The World 's Largest Salt Flats

Liberal and conservative parties have dominated Colombian political institutions since mid-nineteenth century. Many of the political groups had rivalries feuds in the 1980s. The political

The American Revolution did much more than any of our founding fathers had ever imagined, it started a movement that would threaten the very roots of colonialism across the globe. Setting an example of how a David could overcome a Goliath, the United States inspired regions such as Latin America to fight for their rights and liberties as well. One such region that embraced the message was Upper Peru, which would later be known as Bolivia. With some key tipping points that caused the war, the leaders of the soon to be formed nation rallied its troops and won several major battles, but even they couldn’t prevent the tough times that lay in the early years of the nation. From the year 1809, Upper Peru was engaged in a

Models for post-revolutionary Latin American government are born of the complex economic and social realities of 17th and 18th century Europe. From the momentum of the Enlightenment came major political rebellions of the elite class against entrenched national monarchies and systems of power. Within this time period of elitist revolt and intensive political restructuring, the fundamental basis for both liberal and conservative ideology was driven deep into Latin American soil. However, as neither ideology sought to fulfill or even recognize the needs or rights of mestizo people under government rule, the initial liberal doctrine pervading Latin American nations perpetuated

When one is looking at a country’s government there are a few things that one should look at specifically: the type of government, the leadership and how it is achieved, and how the people are represented in the government. At times it can be difficult to find this information, especially true information, while at other times it can be very easy. The latter is true for the Columbian government.

As Charles Bergquist observes, "Crises in Colombia tend to generate cycles of violence instead of mutations in the political regime." The reason is simple: regime changes in Colombia tend to produce very little change in anything other than nominal rule. Since Colombia's independence from Spain in the early 19th century, Colombia has seen a series of civil wars and secessions (Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama the last coming rather conveniently at a time when the U.S. was prepared to pay millions for a canal through its nation preparation that later resulted in a multi-million dollar redress to Columbia). Colombia's political history, therefore, has been colored by outside influences pulling on the two dominant liberal and conservative parties, with violent exchanges, and long periods of instability being the consequences. While regime changes have occurred, they have not produced significant improvements. Rather, Colombia in the 20th century has become a nesting ground for paramilitary forces and drug traffickers, with U.S. Central Intelligence operatives contributing heavily to the violent conflict that has risen between regimes. This paper will examine the regime types that preceded the Rojas Pinilla regime in mid-20th century Colombia, analyze their similarities and differences, and discuss the extent to which Rojas Pinilla reached his goals and objectives.

Since the Europeans first entered the Americas in the sixteenth century, indigenous groups have struggled to reclaim political and economic power from the Europeans and their descendants. With the exception of Peru and Bolivia, many countries feature a percentage of less than ten percent purely indigenous people, thus making circumstances unfavorable to create a political voice forceful enough to allow these native groups the political prowess they need (World Development Index). Even in countries with a large percentage of indigenous people, the rise to political power can be a slow process. However, in 2005, Bolivia elected their first president to office from native descent. As the United Nations assesses the perverse situations within indigenous rises to political power, a pristine case to evaluate would be that of Bolivia. With the election of Evo Morales, Bolivia began their empowerment of the indigenous population and encountered difficulties in providing necessities such as education and economic assistance to bridge the gap in social and economic separations of opportunity between the native and non-native populations.

Firstly, the Cochabamba water war (between 1999 and 2000) was a series of protests and small revolts in the third largest city in Bolivia.To elaborate, the protests were in response to the privatization of the city’s water supply. The protests killed one person and on on April 10, 2000, the national government agreed to reverse the privatization. Unfortunately, had the privatization not been transposed,

Strongly linked with civil society were the political institutions; the political institutions were more of a catalyst for change not based on what they accomplished, but rather what they failed to do. For one, their winner take all systems were flagrantly ineffective. While many thriving nations use the winner take all system, its implementation in South America was deplorable. This resulted in intense gridlock and difficulty in changing leadership and policies. Those in power abused this inaction and employed extralegal methods for carrying out their policies and agenda. With the technocrats and experts unable to enforce any real political change, the economic situation in Chile, Brazil, and Argentina continued to spiral downwards. This caused

Many foreign policy makers in the western hemisphere and other developing countries often behave as if capitalism and democracy are inseparable. Nevertheless, there are some scholars that argue that the relationship between this political and economic systems are not complicated. Democracy and the market economy are two systems that are closely intertwined and mutually reinforcing or weakening. Since both of them are related to freedom. If one of these systems is strengthened , the other also strengthens and weakens if one weakens the other. Most Latin American countries, including Nicaragua have struggled to establish a democratic political system and have a capitalist economic system, since this so called “capitalism” is hierarchical,

With the increase in industrialization, particularly rail roads and steam boats, Latin America could efficiently export more goods. The installation of railroads and increased trade stabilized the economy of many countries. As long as Europe and the United States required raw materials, the economy would continue to grow. With the economy growing, political stability followed. This is demonstrated in Chasteen’s essay “Governance did become more orderly. As the profits of the export boom rose, government revenues from import/export taxes rose too…Higher government revenues afforded middle-class people new employment opportunities…Greater stability and prosperity attracted further investment from aboard intensifying trade, and the cycle repeated itself” (Chasteen, 207). As more money flowed into the continent, the more the government improved. Using the available revenue from the export boom, local governments could afford better equipment and put down rebellions with less casualties. The government was better able to provide more individuals with employment opportunities, thus stabilizing the politics in the Spanish Americas.

In contrast Pinchot used his power to install a military dictatorship, controlling the population and introducing a new economic structure, while also reversing the changes Allende inforced. Under Pinochet’s rule, the growth brought on by free-market reforms did not improve the standard living among Chile’s lower class (pinochet,1973). Whereas under Allende the majority of the population, were beginning to experience a new social economic order where the lives for ordinary people were improving. The measures of Pinochet’s economic success are presented to us via higher GDP and decreased inflation, which tells us nothing about non-economic factors such as literacy rate, life expectancy or public health. Higher GDP does not mean an increase of living standards and quality of life; therefore policies aimed at maximising GDP are not pertinent . Using ambiguous terms such as ‘political stability’ and ‘economic improvement’ it can be acknowledged that Pinochet brought about some improvements. However, the repression and human rights violations, in my opinion reveal that any successes are ineffective, as they have no real positive impact on the lives of the majority. Chile is now being described as the most unequal country. The Pinochet government has made the country more unstable, between those who justify the dictatorship and those who trust in

With an economy dominated by the production of oil, Venezuela has enjoyed the highest standard of living in Latin America. In spite of its success in the oil industry, agriculture and manufacturing also play important roles in Venezuela’s economy. With this in mind, it would seem as though Venezuela’s economic state has flourished. Rather, it has suffered from the effects of political influence, corruption, and poor economic management. The distribution of wealth across Venezuela has caused the elite to benefit at the cost of the working people. This is mainly due to the economic and political structure of the country. Even with the plentiful resources Venezuela possesses, it is constantly being threatened by political instability,

In today’s world of global trading, multinational corporations that are looking to expand on profits turn out to operate against the welfares of the world’s poorest countries. In the documentary, “Stealing Africa,” the film director, Christoffer Guldbrandsen, brings forward the concerning economic attention of the country of Zambia, located in South Africa. Zambia is known as the third largest copper reserves across the world, owned by multinational corporations globally. Due to such a heavy abundance of natural resources in Africa, the majority of the economy of Zambia revolves around the mining industry, which is like the backbone of the country. As the natural resources in Zambia remain rich, multinational companies, specifically Glencore, grew in investments resulting in the guilt of tax avoidance and undervaluing copper, which resulted in a downfall for the revenue of copper in the nation of Zambia. Guldbrandsen talks about the country of Zambia’s abundance of natural resources, yet their struggle to remain above the poverty line, as it is ranked in the top 20 poorest countries. Guldbrandsen insists that due to privatization starting from the year of 2001, the mining industry in Zambia has taken a downfall. Although the country of Zambia is very rich in resources, maintains the top copper mine in the world, a person a day lives below a dollar and almost eighty percent of the population remains unemployed.

In this essay, I will address the issues caused by the privatization of the water supply in Bolivia, in accordance with the Washington consensus, defining the relevant terms and addressing whether it could have been prevented. The essay will also concentrate on whether organizations such as the world bank can action loans on a more independent manner than was witnessed there. Also covered will be whether less economically developed countries (LEDCs) are able to meet the demands of the World Bank or instead negotiate a more suitable agreement and this will tie in with the ability to prevent the negative consequences that were witnessed in Bolivia. The essay will also explain what eventually happened in Bolivia and whether it actually

International development agencies and corporations, such as the World Bank, must also be looked as actors to this problem. They have contributed millions of dollars “into dams, highways, power development, and transmigration schemes” (Speth & Haas, 2006, 31). These organizations encourage foreign investments to be taken place so as to expand extraction operations (Speth & Haas, 2006, 31). The weakening of domestic