The socio-economic system of the Peruvian Aymara is presently undergoing a rapid and fundamental transformation. Present-day Aymara are the direct descendants of a number of tribes that inhabited the lake region since pre-Inca times. The Aymara were becoming politically sophisticated, at least relative to their previous state of total ignorance in such matters, and they soon proved it. Acora is the jumping-off place and center of minimal commerce for the community of Soqa, fifteen miles to the east by a road passable for vehicles. The discovery that the immense concentrations of bird dung on Peruvian-owned islands were exceedingly potent fertilizer brought the incipient nation a sudden wealth to approach its golden past. Peru plunged near bankruptcy. Faced with economic problems beyond his control, Velasco was deposed in 1975 by his prime minister, General Francisco Morales Bermudez.