Bolivians Expel McDonalds

In 2002, McDonald’s closed their last restaurant in Bolivia. The franchise spent millions of dollars in the Latin American country but could not break out of its deficit.

Bolivia has a long tradition of using food as reciprocity. Many relationships are beyond money and companies like McDonald’s go against what the nation believes. Indigenous president Evo Morales called the chain and other American chains a “great harm to humanity,” when addressing the United Nations General Assembly. (Credit)

Bolivians are not interested in food for profit and natives would rather buy food from local street merchants, the indigenous women called cholitas. Tanya Kerssen, research coordinator for the Food First Network, calls this Bolivia’s own “decentralized McDonald’s.” Kerssen told TakePart that Bolivians “look on these foreign entities with suspicion—and rightly so. They prefer to purchase from, to have a relationship with, people from their own country or community or family.”

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