Area Total | 1,098,581 sq km |
Climate | varies with altitude; humid and tropical to cold and semiarid |
Natural Resources | tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, iron, lead, gold, timber, hydropower |
Imports | $8.601 billion (2017 est.) partners: China 21.7%, Brazil 16.8%, Argentina 12.6%, US 8.4%, Peru 6.5% (2017) |
Exports | $7.746 billion (2017 est.) partners: Brazil 17.9%, Argentina 16%, US 7.8%, Japan 7.3%, India 6.6%, South Korea 6.3%, Colombia 5.8% (2017) |
Government | presidential republic |
Capital | La Paz |
Population | 11.3 million (July 2018 est.) |
Ethnicity | mestizo (mixed white and Amerindian ancestry) 68%, indigenous 20%, white 5%, cholo/chola 2%, black 1%, other 1%, unspecified 3% (2009 est.) |
Language | Spanish (official) 60.7%, Quechua (official) 21.2%, Aymara (official) 14.6%, foreign languages 2.4%, Guarani (official) 0.6%, other native languages 0.4%, none 0.1% (2001 est.) |
News about Bolivia
- Power to the people? Bolivia’s hunt for gas targets national parks – and divides communitiesby Thomas Graham in Tariquía, Bolivia on April 10, 2024
Fossil fuel exports were meant to fund a revolutionary leftist agenda. But the state’s move to drill in Tariquía reserve has led to bitter conflict and diminishing returns• Photographs by Marcelo Pérez del CarpioIn the far southeast of Bolivia, the cloud forest of the Tariquía reserve is accessible only by a few dirt paths that quickly become […]
- Taiwan earthquake: over 600 people remain stranded days after disasterby Guardian staff and agencies on April 6, 2024
‘I kept praying and praying’, says rescued woman as search for four people missing from hiking trail set to resume following Wednesday’s quakeRescuers in Taiwan planned to bring in heavy equipment on Saturday to try to recover two bodies buried on a hiking trail, while more than 600 people remained stranded in various locations, three days after the […]
- Cracking geysers: the world’s most thrilling hot springs – in picturesby Guardian Staff on April 3, 2024
They can be sacred, space-like, healing or heart-shaped – and anywhere on Earth. Even war can’t get between people and natural springs, as Greta Rybus shows in her latest photobook Continue reading...
- 'Paddington' bears spotted in Bolivian forest raise hopes for species' survival – videoon March 22, 2024
A Bolivian conservation programme has identified at least 60 'Paddington' bears in areas where they had not been spotted before. The animal is the inspiration behind the beloved fictional character Paddington, who travels to London, is adopted by a family and eats lashings of marmalade. In 2017, Chester zoo’s Andean carnivore conservation programme […]
- ‘Holy grail of shipwrecks’: recovery of 18th-century Spanish ship could begin in Aprilby Luke Taylor in Bogotá on March 18, 2024
The San José, sunk in 1708, has been at the center of a dispute over who has rights to the wreck, including $17bn in bootySince the Colombian navy discovered the final resting place of the Spanish galleon San José in 2015, its location has remained a state secret, the wreck – and its precious cargo – left deep under the waters of the Caribbean.Efforts […]
- Floods submerge cities in central South America after extreme rainfall – videoon February 27, 2024
Bolivia, Brazil and Peru have been badly affected by severe floods that have displaced citizens, destroyed buildings and isolated entire cities.Drone video shows water swamping the ground floor of city buildings and submerging roads and railway tracks, with boats escorting people to safety.The mayor of Machu Picchu said this kind of disaster had not been […]
- Construction worker saves dog from raging Bolivian river after flooding – videoon February 22, 2024
A dog trapped in the roaring waters of Bolivia's Orkojahuira River was rescued by a construction worker hanging from a crane.The Orkojahuira is one of several rivers in the country's capital city of La Paz that have flooded due to recent rain. Heavy rain has triggered several landslides in western Bolivia over the past week, resulting in casualties and […]
- Torrential rains batter Bolivia with homes teetering on the edge of collapse – videoon February 22, 2024
Heavy rains in Bolivia have triggered landslides along the banks of a swollen river in La Paz, leaving several houses damaged and at risk of collapse. A resident told Reuters that on Tuesday night the Irpavi River began to swallow the 25 metres (82ft) separating her house from the waterbed, damaging her home. Several buildings in the area are still at risk […]
- ‘Everything is dry and very sad’: Lake Titicaca gripped by drought crisisby Words and photographs by Magda Gibelli in Puno on November 22, 2023
The waters of South America’s largest freshwater lake have severely receded leaving the Indigenous people around its shores struggling to maintain their livelihoods‘This is the first time since I was born it has dried up like this,” says Rita Suaña, 48, one of the female leaders of the Uros, an ancestral people of the Altiplano who live on the waters […]
- South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamasby Tom Phillips Latin America correspondent on November 1, 2023
Bolivia’s leftwing government cuts diplomatic ties with Israel, alleging crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza, as Chile and Colombia recall ambassadorsIsrael and Hamas at war – live updatesA number of South American countries have registered diplomatic protests against Israel, in response to its latest conflict with Hamas, with Bolivia’s leftwing […]
- Threats against rape victim, 10, lay bare Bolivia’s culture of sexual violenceby Dan Collyns in Lima on October 21, 2023
Supporters of alleged rapist, girl’s 39-year-old headteacher, stormed police station in effort to prevent arrestThe ombudsman’s office in Bolivia has condemned threats against a 10-year-old rape victim and her family after teachers and school staff tried to prevent the arrest of the alleged rapist, a 39-year-old male headteacher, by trying to invade a […]
- Deforestation in Bolivia has jumped by 32% in a year. What is going on?by Thomas Graham in Santa Cruz de la Sierra on October 12, 2023
Everything points to more, not less, tree clearance, as country’s fastest-growing region embraces intensive agricultureOne hot night in Roboré, a town in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands, the community leader Rubén Darío Arias was hunched over a laptop, smoking intensely as he pointed to the red spots where forest fires were breaking out all over the […]
- Human emissions made deadly South American heat 100 times more likelyby Jonathan Watts on October 10, 2023
Research shows climate crisis by far main cause of recent unseasonable temperatures in southern winter and early springThe deadly heat in central South America over the past two months was made 100 times more likely by human emissions that disrupted the climate, scientists have shown.Temperatures have exceeded 40C in late winter and early spring in the […]
- Bolivian president expelled from own party amid political feudby Thomas Graham on October 4, 2023
Conflict erupted after Luis Arce and ex-president Evo Morales both showed interest in the party’s presidential nominationBolivia’s president Luis Arce has been expelled from his own party, amid a bitter struggle with the former president, Evo Morales, to lead the party into the 2025 election.According to a resolution passed at the congress of the […]
- Bolivian ex-president to pay damages to victims of military in landmark US caseby Thomas Graham on October 1, 2023
Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and former defence minister agree to pay for 2003 violence in which 60 protesters were killedA former Bolivian president and his defence minister have agreed to pay damages to the families of people killed by the military during their government, in a landmark settlement that sets a precedent by which other foreign leaders could […]