The politics of Bolivia takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is head of state, head of government and head of a diverse multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of parliament. Both the Judiciary and the electoral branch are independent of the executive and the legislature. After the 2014 Bolivian general election, 53.1% of the seats in national parliament were held by women, a higher proportion of women than that of the population.
Carlos Diego de Mesa Gisbert is a Bolivian historian, journalist, and politician who served as the 63rd president of Bolivia from 2003 to 2005. As an independent politician, he previously served as the 37th vice president of Bolivia from 2002 to 2003 under Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada and was the international spokesman for Bolivia's lawsuit against Chile in the International Court of Justice from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Revolutionary Left Front, he has served as leader of Civic Community, the largest opposition parliamentary group in Bolivia, since 2018.
Rubén Armando Costas Aguilera is a Bolivian politician and the prefect and then governor of Santa Cruz Department in Bolivia from 2006 to 2021, and also the leader of the Democrat Social Movement (MDS).
Nadia Alejandra Cruz Tarifa is a Bolivian lawyer and politician serving as vice minister of equal opportunities since 2022. Cruz developed her career practicing law in La Paz and El Alto, during which time she became an active member and advisor to various human rights NGOs. Starting in the 2010s, Cruz began serving as a public official in the Ombudsman's Office, where she exercised a multitude of minor functions before being appointed deputy ombudsman for the defense of and compliance with human rights. Following the intra-term resignation of David Tezanos Pinto in 2019, Cruz was among three deputy ombudsmen in the line of succession and was considered the only viable candidate to assume the position.
The Social Democratic Movement, often shortened to just the Democrats, is a centre-right political party in Bolivia founded in 2013 for the movement for greater autonomy for the eastern departments of the Media Luna.
Jeanine Áñez Chávez is a Bolivian lawyer, politician, and television presenter who served as the 66th president of Bolivia from 2019 to 2020. A former member of the Social Democratic Movement, she previously served two terms as senator for Beni from 2015 to 2019 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition and from 2010 to 2014 on behalf of the National Convergence alliance. During this time, she served as second vice president of the Senate from 2015 to 2016 and in 2019 and, briefly, was president of the Senate, also in 2019. Before that, she served as a uninominal member of the Constituent Assembly from Beni, representing circumscription 61 from 2006 to 2007 on behalf of the Social Democratic Power alliance.
Luis Fernando Camacho Vaca is a Bolivian activist, businessman, lawyer, and politician serving as the 2nd governor of Santa Cruz since 2021. He is the leader of Creemos, opposition bench in the Plurinational Legislative Assembly and was the chair of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee in 2019.
Oscar Miguel Ortiz Antelo is a Bolivian businessman and politician who served as minister of economy and public finance from July to September 2020 and as minister of productive development from May to July 2020. As a member of the Social Democratic Movement, he previously served two terms as a senator for Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2020 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition and from 2006 to 2010 on behalf of the Social Democratic Power alliance. Nearing the end of his second term, Ortiz was his party's presidential candidate, attaining fourth place in the annulled 2019 general elections. During his first term, he served as president of the Senate from 2008 to 2010, the last opposition legislator to preside over the upper chamber as of 2024. Outside of national politics, Ortiz served as president of the Union of Latin American Parties from 2018 to 2021 and has been the rector of the Bolivian Catholic University at Santa Cruz since 2021.
Yerko Martín Núñez Negrette is a Bolivian agronomist and politician who served as minister of the presidency from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Social Democratic Movement, he previously served as minister of public works from November to December 2019. Throughout his ministerial tenure, Núñez was noted as a key person of influence in the transitional government and a "right-hand" to President Jeanine Áñez, a fellow Beni native. Prior to his appointment, he served as senator from Beni from 2015 to 2019 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition. As a member of Beni First, Núñez served as mayor of Rurrenabaque from 2010 to 2014; he previously held the position for two terms from 2000 to 2003 and 2005 to 2010 as part of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement. Núñez's mayoral tenure saw strides made for Rurrenabaque's ecotourism industry, which generated increased economic growth for the city.
Luis Fernando López Julio is a Bolivian businessman, retired military officer, and politician who served as minister of defense from 2019 to 2020. Appointed in the tail end of the 2019 political crisis, López, along with Minister of Government Arturo Murillo, quickly became characterized as the "strong men" of the Jeanine Áñez administration and were implicated in the deadly events at Senkata and Sacaba. López was called to hearings by the Plurinational Legislative Assembly but failed to present himself three consecutive times, ultimately resulting in his censure by the legislature. As per the terms of the Constitution, he was dismissed as minister but, exploiting a loophole in the document's text, he was reappointed just a day later. Soon after, reports revealed his participation in the tear gas case, which accused the ministries of government and defense of irregularly purchasing non-lethal weapons at inflated prices.
The 2021 Bolivian regional elections were held on 7 March 2021. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 7 million people. This was the third regional election under the 2009 constitution. It was postponed from the expected date of 2020 due to the 2019 Bolivian political crisis and delays in holding the 2020 Bolivian general election. All elected authorities assumed office on 3 May.
Centa Lothy Rek López is a Bolivian novelist, politician, and psychoanalyst who served as senator for Santa Cruz from 2010 to 2015 and since 2020.
Events from the year 2022 in Bolivia.
The Ombudsman's Office of Bolivia is an independent governmental institution established by the Constitution, charged with overseeing the fulfillment, protection, and promotion of human rights in the country. The Ombudsman's Office is functionally, financially, and administratively independent of the four branches of Bolivian government. It was established on 22 December 1997 by Law N° 1818, and is currently regulated by Law N° 870 of 13 December 2016. Governance scholar Tom Pegram writes that "the Bolivian Ombudsman's Office has been recognized as arguably the most effective state actor in terms of advancing rights and active citizenship".
Erik Morón Osinaga is a Bolivian economist and politician serving as substitute senator for Santa Cruz. A former member of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement —of which he was national leader from 2011 to 2016— he previously served as a plurinominal member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2020 on behalf of the Democratic Unity coalition.
Betty Asunta Tejada Soruco is a Bolivian ecologist, lawyer, and politician who served as president of the Chamber of Deputies from 2013 to 2014. A member of the Movement for Socialism, she served as party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz from 2010 to 2015. Prior to that, she served in the same position from 2002 to 2006 and as a substitute party-list member of the Chamber of Deputies from Santa Cruz under Roberto Landívar from 1997 to 2002, on behalf of the right-wing populist New Republican Force.
María Elva Pinckert Vaca is a Bolivian businesswoman, lawyer, and politician who served as minister of environment and water from 2019 to 2020. Pinckert developed her career in Santa Cruz's agro-industrial heartland, during which time she rose to key positions of regional economic and political influence, including presiding over the Montero Civic Committee and serving as vice president of the Santa Cruz Chamber of Industry and Commerce. Elected to the Montero Municipal Council as a member of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement in 1999, Pinckert later switched to the New Republican Force, with which she won reelection. In 2009, the party promoted her to the Senate as a substitute senator under Germán Antelo. Amid the disunity brought about by the fragmentation of her parliamentary caucus, Pinckert aligned with the Social Democratic Movement, which nominated her for a full Senate seat. Elected in 2014, Pinckert held office until 2019, when she joined the Áñez administration as head of environmental and water policy. As with many former Áñez ministers, Pinckert faced judicial consequences for her collaboration with the transitional government, leading her to seek refuge in Brazil less than a year after leaving office.
The 2021 La Paz gubernatorial election was held on Sunday, 7 March 2021, with a runoff taking place on 11 April 2021, involving separate contests for governor and all forty-five seats in the Departmental Legislative Assembly. Incumbent governor Félix Patzi unsuccessfully sought reelection to a second term, finishing in fourth place with 4.36 percent of the popular vote. The election was won by Jallalla La Paz's Santos Quispe, who attained 55.23 percent of the vote in the second round, defeating Franklin Flores of the Movement for Socialism. On the legislative ballot, the Movement for Socialism won sixteen of the twenty provincial circumscriptions and nine of the twenty party-list seats, retaining its twenty-five seat majority in the Legislative Assembly.
Erwin Rivero Ziegler is a Bolivian biochemist, pharmacist, and politician who served as senator for Beni from 2015 to 2020. Rivero spent most of his professional career working in the pharmaceutical industry, only entering politics at the turn of the twenty-first century. He joined the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, holding minor posts at the provincial and departmental levels. With the collapse of the Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada administration in October 2003, Rivero distanced himself from the government party and was appointed prefect of Beni by Carlos Mesa. He remained in office for half a year before being ousted for his role in the military's violent dispersal of protesters near Puente San Pablo. Undeterred, Rivero formed his own party, Community Autonomy, with which he competed for the Trinidad mayoralty, attaining third place, losing the contest but attaining a seat in the city's municipal council. The following year, he campaigned to return to the prefecture, finishing third. Despite his conservative political origins, Rivero aligned himself with the ruling Movement for Socialism, with which he unsuccessfully contested the Trinidad mayoralty before finally being elected as a senator for the party.
The following is a chronology of notable events from the year 2023 in Bolivia.
