The Partido de la Izquierda Revolucionaria of Bolivia: Struggle for Political Survival and Proxy Mediation in Diplomacy

The article seeks to explain the role of a small left-wing Bolivian party, the Partido de la Izquierda Revolucionaria (Party of the Revolutionary Left, Spanish acronym: PIR), in the relations between Bolivia and the Soviet-led Bloc, from World War I into the 1970s. The PIR, founded by intellectuals from the Bolivian provincial center of Cochabamba in 1940, was a product of the attempt of the Third Communist International to launch Soviet-friendly parties with an appeal to broad societal groups to combat the global influence of National Socialism at the time. The PIR underwent several political crises and reforms, given the dual pressure of Soviet networks and the hectic changes in the Bolivian political landscape. Its most important period was between 1966 and 1969. In these years, the PIR acquired cabinet positions in the military-led government of René Barrientos Ortuño. In this position, it influenced the government to open toward the Soviet Union, which brought fruit, but this was followed by a gradual decline of the party after Barrientos’ death. The PIR was ejected from government, and this made the party unimportant for the Soviet networks, once official relations had been established with the Bolivian government. The PIR thus fulfilled its role for the Soviets but failed to reach its own objectives and lost all of its political importance by the early 1980s.