Revolutionary Left Movement (Bolivia) - History

History

The MIR was founded in 1971 by a merger of a left-wing faction of Bolivia's Christian Democratic Party and the radical student wing of the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement (MNR). It has been led from the beginning by Jaime Paz Zamora. The MIR was becoming influential in the labor movement and politics during the early 1970s, but it was repressed by the government of Hugo Banzer later in the 1970s.

In 1978, the MIR joined the left-of-center UDP alliance of former president Hernán Siles Zuazo. After a few years of unstable military rule, Siles Zuazo was proclaimed Constitutional President in 1982, based on the results of the 1980 elections, which had been annulled by general Luis García Meza. The MIR's Jaime Paz Zamora accompanied Dr. Siles as his Vice-President. During the dire economic crisis that coincided with the coming to power of the UDP, Siles became considerably unpopular. At this point (1984), the MIR—led by Vice-President Paz Zamora—left the governing alliance and moved into the opposition. Prior to the 1985 elections, a faction of the party led by Antonio Araníbar left the party on ideological grounds and formed the rival Free Bolivia Movement. The faction of the MIR that remained loyal to Paz Zamora referred to itself as the MIR-New Majority, and espoused a much more moderate program than before, having disassociated itself from Marxist dogmas and any notion of class struggle.