The excavation of a stratified sequence of deposits spanning the Initial Late Formative period (250 BC–AD 120) at Iruhito, in the upper Desaguadero Valley of Bolivia, provides insight into this previously unrecognized, four-century period separating the well-documented Middle Formative (800–250 BC) from the Late Formative (~AD 120–590) period. By tracking subtle shifts in ceramic, architectural, lithic, and faunal data, we can explore tempos of change in social life during this dynamic time. These data lead us to suggest that, rather than being a “transitional” period or a “hiatus” in regional occupation, the Initial Late Formative period was a distinct mode of sociality characterized by the realignment and expansion of interaction networks, on the one hand, and rejection of the decorative aesthetics, monumentality, and public-oriented performances of earlier periods, on the other. We argue that the Late Formative period centers emerging after ~AD 120 intentionally cited architecture and aesthetics that were distant in time and space, constituting a sophisticated political strategy. Finally, these data suggest that the chronological schemata we use to build regional histories often obscure social variability.

A total of 32 taxa of helminths were recovered from 52 individuals corresponding to 17 species of didelphiomorph marsupials collected across Bolivia. From these, 20 taxa are registered for the first time in this landlocked South American country, including the cestode Mathevotaenia bivittata, and the nematodes Moennigia sp., Travassostrongylus callis, Viannaia didelphis, V. hamata, V. metachirops, V. minispicula, V. philanderi, V. simplicispicula, V. skrjabini, V. viannai, Cruzia tentaculata, Monodelphoxyuris dollmeiri, Neohilgertia venusti, Pterygodermatites elegans, Pterygodermatites jeagerskioldi, Spirura guianensis, Gongylonemoides marsupialis, Turgida turgida and Trichuris reesali. We report for the first time parasites for Marmosops bishopi, Monodelphis emiliae, Monodeplhis glirina, Monodelphis sanctarosae, Monodelphis peruviana and Thylamys sponsorius and document 38 new records of parasites infecting marsupials. Twenty-six taxa of helminths infect 2 or more species of didelphiomorph marsupials, with the exception of Travassostrongylus callis, Viannaia didelphis, V. hamata, V. minispicula and V. hamate, which infected individuals of a single species.

A key element in the historically unprecedented advances in indigenous women’s political representation under Bolivia’s Evo Morales’s administration (2006–2019) was the influence that women coca growers played in the rural women’s indigenous organization known as the Bartolinas. Driven in no small measure by their resistance to the US-financed War on Drugs in the Chapare region, the cocaleras became both Bolivia’s strongest indigenous women’s organization and its most dedicated advocates for indigenous women’s rights. This article contends that intersectionality—of gender, class, and indigenous identities—is at the heart of understanding indigenous women’s transformation from “helpers” of a male-dominated peasant union to government ministers in the space of ten years. Not only did they effectively deploy chachawarmi, the Andean concept of gender complementarity, to advance their rights in a way consistent with their cultural identity and political loyalties, but they also benefited from the gains of a predominantly urban middle-class feminist movement even though they formally rejected the feminist movement’s composition and perceived orientation.

Repressive state violence, intended to tamp down collective mobilisation, sometimes inspires greater participation by protesters. When popular and/or elite reactions cause the repressing party to concede, civil resistance scholars define the failure of state repression as ‘backfire’. Some have proposed that movements’ nonviolent discipline is essential to backfire. This article demonstrates that movements that practise ‘unarmed militancy’ – forceful, combative tactics less damaging than armed violence – can also succeed through backfire, achieving policy concessions and even presidential resignations, and presents a qualitative comparative analysis of the outcomes of 48 protest events with multiple deaths in Bolivia between 1982 and 2019, and a case-based analysis of how either movements or repressors prevailed. Movements that confronted deadly repression succeeded in 57–8 per cent of cases. Whether or not protesters engaged in lethal defensive violence did not affect their likelihood of success. However, state repression of guerrillas and paramilitary groups, and during polarised partisan conflicts, was consistently successful. Current understandings of backfire need to be reconsidered in light of successful unarmed militant protest in Bolivia and numerous other locations worldwide.

The documentary film Habilito: Debt for Life provides a case study of the conflicts and tensions that arise at the point of contact between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas. Timber merchants advance market goods to Mosetenes at inflated prices, in exchange for tropical hardwood timber. When it comes time to settle accounts, the indebted person often finds that the wood he has cut does not meet his debt obligation, and he has to borrow more money to return to the forest to continue logging. This permanent cycle of debt permits actors from outside these indigenous communities to maintain control over the extraction of wood and provides them with a free source of labor in the exploitation of timber resources. This system is practiced especially in remote areas where systems of patronage predominate, and where colonists with a market-based economic logic come into contact with Amazonian indigenous peoples who, historically, have not employed an economic logic of saving or hoarding.

In Bolivia, expectations for a decolonised society turned into a political crisis in the autumn of 2019. Discussing the limitations of progressive politics in cultivating democracy, this article identifies three narratives of authoritarianism – liberal democratic, developmentalist and colonial – which the opponents of Evo Morales use to frame their disillusionment with his rule. It argues that these multiple narratives lend meaning to contradictory experiences in a context in which hopes for a major decolonising state-transformation process have devolved into a deep polarisation of Bolivian society. The events in Bolivia are discussed in the context of rising authoritarianism throughout Latin America.

A new mineral species, guangyuanite, ideally Pb3Cl3(Se4+O3)(OH), was discovered from the El Dragón mine, Antonio Quijarro Province, Potosí Department, Bolivia. It occurs as equant crystals. Associated minerals are Co-bearing krut'aite–penroseite, chalcomenite, schmiederite, olsacherite, phosgenite, anglesite, cerussite and franksousaite. Guangyuanite is pale yellow–brown in transmitted light, transparent with white streak and vitreous lustre. It is brittle and has a Mohs hardness of ~3. No parting or cleavage was observed. The calculated density is 7.63 g/cm3. An electron microprobe analysis yielded an empirical formula [based on 7 (O + Cl) atoms per formula unit] of Pb3.02Cl3.01(Se4+0.99O3)(OH), which can be simplified to Pb3Cl3(Se4+O3)(OH).

Guangyuanite is isostructural with synthetic Pb3Br3(Se4+O3)(OH). It is orthorhombic, with space group Pnma and unit-cell parameters a = 11.0003(5), b = 10.6460(5), c = 7.7902 Å, V = 912.31(6) Å3 and Z = 4. The crystal structure of guangyuanite contains two symmetrically-distinct Pb (Pb1 and Pb2) cations, with Pb1 coordinated by eight anions (4O + 4Cl) and Pb2 only by six anions (3O + 3Cl), forming a marked lopsided coordination typical of Pb2+ with a stereochemically active 6s2 lone electron pair. The Se4+ cation forms a typical [Se4+O3] trigonal pyramid. The crystal structure of guangyuanite can be described as consisting of layers of edge-sharing [Pb1O4Cl4] polyhedra parallel to (100). These layers are linked together by sharing polyhedral corners (Cl atoms), as well as [Pb2O3Cl3] and [Se4+O3] groups. Chemically, guangyuanite is one of six lead chloride selenite minerals reported thus far and closely related to orlandiite Pb3Cl4(Se4+O3)⋅H2O.

Coccidioidomycosis is an infectious fungal disease endemic in Bolivia's Gran Chaco region that is caused by inspiration of the spores of Coccidiodes species. It is a respiratory pathology that can spread to the skeleton and produce diffuse lytic lesions in different parts of the body. This disease has rarely been described in historic populations, and we present here a new case of coccidioidomycosis in a mummified human individual. It corresponds to a female individual with an age at death of 25–35 years, dated to the Tiwanaku epoch of the thirteenth century AD. It was found inside a sepulchral cave near the city of Ulloma in western Bolivia. Radiographic examination shows numerous osseous lytic lesions with central cavitation concentrated on the cranial table and vertebral bodies. The observed condition could correspond to the secondary phase of coccidioidomycosis. This diagnosis is noteworthy because coccidioidomycosis was mainly described as a male work-related disease and has never been found in ancient western Bolivia.

Using a double-hurdle approach, we assess factors associated with the extent of participation in the rice market with data for small-scale farmers drawn from a nationally representative dataset. The results suggest that larger endowments and assets, animal farming and commercialization, and alternative off-farm income make farmers less likely to participate. Conversely, having access to credit, larger farm sizes, and being part of a farmers’ association all increase the likelihood of participation. Farms with better technological resources are also those with higher sales volumes. Further understanding market participation dynamics should prove useful for deriving evidence-based policy recommendations to strengthen this Bolivian sector.

As the largest felid in the Americas, the jaguar Panthera onca has both ecological and cultural significance in Bolivia. Yet jaguar populations are declining because of multiple pervasive anthropogenic pressures, including domestic and international demand for their body parts. Since 2013, Bolivia has become a centre of the illegal trade of jaguar body parts, driven by demand from Chinese markets. From 2021, there have been anecdotal reports of jaguar body parts being sold to prisons in north-western Bolivia, where inmates use them to make crafts to be sold at local markets. Here we provide further insights into this illegal wildlife trade activity. Specifically, we show that inmates at Mocovi prison in Trinidad purchase skins of jaguars and other wild animals directly from hunters and from vendors at local markets. Goods (wallets, hats and purses) produced from the skins are sold back to vendors by the inmates to provide income for their daily sustenance. Testimony from an inmate also stated that large bulk orders for wildlife products had been received from a non-Bolivian client base. The San Borja municipality in Beni was indicated as a key location where jaguars are being targeted for their skins to supply the illegal production of wildlife products in Mocovi prison. Further studies are required to determine the extent of this illegal activity in Mocovi prison and other prisons in Bolivia, and in other Latin American countries.

Latin America has long been subjected to colonial development that has negated Indigenous territory. In the present conjuncture, the region is home to the largest volume of environmental conflicts in the world. These conflicts are intrinsically connected to the wider model of neo-extractivist development that has been embraced throughout the continent since the early 2000s. Indigenous communities have frequently been the victims of this model of extractive development, with their territories becoming the primary sites for the aggressive expansion of the resource frontier. This has generated new political conflicts, as Indigenous communities conversely assert claims to territory and resources. In this article, I link these conflicts to what I term the ‘coloniality of space’, whereby Indigenous territorial forms have been theoretically elided from traditional spatial imaginaries within International Relations and concretely negated through practices within the global political economy. Moving beyond the territorial trap of nation-state centrism, Indigenous forms of resistance raise important questions about the subject and actors of International Relations.