uniformed personnel at the site. (AP, 10/19/07)(Econ, 8/1/09, p.32)

2007 Nov 24, In Bolivia soldiers clashed with students protesting a constitutional assembly in a second day of unrest against the pending legal overhaul. 2 people died in the violence. (AP, 11/25/07)(WSJ, 11/26/07, p.A1)

2007 Nov 28, Across Bolivia banks, shops, schools and public transportation were shuttered in cities, as demonstrators protested a new law tapping regional budgets for a fund for the elderly. (AP, 11/29/07)

2007 Dec 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he would ask for a referendum on whether he should remain president, and challenged opposition governors to do the same. (AP, 12/5/07)

2007 Dec 9, Bolivia’s constitutional assembly approved a new charter that would empower Pres. Evo Morales to run for re-election indefinitely. The new constitution required approval by Bolivians in a national referendum expected in 2008. (SFC, 12/10/07, p.A16)

2008 Jan 26, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and allies Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba, members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), launched a regional development bank intended to strengthen their alliance and promote independence from US-backed lenders like the World Bank as Chavez hosted a summit with ALBA leaders. (AP, 1/26/08)

2008 Feb 7, Bolivia's foreign minister said that the world has an obligation to send aid to flood-ravaged areas, linking a disaster that has killed 49 people to global climate change. (AP, 2/8/08)

2008 Feb 11, President Evo Morales declared a US Embassy security officer to be an "undesirable person" after reports that the officer asked an American scholar and 30 Peace Corps volunteers to pass along information about Cubans and Venezuelans working in Bolivia. (AP, 2/11/08)

2008 Feb 23, The presidents of Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia gathered in Buenos Aires to try to agree on how to divide scarce supplies of Bolivian natural gas. (WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A6)

2008 Feb 28, A bitterly divided Bolivian Congress approved a national vote on President Evo Morales' proposed constitution, which would grant greater political power to Bolivia's long-oppressed indigenous groups. (AP, 2/29/08)

2008 Apr 1, Bolivian officials said Tristan Jay Amero (26), a California man convicted of hotel bombings that killed two people in Bolivia's capital, had died in prison. He was serving a 30-year sentence. (AP, 4/1/08)

2008 Apr 18, In Bolivia American rancher Ronald Larsen, who has extensive land holdings there, and his son Duston were named in a criminal complaint for "sedition, robbery, and other crimes." Ronald Larsen, of Montana, was accused of firing on the vehicle Alejandro Almaraz, the Deputy Minister of Land. and holding the minister hostage as he tried to carry out a government inspection of Larsen's ranch in southern Bolivia on February 29. Larson said Almaraz was drunk and had showed up at the ranch at three in the morning. (AP, 4/19/08)

2008 Apr 24, In Bolivia a packed SUV collided with a group of cyclists on Bolivia's "Highway of Death," killing 9 people, including a British man who was the second foreign tourist to die this week along the notorious road. (AP, 4/24/08)

2008 May 1, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales celebrated May Day by announcing the nationalization of Entel, the country’s leading telecommunications company, and returning four foreign-owned natural gas companies to state control. Bolivia privatized the struggling Entel in 1995, handing 50 percent of the company to Stet International in exchange for the Italian company's promise to invest $608 million to modernize its services. Stet later merged with Telecom Italia. The Bolivian government said Telecom Italia fell short on promised investment and owes some $25 million in taxes. (AP, 5/1/08)

2008 May 4, Residents of Bolivia voted on an autonomy referendum whose likely passage is seen as a rebuke to the country's leftist president. Exit polls showed the Santa Cruz referendum would pass in a landslide. Pres. Morales denounced the vote but quickly invited state governors for further negotiations. (AP, 5/4/08)(AP, 5/5/08)

2008 May 8, President Evo Morales agreed to stand for election in a nationwide recall vote, gambling that Bolivians will re-elect him after just two years in office and shore up support for his pending reforms. (AP, 5/9/08)

2008 Jun 1, Bolivians in two opposition-controlled states voted overwhelmingly for autonomy measures that aim to shield the country's remote Amazon basin from President Evo Morales' leftist reforms. (AP, 6/1/08)

2008 Jun 2, In Bolivia Pres. Morales ordered the nationalization of a natural gas pipeline operator half-owned by Royal Dutch Shell PLC and a US investment fund. (WSJ, 6/3/08, p.A15)

2008 Jun 9, Thousands of demonstrators marched on the US Embassy to demand that Washington extradite Carlos Sanchez Berzain, a former Bolivian defense minister, who directed a military crackdown on riots that killed at least 60 people in 2003. (AP, 6/10/08)

2008 Jun 22, Natural gas-rich Tarija became the fourth Bolivian state to declare autonomy from the government of leftist President Evo Morales as voters backed greater independence in a referendum. (AP, 6/23/08)

2008 Jun, Inflation in Bolivia reached an annual rate of 17%. (Econ, 8/2/08, p.39)

2008 Jul 3, Top Bolivian and US officials sought to heal their nations' strained relations in their first meeting since a raucous protest outside the American embassy sent the US ambassador back to Washington for security consultations. (AP, 7/3/08)

2008 Jul 20, In central Bolivia a Venezuelan military helicopter often used to transport Bolivian President Evo Morales crashed. Four Venezuelan military personnel and a Bolivian officer were reported killed. (AP, 7/21/08)

2008 Aug 8, Bolivia said it has reached an agreement in principle to purchase the local operations of energy company Royal Dutch Shell PLC as part of President Evo Morales' nationalization push. (AP, 8/8/08)

2008 Aug 10, Voters in Bolivia vigorously endorsed President Evo Morales in a recall referendum he devised to try to break a political stalemate and revive his leftist crusade, partial unofficial results showed. More than 62 percent of voters ratified the mandate. (AP, 8/10/08)

2008 Aug 13, Bolivia and Libya agreed to establish diplomatic relations and join efforts to develop the nations' energy resources. (AP, 8/13/08)

2008 Aug 19, In Bolivia leaders in 5 opposition controlled states proclaimed a general strike. They sought greater autonomy and a larger share of royalties from local oil and gas. (SFC, 8/20/08, p.A14)

2008 Aug 24, In Bolivia a truck plunged off a cliff high in the Andes killing 21 people with 53 left injured. (AP, 8/26/08)

2008 Sep 2, Bolivia and Iran pledged cooperation and signed energy pacts, rebuffing US concerns over improved ties. (WSJ, 9/3/08, p.A1)

2008 Sep 5, In Bolivia protesters stormed a small airport and blocked major highways across eastern Bolivia in a standoff over central government reforms designed to empower the nation’s indigenous majority. (AP, 9/5/08)

2008 Sep 10, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said that he is expelling the US ambassador for allegedly inciting violent opposition protests. (AP, 9/10/08)

2008 Sep 11, In Bolivia’s Pando state anti-government protesters fought backers of President Evo Morales in the pro-autonomy east with clubs, machetes and guns, killing at least eight people and injuring 20. Seven more bodies were recovered the next day farther from the highway. The bodies of three more marchers were later discovered, raising the death toll to 18. Lowland opposition leaders, guarding their region's frontier capitalism and more Euro-centric heritage, said they lost two of their own in the pitched battle. Protesters near Yacuiba closed gas valves, resulting in a gas leak and explosion that interrupted gas exports at a cost of $8-10 million a day. (AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/28/08)(Econ, 9/20/08, p.51) 2008 Sep 11, The US expelled Bolivia’s ambassador following Bolivia’s expulsion of the American ambassador for allegedly aiding the opposition. The Peace Corps pulled all 113 of its volunteers out of Bolivia for alleged security reasons. (WSJ, 9/12/08, p.A1)(AP, 10/11/08)

2008 Sep 12, Bolivian President Evo Morales decreed a state of siege and sent troops to the eastern province of Pando where at least 16 people were killed in street battles between pro- and anti-government activists. Another 2 people were killed at Pando's main airfield as government troops took control, opening fire to disperse protesters. (AP, 9/12/08)(AP, 9/14/08)

2008 Sep 15, South American presidents agreed to work urgently to prevent a political collapse in Bolivia, where the government said it would charge a rebellious governor with genocide for allegedly ordering the machine-gunning of peasants. (AP, 9/16/08)

2008 Sep 16, In Bolivia government soldiers arrested Pando state Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez on suspicion of directing the recent massacre of government supporters. (SFC, 9/17/08, p.A8) 2008 Sep 16, The US declared Bolivia to be “non-compliant” in the war on drugs, a step that implicated an end of American aid. (Econ, 9/20/08, p.52)

2008 Oct 2, Bolivian state media reported that President Evo Morales has rejected a request from the US Drug Enforcement Administration to fly anti-narcotics missions over the South American nation's territory. (AP, 10/3/08)

2008 Oct 20, President Evo Morales agreed to seek only one more five-year term, a key concession that all but ended a standoff in Congress over a new constitution to empower Bolivia's long-oppressed indigenous majority. (AP, 10/21/08)

2008 Oct 21, Bolivia’s Congress ratified Pres. Morales’ draft constitution, designed to empower the indigenous population. (WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)

2008 Oct 23, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the US is suspending a trade deal with Bolivia. She called it unfortunate but necessary because Bolivian President Evo Morales has failed to improve anti-drug efforts. (AP, 10/23/08)

2008 Nov 1, Bolivian President Evo Morales suspended US anti-drug operations as Washington's relations with his leftist government spiraled downward. (AP, 11/2/08)

2008 Nov 11, Bolivian officials said they have formally asked the US to extradite former President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, who ordered a military crackdown on 2003 riots in which at least 60 people died. (AP, 11/11/08)

2008 Nov 17, Bolivian President Evo Morales expressed hope for improved relations with the United States under Barack Obama's presidency, but said he will never allow the US anti-drug agency to resume operating in his country. (AP, 11/17/08)

2008 Dec, Bolivia banned imports of 2nd-hand cars over 5-years old. In 2011 the government provided a 25-day amnesty for owners to register illegal imports and pay a fine. (www.startribune.com/templates/Print_This_Story?sid=36387719)(Econ, 6/25/11, p.48)

2008 Jacob Ostreicher, owner of a Brooklyn flooring company, and Swiss investors, including principal Andre Zolty, began investing $25 million in a rice growing operation in Bolivia. Claudia Liliana Rodriguez, the woman they entrusted to manage the investment, turned out to be a Colombian con artist. In 2011 Ostreicher was imprisoned in Bolivia and the state agency in charge of seized drug assets called transport companies to pick up operation’s rice. (AP, 8/24/11)

2009 Jan 14, Venezuela and Bolivia broke off diplomatic relations with Israel to protest its military offensive in Gaza. (AP, 1/14/09)

2009 Jan 22, In Bolivia the government of President Evo Morales began publishing its own newspaper "Cambio" (Change). Morales grew so irked at the local press last month that he said he would no longer hold press conferences for local reporters and said that only 10 percent of journalists are "honorable.” (AP, 1/22/09)

2009 Jan 23, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales seized control of Pan-American Energy’s local natural gas producer and warned other privately owned companies they would face similar fates if they do not comply with Bolivian laws. (WSJ, 1/24/09, p.A6)

2009 Jan 25, Bolivians easily approved a new constitution aimed at increasing their strength while allowing leftist President Evo Morales a shot at staying in power through 2014. The proposed document grants new rights to more than 5 million indigenous inhabitants of 35 distinct “nations.” It would create a new Congress with seats reserved for Bolivia's smaller indigenous groups and eliminates any mention of the Roman Catholic Church, instead recognizing and honoring the Pachamama, an Andean earth deity. (AP, 1/25/09)(SSFC, 1/25/09, p.A6)(AP, 1/26/09)

2009 Jan 29, In Bolivia the last US drug enforcement agents left the country, ordered out by Pres. Morales, even as police reported that coca cultivation and cocaine processing were on the rise. (SFC, 1/30/09, p.A4)

2009 Feb 7, In Bolivia President Evo Morales and thousands of supporters celebrated the new constitution as it took effect, saying the new document will enshrine indigenous rights and end centuries of oppression. (AP, 2/7/09) 2009 Feb 7, A Bolivian woman died from an injection of urine allegedly administered by her friend as a form of health therapy. Investigating prosecutor Oscar Flores later said that Gabriela Ascarrunz (35) died of an "infection caused by urine that was injected by fashion designer Monica Schultz." (AP, 2/11/09)

2009 Feb 11, Santos Ramirez, president of YPFB, Bolivia’s state-owned oil and gas company, was arrested and accused of orchestrating kickbacks of over $3 million from a company contract. (www.boliviaweb.com/blog/index.php/2009/02/16/timeline-of-the-santos-ramirez-scandal/)

2009 Feb 16, Russia Pres. Medvedev said Bolivia will receive helicopters from Russia to help fight drugs as well as assistance to develop energy resources. (AP, 2/16/09)

2009 Mar 9, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales ordered a US diplomat to leave his country for allegedly conspiring with opposition groups, further straining tense relations six months after he expelled the American ambassador. (AP, 3/9/09)

2009 Mar 14, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales asked large landowners to voluntarily relinquish some of their holdings to poor Indians during a ceremony on property confiscated from Ronald Larsen, a US rancher for, redistribution. (AP, 3/14/09)

2009 Mar 27, Bolivia's Interior Minister Alfredo Rada said police have uncovered one of the country's biggest known cocaine processing factories. Two Colombians and a Bolivian were arrested at the nearly 1,000-acre (400 hectare) site in the dense, southeastern jungles. (AP, 3/27/09)

2009 Mar 30, Argentina’s health minister acknowledged that the country was in the middle of a dengue fever epidemic with nearly 8,000 people infected. Neighboring Bolivia had about 51,000 cases reported, while Brazil counted some 40,000 cases. (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46371)(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.G3)

2009 Apr 14, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales ended a 5-day hunger strike after Bolivia’s Congress broke a political deadlock and approved a law letting him run for re-election in December. (SFC, 4/15/09, p.A2)

2009 Apr 15, Bolivian police foiled an alleged plot to assassinate President Evo Morales, killing three men at the Hotel Las Americas in a 30-minute gunbattle with a mysterious group that included suspects from Hungary, Ireland and possibly Croatia. The 3 men were killed in their beds and 2 others were arrested. The dead included: Eduardo Rozsa Flores (49), the son of a Hungarian father and Bolivian mother, Arpad Magyarosi, a Romanian-born Hungarian, and Irishman Michael Martin Dwyer. Mr. Rozsa Flores was known as an activist for the autonomy of Bolivia’s department of Santa Cruz. The 3 men were involved in a conspiracy to create a separatist right-wing militia in the eastern, opposition-dominated state of Santa Cruz. (AP, 4/16/09)(WSJ, 4/18/09, p.A5)(Econ, 7/18/09, p.35)(AP, 5/21/10)

2009 Apr 19, Bolivia's leftist president was headed to the airport when Barack Obama gave him what he requested the day before: public repudiation of an alleged attempt on his life. (AP, 4/19/09)

2009 May 2, In Bolivia former US Pres. Jimmy Carter met with Pres. Evo Morales and discussed bettering relations with the new US government. (SSFC, 5/3/09, p.A6)

2009 May 11, Bolivia demanded that Peru hand over three former government ministers charged with genocide in the 2003 killing of dozens of protesters. President Evo Morales called asylum an "open provocation of the Bolivian people." (AP, 5/11/09)

2009 May 12, Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said former Bolivian ministers Mirtha Quevedo and Javier Torres Goitia requested and have received refugee status, a legal measure that, unlike asylum, does not denote political persecution. They are among the former ministers of former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez Lozada, charged with genocide for sending soldiers who killed 63 people in 2003 while quelling anti-government protests in the city of El Alto. (AP, 5/12/09)

2009 May 21, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales called for an about-face in relations with Washington, saying past diplomatic spats can be overcome if the new US government refrains from meddling in Bolivian affairs. (AP, 5/21/09)

2009 May 25, It was reported that a secret Israeli government report said Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program. (AP, 5/25/09)

2009 Jun 19, The UN said Colombia's coca crop shrank by nearly a fifth last year while cultivation of the bush that is the basis of cocaine rose for a third straight year in Peru and Bolivia, the world's two other coca-producing nations. (AP, 6/19/09)

2009 Jun 22, In eastern Bolivia 8 men from a Mennonite farming community were arrested following accusations of raping dozens of females at the settlement. 60 women, from 11 to 47 years old, have accused the men of rape. (AP, 6/23/09)

2009 Jul 1, Bolivia enacted what animal rights defenders called the world's first law that prohibits the use of animals in circuses. A handful of other countries have banned the use of wild animals in circuses, but the Bolivian ban includes domestic animals as well. The law would become effective on July 1, 2010. (AP, 7/30/09)(AP, 4/16/10)

2009 Jul 10, Millions of Argentines stayed home from work, churches in Bolivia canceled Mass and Ecuador announced its first fatalities from swine flu, as the virus continued its spread during the South American winter season. (AP, 7/11/09)

2009 Jul 29, Iran's top diplomat in Bolivia said the Islamic republic has approved a $280 million low-interest loan for President Evo Morales' government to use as it sees fit. Gas and oil exploration are possibilities. (AP, 7/29/09)

2009 Aug 12, In La Paz, Bolivia, exploding envelopes wounded 7 people, 3 of them severely. (AP, 8/13/09)

2009 Sep 9, In Mexico a Bolivian-born man, clutching a Bible and claiming a divine mission, hijacked a plane with more than 100 people aboard after takeoff from Cancun. The incident ended quickly and without bloodshed when police arrested Jose Flores (44) in Mexico City. Police in Morelia said that they had seized eight counterfeit police and rescue vehicles including an intensive care ambulance with official-looking logos and paint jobs. The vehicles belonged to gang members who planned to use them to conduct illegal activities. In 2011 Josmar Flores was sentenced to seven years, seven months and 15 days in prison. (Reuters, 9/10/09)(AP, 9/10/09)(AP, 5/19/11)

2009 Sep 12, President Evo Morales said Bolivia has decided to buy a presidential plane from Russia after Moscow offered to set up an aircraft maintenance center in the South American nation. Defense Minister Walker San Miguel announced in early August that Bolivia had agreed to purchase an Antonov presidential plane with satellite phone, Internet links and a meeting room from Russia for $30 million. (AP, 9/12/09)

2009 Sep 13, Bolivia's Pres. Evo Morales began a visit to Spain. His plans to nationalize Bolivia’s electricity sector and how this might affect Spanish companies will be among the top items on his agenda. (AP, 9/14/09)

2009 Oct 20, Bolivia's National Electoral Court announced that former Pando state Gov. Leopoldo Fernandez can campaign from a La Paz jail because he is detained as a precautionary measure, over killings under his watch in Sept, 2008, and has not been charged. (AP, 10/21/09)

2009 Nov 12, In Bolivia authorities said that evaporation blamed on global warming has reduced Lake Titicaca, one of the world's highest navigable lakes, to its lowest level since 1949. (AP, 11/12/09)

2009 Nov 19, Bolivian police busted five cocaine labs and arrested two people in a remote Indian village after a confrontation in which an officer was shot. (AP, 11/24/09)

2009 Dec 6, Bolivia held elections. President Evo Morales, a coca-grower at odds with Washington but hugely popular at home for empowering the long-suppressed indigenous majority, easily won re-election. (AP, 12/6/09)(AP, 12/7/09)

2009 Dec 9, Bolivia seized a 12,500-hectare (48-square-mile) ranch in the eastern lowlands from a soybean magnate who is among the chief political rivals of just re-elected President Evo Morales. The next day deputy land minister said the Yasminka ranch taken from Branko Marinkovic will be given to the Guarayo Indians. The Marinkovic family, which immigrated from Croatia in the 1950s, is fighting in court to keep a slightly bigger ranch, Laguna Corazon, from the same fate. (AP, 12/10/09)

2009 Dec 14, In Bolivia’s presidential runner-up Manfred Reyes Villa crossed over the Peruvian border and then flew to the US the following day to escape election-fraud charges. (AP, 12/31/09)

2009 Dec 17, Bolivia's leftist government was reported to have seized another big ranch from a top opposition figure. It said the 2,500-hectare (10-square-mile) spread will go to landless Indians. President Morales' government also confiscated a 500-hectare parcel from Osvaldo Monasterio, a banker and agribusinessman who owns the Unitel TV network. (AP, 12/17/09)

2009 Dec 26, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said that he plans to make it legal for Bolivia's farmers to grow small parcels of coca plants. (AP, 12/27/09)

2010 Jan 5, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he's inviting activists, scientists and government officials from around the world to an alternative climate conference following the failure of a summit in Copenhagen to produce binding agreements. (AP, 1/5/10)

2010 Feb 10, Bolivia said it has created a space agency to build and launch the country’s first satellite. The government will initially invest $1 million in the Bolivian Space Agency. (SFC, 2/11/10, p.A2)

2010 Mar 16, Bolivian officials said they have fired prison director Col. Gilmar Oblitas for allowing imprisoned former Gen. Luis Garcia Meza (b.1932) turn cells into a luxury apartment. (SFC, 3/17/10, p.A2)

2010 Apr 4, In Bolivia allies of leftist President Evo Morales made modest advances in state and local elections, according to independent exit polls. (AP, 4/5/10)

2010 Apr 8, Uruguay's La Republica newspaper reported that a Catholic priest who fled home to Uruguay and was defrocked after a nun accused him of raping three children in Bolivia has been living with his family for more than a year, with the full knowledge of Uruguayan church officials, despite an Interpol warrant for his arrest. Juan Jose Santana has been a fugitive from justice since being charged in May 2008 with raping three children ages 12 to 17. (AP, 4/10/10)

2010 Apr 10, Bolivian delegate Pablo Solon confirmed that the US reduced aid after Bolivia opposed the adoption of the Copenhagen Accord brokered at the UN climate summit last December in the Danish capital. The Washington Post reported on April 9 that the US is cutting $3 million to Bolivia and $2.5 million to Ecuador from its Global Climate Change initiative. (AP, 4/10/10)

2010 Apr 20, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales said that men should stay away from eating chicken if they want to maintain their hair and virility. He said chicken producers inject the birds with female hormones. Producers in the US, EU and other countries abandoned the use of hormones in poultry several decades ago. (SFC, 4/21/10, p.A2)

2010 Apr 23, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales said he is creating a "Mother Earth Ministry" to promote the planet's rights and says that he would like to establish an international court with the power to punish nations that fail to obey emissions-reduction agreements. Morales revealed the plans as he launched a campaign to plant 10 million trees, equal to Bolivia's population, by April 22, 2011. (AP, 4/24/10)

2010 May 1, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales nationalized 4 electricity generators, 2 of which had European owners or partners. He skipped the May Day parade as some marchers carried signs denouncing his purchase of a new French Dassault jet. (Econ, 5/8/10, p.40)

2010 May 21, In Bolivia retired Gen. Gary Prado, famous for capturing Ernesto "Che" Guevara, was ordered held under house arrest in connection with an alleged plot against President Evo Morales. Prosecutors alleged that Prado had exchanged "ultrasecret" encrypted e-mail with Eduardo Rozsa, a Bolivian-born Hungarian who was slain in an April 2009 raid by an elite police unit. (AP, 5/22/10)

2010 Jul 27, Bolivian authorities arrested Valentin Mejillones (55), an Aymara priest who inaugurated President Evo Morales, in a bust that netted 530 pounds (240 kg) of liquid cocaine. (AP, 7/29/10)

2010 Aug 2, Bolivia’s deputy land minister Juan Manuel Pinto said that a local court has upheld a government decision to seize a ranch from US cattleman Ronal Larsen (65) and his family on the grounds they treated workers as virtual slaves. Larsen has owned the 58-square-mile (15,000-hectare) ranch nearly four decades. Pinto said the ranch and an adjacent 15-square-mile (3,790-hectare) spread owned by an unrelated family, the Chavezes, would be cleared by authorities and divided among 2,000 Guarani families. (AP, 8/2/10)

2010 Aug 5, Bolivia's leftist government said it has begun military training for civilians at army barracks in what the opposition called a first step toward creating pro-government militias. (AP, 8/5/10)

2010 Aug 16, In Bolivia protesters suspended road blockades and hunger strikes, saying government officials agreed to address their grievances after 19 days of demonstrations that paralyzed Bolivia's southern Potosi region. The government agreed to build a new airport and cement factory in the area to end the 3-weeks of roadblocks. (AP, 8/16/10)(SSFC, 8/22/10, p.A4)

2010 Aug 26, Bolivia’s government said it has confiscated 280,000 more acres of allegedly fallow or ill-gotten land. The seizure included 51,000 acres from the ranching company of prominent opposition figure Osvaldo Monasterio. (SFC, 8/27/10, p.A2)

2010 Aug 28, In Bolivia a touring French couple Fanny Blancho (23) and her partner Jeremy Bellanger (25) were last seen in the small city of Guayaramerin on the border with Brazil. (AP, 9/23/10)

2010 Oct 3, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales kneed an opposing player in the groin during a soccer match against a team of political rivals after an apparent hard foul by the opponent. Images of the altercation were broadcast and posted to YouTube. (AP, 10/5/10)

2010 Oct 8, Bolivia’s Pres. Evo Morales enacted an anti-racism bill opposed by most of the nation’s newspapers, which said it limited free speech. (SFC, 10/9/10, p.A2)

2010 Oct 19, Bolivia and Peru signed an agreement giving Bolivia a dock, a free-trade zone and the right to run some naval vessels. (SFC, 10/20/10, p.A2)

2010 Oct 25, Bolivian President Evo Morales was in Tehran on a 3-day visit aimed at securing Iranian investment in the South American country. (AFP, 10/25/10)

2010 Oct 30, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales confirmed that his country plans to build a nuclear plant with Iran's help, stressing the facility would be for peaceful purposes. (AFP, 10/30/10)

2010 Dec 10, Bolivia enacted a law lowering the country’s retirement age to 58. The current retirement age was 65 for men and 60 for women. (SFC, 12/11/10, p.A2)

2010 Dec 16, In Bolivia lawmakers in a natural gas-rich eastern province removed Tarija Gov. Mario Cossio, a key opponent of leftist President Evo Morales, after he was charged with dereliction of duty and causing economic damage. His unseating by a legislature dominated by Morales supporters left opposition governors in control of just two of Bolivia's nine provinces. (AP, 12/16/10)

2010 Dec 22, Bolivia sent a letter to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declaring its recognition of an independent and sovereign state of Palestine. (AP, 12/22/10)

2010 Dec 26, In Bolivia the government under Evo Morales announced an end to subsidies on many fuels. The measure involved a 73% increase in the price of petrol. (Econ, 1/8/11, p.36)

2010 Dec 30, In Bolivia protests against sharp increases in gas prices turned violent as thousands demanded that Pres. Morales’ government repeal the hike. (SFC, 12/31/10, p.A2)

2011 Jan 18, Paraguay granted political refugee status to Mario Cossio, a key opponent of Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales, sheltering him from corruption charges across the border. Cossio fled Bolivia last month after provincial lawmakers allied with Morales ousted him as governor of the natural gas-rich state of Tarija due to charges of dereliction of duty and causing economic damage. (AP, 1/18/11)

2011 Jan 19, The US filed an formal objection to Bolivia’s proposal to end a ban on coca-leaf chewing. Jan 31 marked a deadline for formal objections to Bolivia’s proposed amendment to the 1961 UN Single Convention on Narcotics Drugs to remove language that prohibits the chewing of coca leaves. (SFC, 1/19/11, p.A2)

2011 Jan 26, In Bolivia thousands of people took to the streets to chew coca leaf in support of the country's bid to remove an international prohibition on the age-old practice. (AP, 1/26/11)

2011 Jan 28, In Bolivia the raging Molle Punku River swept at least 34 people to their deaths after swamping a bus and a truck that tried to cross. (AP, 1/30/11)(www.whatsonningbo.com/tag-Bolivia%20flood.html)

2011 Feb 6, In Senegal the 11th anti-capitalist gathering known as the World Social Forum kicked off in with a march attended by Bolivian President Evo Morales. (AP, 2/6/11)

2011 Feb 24, In Panama Rene Sanabria, a retired Bolivian police Gen., was arrested at Washington's request and extradited to the US. He had an initial federal court appearance in Miami the next day on charges he ran a cocaine trafficking ring. Sanabria headed the FELCN counternarcotics police in 2007-2008. Other alleged members of the trafficking organization were identified by Bolivian authorities as Col. Milton Sanchez Pantoja, Maj. Edwin Raul Ona Moncada and Capt. Franz Hernando Siles Rios. (AP, 2/27/11)

2011 Feb, In Bolivia landslides destroyed 1700 houses and killed at least 50 people. (http://tinyurl.com/4sbe4js)

2011 Mar 16, Bolivian authorities arrested police Col. Robert Miguel Valdez outside the eastern city of Santa Cruz after agents found traces of cocaine in his vehicle. (AP, 3/17/11)

2011 May 5, In Bolivia a plane monitoring the cultivation of coca went missing. Wreckage of the plane and the bodies of the two crew members and four UN workers was found on May 7. (AP, 5/7/11)

2011 May 9, Lidia Gueiler (b.1921), former Bolivian president and the second woman to lead a Latin American nation, died. She served as president of Bolivia when she held the post for about eight months in 1979-80 between coup d'etats. (AP, 5/10/11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidia_Gueiler_Tejada)

2011 Jun 26, In Bolivia a bus ran off a foggy mountain road, killing at least 28 people. (AP, 6/27/11)

2011 Jun 30, Bolivia's government said it has informed the United Nations it is renouncing the world body's 1961 anti-drug convention because it classifies coca leaf as an illegal drug. (AP, 6/30/11)

2011 Jul 29, Bolivia’s Congress passed a law mandating that privately owned radio and TV stations only receive 33% of available licenses. 33% would be government controlled with the rest divided among social and indigenous groups. (SFC, 7/30/11, p.A2) http://timelines.ws/countries/BOLIVIA.HTML


 * =Famous people=
 * Roberto Suárez Goméz
 * [[image:haspanish1/Roberto_suarez_gomez_the_king_of_cocaine_in_Bolivia_as_a_young_drug_lord.jpg]]
 * []
 * Roberto Suárez Goméz's nick name was the "king of cocaine". He was a bolivian drug trafficker that was responsible for 1/3 of the the cocaine to the United States and Europe. In 1983 he offer to pay 3 billion dollars to the united states for the exchange of his son who was in prison for drug trafficking. In 1988 he was sentenced to 15 years for drug related crime but was let out in 1996. He died 4 years later of a heart attack.
 * Roberto Suárez Goméz is the most powerful drug lord ever to come out of bolivia. He is also the inspiration for the iconic American movie "Scarface".

Humitas- Corn and cheese that is wrapped in a corn leaf and steamed [] [] Saltena- Served in the morning saltena is a pastry filled with either chicken or other meat and greens and a sauce.
 * =Bolivian food=
 * =[[image:humitas2.jpg]]=

[] Empanadas- A pastry filled with Cheese onions, and olives.

[] Sandwich de chola- It contains roasted pork, lettuce and locoto.

> > http://www.boliviabella.com/government.html > > http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_Bolivia_literacy_rate > > http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/35751.htm > > http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Bolivia-RELIGIONS.html#b > > http://www.boliviafacts.net/famous-people-from-bolivia.html > > [] > > http://timelines.ws/countries/BOLIVIA.HTML > > www.youtube.com > > Images.google.com > > www.boliviabella.com > > wiki.answers.com > > >
 * =**Bibliography**=
 * http://www.boliviabella.com/bolivia-facts.html