Bolivia finally gives Evangelicals the same rights as Catholics, making it easier for evangelicals to establish legal recognition

Evangelicals in Bolivia received a major religious freedom boost from the same administration that banned evangelism last year. Months after Evo Morales criminalised proselytising—before swiftly (ANDEB), called the law “a qualitative leap in the development and understanding of this fundamental freedom that is inseparable from the freedoms of worship, conscience, and thought.” Bolivia’s 10-year-old constitution declares a separation between church and state and established the country as a secular state. But the government had taken years to enumerate on the rights offered to religious minorities like Protestants and followers of the country’s indigenous faiths. The new legislation will make it easier for evangelicals and the country’s indigenous religions to establish legal recognition. These legal rights will also allow the government to regulate and tax the groups, said Lino Cárdenas, president of the constitutional committee of Bolivia’s chamber of deputies. According to a 2014 report, 77 % of Bolivians are Catholic and 16 % are Protestant. Yet, like most of Latin America, the latter population is growing and 60 % of Protestants say they were born Catholic.