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The “16 de Julio” market in the city of El Alto, in La Paz, Bolivia,
is considered the biggest flea market in South America.
There are 33 acres where you can buy everything you can imagine
from old clothes to Japanese cars
The market's turnover is more than two million dollars in just two days
in the poorest city in the country
where 60 percent of citizens live on less than 2 dollars per day
As this economist says: this is the free market in its finest form.
And along with the market, smuggling has become a fixture of the Bolivian economy.
The formal and informal economy, the smuggling, the legal trade... everything is linked
The borders between them are very thin
There are companies who buy smuggled and sell legally,
or they bought legally and sell illegally
It means that the informal economy and one of its parts, the smuggling,
is embedded in the Bolivian economy in many different ways
Much of Bolivia's social mobility is through these services, smuggling, trade...
So there are huge groups which are linked to this kind of things
Bolivia has 10 million inhabitants.
Of the 5 million who have a job 4 million work in the informal sector
In Bolivia, 70 percent of the economy depends on the informal marketplace
And this is partly linked to illegal trade, services, the drug trafficking...
That is, there are several areas. So it's a very large economy
I think that in Latin America and the world, when about 70 percent of your nation's productivity
is generated outside the law, that is a very large figure
I have a car… a minibus. So, I make it work for me with a driver.
For the past 15 years Pedro has bought and sold used cars.
He brings them from Chile on the western border of the country.
That is the route for 60 percent of goods smuggled into Bolivia
Many of those goods are not small in size either: there are cars and domestic appliances.
I stick to my business
I travel to Chile to get the cars and bring them here one by one.
It is very difficult, very difficult. Often we'll travel in a caravan with others.
There is a lot of control. Customs officers hide out in different places…
You know, there are the plains of Salar de Uyuni...
Some of them understand and others do not understand us
Those who understand, want a bribe. For car a we pay a bribe between 100 and 400 dollars.
It is estimated that smuggling in Bolivia is worth more than one billion dollars.
If so, this would be the second source of income in the country
after the sale of natural gas
Smuggling is the big employer. Look what is happening here.
There are thousands of people
But productivity is very low and very poor
because they are selling things in less than 20 cents to 10 cents of dolar
It is actually a survival strategy of many thousands of people
who have a job that they would otherwise not have.
This seems to be the reason why smuggling in Bolivia
is not only an alternative to the formal economy but by now is fully integrated into everyday life
Hence, every government's efforts to stop it are insufficient.
Well, there are two lines of thought: one is more political, more formal, from certain elites who state
that smuggling is bad and hurts domestic industry,
but on the other hand, a state and an economy that cannot provide work
for thousands and thousands of people
in some way benefits from this informal economy and tolerates it
And co-exists with the smuggling groups that supply those in power with votes,
with support … and so the powers that be tolerate it.
This market, and many others across the border areas of the country,
is probably the least threatening face of smuggling in Bolivia.
But the numbers tell us that this market has grown three times as big in the last years
are starting to change that harmless image because of links with drug trafficking and car theft.
This is a topic in Bolivia that still has to be addressed.