Evan Ellis - U.S. Strategic Opportunity and Risk with Bolivia
Dear Colleagues:
This coming Sunday, October 19, 2025, Bolivians go to the polls in Round 2 of a historically significant election whose outcome will help reshape South America, with major strategic implications for the United States. As Bolivia teeters on the precipice of a deepening economic and political crisis, Bolivians will choose between two candidates, both of whom are committed to a better relationship with the United States and more market-friendly economic policies.
For almost the first time since populist cocalero union leader Evo Morales took power two decades ago, Bolivia could have a government actively seeking to work more closely with the U.S. and Western financial and other multilateral institutions, and to rethink the nation’s relatively unrestrained embrace of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and its companies.
For whichever candidate wins, Bolivia’s path is fraught with reinforcing economic and political perils. Still, a viable, market-friendly Bolivian government disposed to work with the U.S. on economic, security, and political issues affecting the region could tip the scales in an improbable if growing group of U.S.-friendly nations across South America, including Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, possibly Peru’s new government, and possibly, Chile pursuant to that country’s own November 2025 elections.
Both candidates have courted Washington and the Trump Administration. Both have a mixture of motivations, orientations and constraints that make their paths more complex than the “U.S.-friendly, right-of-center” label commonly given to them. The time has come for the current U.S. administration to prepare to support and take advantage of the opportunity presented by the new Bolivian government, whoever wins, yet also to recognize the fragility and complexity of the path both candidates are navigating.
The article is available HERE for download in ENGLISH:
The article is available HERE for download in SPANISH:
The ENGLISH version is also available through Opidata, which published it:
https://legadoalasamericas.org/u-s-strategic-opportunity-and-risk-with-bolivia/
The SPANISH version is available, also through Opidata, which published it:
https://legadoalasamericas.org/oportunidad-y-riesgos-estrategicos-de-ee-uu-con-bolivia/
Podcasts, Media Appearances, and Radio Shows:
I would like to share with you my latest podcasts, media appearance and radio shows.
These include my October 16, 2025 interview on U.S. military activities in the Caribbean on the EWTN Global Catholic Television Network program EWTN News Nightly: Trump Authorizes Covert CIA Action in Venezuela
They also include my interview the same day on Sky News Television of Australia: Trump Considers Venezuela Ground Strikes
As usual, they further include my weekly segment of the John Batchelor Show “The New World Report””. The latest episodes (October 16, 2025) are:
Venezuela: https://audioboom.com/posts/8792254-preview-headline-venezuela-s-post-maduro-challenge-securing-military-loyalty-in-a-brief-transit
Ecuador: https://audioboom.com/posts/8792702-us-escalates-pressure-on-maduro-following-machado-s-nobel-prize-evan-ellis-discusses-how-follow
Peru: https://audioboom.com/posts/8792705-us-escalates-pressure-on-maduro-following-machado-s-nobel-prize-evan-ellis-discusses-how-follow
Argentina: https://audioboom.com/posts/8792706-us-escalates-pressure-on-maduro-following-machado-s-nobel-prize-evan-ellis-discusses-how-follow
Website for all Publications:
As always, at my professional website you can access these, and past publications, webinars and podcasts:
REvanEllis.com
Latest Book on China-Latin America:
My latest book, China Engages Latin America: Distorting Development and Democracy, is available through my publisher Palgrave-Macmillan, at:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-96049-0
Please feel free to share this post with a friend or colleague. If you would like to be included in my (always free) distribution list, I welcome the opportunity to include you:
Thank you, as always, for your interest in my work.
Respectfully,
R. Evan Ellis, PhD
Latin America Research Professor
U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute
@REvanEllis
Website: https://revanellis.com
Thank you Prof. Ellis for your valuable articles. All the best