Bolivia: Presidential Election

A deep economic and political crisis has opened a new political conjuncture in the country. The MAS party that until recently was considered the most prominent party in the country’s history has become largely irrelevant. After nearly two decades, Bolivia’s government will be firmly placed on the right side of the political spectrum. Join us to discuss this major political restructuring and its implications.

Panel:

Olivia Arigho-Stiles is a Simon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester, UK. She is an interdisciplinary researcher of Indigenous and peasant politics and the rural world in twentieth century Bolivia. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Essex, an MA in Latin American Studies from UCL and a BA in History from the University of Oxford.
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Angus McNelly is a Lecturer of International Development at King's College London, UK. His first monograph, Now We Are in Power: The Politics of Passive Revolution in Twenty-First Century Bolivia, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2023. He is currently research, the history of hydrocarbons, mining, cattle ranching and meat planes in Bolivia.

Enrique Castañón Ballivián is a Lecturer in International Development at the Institute of the Americas, University College London. A Bolivian scholar, he researches the dynamics, theory and politics of agrarian change and environmental governance in Latin America, with a focus on agribusiness expansion and resource politics.
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Chair: Francesca Lessa - Associate Professor in International Relations of the Americas, UCL Institute of the Americas. She is the author of The Condor Trials: Transnational Repression and Human Rights in South America (Yale University Press, 2022) and Plan Cóndor: Viejos secretos y nuevos hallazgos (Reservoir Books, 2025, 2nd edition) with Sebastián Santana Camargo. She is the coordinator of the Plancondor.org Project at UCL.
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