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Edition 2009

Bolivia is named after Simon Bolivar, who led the country to independence in 1825. Throughout the country’s colonial history, Bolivia was known as 'Upper Peru'. The country's name therefore instigates great national pride, but such pride is marred by past turmoil – a past that has been dogged by the succession of caudillos (military dictators) who tried, with mixed success, to integrate the country’s three disparate regions – the central region, the eastern Andes and the Altiplano – into a national entity in the early years of independence.

Since then, 'liberation'
retains a dual meaning in Bolivia. Bolivia is a country of great expanse, extensive lakes and salt plains, which induce an elated sense of freedom for any traveller. But there is little of such freedom for Bolivians, many of whom descend from indigenous tribes and many of whom count for some of the poorest people in South America. Although, domestically, Bolivia has entered an unprecedented era of political stability, such stability has ended a record of military coups and recurrent internal strife that has been little short of ludicrous – there were 192 coups in the 156 years from independence to 1981: an average of one every 10 months.