Marco Carrillo

While several countries in South America have already embraced marriage equality, Bolivia may be following the U.S. piecemeal model. Legislation has been proposed in one departmental (state) legislature to legalize same-sex marriage.

According to the Bolivian newspaper Los Tiempos, a group of LGBT nonprofit groups presented a proposal to the Cochabamba Departmental Assembly to include same-sex marriage in the state’s Autonomy Statute.

Marco Carrillo, the chairman of the committee that drafts such legislation, is analyzing whether this issue can be determined locally or must be done nationally.

“They are proposing the recognition of same-sex unions and out of that also arises the question of recognition of accumulation of future assets and social benefits,” Carrillo said.

Bolivia is divided into nine departments. Cochabamba is centrally located in the country. Its capital, also called Cochabamba, is the fourth-largest city in Bolivia with a metropolitan population of more than 1 million.

Among other South American countries, Argentina has marriage equality, while Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay recognize civil unions.