politicians-from-bolivia

"Being the Afro-Bolivian king – their first among equals – means a lot; I am realising that now. It is a position of utmost responsibility. I will do it proudly, as long as my people support me, as long as we will walk together, because I am not that much of a political animal anyway. But working for the "Afros" will be a difficult task, and I will be dealing with very delicate situations."

"My title is mostly symbolic, I'm not like these rich kings of Europe, but I represent the Afro-Bolivian community, and this is a huge responsibility to me."

"My mother was a very wise woman; she had the fundamental principles of respect for life, respect for our nature, for the worldview; she was a great believer in nature, in the wacas, in the illas; she guided me in the life of our peoples."

"[Our party] must [have] a renewal of leadership; new people in politics in this country... professionals, middle class, and Indians; the Indians cannot be on the sidelines."

"If you have to go to jail for denouncing corruption, I'm going to go."

"...those of us who comply with the Constitution... fear nothing; [I] fear only God... and my wife."

"The message you give to people is better accepted with humor."

"I do striking things, but I do them so that the people understand... in a didactic way what is happening in the country."

"We thought that [Evo Morales] represented hope, we identified with him. He won, we gave him all the power. But the process has given us nothing. It has been all discourse, no application. He speaks of Mother Earth, and he is the foremost violator of Mother Earth."

"I am a believer in Pachamama, but I also believe in God. They both merge. Leaving the house, we pray to God, but at the moment when you pass a large mountain—which for us are the wak'as, the sacred places—we pray to Pachamama."

"If for helping my brothers, for handing out surgical masks, for guiding, they have to remove me, let them remove me."

"I am the pitita that unites the k'aras with the Indians, East and West. We have to be one. The goal is one, the welfare of the other. Enough left and right..."

"I trust in God; I drink, mate, and use protection. God knows why we have come to Earth, and He knows when we are going to leave. There are many people I know who have taken care of themselves, but they left. There are people who don't take care of themselves, get sick, and recover."

"I want there to exist—respecting cultures—a single society. That both the k'ara and the Indian recognize each other as equals; enough of confrontation, enough of remembering the 500 years... There must be forgiveness between us... As long as we live in confrontation, it will be a second-class Bolivia, underdeveloped, and that is why my first pillar is to live among equals; it is the first thing."

"... [he who] does not speak his native language is not indigenous; he is a false indigenous..."

"I don't want to be president because to be president is to be a prisoner of the transnationals, of the llunkus, to be a prisoner of a colonial state..."