Overview of Land and History 47The type of visitor to arrive in Bolivia has probably
already been impressed with some aspect of Andean
culture. Europeans have heard roving Bolivian, Peruvian
and Ecuadorian musicians play in metros and at street fairs.
Ethnologists, botanists and linguists have been attracted by
the wealth of indigenous customs, traditional forms of social
organisation, medicinal plants and health foods, as well as
the idiomatic expressions of the Quechuas and Aymaras.
Renegade business people outside the multinational milieu
are often motivated more by the country’s incongruous
geography and complex way of life than by a quick profi t
(or they would have chosen a more mainstream place with
fewer obstacles to fi nancial success). Then there is the large
contingent of backpackers, usually here to appreciate, and
less likely to be upset when things don’t go as planned.
Bolivia is far from idyllic. Racism has not vanished even
for those Bolivians from impoverished backgrounds who
have managed, against all odds, to succeed in business.
According to Bolivian economist José Nuñez del Prado,
the ‘Cholo bourgeoisie’ is still not completely accepted by
the white business community. A majority of indigenous
people fi nd themselves on the lower tier of the two-tiered
economy. Rural poverty is frightening, rendered worse due
to periodic droughts in Cochabamba, the massive layoffs of
miners from Potosí and Oruro back in the 1980s and the
demographic paralysis of agrarian reform. Only the informal
economy and a low cost of living cushion the effects of a
torpid economy.
Petty crime has increased during the past decade but
shootings in La Paz are still unheard of.
Crime and Bolivia
If economic hardship were strictly equitable with crime statistics,
then Bolivia should be a dangerous place. This country remains
safer than most, but on the streets of commercial capital La
Paz, street vendors who used to leave their merchandise
unattended at lunch time are now attentive to the increase in
robberies and muggings.