Re-founding the state in Bolivia

Mariano Aguirre

Mariano Aguirre and Isabel Moreno

January 2007

Since its independence in 1825 the Bolivian state has been repeatedly disrupted by popular rebellions that toppled one government after another. The December 18 elections in 2005 proved to be a historic moment when the first indigenous president ever was elected by an absolute majority in a country whose majority indigenous population has been excluded for centuries. This report outlines the structural challenges facing Bolivia in this new phase.

Downolad the report

Mariano Aguirre

Director of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref)

Mariano Aguirre is a journalist and analyst with considerable expertise on peacebuilding, crisis of the state, humanitarian action, conflict and development, and post-conflict rehabilitation.

Prior to his work for the Norwegian Peacebuilding Center, he was director of the peace, security and human rights area at the Spanish think-tank FRIDE.

Aguirre is the author, contributor and editor of several books, among them: La ideología neimperial: La crisis de EEUU con Irak (Icaria/TNI/CIP 2003), co-authored with Phyllis Bennis and "Humanitarian intervention & us hegemony: a reconceptualization" in Achin Vanaik (Ed.), Selling US Wars, Interlink publishing / Transnational Institute (2007).