Bolivia was the first country to stop hyperinflation in a democracy without depriving people of their civil rights and without violating human rights.
There is a national consensus building here that drugs are doing a great deal of damage to the Bolivian society.
It's difficult to explain a giraffe to a Bolivian who lives on the Altiplano. But when they see one, I think they'll like it.
As a political exile, you always think you're going home next year.
I was very identified with and accused of being a neo-liberal with respect to the economy.
I would say I'm a fiscal conservative and a social liberal, if that contradiction can make sense, because in Bolivia, we have a great problem, which is the inequity of income distribution. The rich aren't that rich, but the poor are very poor.
I got my degree in philosophy and English literature; those were my main interests.
I was always a reformer. My father and mother were progressives, and they believed in the universal vote, vote for women, land reform, and a lot of things which at one time were not accepted; they're much more accepted now.
After Victor Paz's government, I was still in politics, but I personally spent a lot of time consulting and working with Argentina, with Peru, and in Brazil.
Everybody has to remember that economics is very tied to politics.
I've never liked to judge other people in the hope that they won't judge me.
I only became involved in politics when democracy returned to Bolivia. Then, unluckily in democracy, we ran into the inheritance of 20 years of military government, a great deal of debt, and a great deal of expense.
Taking power is fine. But what do you do when you are in power?
I'm not going to say that the problems of my government, or those of Bolivia, are the fault of the United States. But they could have done a little more to help us.
Only in the United States could you believe that people could be changed by information.
Maybe I became president because I didn't try to be it.
The economy should serve man, not statistics.
I want society to feel they are part of a process of change.
You have troubles with violent indigenous movement around the continent. Here, we are putting more power in their hands and creating a nonviolent indigenous society.
Around the continent, governments worry that indigenous groups are fertile ground for extremist, terrorist groups. We are trying to make sure that doesn't happen here.
