Foreign investors are accorded national treatment, and foreign ownership of companies enjoys virtually no restrictions in Bolivia.

The national association football team of Bolivia also enjoys the advantage of playing at high altitude: at home during World Cup qualifiers at the even more extreme 3, 600 m ( 11, 800 ft ) altitude of La Paz they have even been known to beat Brazil, a team regularly ranked number one in the FIFA World Rankings.

A few species of hummingbirds, notably some hillstars, can be seen at altitudes above, but far higher diversities can be found at lower altitudes, especially in the humid Andean forests (" cloud forests ") growing on slopes in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and far northwestern Argentina.

The Chilean Army and Chilean Navy defeated the combined forces of Bolivia and Peru, and Chile took over Bolivia's only province on the Pacific Coast, some land from Peru, also-that was returned to Peru decades later.

For some communities such as in Papua New Guinea and South America ( except Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia ), spiders are included in traditional foods.

A military training agreement with Asunción, giving immunity to US soldiers, caused some concern after media reports initially reported that a base housing 20, 000 US soldiers was being built at Mariscal Estigarribia within 200 km of Argentina and Bolivia, and 300 km of Brazil, near an airport which could receive large planes ( B-52, C-130 Hercules, etc.

The immigrant ethnic groups kept their cultures and languages to some extent, especially Brazilians known as " brancos " which is also the nickname for Brazilians in Bolivia.

La Paz is the home of some of the biggest football teams in Bolivia.

* 1525 — Aleixo Garcia explored the Rio de la Plata in service to Spain, as a member of the expedition of Juan Díaz de Solís, and later-from Santa Catarina, Brazil-leading an expedition of some Europeans and 2, 000 Guaraní Indians, explored Paraguay and Bolivia.

The common guinea pig was first domesticated as early as 5000 BC for food by tribes in the Andean region of South America ( present-day the southern part of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia ), some thousands of years after the domestication of the South American camelids.

It continues to be a major part of the diet in Peru and Bolivia, particularly in the Andes Mountains highlands ; it is also eaten in some areas of Ecuador ( mainly in the Sierra ) and Colombia.

" The steep, almost inaccessible slopes and peaks of this mainly semitropical valley area northeast of La Paz offer some of the most spectacular scenery in Bolivia.

Also, the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland of any kind, has some of its area in Bolivia.

Bolivia is a member of the United Nations and some of its specialized agencies and related programs ; OAS ; Andean Community ; INTELSAT ; Non-Aligned Movement ; International Parliamentary Union ; Latin American Integration Association ALADI ; World Trade Organization ; Rio Treaty ; Rio Group ; MERCOSUR ; and Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia ( URUPABOL, restarted in 1993 ).

Turino mentions that he found carved sirens representing playing charangos in some Colonial churches in the highlands of Bolivia.

The 2005 documentary film " El Charango " ( director, Jim Virga ; editor, Tula Goenka ; assoc producer and sound, Andrew Reissiger ) gives some explanation to the relationship between the charango and Cerro Rico in Potosi, Bolivia, site of the world's largest silver deposit and therefore the most likely location of the charango's birthplace.

Potosí was added in reference to the fabulously rich mines of Potosí, Bolivia, discovered some forty years before the city was founded, as the exploitation of silver and gold mines in Cerro de San Pedro near San Luis was the main reason for the founding of the city in 1592.

After conquest by Catholic Spain her image was masked by the Virgin Mary, behind whom she is invoked and worshiped in the Aboriginal rituals in some parts of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru.

The Aymara have existed in the Andes in what is now Western Bolivia, Southern Peru and Northern Chile for over 2, 000 years, according to some estimations.

Other regions with some plantings of Malbec include north Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, the Canadian regions of British Columbia and Ontario, Bolivia and Mexico, and Southern Indiana.

Much of the testimony presented is contradictory: for example, some interviewees allege that Barbie was brought to trial as a figurehead while others allege that he was allowed to go free for forty years as a result of the protection of various governments ( including those of the United States and Bolivia ), because Barbie knew secret agents and a public trial could potentially jeopardize various intelligence operations.

Notwithstanding such politics, some few armed bands of Brazilian explorers exploited the rural and unpopulated region, not knowing whether they pertained to Brazil, Peru, or Bolivia.

Although it is generally agreed that microfinance practitioners should seek to balance these goals to some extent, there are a wide variety of strategies, ranging from the minimalist profit-orientation of BancoSol in Bolivia to the highly integrated not-for-profit orientation of BRAC in Bangladesh.

The traditional pronunciation of the digraph / ll / is preserved in some dialects along the Andes range, especially in Peru and Colombia highlands, and all Bolivia and Paraguay.

Corpus Christi is a public holiday in some countries with a predominantly Catholic population including, amongst others, Austria, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, East Timor, parts of Germany, Liechtenstein, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, parts of Spain and Switzerland, Grenada, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Government of Bolivia remains heavily dependent on foreign assistance to finance development projects.

Morales credited his near victory in part to comments made by then U. S. Ambassador to Bolivia Manuel Rocha, who warned, " As a representative of the United States, I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if you elect those who want Bolivia to become a major cocaine exporter again, this will endanger the future of U. S. assistance to Bolivia.

The following organizations have been allegedly established with assistance from Eastern Bloc security services: the PLO, the National Liberation Army of Bolivia ( created in 1964 with help from Ernesto Che Guevara ); the National Liberation Army of Colombia ( created in 1965 with help from Cuba ), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( DFLP ) in 1969, and the Secret Army for Liberation of Armenia in 1975.

He had been living in Bolivia since the late 1950s or early 1960s, after being smuggled out of Europe with the assistance of the United States, and was often employed by the 1964-82 dictatorships as an interrogation specialist.

A system of preferences — which consists of market opening lists, special cooperation programs ( business rounds, preinvestment, financing, technological support ) and countervailing measures on behalf of the landlocked countries — has been granted to the countries deemed to be less developed ( Bolivia, Ecuador and Paraguay ), to favour their full participation in the integration process.

Bolivia is a beneficiary of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries ( HIPC ) and Enhanced HIPC debt relief programs, which by agreement restricts Bolivia's access to new soft loans.

In 2006, Bolivia, as a result of alternative development programs, exported US $ 28 million of Banana, US $ 1. 9 million of pineapple, and US $ 7. 0 million of palm heart.

In Latin America, DI Development implemented anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability programs in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panama, and provided democracy and governance initiatives in Mexico, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic.

In 1996, it supplied a multi-year grant worth $ 750, 000 ($ million in dollars ) to start mass salt fluoridation programs which were then carried out by the Pan American Health Organization ( PAHO ), covering 350 million people in Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.

Based loosely on fact, the film tells the story of Wild West outlaws Robert LeRoy Parker, known to history as Butch Cassidy ( Paul Newman ) and his partner Harry Longabaugh, the " Sundance Kid " ( Robert Redford ) as they migrate to Bolivia while on the run from the law in search of a more successful criminal career.

Morales has run for president in several recent elections with several close calls, and in 2005 he finally won a surprise victory, winning the largest majority vote since Bolivia returned to democracy and declaring himself to be the first indigenous president of Bolivia.

He stayed in Bolivia until 1929, when he returned to Oklahoma to run for Governor in 1930.

The Ferrocarriles del Sur del Perú ( FCS ), now operated by PeruRail, runs from the coast at Matarani to Cuzco, and to Puno on Lake Titicaca from where steamers and train ferries have been run connecting with Guaqui in Bolivia.

The second government, between August 15, 1932 and February 17, 1936, was not better either, because he had run the government when the Chaco War with Bolivia had begun in ( 1932 – 1935 ).

As a result of the War of the Pacific with Peru and Bolivia ( 1879 – 1883 ), Chile expanded its territory northward by almost one-third and acquired valuable nitrate deposits, the exploitation of which led to an era of national affluence.

The insects that spread the disease are known by various local names, including vinchuca in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Paraguay, barbeiro ( the barber ) in Brazil, pito in Colombia, chinche in Central America, chipo in Venezuela, chupança, chinchorro, and " the kissing bug ".

It is unclear whether this first expedition was the expedition by Jacques l ' Hermite to the coast of Chile, Peru and Bolivia, set up by Stadthouder Maurice with the support of the States General and the VOC.

Árbol de Piedra, a rock formation in the Altiplano, Bolivia sculpted by wind erosion.

* 1809 – The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown during the La Paz revolution and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

In expelling the Soviet Union, the League broke its own rule: only 7 of 15 members of the Council voted for expulsion ( Great Britain, France, Belgium, Bolivia, Egypt, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic ), short of the majority required by the Covenant.

Bolivia faced Marxist-Leninist revolution in the 1960s that included Che Guevara as a leader until being killed there by government forces.

Chuño is a freeze-dried potato product traditionally made by Quechua and Aymara communities of Peru and Bolivia, and is known in various countries of South America, including Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile.

The medicinal properties of the cinchona tree were originally discovered by the Quechua, who are indigenous to Peru and Bolivia ; later, the Jesuits were the first to bring the cinchona to Europe.

Che Guevara attempted to inspire the peasants of Bolivia by his own example into a change of consciousness.

* November 6 – Western bandits Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid are supposedly killed in Bolivia, after being surrounded by a large group of soldiers.

* December 22 – Archives of Terror discovered by Dr. Martín Almada detailing the fates of thousands of Latin Americans who had been secretly kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

* July 16 – The city of La Paz ( current Bolivia ) declares its independence from the Spanish Crown and forms the Junta Tuitiva, the first independent government in Spanish America, led by Pedro Domingo Murillo.

* Potosí, in modern day Bolivia, is founded by the Spanish as a mining town.

* 1, 098, 581 km < sup > 2 </ sup > -- Bolivia ( country ranked 27th by area )

In Bolivia, the government led by Evo Morales has been working with NGOs and other research centres to do the same.

It is owned and paid for by several countries: Venezuela ( which provides 54 % of the network's budget ), Argentina ( 15 %), Cuba ( 14 %), Uruguay ( 7 %), Bolivia ( 5 %) and Nicaragua ( 5 %).

The ship was abandoned and the following year, another similar vessel, Ra II, was built of totora by Demetrio, Juan and Jose Limachi from Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and likewise set sail across the Atlantic from Morocco, this time with great success.

It was once thought that this high inflation was caused by the large influx of gold and silver from the Spanish treasure fleet from the New World, especially the silver of Bolivia and Mexico which began to be mined in large quantities from 1545.

La Paz Metropolitan area, formed by the cities of La Paz, El Alto and Viacha, make the most populous urban area of Bolivia, with a population of 2. 3 million inhabitants and surpassing the metropolitan area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Historically, industry in Bolivia has been dominated by mineral processing and the preparation of agricultural products.

These were the words used by Andre Rebouças, an engineer, in his book " Provinces of Paraná, Railways to Mato Grosso and Bolivia ", which started up the campaign aimed at preserving the Iguaçu Falls in 1876, when Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world, was four years old.