Bolivia , officially Republic of Bolivia, republic (1995 est. pop. 7,896,000), 424,162 sq mi (1,098,581 sq km), W Bolivia. One of the two inland countries of Bolivia, Bolivia is shut in from the Pacific in the W by Chile and Peru; in the E and N it borders on Brazil, in the SE on Paraguay, and in the S on Argentina. Sucre is the constitutional capital and seat of the judiciary, but La Paz is the largest city, political and commercial focus of the nation, and the administrative capital and seat of government.

Land and People: Bolivia presents a sharp contrast between high, bleak mountains and plateaus in the west and lush, tropical rain forests in the east. In the southeast it merges into the semiarid plains of the Gran Chaco . The Andes mountain system reaches its greatest width in Bolivia . Two cordilleras, the western one tracing the border with Chile and the eastern running north and south across the center of the country, are divided by a high plateau (altiplano), most of it 12,000 ft (3,660 m) above sea level—barren, windswept, and segmented by mountain spurs.

President: Carlos Mesa (2003)