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Bolivia is the first country in the world to reject McDonald's
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The Bolivian government has ordered McDonald's and Coca-Cola subsidiaries operating in the country to cease operations.
The Bolivian government has ordered McDonald's and Coca-Cola subsidiaries operating in the country to cease operations as of December 21, 2012, teleSUR TV reports.
Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca, together with President Evo Morales, explained that the decision "was taken in connection with the end of the Mayan calendar and will be part of the celebrations to mark the end of capitalism and the beginning of a new culture of life." Instead of Coca-Cola, the head of the Foreign Ministry proposed mocochinche, a local apricot juice. The authorities justify the ban on the corporations by saying that they produce products that are harmful to health and alien to Bolivian culture.
There are eight McDonald's restaurants in Bolivia, the first of which opened seven years ago. The country is becoming the second in Latin America after Cuba to be without the famous fast food chain. To inform the population of the upcoming changes, local TV channels showed a documentary explaining why Indians love fried guinea pigs and do not trust hamburgers.
The teleSUR TV observers emphasize that Bolivia is the first in the world to reject McDonald's, which has already managed to put down roots in the country. For example, McDonald's has never worked in Cuba.
Last year, Latin America was not among the regions that showed growth in McDonald's sales. The leaders were Russia, France, Great Britain and Germany. The corporation's net profit amounted to $5.5 billion.
Let us recall that McDonald's Corporation (official Russian McDonald's, colloquially McDonald's) is an American corporation, the world's largest fast food restaurant chain until 2010. According to the results of 2010, the company ranks 2nd in the number of restaurants worldwide after the Subway restaurant chain. It is included in the Fortune Global 500 list for 2011 (403rd place).
As of mid-June 2009, there were 32,060 McDonald's restaurants in 118 countries (including about 14,000 in the United States). Of these, a significant portion (25,578) were franchised, so the restaurant assortment, portion size, and composition may vary greatly in different countries.