The following are some famous politicians in Bolivia. You can read about more famous Bolivians by visiting our Famous People from Bolivia home page where you'll find many other categories. You can also ask questions about any famous Bolivian person or add another famous person from Bolivia to our list.

Víctor Paz Estenssoro
A politician born in Tarija in 1907. He is the only political leader who has been President of Bolivia four separate times. Along with other intellectuals, he founded the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR), artifice of the 1952 Revolution, and constitutional reforms which, among others, made education and voting a universal right. In addition to heading his party for 50 years through his death in 2001, he also held many other positions in public institutions, in the Bolivian equivalent of the House of Representatives, and as a member of the cabinets of other presidents and is one of Bolivia's most famous politicians.

Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz
A politician, writer and university professor, born in Cochabamba in 1931, he was a combative congress member, whose ideas eventually got him jailed. He was assassinated during the military dictatorship of the 1980’s for starting lawsuits against members of the military juntas. He was also the minister of mining, a newspaper columnist, and a political activist. He founded the Partido Socialista de Bolivia (Bolivian Socialist Party) and other organisms. In honor of his fight against impunity a new Anti-Corruption Law recently passed by the Bolivian government has been named after him.

Juan Lechin Oquendo
A union leader born in Corocoro (La Paz) in 1914. He worked as a miner in the mines of Oruro until he joined the Partido Obrero Revolucionario (Revolutionary Workers Party) in the 1940’s, going on to eventually be its leader. He made name for himself during the 1952 civil war during which he organized the miners to fight against the Army, in support of the MNR. He later became the mining minister and co-founder of the Central Obrera Boliviana (central labor union), which he led until 1987. He founded two other short-lived political parties with which he sought to re-enter politics but without much success.

Savina Cuellar
A union leader and politician, born in Tarabuco (Chuquisaca) in 1956. She entered politics as a leader of the Bartolina Sisa women farmer’s organization, and through this eventually allied with the MAS party (Movimiento al Socialism, led by Evo Morales). She earned a place in the Constituent Assembly of 2006. Soon after she split from her party over ideological differences and independently ran for governor of her department, which she won by a large majority. She was the first female Prefect (governor) in Bolivian history and also the first indigenous woman to hold that title and one of Bolivia's recent famous politicians.
Photo Credit: sededesucre.blogspot.com

Lidia Gueiler
A politician and diplomat, born in Cochabamba in 1921. She was a member the MNR and one of its grassroots leaders, in addition to serving as Ambassador to German and other South American countries. As chair of the Cámara de Diputados (similar to the House of Representatives) she briefly became president of Bolivia when a military coup overthrew the previous president. She held this post for nearly a year during which time there were various attempts to remove her, and she eventually was during another military coup in 1980 and was exiled during this dictatorship. Upon returning to the country, she did not return to politics.