The son of llama
herders Morales was a coca farmer before becoming the leader of MAS. His fame
grew as he headed a popular rebellion against moves to sell Bolivia’s natural gas cheaply to the United States during which time the Bolivian armed forces suppressed
protestors leaving some 60 people dead in 2003. As a result the President
resigned, the Vice President Carlos
Mesa took control and congress enacted a new hydrocarbons law.
Many countries in Latin America have made significant progress in updating their gambling laws and liberalising their markets. Colombia opened up the online market in 2016. Argentina is allowing for an expansion too with Cordoba the latest province to permit online gambling. Chile has seen a huge expansion of its land-based casino industry since 2005 and is now in the process of analysing its online gambling laws. Peru’s gambling law is being fine-tuned at the committee stage. Te biggest change on the way is, of course, Brazil which looks set to finally open up the sports betting market after over four years of delays. However, one jurisdiction which has lagged behind when it comes to gambling is Bolivia.
POLITICAL BACKGROUND
Landlocked by five neighbours: Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, Bolivia is home to over 12 million people. Tese people belong to 36 recognised ethnic groups - Aymara and Quechua being the largest group. Historically, indigenous people in Bolivia have suffered many years of marginalisation and a lack of representation.
Indeed, it is this lack of representation that has forged Bolivian politics over the last decades. In 1982, Bolivia became a democracy again after almost 20 years of military rule. Significantly, during that time indigenous political parties and unions began to emerge. Once democracy was restored the country was ruled by centre-right parties which formed coalitions and were able to push forward pro-market reforms. However, low economic growth and high unemployment rates led to social unrest during the first part of the 2000s, which in turn led to the emergence of the leadership of Evo Morales and MAS (Te Movement Towards Socialism) a broad bloc of miners, farmers and leftwing urbanites.
Te son of llama herders, Morales was a coca farmer before becoming the leader of MAS. His fame grew as he headed a popular rebellion against moves to sell Bolivia’s natural gas cheaply to the United States, during which time the Bolivian armed forces suppressed protestors leaving some 60 people dead in 2003. As a result, the President resigned, the Vice President Carlos Mesa took control and congress enacted a new hydrocarbons law.
However, Evo Morales demanded full nationalisation and the increased participation of Bolivia's indigenous majority in the political life of the country. Before then the country’s government was largely controlled by the white upper class. In 2005, Mesa was forced to resign in the face of mounting protests. Morales was elected at the end of the year with over half of the national vote. A reformed constitution made Bolivia a plurinational state, with official status given to 36 indigenous peoples and languages.
Ten years of economic expansion followed, helped by a global boom in commodity prices, while the nationalisation of oil and gas helped foot the bill for vastly improved social welfare programmes and increased investment in public infrastructure to boost domestic demand. Te proportion of people in the middle class doubled between 2007 and 2017 (13.4 per cent to 28.3 per cent) and the poverty rate fell from 64.5 per cent to 39.3 per cent during this time.
A new constitution allowed Morales to run for a third term in 2014. However, deadly protests
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P49
broke out after he claimed a fourth. Claims of fraud followed. At least three people were killed and more than 100 injured during the clashes, which closed schools, businesses and public transportation in November 2019.
Morales resigned, fled the country and was granted asylum in Mexico. Te right-wing opposition then took power and new elections were held in late 2020. Te MAS party with Luis Arce, who served as finance and economy minister under Morales, finished with 55 per cent of the vote, meaning he won with no need for a run-off.
However Bolivia is once again enduring another period of unrest after Bolivian police arrested Luis Fernando Camacho, the governor of Santa Cruz and a prominent opposition leader in December. Santa Cruz produces around 76 per cent of Bolivia’s food and a third of all exports, and Camacho, widely considered a leader of the opposition to Bolivia’s left-leaning national government, was detained late last year on “terrorism” charges related to previous demonstrations. Protests are still ongoing with Santa Cruz emerging as an opposition stronghold, which could in turn impair economic activity.
A new constitution allowed Morales to run for a third term in 2014. However
deadly protests broke out after he claimed a fourth. Claims of fraud followed. At least three people
were killed and more than 100 injured during the clashes, which closed schools, businesses and
public transportation in November 2019.
Morales resigned, fled the country and was granted asylum in Mexico.
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