Reading Time: 4 minutes When President Rodrigo Paz declared an “economic, financial, energy, and social emergency” in December, there was little doubt about his diagnosis of Bolivia’s problems. After nearly two decades of economic mismanagement, the country’s international reserves were depleted, and the fiscal deficit was rising. The country faced not just a downturn, but a full-fledged debt crisis and balance-of-payments crisis that merited exceptional measures.