LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Bolivia: La Paz
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Bolivia is divided into nine departments and a "National Territory of Colonies", the area of which covers somewhat less than one-third of the whole surface of the republic, while its population is only one-sixtieth of the whole. Of the nine departments, La Paz is the most populous. Since 1899 the national capital has been La Paz de Ayacucho, with a population of 59,014 souls, situated in this department. Next to La Paz in importance is Cochabamba with 21,886 inhabitants. Sucre and Potosi are reported with 20,900 each, and Santa Cruz de la Sierra with 18,000, while the important mining centre of Oruro has a little over 15,000 inhabitants.
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In a highly interesting international project, Bolivia is to be compensated for rainforest protection on the basis of the forest's ability to mitigate global emissions of greenhouse gases. This move is worthy of support for a number of reasons. It recognizes the necessity of large transfers of resources, in this case financial but ... technical, which will be necessary to bolster attempts to conserve and manage rainforests and adjacent lands. This plan also recognizes the links between various ecological systems and the environmental problems that each face. As a word of caution, it would be foolish to think that carbon emissions can trend upwards indefinitely because of forests carbon sequestration. Nonetheless, this seems to be an innovative effort to reduce atmospheric carbon while making the resources necessary for specific forest conservation to occur.
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Bolivia's nine departments received greater autonomy under the Administrative Decentralization law of 1995. Departmental autonomy further increased with the first popular elections for departmental governors (prefectos) on 18 December 2005, after long protests by pro-autonomy-leader department of Santa Cruz. Bolivian cities and towns are governed by directly elected mayors and councils. Municipal elections were held on 5 December 2004, with councils elected to five-year terms. The Popular Participation Law of April 1994, which distributes a significant portion of national revenues to municipalities for discretionary use, has enabled previously neglected communities to make striking improvements in their facilities and services.
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As President Mesa clearly articulated, Bolivia is victim to the whims of international financial institutions, in particular, the World Bank. He argued that should the government cancel the contract on terms unfavourable to Aguas del Illimani, the Bolivian government will have to pay US$17 million to the World Bank. After the Water War in Cochabamba, the World Bank became an associate of Aguas del Illimani through its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, which owns 8% of shares. This move has put the Bolivian government in a very vulnerable position, because now the World Bank has direct interest in guaranteeing the investment and is judge and jury of the likely forthcoming lawsuit. Suez has threatened to sue the Bolivian government for $90 million dollars in the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) for lost investments and future profits, similar to the lawsuit pursued by Becthel and Abengoa for the termination of the Aguas del Tunari´s concession contract following the “Water War†in Cochabamba in 2000. The ICSID is a little-known arm of the World Bank Group founded in the 1960s to facilitate the settlement of investment disputes between governments and foreign investors.
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In 1939, Bolivia's liberal immigration policy was modified, as it had been in other Latin American countries. This move kept with the policy of barring entry to nationals of the Axis powers. In addition, a certain amount of discontent was engendered with the discovery that most of the Jewish immigrants who had entered the country on an agricultural visa were actually involved in commerce and industry. In May 1940, all Jewish visas were suspended indefinitely; ... immigration did continue. After World War II a small wave of Polish Jews who had fled to the Far East after 1939, but abandoned Shanghai in the wake of the communist takeover, arrived in Bolivia. The major part of the group remained in La Paz, and was incorporated into the existing community.
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Although Bolivia lies wholly within the tropics, it possesses every gradation of temperature from that of the equatorial lowlands to arctic cold. In the Andes, contrasts in temperature and rainfall depend more on elevation and cloud cover than on distance from the Equator, and cold winds sweep the Altiplano year-round. The rainy season is from December to March, but precipitation varies greatly throughout the highlands. Average temperatures range between 45 and 52 °F (7 and 11 °C) during the day, occasionally reaching as high as 60 °F (16 °C), but temperatures at night are much colder and fall below freezing during the winter. In the north... Lake Titicaca has an important moderating influence, and in bright sunshine winter temperatures may reach as high as 70 °F (21 °C). Cloudless skies and remarkably clear air bring distant Andean peaks sharply into focus, providing beautiful vistas across the Altiplano.
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