People take lunch in El Alto, outskirts of La Paz, Thursday. In spite of its fearsome reputation for altitude sickness, poverty and violent uprisings, the city of El Alto is finally being noticed by entrepreneurs, after years of economic growth and stability under the government of Evo Morales have changed attitudes in Bolivia. — Reuters Helen Popper Reuters
A chaotic sprawl high in the Andes, the Bolivian city of El Alto has a fearsome reputation for altitude sickness, poverty and violent uprisings that topple governments. No wonder many businesses stayed away. But years of economic growth and relative stability are changing attitudes as well as fortunes in one of Latin America's poorest and most volatile nations. Entrepreneurs are even waking up to El Alto's potential. Its first supermarkets, shopping centers and cinemas are planned — multimillion-dollar private sector investments that would have been unthinkable almost anywhere in Bolivia a decade ago. Banks and pizza delivery stores have set up shop in the city's stark, traffic-choked streets and its bare brick buildings are climbing higher into the thin air as local commerce thrives 4,050 meters (13,300 feet) above sea level. “People hardly bought anything in the past. With this government there's business,” said Alicia Villalba, 33, selling Brazilian-made aluminum pans at a twice-weekly market where everything from livestock to second-hand cars is on sale. “I just hope the economy keeps on growing so I'm able to look after my family,” she said as a woman wearing the traditional dress of a wide pleated skirt and bowler hat bought a full set of pots. About $2 million changes hands at the market every day. Seven years since they helped elect leftist coca farmer Evo Morales as Bolivia's first president of indigenous descent, there are subtle signs of change among El Alto's mainly Aymara Indian population too. “El Alto was always where conflicts kicked off. Why? Because people had nothing to lose. That's not the case today,” said Alejandro Yaffar, a prominent businessman who owns a new fast-food court in El Alto and has two more retail projects planned. “People have opened their eyes to a new way of life,” he said in his office in the adjoining city of La Paz, Bolivia's administrative capital. Much remains to be done, however. Heaps of garbage and packs of stray dogs blight the bleak urban landscape. Water and drainage are inadequate, and local businesses complain about rising crime and scant policing. Public infrastructure projects have struggled to meet the fast-growing city's needs or the expectations of residents and some are disappointed with Morales and the pace of change. “Here in El Alto we all voted for him, myself included,” said Nora Villeros, 65, her long braids streaked with gray, as she sat in front of her busy store selling colorful bathroom tiles and fittings. “He promised us miracles but the first couple of years went by and then he forgot about us,” she said, complaining that Morales had favored members of his Movement Toward Socialism party (MAS). El Alto is not the only place that is changing in Bolivia, a landlocked country of about 10 million that sits on South America's second-biggest natural gas reserves and rich deposits of silver, tin, zinc and other metals.
