Bolivia: La democracia a una década del gobierno del MAS

Abstract

The events of the year 2015, such as the approval of the law calling for a constitutional referendum on presidential re-election and the corruption scandals related to the Indigenous Fund, contributed to defining the main policies of Evo Morales’ third term as Bolivia’s president. The decline in hydrocarbon prices had a negative impact on the national economy and gave way to the emergence of a number of social conflicts. The subnational elections consolidated the MAS’s electoral power, although it lost in the main cities, while the autonomy referendum resulted in an utter rejection of the departmental statutes, which revealed an interest in reconfiguring existing national-local relations. This article outlines the main political events that transpired in Bolivia in 2015.