BOLIVIAGovernment and Institutions
TWO
Bolivia is a centralized republic. Its government is representative in form, but to a great extent it is autocratic in effect. The Bolivian constitution was adopted on October 28, 1880, and is a model of its kind. The executive branch of the government consists of a president and two vice-presidents. They are elected by direct popular vote for a period of four years, and are ineligible for election for the next succeeding term. The president has a cabinet of six ministers: Foreign Relations and Worship, Treasury, Government and Promotion (Fomento), Justice and Industry, Public Instruction and Agriculture, War and Colonization.
The legislative branch consists of a national Congress of two houses—a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies. The Senate is composed of sixteen members, two from each department, who are elected by direct popular vote for a period of six years. The Chamber of Deputies is composed of seventy members, who are elected for a period of four years. Congress meets annually and its sessions are for sixty days, which may be extended to ninety days. All male citizens twenty-one years of age or over, who can read and write and have a fixed independent income, may vote. The number of citizens who vote, therefore, is very small, and the country is for that reason under the control of a political oligarchy.
The judiciary consists of a national supreme court, eight superior district courts, and many lower district courts. The supreme court is composed of seven justices, elected by the Chamber of Deputies.
In each department or State a prefect appointed by the president has supreme power. The government of these departments rests with the national congress.
The military forces of Bolivia include about 3,000 regulars and an enrolled force of 80,000 men. This enrolled force, however, is both unorganized and unarmed. In 1894 a conscription law was passed providing for compulsory military service for all males between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, with two years’ actual service in the regulars for those between twenty-one and twenty-five. This law is practically a dead letter. There is a military school with sixty cadets and an arsenal at the city of La Paz. Naturally Bolivia, having no coast line, is not provided with a navy.
Bolivia has a free and compulsory school system, but education has made little progress there. Very few of the people can read and write. Spanish is the official language, but Quichua (kee-choo´-ah or kee´-chwah). Aymará (i-mah-rah´), and Guarani (gwah-rah´-nee) are the languages of the natives, who form a majority of the population. A great part of the Indians do not understand Spanish at all and will not learn it. The school enrollment is about one in forty-four. There are universities at Sucre, La Paz, Cochabamba, Tarija (tah-ree´-hah), Potosí (po-to-see´), Santa Cruz (san´-tah kroos), and Oruro. The university at Sucre, which dates from colonial times, and that of La Paz, are the only ones well enough equipped to merit the title.
The Constitution of Bolivia says: “The State recognizes and supports the Roman Apostolic Catholic religion, the public exercise of any other worship being prohibited, except in the colonies, where it is tolerated.” However, this toleration is extended to resident foreigners belonging to other religious sects. The Indians profess the Roman Catholic faith, but this is tinged with the superstitions of their ancestors.
At this point it will be interesting to consider the Indians of Bolivia. The population of the country is composed of Indians and Caucasians of European origin, and a mixture of the two races, generally described asmestizos(mes-tee´zos). There is also a small percentage of Africans, descendants of the negro slaves introduced in colonial times. Naturally, the Indians are in great majority. The Bolivian Indian is essentially a farmer. Scarcely any of these Indians are educated.
Of the various tribes of Indians, the Aymaras are the most civilized. The Mojos (mo´-hos) and Chiquitos (chee-kee´-tose) tribes are peaceable and industrious. They have little ambition, and are held almost in a state of peonage. Inhabiting the southern part of the Bolivian plains are the Chiraguanos (chee-rah-gwah´-nos), a detached tribe of the Guarani race which drifted westward, to the vicinity of the Andes, long ago. They are of a superior physical and mental type, and have made a great deal of progress toward civilization. Of the wild Indians very little is known in regard to either their numbers or customs.
Themestizos, or half-breeds, sometimes called Cholos, are the connecting link between the whites and the Indians. It has been said of themestizosthat they inherit the vices of both races and the virtues of neither.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATIONILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 5, No. 18, SERIAL No. 142COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
PHOTOGRAPH BY E. M. NEWMANA PACK TRAIN OF LLAMAS IN LA PAZ, BOLIVIA—TWILIGHT
PHOTOGRAPH BY E. M. NEWMAN
A PACK TRAIN OF LLAMAS IN LA PAZ, BOLIVIA—TWILIGHT