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U.S. Department of State

Background Notes: Bolivia, January 1997

Released by the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs.

OFFICIAL NAME: Republic of Bolivia

PROFILE

GEOGRAPHY

Area: 1.1 million sq. km. (425,000 sq. mi.); about the size of Texas and California combined.
Cities: Capital--La Paz (administrative--pop. 713,400); Sucre (constitutional--131,800). Other major cities--Santa Cruz (697,000), Cochabamba (407,800), El Alto (405,500).
Terrain: High plateau (altiplano), temperate and semitropical valleys, and the tropical lowlands.
Climate: Varies with altitude--from humid and tropical to semi-arid and cold.

PEOPLE

Nationality: Noun and adjective--Bolivian(s).
Population: 7.4 million (1995 estimate). Annual growth rate: 2%. Ethnic groups: 56% indigenous (primarily Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani), 42% European and mixed.
Religions: Predominantly Roman Catholic.
Languages: Spanish (official); Quechua, Aymara, Guarani.
Education: Years compulsory--ages 7-14. Literacy--80%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--75/1,000.
Work force: 3.6 million. Non-agricultural employment: 1.26 million; Services (including government)--70%; Industry and commerce--30%.

GOVERNMENT

Type: Republic.
Independence: August 6, 1825.
Constitution: 1967. Revised 1994.
Branches: Executive--president and cabinet. Legislative--bicameral Congress. Judicial--five levels of jurisdiction, headed by Supreme Court.
Subdivisions: Nine departments.
Major political parties: Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR), Nationalist Democratic Action (ADN), Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR), Conscience of the Fatherland (CONDEPA), Free Bolivia Movement (MBL), Civic Solidarity Union (UCS).
Suffrage: Universal adult, obligatory.

ECONOMY (1995)

GDP: $7.41 billion.
Annual growth rate: 3.7%.
Per capita income: $991.
Natural resources: Tin, natural gas, petroleum, zinc, tungsten, antimony, silver, lead, gold, and iron. (Lithium, potassium, and borax are not yet exploited.)
Agriculture (14.9% of GDP): Products--soybeans, cotton, potatoes, corn, sugarcane, rice, wheat, coffee, beef, barley, and quinine. Arable land--27%.
Industry: Types--manufacturing, commerce, extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons, textiles, food processing, chemicals, plastics, mineral smelting, and petroleum refining.
Trade: Exports--$1.18 billion. Products--natural gas, tin, zinc, coffee, silver, tungsten, wood, gold, jewelry, soybeans and byproducts.
Major markets--Latin American Integration Association (ALADI), U.S. (29%), European Union. Imports--$1.42 billion. Products--machinery and transportation equipment, consumer products, construction and mining equipment. Major suppliers--ALADI, U.S. (20%), EU.
Official exchange rate: 5.19 Bolivianos=U.S.$1 (floating).

PEOPLE

Bolivia's ethnic distribution is estimated to be 56% indigenous peoples, and 42% European and mixed. The largest of the approximately three dozen indigenous groups are the Aymara, Quechua, and Guarani. There are small German, former Yugoslav, Asian, Middle Eastern, and other minorities, many of whose members descend from families that have lived in Bolivia for several generations.

Bolivia is one of the least-developed countries in South America. About two-thirds of its people, many of whom are subsistence farmers, live in poverty. Population density ranges from less than one person per square kilometer (km) in the southeastern plains to about 10 per square km. (25 per sq. mi.) in the central highlands. Bolivia's high mortality rate restricts the annual population growth rate to around 2%.

La Paz is at the highest elevation of the world's capital cities--3,600 meters (11,800 ft.) above sea level. The adjacent city of El Alto is one of the fastest-growing in the hemisphere. Santa Cruz, the commercial and industrial hub of the eastern lowlands, also is experiencing rapid population and economic growth.

The great majority of Bolivians are Roman Catholic (the official religion), although Protestant denominations are expanding strongly. Many indigenous communities interweave pre-Columbian and Christian symbols in their religious practices. About half of the people speak Spanish as their first language. Approximately 90% of the children attend primary school, but often for a year or less. The literacy rate is low in many rural areas.

The cultural development of what is present-day Bolivia is divided into three distinct periods: pre-Columbian, colonial, and republican. Important archaeological ruins, gold and silver ornaments, stone monuments, ceramics, and weavings remain from several important pre-Columbian cultures. Major ruins include Tiwanaku, Samaipata, Incallajta, and Iskanwaya. The country abounds in other sites that are difficult to reach and hardly explored by archaeologists.

The Spanish brought their own tradition of religious art which, in the hands of local indigenous and mestizo builders and artisans, developed into a rich and distinctive style of architecture, painting, and sculpture known as "Mestizo Baroque." The colonial period produced not only the paintings of Perez de Holguin, Flores, Bitti, and others but also the works of skilled, but unknown, stonecutters, wood carvers, goldsmiths, and silversmiths. An important body of native baroque religious music of the colonial period was recovered in recent years and has been performed internationally to wide acclaim since 1994.

Bolivian artists of stature in the 20th century include, among others, Guzman de Rojas, Arturo Borda, Maria Luisa Pacheco, and Marina Nunez del Prado.

Bolivia has rich folklore. Its regional folk music is distinctive and varied. The devil dances at the annual carnival of Oruro are one of the great folkloric events of South America, as is the lesser known carnival at Tarabuco.

HISTORY

The Andean region probably has been inhabited for some 20,000 years. Beginning about the 16th century B.C., the Tiwanakan culture developed at the southern end of Lake Titicaca. This culture, centered around and named for the great city of Tiwanaku, developed advanced architectural and agricultural techniques before it disappeared around 1200 A.D., probably because of extended drought. Roughly contemporaneous with the Tiwanakan culture, the Moxos in the eastern lowlands and the Mollos north of present-day La Paz also developed advanced agricultural societies that had dissipated by the 13th century of our era. In about 1450, the Quechua-speaking Incas entered the area of modern highland Bolivia and added it to their empire. They controlled the area until the Spanish conquest in 1525.

During most of the Spanish colonial period, this territory was called "Upper Peru" or "Charcas" and was under the authority of the Viceroy of Lima. Local government came from the Audiencia de Charcas located in Chuquisaca (La Plata - modern Sucre). Bolivian silver mines produced much of the Spanish empire's wealth, and Potosi, site of the famed Cerro Rico--"Rich Mountain"-was, for many years, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere. As Spanish royal authority weakened during the Napoleonic wars, sentiment against colonial rule grew. Independence was proclaimed in 1809, but 16 years of struggle followed before the establishment of the republic, named for Simon Bolivar, on August 6, 1825.

Independence did not bring stability. For nearly 60 years, coups and short-lived constitutions dominated Bolivian politics. Bolivia's weakness was demonstrated during the War of the Pacific (1879-83), when it lost its seacoast and the adjoining rich nitrate fields to Chile.

An increase in the world price of silver brought Bolivia a measure of relative prosperity and political stability in the late 1800's. During the early part of the 20th century, tin replaced silver as the country's most important source of wealth. A succession of governments controlled by the economic and social elites followed laissez-faire capitalist policies through the first third of the century.

Living conditions of the indigenous peoples, who constituted most of the population, remained deplorable. Forced to work under primitive conditions in the mines and in nearly feudal status on large estates, they were denied access to education, economic opportunity, or political participation.

Bolivia's defeat by Paraguay in the Chaco War (1932-35) marked a turning point. Great loss of life and territory discredited the traditional ruling classes, while service in the army produced stirrings of political awareness among the indigenous peoples. From the end of the Chaco War until the 1952 revolution, the emergence of contending ideologies and the demands of new groups convulsed Bolivian politics.

The Nationalist Revolutionary Movement (MNR) emerged as a broadly based party. Denied its victory in the 1951 presidential elections, the MNR lead the successful 1952 revolution. Under President Victor Paz Estenssoro, the MNR introduced universal adult suffrage, carried out a sweeping land reform, promoted rural education, and nationalized the country's largest tin mines. It also committed many serious violations of human rights.

Twelve years of tumultuous rule left the MNR divided. In 1964, a military junta overthrew President Paz Estenssoro at the outset of his third term. The 1969 death of President Rene Barrientos, a former member of the junta elected President in 1966, led to a succession of weak governments. Alarmed by public disorder, the military, the MNR, and others installed Col. (later Gen.) Hugo Banzer Suarez as President in 1971. Banzer ruled with MNR support from 1971 to 1974. Then, impatient with schisms in the coalition, he replaced civilians with members of the armed forces and suspended political activities. The economy grew impressively during Banzer's presidency, but demands for greater political freedom undercut his support. His call for elections in 1978 plunged Bolivia into turmoil once again.

Elections in 1978, 1979, and 1980 were inconclusive and marked by fraud. There were coups, counter-coups, and caretaker governments. In 1980, Gen. Luis Garcia Meza carried out a ruthless and violent coup. His government was notorious for human rights abuses, narcotics trafficking, and economic mismanagement. Later convicted in absentia for crimes including murder, Garcia Meza was extradited from Brazil and began serving a 30-year sentence in 1995.

After a military rebellion forced out Garcia Meza in 1981, three other military governments in 14 months struggled with Bolivia's growing problems. Unrest forced the military to convoke the Congress elected in 1980 and allow it to choose a new chief executive. In October 1982--22 years after the end of his first term of office (1956-60)--Hernan Siles Zuazo again became President. Severe social tension, exacerbated by economic mismanagement and weak leadership, forced him to call early elections and relinquish power a year before the end of his constitutional term.

In the 1985 elections, the Nationalist Democratic Action Party (ADN) of Gen. Banzer won a plurality of the popular vote, followed by former President Paz Estenssoro's MNR and former Vice President Jaime Paz Zamora's Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). But in the congressional run-off, the MIR sided with MNR, and Paz Estenssoro was chosen for a fourth term as President. When he took office in 1985, he faced a staggering economic crisis. Economic output and exports had been declining for several years. Hyperinflation had reached an annual rate of 24,000%. Social unrest, chronic strikes, and unchecked drug trafficking were widespread.

In four years, Paz Estenssoro's Administration achieved economic and social stability. The military stayed out of politics, and all major political parties publicly and institutionally committed themselves to democracy. Human rights violations, which badly tainted some governments earlier in the decade, were not a problem. However, his remarkable accomplishments were not won without sacrifice. The collapse of tin prices in October 1985, coming just as the government was moving to reassert its control of the mismanaged state mining enterprise, forced the government to lay off over 20,000 miners. The highly successful shock treatment that restored Bolivia's financial system also led to some unrest and temporary social dislocation.

Although the MNR list headed by Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada finished first in the 1989 elections, no candidate received a majority of popular votes and so in accordance with the constitution, a congressional vote determined who would be president. The Patriotic Accord (AP) coalition between Gen. Banzer's ADN and Jaime Paz Zamora's MIR, the second- and third- place finishers, respectively, won out. Paz Zamora assumed the presidency and the MIR took half the ministries. Banzer's center-right ADN took control of the National Political Council (CONAP) and the other ministries.

Paz Zamora was a moderate, center-left president whose political pragmatism in office outweighed his Marxist origins. Having seen the destructive hyperinflation of the Siles Zuazo Administration, he continued the neo-liberal economic reforms begun by Paz Estenssoro, codifying some of them. Paz Zamora took a fairly hard line against domestic terrorism, personally ordering the December 1990 attack on terrorists of the Nestor Paz Zamora Committee (CNPZ--named after his brother who died in the 1970 Teoponte insurgency) and authorizing the early 1992 crackdown against the Tupac Katari Guerrilla Army (EGTK).

Paz Zamora's regime was less decisive against narcotics trafficking. The government broke up a number of trafficking networks but issued a 1991 surrender decree giving lenient sentences to the biggest narcotics kingpins. Also, his administration was extremely reluctant to pursue net eradication of illegal coca. It did not agree to an updated extradition treaty with the U.S., although two traffickers have been extradited to the U.S. since 1992. Beginning in early 1994, the Bolivian Congress investigated Paz Zamora's personal ties to accused major trafficker Isaac Chavarria, who subsequently died in prison while awaiting trial. MIR deputy chief Oscar Eid was jailed in connection with similar ties in 1994; he was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison in November 1996. Technically still under investigation, Paz Zamora became an active presidential candidate in 1996.

The 1993 elections continued the tradition of open, honest elections and peaceful democratic transitions of power. The MNR defeated the ADN/MIR coalition by a 34% to 20% margin, and the MNR's Gonzalo "Goni" Sanchez de Lozada was selected as President by an MNR/MBL/UCS coalition in the Congress.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS

Since assuming office in August 1993, Sanchez de Lozada has pursued an aggressive economic and social reform agenda. He has relied heavily on successful entrepreneurs-turned-politicians like himself and on fellow veterans of the Paz Estenssoro administration (during which Sanchez de Lozada was planning minister). There have been some political difficulties, however, within Sanchez de Lozada's MNR party, his coalition, and with the sectors most affected by his reforms, e.g., radical segments of the Marxist-dominated Bolivian Labor Federation (COB) and federations of illegal coca growers. These elements instigated frequent social disturbances, particularly in La Paz and the Chapare coca-growing region, from 1994 through 1996. The government declared a constitutional state of siege from April to October 1995 in response to especially violent disturbances.

The 1967 constitution, revised in 1994, provides for balanced executive, legislative, and judicial powers. The traditionally strong executive, however, tends to overshadow the Congress, whose role is generally limited to debating and approving legislation initiated by the executive. The judiciary, consisting of the Supreme Court and departmental and lower courts, has long been riddled with corruption and inefficiency. Through revisions to the constitution in 1994, and subsequent laws, the government has initiated potentially far-reaching reforms in the judicial system and processes.

Bolivia's nine departments received greater autonomy under the Administrative Decentralization law of 1995, although principal departmental officials are still appointed by the central government. Bolivian cities and towns are governed by elected mayors and councils. The most recent municipal elections took place in December 1995. The Popular Participation Law of April 1994, which distributes a significant portion of national revenues to municipalities for discretionary use, has enabled previously neglected communities to make striking improvements in their facilities and services.

Principal Government Officials

President--Gonzalo SANCHEZ DE LOZADA
Vice President--Victor Hugo CARDENAS
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Antonio ARANIBAR
Ambassador to the U.S.-- Fernando COSSIO
Ambassador to the UN--Edgar CAMACHO
Ambassador to the OAS--Carlos CASAP

Bolivia maintains an embassy in the U.S. at 3014 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008 (tel. 202-483-4410); consulates in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, and New York; and honorary consulates in Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, Seattle, St. Louis, and San Juan.

ECONOMY

Gross domestic product (GDP) reached around $7.4 billion in 1995, with a per capita GDP of less than $1,000. This is one of the lowest per capita rates in Latin America, an indication of Bolivia's relative poverty. Other indications can be seen in Bolivia's illiteracy rate, about 20% of the adult population, and in the infant mortality rate, about 75 per 1,000 live births. Only 9% of children starting school complete high school. Bolivia also has very limited infrastructure, with only about 1,400 miles of paved highways, although a paved road to the Chilean coast was completed in 1996 and other road improvement projects continue.

The economic growth experienced since 1986 is the result of a series of market-oriented economic reforms that were initiated in 1985 to stop inflation and economic decline. Hyperinflation stopped almost immediately, and private sector confidence in the economy was restored. Deposits in the commercial banks grew from only $50 million in 1985 to nearly $2.4 billion by the end of 1995, and 1996 is expected to register positive economic growth for the tenth successive year.

A 1993 banking law allows banks to hold deposits and make loans in foreign currencies (approximately 85% of deposits in Bolivian banks are in U.S. dollars). Other laws passed in the last six years governing foreign investment, the mining industry, the hydrocarbons industry, and the environment have locked into place market-oriented policies and have encouraged private investment. Foreign investors are accorded national treatment, and foreign ownership of companies enjoys virtually no restrictions in Bolivia.

In 1995, the Government of Bolivia began a reform called capitalization in which 50% ownership and full management responsibilities for the six largest state companies are being transferred to the private sector. The electricity, telecommunications, airline, and railroad companies were all capitalized in 1995, attracting pledged investment of around $836 million. (Capitalization is a variant of privatization in which the pledged money is to be invested directly into the company's operations.) The state petroleum company and the mining smelters are expected to be capitalized by the end of 1996.

Agriculture accounts for about 15% of GDP, with the amount of land cultivated by modern farming techniques increasing rapidly in the Santa Cruz area, where weather allows for two crops a year and soybeans are the major cash crop. The extraction of minerals and hydrocarbons accounts for another 10% of GDP. Bolivia is self-sufficient in oil and exports natural gas to Argentina. Manufacturing represents less than 17% of GDP.

External Financing
The Government of Bolivia remains heavily dependent on foreign assistance to finance development projects. At the end of 1995, the government owed almost $4.5 billion to its foreign creditors. About $1.8 billion of this amount was owed to other governments, with most of the balance owed to multilateral development banks. Most payments to other governments have been rescheduled on several occasions since 1987 through the Paris Club mechanism. External creditors have been willing to do this because the Bolivian Government has generally achieved the monetary and fiscal targets set by IMF programs since 1987. The current IMF program, which consists of soft balance-of-payments loans from the enhanced structural adjustment facility as the government achieves certain targets, is a three-year agreement ending in 1997.

Rescheduling agreements granted by the Paris Club have allowed the individual creditor countries to apply very soft terms to the rescheduled debt. As a result, some countries have forgiven substantial amounts of Bolivia's bilateral debt. The U.S. Government reached an agreement at the Paris Club meeting in December 1995 which reduced by 67% Bolivia's existing debt stock.

The Bolivian Government continues to pay its debts to the multilateral development banks on time and to receive soft loans. Since 1986, loan disbursements have slightly exceeded repayments each year.

Foreign Trade
From a low of $570 million in 1987, exports rose to $1.8 billion in 1995. When the original 20-year gas purchase contract by the Argentine Government expired in 1992, the price of the gas fell by two-thirds. Bolivia plans to export gas to Brazil by 1999 as part of an agreement to construct a gas pipeline stretching from eastern Bolivia to southern Brazil.

Imports have grown quickly, reaching $1.42 billion in 1995. This growth has been caused by the gradual reduction of tariffs to a flat 10% (except for capital equipment, which has a 5% rate) and the economic recovery. Only 19% of registered imports in 1995 were consumer products, with machinery and intermediate products making up the balance. Bolivia's trade deficit fell from around $500 million in 1992-1993 to $72 million in 1994, but rose again in 1995 to $236 million. Both exports and imports continue to grow.

Bolivia's trade with its neighboring countries is growing, in part because of several preferential trade agreements. Bolivia is a member of the Andean Pact and has free trade with the other member countries (Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela). Bolivia finalized a free trade agreement with MERCOSUR (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay), which is scheduled to enter into effect in 1997. The Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) allows most Bolivian products to enter the U.S. free of duty on a unilateral basis. Tariffs have to be paid on clothing and leather products only.

The U.S. remains Bolivia's largest trading partner. In 1995, the U.S. exported $213 million of merchandise to Bolivia and imported $263 million, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The U.S. accounts for about 29% of Bolivia's exports and 20% of its imports. Bolivia's major exports to the U.S. are tin, gold, jewelry, and wood products. Its major imports from the United States are computers, vehicles, wheat, and all sorts of machinery.

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Bolivia traditionally has maintained normal diplomatic relations with all hemispheric states except Chile. Relations with Chile, strained since Bolivia's defeat in the War of the Pacific (1879-83) and its loss of the coastal province of Atacama, were severed from 1962 to 1975 in a dispute over the use of the waters of the Lauca River. Relations were resumed in 1975 but broken again in 1978 over the inability of the two countries to reach an agreement that might have granted Bolivia a sovereign access to the sea. In the 1960s, relations with Cuba were broken following Castro's rise to power, but resumed under the Paz Estenssoro administration in 1985.

Sanchez de Lozada's administration pursues an active foreign policy with a heavy economic component. He visited the U.S. even before assuming office and has concentrated in the region on thawing historically cool relations with Chile and Paraguay. Bolivia has become more active in the OAS, the Rio Group, and in MERCOSUR (Southern Cone Common Market), with which it signed an association agreement in 1996. Like other leaders in the region, Sanchez de Lozada aims for Bolivia to participate in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In addition, he promotes Bolivia's policies on sustainable development and the empowerment of indigenous people as models for the hemisphere.

Bolivia strongly backed efforts by the United States to implement UN Security Council Resolution 940, designed to facilitate the departure of Haiti's de facto authorities from power. Bolivia contributed personnel to the Multinational Force which restored the democratically elected Government of Haiti in October 1994.

Bolivia is a member of the UN and some specialized agencies and related programs; Organization of American States (OAS); Andean Pact; INTELSAT; Non-Aligned Movement; International Parliamentary Union; Latin American Integration Association (ALADI); World Trade Organization; Rio Treaty; Rio Group; MERCOSUR; and Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia (URUPABOL, re-started in 1993). As an outgrowth of the 1994 Summit of the Americas, Bolivia hosted a hemispheric summit conference on sustainable development in December 1996. A First Ladies' hemispheric summit was also hosted by Bolivia in December.

U.S.-BOLIVIAN RELATIONS

The major issue in bilateral relations is illegal narcotics control. Roughly one-third of the world's cocaine is made from coca grown in Bolivia: Bolivia's coca crop is second only to Peru's in the production of the cocaine alkaloid, and the country is second only to Colombia in the production of refined cocaine hydrochloride. For centuries, Bolivian coca leaf has been chewed and used in traditional rituals, but in the past couple of decades the emergence of the drug trade led to a rapid expansion of coca cultivation, particularly in the tropical Chapare region. In 1988, a new law explicitly recognized that coca in the Chapare was not required to meet traditional demand for chewing or for tea, and the law called for the eradication over time of all of the "excess" coca. To accomplish that goal, the Bolivian Government instituted a program that offers cash compensation to peasants who eradicate voluntarily and at the same time began developing and promoting suitable alternative crops. Parallel efforts were undertaken by the police to deny narcotics-related markets to coca producers. The U.S., in turn, has in large measure financed the alternative development program, the police effort, and the administrative costs of the eradication agency. Substantial eradication resulted, but by the end of 1994, it was clear that a separate program was needed to prevent the planting of new coca. In mid-1995, the Sanchez de Lozada administration created the Ecological Police to destroy, without compensation and by force if necessary, all new coca found in the Chapare and other "non-traditional" areas--coca which by law is illegal. In its early outings, the Ecological Police faced organized and often violent resistance from coca cultivators, but by mid-1996, resistance had abated as Chapare residents came to realize that illegal new coca would no longer be tolerated.

Continued U.S. assistance to Bolivia is conditioned on certification by the President to the Congress that Bolivia is cooperating fully with the U.S. or has taken steps on its own to achieve full compliance with the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. The U.S. Government is seeking Bolivia's cooperation in achieving a net reduction in the amount of coca under cultivation, in enacting legislation to criminalize money laundering. In 1996, the United States and Bolivia ratified a new extradition treaty which makes it easier for both nations to more effectively prosecute drug traffickers and other criminals. It replaces the previous extradition treaty which came into force in 1990. The new treaty is significant because, unlike its predecessor, it requires both countries to extradite their own nationals for serious criminal offenses.

In 1991, the U.S. Government forgave all of the debt owed to the U.S. Agency for International Development ($341 million) as well as 80% (or $31 million) of the amount owed to the Department of Agriculture for food assistance. Increased U.S. assistance since the late 1980s has been designed to reinforce democracy, to ensure sustainable economic development, and to make Bolivia less dependent on the cocaine industry. U.S. economic and development assistance totaled $64.5 million in FY 1996, in addition to military and counter-narcotics assistance.

In addition to the conduct of diplomacy, the U.S. Embassy also assists the broader American community in Bolivia. For example, it provides a wide range of consular and business information and services to many of the estimated 5,000 U.S. citizens resident in Bolivia, the 25 U.S. companies operating direct subsidiaries in the country, and the approximately 25,000 U.S. citizens who have visited Bolivia in 1996.

Principal U.S. Officials

Ambassador--Curtis W. Kamman
Deputy Chief of Mission--Robert C. Perry
Political Counselor--Stephen G. Wesche
Economic Counselor--Paul B. Larsen
Consul General--Jeanne Schulz
Director, Narcotics Affairs--Richard Baca
Director, USAID Mission--Frank Almaguer
Public Affairs Officer, USIS--Phillip Parkerson
Defense Attache--Col. Gregory Landers, USAF
Commander, U.S. Military Group--Col. Rodger Slaughter, USA

The U.S. embassy is located at Avenida Arce #2780, La Paz (tel. 591-2-430251). There are consular agents in the cities of Santa Cruz (tel. 591-3-330725) and Cochabamba (tel. 591-42-43216).

TRAVEL AND BUSINESS INFORMATION

The U.S. Department of State's Consular Information Program provides Travel Warnings and Consular Information Sheets. Travel Warnings are issued when the State Department recommends that Americans avoid travel to a certain country. Consular Information Sheets exist for all countries and include information on immigration practices, currency regulations, health conditions, areas of instability, crime and security, political disturbances, and the addresses of the U.S. posts in the subject country. They can be obtained by telephone at (202) 647-5225 or by fax at (202) 647-3000. To access the Consular Affairs Bulletin Board by computer, dial (202) 647-9225, via a modem with standard settings. Bureau of Consular Affairs' publications on obtaining passports and planning a safe trip abroad are available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, tel. (202) 512-1800.

Emergency information concerning Americans traveling abroad may be obtained from the Office of Overseas Citizens Services at (202) 647-5225.

Travelers can check the latest health information with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. A hotline at (404) 332-4559 gives the most recent health advisories, immunization recommendations or requirements, and advice on food and drinking water safety for regions and countries. A booklet entitled Health Information for International Travel (HHS publication number CDC-95-8280, price $14.00) is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, tel. (202) 512-1800.

Information on travel conditions, visa requirements, currency and customs regulations, legal holidays, and other items of interest to travelers also may be obtained before your departure from a country's embassy and/or consulates in the U.S. (for this country, see "Principal Government Officials" listing in this publication).

Upon their arrival in a country, U.S. citizens are encouraged to register at the U.S. embassy (see "Principal U.S. Embassy Officials" listing in this publication). This may help family members contact you in case of an emergency.

FURTHER ELECTRONIC INFORMATION:

Consular Affairs Bulletin Board (CABB). Available by modem, the CABB provides Consular Information Sheets, Travel Warnings, and helpful information for travelers. Access at (202) 647-9225 is free of charge to anyone with a personal computer, modem, telecommunications software, and a telephone line.

Department of State Foreign Affairs Network. Available on the Internet, DOSFAN provides timely, global access to official U.S. foreign policy information. Updated daily, DOSFAN includes Background Notes; Dispatch, the official weekly magazine of U.S. foreign policy; daily press briefings; directories of key officers of foreign service posts; etc. DOSFAN's World Wide Web site is at ; this site has a link to the DOSFAN Gopher Research Collection, which also is accessible at gopher://gopher.state.gov or gopher://gopher.state.gov.

U.S. Foreign Affairs on CD-ROM (USFAC). Published on a quarterly basis by the U.S. Department of State, USFAC archives information on the Department of State Foreign Affairs Network, and includes an array of official foreign policy information from 1990 to the present. Priced at $80 ($100 foreign), one-year subscriptions include four discs (MSDOS and Macintosh compatible) and are available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 37194, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. To order, call (202) 512-1800 or fax (202) 512-2250.

Federal Bulletin Board (BBS). A broad range of foreign policy information also is carried on the BBS, operated by the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). By modem, dial (202) 512-1387. For general BBS information, call (202) 512-1530.

National Trade Data Bank (NTDB). Operated by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the NTDB contains a wealth of trade-related information, including Country Commercial Guides. It is available on the Internet (www.stat-usa.gov) and on CD-ROM. Call the NTDB Help-Line at (202) 482-1986 for more information.

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