Browse Cases

Showing 1-8 of 8 results

Sex workers strike for rights in El Alto, Bolivia

Country
Bolivia
Time period
17 October, 2007 to 27 October, 2007
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Human Rights
Total points
3.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Erica Janko 28/04/2015

On 14 October 2007, citizens of El Alto, Bolivia demanded that all bars and brothels facilitating sex work be located at least 3,200 feet away from schools, because they believed that the establishments were facilitating crime in the area. They then began a three-day rampage of the bars and brothels in the impoverished red-lights district of El Alto. These El Alto citizens, primarily parents and students, burned or destroyed at least 50 brothels, burned sex workers’ belongings, and beat sex workers.

Bolivians strike and demonstrate against raised fuel prices, 2010

Country
Bolivia
Time period
26 December, 2010 to 31 December, 2010
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Jonathan White, 16/03/2013

On Sunday 26 December Bolivia’s government abruptly ended a six-year freeze on fuel prices, raising the price of gasoline by 73% and diesel by 83%.  Vice president Alvaro Garcia said this change in policy was necessary because the subsidy cost US$380 million a year- 2% of Bolivia’s gross domestic national product and US$150 million of the gasoline was smuggled into other countries and sold at higher prices.  The cost of the subsidies was projected to increase to over US$1 billion in 2011.

Bolivian President stages hunger strike for economic reform, 1984

Country
Bolivia
Time period
25 October, 1984 to 29 October, 1984
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
0 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Susana Medeiros, 19/11/2012

After a two year stalemate following the 1979 and 1980 elections, the Bolivian parliament elected the winner of the 1980 popular vote, Hernán Siles Zuazo, president on 10 October, 1982.

Bolivian president hunger strikes to preserve economic policies, 1956

Country
Bolivia
Time period
28 December, 1956 to 1 January, 1957
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Samantha Shain, 30/09/2012

Hernán Siles Zuazo took office in 1956 during a politically and economically unstable time in Bolivia and throughout Central America. There had been a succession of violent revolutions in the region.  This was Siles’ first time as elected president, although he had previously had a brief stint as acting president while he was vice president.   

Bolivians strike, protest, offer resignations against the President’s economic policy, 1956-1960

Country
Bolivia
Time period
December, 1956 to August, 1960
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Total points
6.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Soul Han, 30/09/2012

Since the Nationalist Revolutionary Movement Party (MNR) overthrew the military junta in April 1952, Bolivia underwent major reformations in its political and institutional structures and economic policies. Aside from establishing universal suffrage, the government nationalized the tin mine business. It also set up the Mining Corporation of Bolivia (COMIBOL), a semi-governmental company, to take control of the mines. Because the miners made up a large part in the revolution and the tin mine was the most lucrative business in Bolivia, miners were granted great political power.

Bolivian journalists protect freedom of expression, 2010

Country
Bolivia
Time period
September, 2010 to 6 January, 2011
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Carmen Smith-Estrada, 25/11/2011

Since taking office in 2005, Bolivian President Evo Morales had an increasingly tenuous relationship with the domestic media. On multiple occasions he accused newspapers of being the mouthpieces of the opposition, particularly if they criticized a state policy. The growing polarization between Morales’ Movement for Socialism Party (MAS) and the opposition parties was often reflected in the “media war” between state-owned news outlets and privately owned companies. Parties on both sides perpetuated the war by threatening journalists across the political spectrum.

Indigenous Bolivians challenge road through Isiboro Secure Park, 2011

Country
Bolivia
Time period
15 August, 2011 to 25 October, 2011
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Pauline Blount, 30/10/2011

On August 15, 2011, some 1000 indigenous peoples from the Isiboro Secure Park (known by its Spanish Acronym TIPNIS) in Bolivia began their protest march against a highway project through the park and their traditional homes.  The 500km march from the Amazonian town of Trinidad to La Paz was organized by many indigenous leaders, including Fernando Vargas, president of TIPNIS Native Communities, and Rosario Barradas of the Conference of Indigenous People.

Bolivians end foreign-owned water privatization in Cochabamba ‘Water War', 2000

Country
Bolivia
Time period
December 15, 1999 to April 10, 2000
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Anjali Cadambi 01/11/2010

Throughout the 90s, Bolivia came under increasing pressure from the World Bank to privatize public goods in order to fulfill loan conditionality. In September 1999, in response to this pressure, the Bolivian government auctioned off the municipal water system ‘SEMAPA’ of Cochabamba, a city of 800,000 residents. When the auction drew only one bidder, the government signed water resources over in a 40-year concession to Aguas del Tunari, a foreign-led consortium of private investors dominated by the Bechtel Corporation.