Military branches:
Army (Ejercito Boliviano), Navy (Fuerza Naval, includes Marines),
Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Boliviana)
Military manpower - military age and obligation: 18 years of age for voluntary military service; when annual number of volunteers falls short of goal, compulsory recruitment is effected, including conscription of boys as young as 14; one estimate holds that 40% of the armed forces are under the age of 18, with 50% of those under the age of 16; conscript tour of duty - 12 months (2002)
Military manpower - availability:
males age 15-49: 2,175,384 (2004 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service:
males age 15-49: 1,417,804 (2004 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually:
males: 98,155 (2004 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$127 million (2003)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.6% (2003)
Transnational Issues Bolivia
Disputes - international:
has reactivated its claim to restore the Atacama corridor, ceded to
Chile in 1884, to secure sovereign maritime access for Bolivian
natural gas
Illicit drugs:
world's third-largest cultivator of coca (after Colombia and Peru)
with an estimated 28,450 hectares under cultivation in June 2003, a
23% increase from June 2002; intermediate coca products and cocaine
exported mostly to or through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile to
European and US drug markets; eradication and alternative crop
programs under the MESA administration have been unable to keep pace
with farmers' attempts to increase cultivation; money-laundering
activity related to narcotics trade, especially along the borders
with Brazil and Paraguay