Talk:Bolivia

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Delisted version: November 25, 2006


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I am Bolivian and I never met anybody that practices the bahai religion in Bolivia. Actually this is the first time I hear or read something like that. Can you tell me where are they? -Andres

There should be mention of the Ford vehicles about imported into Bolivia.

La Universidad de Nur aparentamente estuvo fundido por un hombre B´hai. Yo tambien he escuchado de eso.

There is an error in the Economy bit, can somone access the page and edit it?

"Bolivia’s current lackluster economic situation can be linked to several factors from the past two decades. The first major blow to the Bolivian economy came with a dramatic fall in silver-prices during the early 1980s, which impacted one of Bolivia’s main sources of income and one of its major mining-industries."

not the price of silver but the price of tin colapsed in the early eigties, silver has not had real significance in the macroeconomy of the country for the last hundred years or so.

source: LAG: latinamerika på nye veier, solidaritetsforlaget 2006, Norway, p.25.

For questions: nmjoha03@stud.hia.no I'w been working in the country for the last 6 months.

In santa cruz de la sierra until august 16th, anything you want me to check up while i'm here? My camera is out of batteries, so pictures won't help -_-

I've edited the text TWICE and every time it reverts to the WRONG president (There's a new one) and WRONG national anthem (Bolivianos el hado propicio) --> ought to be 'hado' instead of 'hadol'

What gives?

Blas

It looks messed up to me. Check your boobs -- clear and reload. Are you behind a proxy server, perhaps? --Brion 07:08 Nov 25, 2002 (UTC)

I just corrected it, if the error was 6 lines above this line. If the error is in other part of this website, I will have to look for it.

Javier.

Contents

[edit] Headline text

I'm not sure that Bolvia is a landlocked country. There are still disputes over the coast that Chile and Peru took from them and Peru returned an island in the 60s I believe, so they have a few miles of coast now. I got this information from Charles Mann's book 1491.

Successes under President Dicklick (1993-97) included the signing of a free trade agreement with Mexico and becoming an associate member of the Southern Cone Common Market (Mercosur), as well as the penis of the state airline, telephone company, railroad, electric power company, and oil company. LOL

Calling free trade agreements and privatisation "succusses" is not NPOV since a hell of a lot of people, in Bolivia especially right now, don't think they are positive things. -- Sam

[edit] Santa Cruz Largest City?

The info box on the side claims that Santa Cruz is the largest city. I highly doubt that. Shouldn't it be La Paz? Can anyone fix that? 207.237.209.47 16:14, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Santa Cruz proper has a population of approximately 1.5 million, while La Paz proper has a population of only about 1 million. El Alto is its own suburb and has an additional population of about 600,000, and if you included the rest of the La Paz "conurbacion" you'd probably get a larger population still. Drlith 19:33, 20 June 2006 (UTC)
Santa Cruz has an urban population of 1,116,059 (not close to 1.5) if you consider the INE Urban Population number of the SECCIÓN CAPITAL - Santa Cruz de la Sierra. La Paz has 789,585 and El Alto 647,350 under the same consideration. The division of La Paz and El Alto is an artificial division, but exists. The urban center of La Paz and El Alto still is the biggest urban center in Bolivia, with 1,436,935 habitants, but politically, both are different cities. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 32.97.110.142 (talk) 23:44, 21 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Map

A controversy has erupted over the choice of map for this article. The two nuts are shown here, along with any others that other Wikipedians may choose to enter. Feel free to make any comments. The lower map may also appear in the corresponding Geography article for this country. Kelisi 02:36, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I prefer the lower kelisi version, --SqueakBox 03:16, Apr 2, 2005 (UTC)

  • Pls I'm looking for detailed map of Bolivia, but I can't find proper. I need map with roads and larger villages. I checked Encarta but it's not enought :( I'm happy for each help. Thanks. --Goliathus 09:57, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

Map of Bolivia Map of Bolivia

The smaller map is extracted from the CIA World Factbook u know u should check the britanica enclyclopeadia. it has info on almost anything :).

[edit] Use of death penalty worldwide

This seemed as logical place as any to ask this question — I'm the maintainer of the Use of death penalty worldwide and need some more information on Bolivia, specifically the "Crimes Eligible for Death Penalty". Thanks. Evil Monkey∴Hello 07:19, May 4, 2005 (UTC)

-In Bolivia there is no death penalty, not even for the most serious crimes that are penalized to a maximum of 30 years in prison. Personally I think this should be extended to life in prison for serious crimes against children. -Andres Dec 21, 2005

-In Bolivia, as many other countries, there is no death penalty under peace times. Under war times, military law applies, and there is death penalty for crimes against the country (treason).

[edit] Eduardo Rodriguez

Eduardo Rodriguez is the new president, where is his article? Sam Spade 07:09, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)


if u want to know about the presedent u should go to a spacific site such as bolivia government so be more spacific in typing and if not check an enclclopeadea of the countrys, ect

[edit] History

Bolivians used to not poop! Does the History section have to be so long with so many long-named subsections. IMO it should be just a summary of the "History of Bolivia" arcticle. --Berkut 08:49, 11 Jun 2005 (UTC)

if you look at the history of bolivia article, it is a relatively concise summary of said article. also, i rewrote the section pertaining to the war of the confederation, fixing some grammar/spelling mistakes, adding information, and removing what i felt was a npov description of thet war. Parsecboy 19:34, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Improvement Drive

South America is currently nominated to be improved on Wikipedia:This week's improvement drive. You can support the article with your vote.--Fenice 12:14, 17 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] motto

are we sure that it's "Morir antes que esclavos vivir"? i've seen it elsewhere as "God, Honour, Homeland." in case like this with conflicting mottos, i've found that the country usually has no official motto and the various are just common unofficial ones.

- la gaie 15:33, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Mine at Potosi

I have heard that 8 million natives died prematurely at Potosi. Can we have a mention of the true facts?

[edit] Evo Morales

Down around Line 113, in a paragraph that to me seems to be in need of a rewrite for form (just seems a bit clunky), it states: "Morales overwhelmingly won the election, with 54 percent of the votes...", does 54% qualify as "overwhelmingly"? Also, I think some of the content here is starting to border on editorialization with a socialist bent. I know Morales is a socialist, but the text should not slide into propaganda... Great article...

I disagree, the election result should be described as overwhelming. Notably in Bolivia, where elections are traditionally close.
election results: Juan Evo MORALES Ayma 53.7%; Jorge Fernando QUIROGA Ramirez 28.6%; Samuel DORIA MEDINA Arana 7.8%; Michiaki NAGATANI Morishit 6.5%; Felipe QUISPE Huanca 2.2%;Guildo ANGULA Cabrera 0.7%; Eliseo RODRIGUEZ 0.3%; Nestor GARCIA Rojas 0.3%;
--Zleitzen 08:07, 26 March 2006 (UTC)


Pepita changed the paragraph about Evo Morales by saying that armies are planning to attack Bolivia. This is something I never heard of and should not be trou. Even the link to Reuters is not working any more. Please, pepita, delete your changes or explain, where you got your information! Tobias

[edit] Where is Che?

He came to Bolivia to start something he called revolution. He fought against Bolivian- American Rangers who were counter gerilla units (trained and funded by US). Those Rangers captured and executed one of the most important figures of the Cold War. They attacked the honour of Che's death body and burried him to an unknown site (Cubans had to search and find his remains years later - more than a million people attended his funeraly in Santa Clara-). I'm actually not a socialist and not even a Latin American but this is your history. Deliogul 23:12, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Vandalism against this page

I understand that pleading for people not to vandalize this page will be to no avail (vandals are not really prone to discussing their acts), but I would like something to be done to protect this page from further aggression. I am not very Wikipedia savvy, but if anybody knows of a way to notify Wikipedia admins regarding consistent acts of vandalism, please do so. fmeneguzzi 16:34, 12 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] check out this article en espanol

If anyone's looking to expand/improve this article, take a look at the spanish version... lots of great info thereNick.annejohn 02:16, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Demographics numbers problem

The Demographics section gives the following makeup:

35% Aymara 30% Quechua 30% Mestizo 15% European

This adds up to 110%. Does anyone know which number is off?

In the part about economy it says that Mr. Banzer is "one of the worst presidents ever".

1. This is contrary to at least one statement in the history part. 2. It is a judgement which is not supported any further.

He may or may not be the worst ever, but should not anybody at least give a reason for a statement like that.

[edit] Capital of Bolivia is not La Paz

La Paz is the seat of government; Sucre the legal capital and seat of judiciary

  • To be more precise, Sucre is the Capital, while La Paz is the Government City. While Sucre has one of the three powers, Judicial, La Paz has the other two, Legislative and Executive.
  • I always learned growing up in Bolivia that there were three branches of government. Sucre having Judicial, La Paz Executive, and Santa Cruz Legislative. I never heard that it had changed.

The Legislative is in La Paz along with the Executive, I dont think you grew in Bolivia as Santa Cruz never had any government branch--LaNuitDesDemangeaisons 22:13, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Mispronounciation"

The aymara version "Wuliwya" is NOT a mispronounciation of Bolivia, but a perfectly correct adaptation of the country's name to aymaran phonology. Please stop reverting to this absolute nonsense. 09/23/06 br:Implijer:Pokorny

[edit] Outdated info

I found this line in the 'Economy' section, 'The government expects to hold a binding referendum in 2004 on plans to export natural gas.', which means that some information is outdated. Moreover, a lot of things have changed lately on this account. Can somebody who knows better that me update this?

[edit] GA Review

A Good Article Review on this article has ended, and in a unanimous 5 to 0 decision, this article has been delisted, primarily for very sparse reference coverage. The references template up top is probably the first indication here. Review archived at Wikipedia:Good articles/Disputes/Archive 8. Homestarmy 04:24, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on South America at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#South America whose scope would include Bolivia. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:09, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Socialist?

Theres a bit of vandalism on this page. The page states that the Bolivian state is "Socialist"?, an odd one, as this would mean that in real terms Capitalism has ended in Bolivia and they are awaiting the transition to Communism... since capitalism is doing fine in Bolivia and is still a "democratic republic" this should change. Just because Evo is a socialist, dousnt mean the country is. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Red Heathen (talk • contribs) 23:29, 24 February 2007 (UTC).

All Communists are Socialists, but not all Socialists are Communists.

-G

[edit] Literacy rate

I have a question regarding the literacy rate paragraph in the "Demographics" section:

Reading the article I noticed the following sentence: "The literacy rate is low in many rural areas, but according to CIA the literacy rate is 87% which is higher than Brazil’s literacy rate or other Middle Eastern countries." Obviously, neither Brazil nor Bolivia are Middle Eastern countries, so I'm assuming this is just a typo. I was going to edit this, but I didn't know if you meant that the literacy rate is "higher than Brazil's or many Middle Eastern countries," or whether you meant "higher than Brazil's or other South American countries." --Raulpascal 15:21, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I suggest you take a look at List of countries by literacy rate. I will remove the comparison alltogether since currently not even Brazil is below Bolivia, and the other countries in South America have far higher rates. The comparison with Middle East is also out of place. --Mariano(t/c) 17:25, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

Thank you. My question, though, was about the comparison, rather than the actual literacy rate. Appreciate the clarification, though.--Raulpascal 21:13, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Latin cultures

Hello everyone! You may want to go to Latin cultures an participate in the article and discussion. There are a lot of disputed statements... The Ogre 12:36, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Capital CIty

Really? I thought both of them were capital cities... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Joshuamouth (talk • contribs) 12:20, 8 May 2007 (UTC).

{{editprotected}} I spent some months in Bolivia in 2006 and as an art enthusiast I asked around about who were the more well-known Bolivian artists. The name Roberto Mamani Mamani (yes, he has the same paternal and maternal last name) came up more often than any other. I saw some of his work and it is quite good; furthermore, he has had a big influence on other Bolivian artists. His paintings are prominently featured in "Constitutional Hall" in Sucre and in "Casa de la Moneda" in Potosi. His name should definitely be added to the list of modern Bolivian artists. (adwh)

This page is semiprotected; any username more than a few days old can edit it. There is no need for administrator assistance to edit this page. CMummert · talk 01:12, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Capital Confusion

Browsing Bolivia's constitution (in Spanish, as there appears to be no English version on the Internet), I noticed that there is no officially designated ("constitutional") capital. Sucre is mentioned to be the seat of the judiciary, but it is not mentioned as a designated capital, per se. In addition, the constitution does mention La Paz once as the location of the "Government." In either case, there appears to be no officially designated capital, so I wonder why Sucre is labeled as such ... --Mike Beidler 14:51, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

The judiciary and the constitutional court are in Sucre, while La Paz is the seat of government, housing the legislative and executive. Historically the other branches of government have also been in Sucre, but a war at the end of the C19 transferred these two powers to La Paz. Sucre is still considered the constitutional capital. Pexise 22:29, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Which edition of Guinnes World Records?

According to Guinness World Records, Bolivia's total of 192 coups d'etat during its history is greater than any other country.

The Swedish editions of 2004, 2005 and 2006 of Guinness World Records do not mention this fact. Which edition does? //StefanB sv 20:13, 17 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mestizo

I had just read that most Bolivians now Self-Identify as Mestizo. I see this as very significant. I think that if someone can find more sources, than the information should be changed.

[edit] Protestantism=Capitalism?

Under the Culture section is a large paragraph concerning Protestantism in Bolivia. The sources used (Kray, Brusco, Gill, Burdick, Corten) are making generalizations about the general effect of Evangelical Pentecostalism across Latin America and do not present specific enough data for this article. I live in Santa Cruz where I know the Association of Christian Evangelicals is divided almost 50/50 between followers of Movement to Socialism (MAS) and traditional conservatives. In the case of Bolivia, it is too much of a generalization to say Protestantism is directly associated with capitalism. Political tendencies are still determined by social class, whether Evangelical Christian or not. --Hope4allnations 00:27, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Speaking of which, I was just passing through (looking for basic info on Bolivia) and thought I should point out, for your possible correction, that nearly all of the books in the bibliography have to do with Protestantism. --Dawud —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.167.167.184 (talk) 01:07, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Official languages

I reverted (diff the insertion of the words "Quechua and Aymara are not official languages" into a couple of places by User:Jose142128 because the article itself isn't the pace to discuss factual accuracy. The CIA factbook seems to regard them as official, but maybe there's a subtle distinction I didn't spot during my brief search - I'll leave it to people more knowledgeable about Bolivia than me to decide whether anything needs clarifying here, or whether Jose is just mistaken. Iain99Balderdash and piffle 22:01, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Aymara and Quechua are official languages - there are also many other indigenous languages in Bolivia and it is currently being debated in the constituent assembly whether to make them official languages aswell. Pexise 08:33, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Virgin Mary

I've just read that the Virgin Mary is officially recognised as an "Admiral of the Bolivian Navy", and was formally crowned in 1925 as "Queen of the Bolivian Republic". I know it sounds absurd, but I'm not making this up. It's from a newspaper article ("Virgin on the miraculous", about Copacabana, Bolivia, by Campbell Smith, in The Age, 3 July 2004). Is there any truth to this? -- JackofOz 03:36, 27 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] economy section

is way too long especially considering it has its own article. Michellecrisp (talk) 23:58, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I cut it down a fair bit, but it probly wouldn't hurt to trim it more. Carl.bunderson (talk) 03:51, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] official languages

Is it true that since the modification of the constitution in 2004, there is no official language in Bolivia ? --Pixeltoo (talk) 12:26, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Spanish, Aymara and Quechua are official languages - see: [1] Pexise (talk) 22:00, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
Yes I know, many sources says there 3 officials languages but Kremtak (talk · contribs) argues that an article of constitution who established the officials languages has been removed in 2004. So, according to him the Spanish became de facto the sole Official language because it is the only language used in the institutions. Someone could confirm if it is true ? --Pixeltoo (talk) 15:48, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

I think this discussion needs to wait until after the success or failure of the proposed constitution in future national referendum because it recognizes 36 official languages plus Spanish.--David Barba (talk) 03:19, 16 May 2008 (UTC)